Missionaries in the Manchu City (1864–1905)

Abstract

The large transnational flows of people, ideas, and resources that characterized twentieth-century global modernity had early expressions within the imperial institutions (and aspiring or quasi-imperial institutions) of the nineteenth century. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rebellion, Qing imperial bureaucracy, and London Missionary Society all engaged in the same project of connecting individuals through national and transnational networks held together by charismatic ideas and institutional resources. For the five individuals whose lives intertwine in this chapter (Hong Xiuquan, Christian rebel; Zeng Guofan, Qing imperial official; Samuel Evans Meech, missionary; Lillie E. V. Saville, missionary doctor; and Wei Enbo, cloth merchant), these networks provided expanded opportunities to engage with the world and transform it to reflect a particular universalistic vision. As people sought to realize these distinctive visions and the charismatic worldviews they represented, they created and extended large organizational structures in which their ideals were embodied, but also attenuated.