ABSTRACT
Far from bringing the Christian enterprise to an end, the Yongzheng edict effectively forced its missionaries underground. Imperial law even imperilled non-believers who granted an abode to itinerant preachers, thus imposing a formidable degree of social isolation on the ‘soldiers of Christ’ during the eighteenth century. 1 More concerned with preserving internal stability than countering an acute foreign threat, Qing officials prevented foreigners and subjects from other provinces alike from disrupting the local status quo. Foreign missionaries may have violated the prohibitions sporadically, but only in isolated instances the presence of foreigners triggered a direct response, in particular in Fujian.
