Title

From Satan to Usurper: The Portrayal and Influence of Robert Morrison’s and Karl Gützlaff’s Chinese Writings on Napoleon

Author

Cui, Wendong

Genre

Article  

Pages

631-664

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

the image of Napoleon, Robert Morrison, Karl Gützlaff, Wei Yuan, Xu Jiyu

Abstract

      This paper attempts to analyze how Robert Morrison and Karl Gützlaff incorporated the life of Napoleon into their Chinese biographical and historical writings to preach the gospel, and how their writings influenced the late-Qing Chinese intellectuals’ works on world geography and history. The Evangelical Movement prompted Morrison and Gützlaff to propagate the gospel in China, and the downfall of Napoleon, a common theme used by European preachers to glorify God’s almighty power, naturally appeared in Morrison’s and Gützlaff’s writings. In an attempt to integrate evangelism and Confucianism, they interpreted the French Revolution as both a divine visitation and a secular rebellion, and Napoleon was depicted as both a personification of Satan and a Chinese-style usurper. After the Opium War, Chinese intellectuals like Wei Yuan 魏源 and Xu Jiyu 徐繼畬 composed their works on world geography and history mainly based on such Protestant missionary writings. Being Confucian scholars, they eliminated the undesirable elements of Christianity and portrayed Napoleon solely as a Chinese-style usurper.