Author: WANG Yu, research assistant professor, Department of History, University of Macau.
Abstract:
This article explores how numbers became a crucial way of thinking in the modern era and the vital roles they played in the production and circulation of knowledge in the age of imperialism. Specifically, this article examines Timothy Richard’s question of and answer to “How one preaches to a million” from the 1880s to the early twentieth century. This article showcases how Richard, in search for a more effective way of preaching, located a new discourse to describe and reconstruct reality through numbers, and within the discourse assigned Christianity a paramount position. This article further points out that such a process is also one of knowledge Qiao-Yi, during which the religious beliefs Richard had in mind underwent significant transformation and travelled in the network of information with a newly obtained face. In doing so, this article unpacks the complex relationship between religion and modern knowledge system in semi-colonial societies such as the fin de siècle China.
Keywords:
Timothy Richard, numbers, knowledge Qiao-Yi, religion, imperialism
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