Chinese Catholic Intellectuals' Idea Of State During The Republic Of China

Catholic Miscellany was founded in 1912 by the Chinese priest Pan Gusheng,and was taken over by the Chinese priest Xu Zongze in 1923.In order to adapt to modern trend such as liberalism,nationalism,and communism in the 20th and 1930s,many Chinese Catholic intellectuals in the magazine published lots of articles about staatslehre.Based on these historical sources,this paper analyzes how Chinese Catholic intellectuals understand the state itself and its essential elements:the people and the right to rule.At the same time,due to the particularity of Catholicism,the state view of the Catholic Miscellany also includes issues,for example,the relationship between political power and theocracy and whether catholic love China.As you can see,the Chinese Catholic intellectuals in the Catholic Miscellanyl have grasped and understood a series of key issues of the state.Influenced by the new cultural thoughts and national crises in the 1920s and 1930s,many Chinese intellectuals criticized Catholicism as a tool for imperialist invasion of China.Therefore,the national view of the Chinese Catholic intellectuals has obviously responded to people outside the Catholic and protected the Catholicism.They encouraged the Catholics to love their country,to participate in the social transformation of the country,to obey the rule of the national government,and even to defend the legitimate sovereignty of the motherland in the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War.This reflects the Catholic attempt to ease the conflict between the Holy Church,theocracy,and the secular state.Essentially,however,the idea of the state benefits the Catholic.