Litian Swen's work Jesuit Mission and Submission expands our understanding of the oft-celebrated Qing-era Jesuit missions through a thorough reorientation of the Jesuit experience as part of preexisting Manchu cultural traditions. By expanding the early modern cultural-conflicts paradigm by situating it in the context of Manchu culture, rather than the traditional Chinese-Western dichotomy, Swen brings a new perspective to well-trod historiographical ground.
Swen approaches the Kangxi-era Jesuit missionaries not as Western cultural ambassadors encountering Chinese society, but as players integrated into the pre-Qing Manchu master-slave hierarchy. Rather than being of an entirely subordinate class, as was the case for Han slaves, slaves in Manchu culture reflected the status of their masters, and a familial-style relationship of mutual loyalty was encouraged. In this context, Jesuit missionaries occupied a slave status vis-à-vis the emperor that by no means suggested drudgery or debasement; instead, according to Manchu custom, this identification imbued them with...
