Early Contact. To Europeans the sixteenth century was an age of conquerors and of the Counter-Reformation. Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuit order in 1534, principally in an effort to convert pagans to Christianity. Francis Xavier, a Spanish Jesuit, arrived in western Japan in 1549 and marched on Kyoto. The Jesuit mission, led by Xavier, began to go to China in the late sixteenth century. Xavier died near Guangzhou in south China in 1552. In the following decades, through the knowledge and enthusiasm of Jesuit missionaries, the Christian Church was resolutely reestablished in China during the Ming dynasty (1326- 1644). Their achievements resulted in the arrival of Dominican, Franciscan, and other Christian missionaries in almost all the Chinese provinces.

Macao. Immediately after establishing the Ming dynasty, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and his successors closed the Chinese door to foreigners, and there was almost no relationship between China and the...