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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Roots of Christianity visible in majestic churches

By Shi Jia | 00:01 UTC+8 May 2, 2018 | Print Edition

THE appearance and spread of Christianity in China began in the 7th century during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). But it did not take root in the country until the Jesuit missionaries followed in the 16th and 17th century. The Protestants completed the cycle, when they arrived to establish their beliefs on Chinese Christian society. 

Hangzhou played an important part in preaching the concept of Christianity in the Jiangnan area (south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River) where a great part of the country’s wealth was at the time.

Shanghai Daily looks at some of the oldest and most prominent Christian church establishments in Hangzhou.

Tianshui Church

Located in the narrow Yesutang Lane, next to the busy commercial district of Hangzhou, the Tianshui Church is 19th-century living proof of Protestant missionary activities in China.

The precursor to the church can be traced back to 1867 when the first American Presbyterian minister Elias B. Inslee arrived in Hangzhou.

In 1874, John Linton Stuart came to settle in the area with his wife, and he became the chief minister of Tianshui Church.

The Stuarts made a great contribution to the area by offering private educational services, child nurseries and medical care to the most impoverished people in the city. Stuart’s wife, Mary Louisa Horton, known as Mother Mary to the locals, co-founded the Tzen Dzai Girl’s School in town, where she developed the first Young Women’s Christian Association unit in China within the school. 

Their son, John Leighton Stuart, was also a missionary and an educator. He became the first president of Yenching University and the US ambassador to China from 1946 to 1949.

The church was renovated in 2009 and the present building is a blend of both the Chinese-style black tiles and white walls and the Gothic-style lancet windows. It can accommodate 400 people.

 

Address: 2 Yesutang Lane

Hangzhou Catholic Church

A block away from Tianshui Church is Hangzhou Catholic Church, which is steeped in history.

The church is related to an Italian Jesuit missionary, Martino Martini, who received funds for building the Christian house of worship from the then governor of Zhejiang Province, Tong Guoqi. 

The church was finished in 1661, spanning a total area of 520 square meters, and was described as one of the most magnificent church buildings in the country.

Martini was also a proliferate writer of Chinese history, culture and geography at the time and is considered by some as the “father of Chinese geographical science.” He died of cholera in 1661 and was buried in Liuxia County in the western part of Hangzhou.

The three-nave church is Romanesque in style and the central nave has a half-dome on its roof. The picture of Jesus Christ is enshrined behind the central altar, whereas pictures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul are worshipped at the altars to the north and south naves separately.

The 16 columns, between the naves, are inscribed with couplets that are related to the Catholic doctrine. 

The church was burnt down several times in its history and used for activities other than worship back in the 1960s. But in 1982 it reopened to the public after renovation with new stained glass windows.

 

Address: 415 Zhongshan Rd N.

Sicheng Church

Sicheng Church was founded by Northern Presbyterian preachers. The “Sicheng” name was taken in memory and a tribute to Zhang Chengzhai, one of the earliest Chinese Protestant ministers in Hangzhou.

The church was completed in 1927 and the construction took more than 60,000 silver coins, the legitimate national currency of that time.

The layout of the church reveals the shape of a cross with a brick-wall exterior. The flooring and beams of the building are made of imported pinewood. 

There is a baptismal font near the platform on the first floor. The nave of the church, where people worship, is on the second floor while the third floor is built in the style of a traditional Chinese gallery fitted with zhizhai windows. This was an invention in traditional Chinese architecture where the upper part of the window can be pulled up for ventilation, while the lower part can be removed to allow in more light.

There used to be a three-story tower featuring Chinese-style eaves but it was demolished during a road-widening project in the 1950s. 

At the south east corner of the church walls there is an embedded marble tablet, engraved with four Chinese characters meaning “the rock of 10,000 generations.”

 

Address: 132 Jiefang Rd

Hangzhou


 

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