Urban residences and rural missions

The geographic patterns of Catholic missions in late imperial China, as the period from the late Ming to the mid-Qing dynasty, were determined by one overriding factor: patronage. Patronage was also the single most important factor in determining the urban/rural location of missionary work. The prohibition of evangelization in 1705 radically changed the geographical patterns and the urban/rural balance of the Catholic mission. The number of urban residences declined as Western missionaries left China. In reflecting on Catholic missionaries as local agents in late imperial China, it is difficult to differentiate between their urban and rural functions. The image of Catholic missionaries in late nineteenth-century rural China belies the urban origins of the Catholic China Mission. The urban central places in late imperial China functioned as nodal points in networks that distributed cash, goods, ideas, and culture to the countryside.