ABSTRACT
Nanjing was surrounded, Anqing was conquered, and many people in the Jiangnan area were hastening to proclaim themselves “antigovemment.” When “the Nanjing Church persecution” was nearly over in 1622, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, a missionary sent out by the Society of Jesus in Portugal, entered Guangzhou through Macao. In the late Ming period Yang Guangxian had had a great reputation. He was an assistant guard commander of the Xinanwei, a position very close to that of a vice-regimental leader in the succeeding dynasty. Yang Guangxian was seeking a good excuse to bring about the demise of Schall and his associates. Yang Guangxian made the accusation that Schall and his associates already had made preparations for an invasion and gave as evidence the fact that the Westerners in Macao had thirty thousand soldiers hidden and waiting for the opportunity to seize control of China.
