Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T02:32:31.779Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Rethinking Missionaries and Medicine in China: The Miracles of Assunta Pallotta, 1905–2005

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 December 2011

Get access

Abstract

This paper uses the cult of Assunta Pallotta, an Italian Catholic nun who died in a north China village in 1905, to critique the existing literature on missionary medicine in China. She was recognized as holy because of the fragrance that accompanied her death, and later the incorrupt state of her body, and her relics were promoted as a source of healing by the Catholic mission hospital, absorbed into local folk medicine, and are still in use today. By focusing on Catholics, not Protestants, and women, not men, the paper suggests similarities between European and Chinese traditional religious and medical cultures and argues that instead of seeing a transfer of European biomedicine to China, we need to think of a single globalized process in which concepts of science and religion, China and the West were framed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Antonelli, Martino. C. 1905. Letter n.d. Taiyuan. Shanxi beijiaoqu dang'an [Archives of the diocese of Northern Shanxi].Google Scholar
Arcari, Ugolino. 1913. Letter Tong-oel-Keou 28 February. Taiyuan. Shanxi beijiaoqu dang'an [Archives of the diocese of Northern Shanxi].Google Scholar
Archives De L'oeuvre De La Propagation De La Foi [Archives of the Propagation of the Faith]. 1898. E101–2 Chansi Septentrional E14979. Lyon. Oeuvres Pontificales Missionaires Centre de Lyon.Google Scholar
Arnold, David. 1993. Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Balme, Harold. 1921. China and Modern Medicine: A Study in Medical Missionary Development. London: United Council for Missionary Education.Google Scholar
Baola Dapula, (unidentified). 2003. Huimo: Zhenfu Yasongda zhuan [Humility: A biography of the Blessed Assunta], trans. Ande, Hu.Google Scholar
Bell, Rudolf M. and Mazzoni., Christina 2003. The Voices of Gemma Galgani: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Saint. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cahill, Suzanne. 1999. “Smell Good and Get a Job: How Daoist Women Saints were Verified and Legitimatized during the Tang Dynasty (618–907).” In Presence and Presentation: Women in the Chinese Literati Tradition, ed. Mou, Sherry J., 171–85. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Camporesi, Piero. 1988. The Incorruptible Flesh: Bodily Mutilation and Mortification in Religion and Folklore, trans. Croft-Murray, Tania. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Guodi (Luigi). 1913. Letter T'ae-juen-fou 12 November. Taiyuan. Shanxi beijiaoqu dang'an [Archives of the diocese of Northern Shanxi].Google Scholar
Chen, Leisi [Guodi], and Hede, Cheng, trans. 1920. Xiunu Maliya Yasongda xingshi [The deeds of Sister Maria Assunta]. Taiyuan. (Reprinted in Yasongda zouguo de lu.)Google Scholar
Cheung, Yuet-Wah. 1988. Missionary Medicine in China: A Study of Two Canadian Protestant Missions in China before 1937. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Ricci, Matteo. [1953]. China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matteo Ricci: 1583–1610, trans. Gallagher, Louis J.. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Choa, G.H. 1990. “Heal the Sick” was their Motto: The Protestant Medical Missionaries in China. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.Google Scholar
Christian, William Jr., 1984. “Religious Apparitions and the Cold War in Southern Europe.” In Religion, Power and Protest in Local Communities: The Northern Shore of the Mediterranean, ed. Wolf, Eric R., 239266. Berlin: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Classen, Constance. 2006. “The Breath of God: Sacred Histories of Scent” In The Smell Culture Reader, ed. Drobnik, Jim, 376389. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Cochran, Sherman. 2006. Chinese Medicine Men: Consumer Culture in China and Southeast Asia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Csordas, Thomas J. 1994. The Sacred Self: A Cultural Phenomenology of Charismatic Healing. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
De Kerval, Léon. 1902. Le R.P. Hugolin de Doullens ou la vie d'un Frère Mineur Missionnaire en Chine au XIXe siècle [The Rev. Fr. Hugolin of Doullens or the life of a Franciscan missionary in nineteenth-century China]. Rome: Vanves; Paris: Imp. Francisc. Miss.Google Scholar
Duffin, Jacalyn. 2007. “The Doctor was Surprised: or How to Diagnose a Miracle.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 81(4): 699729.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunch, Ryan. 2001. Fuzhou Protestants and the Making of Modern China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Elman, Benjamin A. 2005. On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Suzanne. 2002. “The Scent of a Martyr.” Numen 49(2): 193211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faure, Bernard. 1991. The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Federici, Emidio. 1954. Beata Maria Assunta (Pallotta) Francescana Missionaria di Maria (1875–1905) [The Blessed Maria Assunta (Pallotta) Franciscan Missionary of Mary]. Roma: Francescane Missionarie di Maria.Google Scholar
Feliciani, Antonio. 1865. Letter Xansi 14 January. C432. Rome. Archives of the Pontificia Opus a Sancta Infantia.Google Scholar
Franciscans in China. 1925–1926.Google Scholar
Gandolfi, Domenico. 1987. “Cenni di Storia del vicariato apostolico di Taiyuanfu Shansi, Cina 1930–1953” [A history of the vicariate apostolic of Taiyuanfu, Shanxi, China 1930–1953]. Studi Francescani 84: 299360.Google Scholar
Gentilcore, David. 1998. Healers and Healing in Early Modern Italy. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Grassi, Gregorio. 1891. Letter Chan-Si Settentrionale 20 May. Sinae. Rome. Archivio Curia Generalizia Ordo Fratrum Minorum [Archive of the Curia Generale of the Order of Friars Minor].Google Scholar
Grassi, Gregorio.. 1896. Letter Chansi Settentrionale 5 November. Sinae. Rome. Archivio Curia Generalizia Ordo Fratrum Minorum.Google Scholar
Guo, Chongxi. 1992. “Taiyuan tianzhujiao shilue” [A brief history of Catholicism in Taiyuan]. Taiyuan wenshi ziliao 17.Google Scholar
Guo, Quanzhi. 2007. Shanxi tianzhujiao gaishu [An outline of Catholicism in Shanxi]. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Grypma, Sonya. 2008. Healing Henan: Canadian Nurses at the North China Mission, 1888–1947. Vancouver: UBC Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Ruth. 1999. Lourdes: Body and Spirit in a Secular Age. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Harrison, Henrietta. Unpubl. The Missionary's Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Harvey, Suzanne Ashbrook. 2006. Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Heinrich, Larissa N. 2008. The Afterlife of Images: Translating the Pathological Body between China and the West. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Inouye, Melissa. 2011. Miraculous Mundane: The True Jesus Church and Chinese Christianity in the Twentieth Century. Ph.D. diss. Harvard University.Google Scholar
Johnson, Trevor. 1996. “Blood, Tears and Xavier-Water: Jesuit Missionaries and Popular Religion in the Eighteenth-century Upper Palatinate” In Popular Religion in Germany and Central Europe, 1400–1800, eds. Scrivner, Bob and Johnson, Trevor, 183202. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Kongsu: shi shei haisile wo ma? [Accusation: Who killed my mother?]. 1966. Taiyuan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Launay, Marcel. 2001. Hélène de Chappotin et les Franciscaines Missionaires de Marie [Hélène de Chappotin and the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary]. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf.Google Scholar
Lei, Sean Hsiang-Lin. 1999. “From Changshan to a New Anti-Malarial Drug: Re-networking Chinese Drugs and Excluding Chinese Doctors.” Social Studies of Science 29(3): 323–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levaux, Léopold. 1948. Le Père Lebbe: Apôtre de la Chine moderne (1877–1940) [Father Lebbe: Apostle of modern China]. Bruxelles: Éditions universitaires.Google Scholar
Li, Chongde and Fu, Yan. 1964. “Ruose yiyuan er, san shi” [Two or three things about St Joseph's Hospital]. In Wenshi ziliao [Literary and historical materials] 2, ed. Taiyuanshi tianzhujiao aiguohui [Taiyuan city Catholic Patriotic Association], 36–8.Google Scholar
Li, Shizhen. 2004. Li Shizhen quanji [Complete works of Li Shizhen]. Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Lian, Xi. 2010. Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dapeng, Liu. 1986. Jinci zhi [Jinci gazetteer]. Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Dapeng, Liu. 1990. Tuixiangzhai riji [Diary from the chamber to which one retires to ponder], ed. Zhiqiang, Qiao. Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Lombardi, Teodosio. 1968. Un Grande Ideale: Monsignor Ermengildo Focaccia O.F.M. Vescovo di Yütze in Cina [A Great Ideal: Monsignor Ermengildo Focaccia OFM Bishop of Yuci in China]. Bologna: Edizioni Antoniano.Google Scholar
Loppinot, Comtesse De. 1924. Soeur Marie-Assunta Franciscaine Missionnaire de Marie [Sister Marie-Assunta Franciscan Missionary of Mary]. Vanves: Imprimerie Franciscaine Missionaire.Google Scholar
Maestri, Teodosio. 1923. “La piccola Taumaturga di Tay-yuen-fu” [The little wonder-worker of Taiyuanfu]. Le Missione Francescane dei Fratri Minori 1: 115–8.Google Scholar
Maestri, Teodosio.. 1925. “More work of Sister Assumpta.” Franciscans in China 3(4): 77–8.Google Scholar
Massi, Eugenio. 1909. Letter Ke-oll-kao 8 June. Taiyuan. Shanxi beijiaoqu dang'an [Archives of the diocese of Northern Shanxi].Google Scholar
Menegon, Eugenio. 2004. “Child Bodies, Blessed Bodies: The Contest between Christian Virginity and Confucian CharityNan nü 6(2): 177240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minden, Karen. 1994. Bamboo Stone: The Evolution of a Chinese Medical Elite. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Orsi, Robert A. 1996. Thank you, St Jude: Women's Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Orsi, Robert A.. 2005. Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Park, Katharine. 1994. “The Criminal and the Saintly Body: Autopsy and Dissection in Renaissance Italy.” Renaissance Quarterly 47(1): 133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, Katharine.. 2006. Secrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection. New York: Zone Books.Google Scholar
Porterfield, Amanda. 2005. Healing in the History of Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pucello, Basilio. 1905. Letter Ke-leo-cheu 27 April. Taiyuan. Shanxi beijiaoqu dang'an [Archives of the diocese of Northern Shanxi].Google Scholar
Ricci, Giovanni (Ioannes). “Acta martyrum Sinensium anno 1900 in Provincia San-si occisorum” [Acts of the Chinese martyrs killed in the province of Shanxi in 1900]. Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum 1911–13 (30–32).Google Scholar
Ricci, Giovanni (Ioannes). 1925. Pagine di eroismo cristiano. I terzari cinesi martiri nello Shan-si settentrionale (Persecuzione dei Boxers-1900) [Pages of Christian heroism. The Chinese tertiaries who were martyrs in Northern Shanxi Boxer persecutions – 1900]. Lonigo: Tipografia Moderna.Google Scholar
Ricci, Giovanni (Ioannes). 1929. Vicariatus Taiyuanfu seu brevis historia antiquae Franciscanae missionis Shansi et Shensi a sua origine ad dies nostros (1700–1928) [The Vicariate of Taiyuanfu or a brief history of the ancient Franciscan mission to Shanxi and Shaanxi from its origins until the present day (1700–1928)]. Pekini: Congregationis Missionis.Google Scholar
Rogaski, Ruth. 2004. Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Salotti, Carlo. 1936. “The Seraphic Flower of China.” Franciscans in China (February).Google Scholar
Sharf, Robert H. 1992. “The Idolization of Enlightenment: On the Mummification of Ch'an Masters in Medieval China.” History of Religions 32(1): 131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinarum seu Tuscolana beatificationis et canonizationis Servae Dei Mariae Assumptae Pallotta sororis professae Instituti Sororum Franciscalium Missionarium Mariae. [The beatification and canonization of the Servant of God, Maria Assunta Pallotta of the Chinese or of Tuscany, a professed sister of the Institute of Sisters of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary] 1923. Roma: Guerra et Mirri.Google Scholar
Sivin, Nathan. 1998. “The History of Chinese Medicine: Now and Anon.” positions: east asia cultures critique 6(3): 731–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Kim. 2005. Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China 1945–63: A Medicine of Revolution. London: RoutledgeCurzon.Google Scholar
Tiedemann, R.G. 2008. “Controlling the Virgins: Female Propagators of the Faith and the Catholic Hierarchy in China.” Women's History Review 17(4): 501–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidal, Fernando. 2007. “Miracles, Science, and Testimony in Post Tridentine Saint-Making.” Science in Context 20(3): 481508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villeret, Hugolin. 1888. Letter 15 February. C432. Rome. Archives of the Pontificia Opus a Sancta Infantia.Google Scholar
Wan, Mathias. 1792. Letter Sigan 15 April. SOCP vol 68(701). Rome. Archivium Propaganda Fide.Google Scholar
Welch, Holmes. 1967. The Practice of Chinese Buddhism 1900–1950. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wong, K. Chimin, and Lien-Teh, Wu. 1932. History of Chinese Medicine. Tientsin [Tianjin]: Tientsin Press.Google Scholar
Nianqun, Yang. 2006. Zaizao ‘bingren’—Zhong xi yi chongtu xia de kongjian zhengzhi (1832–1985) [Remaking ‘patients’—the politics of space in the conflicts between Chinese and Western medicine]. Beijing: Zhongguo renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yasongda zouguo de lu, qianbei fuwu, Yasongda xingshi ji xubian [The path Assunta trod—humble service. The deeds of Assunta and a supplement]. 2005. Taiyuan.Google Scholar
Yetts, W. Perceval. 1911. “Notes on the Disposal of the Buddhist Dead in China.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (July): 629725.Google Scholar
Zhu, Zhiwen. 1986. “Jiefang qiande Taiyuan yiyao weisheng shiye” [The medical and hygiene professions in Taiyuan before Liberation]. Taiyuan wenshi ziliao (6): 116–20.Google Scholar
Zongjiao gongzuo tongxun [Religious work news]. 1965. December 28.Google Scholar