本書是一部中國基督宗教的辭典工具書，當中收錄關於教會人物、教會組織、傳教據點、文化機構、書籍、歷史事件及少數的專題詞條等歷史資料。

This “Dictionary of the History of Christianity in China” is the revised and enlarged English version of my Zhongguo Jiduzongjiao shi cidian《中國基督宗教史辭典》(A Dictionary of the History of Christianity in China), published by Religion and Culture Publications (Beijing 2013). However, that Chinese compilation excluded the persons and events of the second half of the 20th century, and this new English version leads the story up to the year 2000. Nevertheless, contemporary matters (for example, Catholic bishops ordained after the year 2000) are excluded, since in these cases, there is a lack of the historical distance required for an adequate evaluation.
The dictionary contains nearly all societies and institutions of the Catholic, Protestant and Russian Orthodox Churches in China. It pays particular attention to biographical data and contains some topical articles (for example: “Bible, translated”). I have tried to give an objective account of the events, not praising or criticizing any side. Many of the entries are based on Latourette’s A History of Christian Missions in China (published in 1929), which was translated into Chinese under my auspices and has been published in 2009.
This dictionary tries to offer Chinese characters for personal names (Chinese and
Western) and for Chinese place names. The names of well-known cities (like Beijing, Shanghai, Canton) and of provinces (Hebei, Shandong) are only given in the ABC, and not in Chinese characters. For most place names and personal names the Mandarin pronunciation has been chosen, however, there are a few notable exceptions, such as “Canton” (and not “Guangzhou”), “Amoy” (and not “Xiamen”), “Macau“ (and not “Aomen“). If no Chinese name is given for a person from the West, it means that his or her Chinese name is not known or that the name would simply be a modern transliteration.
The alphabetic order seems to be inconsistent with some Chinese names, which is
due to homophone characters. For example, the “bao” of “Baotou” 包頭 comes before the “bao” of “Baoding” 保定, because these are two different characters, which is not evident from the pinyin writing. Thus, it is advisable to be careful when checking entries with homophone characters.
Expressions in square brackets render the old transliterations of names, for example, “Baoding” was written “Paoting” or “Pauting”, and “Baotou” would be “Pau t’ou”in most of the older documents (before 1970), but in this book the standard pinyin transliteration is generally used, thus “Baoding [Paoting]” and “Baotou [Pau t’ou]”.
Most entries concerning schools or other institutions are enlisted according to the geographical location, thus “St. John’s University” should be looked up under “Shanghai, St. John’s University”. The transliteration of Cyrillic characters into Latin characters is generally done according to the international standard ISO 9.

Books consulted frequently are as follows:

K. S. Latourette, A History of Christian Missions, London, 1929, (the Chinese
version translated under my direction was published as《基督教在華傳教史》, Hongkong, 2009).
H. Anderson, Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan, N. Y. ,
1998.
Beijing, Beitang CM ( 北京北堂遣使會編), Les Missions de Chine (《公教1940年鑒》), Shanghai, 1940.
Annuaire de l’ Église Catholique en Chine, 1949 (《中華全國教務統計》), Shanghai, 1949.
C. L. Boynton, 1936 Handbook of the Christian Movement in China under Protestant Auspices, (《在華基督新教1936 年手冊》), Guangxuehui, Shanghai, 1936.
A. Camps, P. McCloskey, The Friars Minor in China 1294-1955, (《方濟會來華史》), Rome, 1995, Chinese version, Hongkong, 2000.
J. Charbonnier, Histoire des Chrétiens de Chine (《中國基督徒史》), Paris, 1992, Chinese version, Taipei, 2005.
Ding Guangxun 丁光訓ed. Jidujiao Da Cidian (Comprehensive Dictionary of
Christianity)(《基督教大辭典》), Chinese, Shanghai Cishu Publications, 2010.
Geng Sheng 耿升trsl., 16-20 shiji ru Hua Tianzhujiao chuanjiaoshi liezhuan《16-20世紀入華天主教傳教士列傳》(Biographies of Catholic Missionaries in China from the 16th to the 20th Century, covering Jesuits, Lazarists and MEP missionaries), Guangxi Normal University Press, 2010.
Huang Guangyu 黃光域ed., Jidujiao Chuanxing Zhongguo Jinian《基督教傳行中國紀念》 (Chronicle of Protestant Missions Development in China 1807-1949), Guangxi Normal University Press, 2017.
R. Malek, ed., The Chinese Face of Jesus Christ, 4 vols., Monumenta Serica Monograph Series, St. Augustin, 2002-2015.
N. Standaert ed., Handbook of Christianity in China, Vol. I, 635-1800, Brill,
Leiden, 2001.
R. Tiedemann ed., Handbook of Christianity in China, Vol. II, 1800-2000, Brill, Leiden, 2010.
Wen Yong 文庸 et alii ed., Jidujiao Cidian (Dictionary of Christianity), (《基督教詞典》), Commercial Press, Beijing, 2005.
Detailed material about a good number of persons can be found in the “Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity” (www.bdcconline.net).
My hope is that this dictionary can provide some basic knowledge about important people, places and events related to the history of Christianity in China. May more Chinese and foreign researchers develop lasting interest in this area of study, so that this handbook can be improved and enlarged in future versions. I am painfully aware that many entries deserve a much more detailed treatment.

Leopold Leeb
Beijing , Renmin University, 2017