Missionaries to China: A Historical Dictionary

A comprehensive sourcebook for historians and sinologists, containing biographies of over 1000 Christian missionaries who served in China before 1955.

In this monumental reference work, Leopold Leeb provides biographical accounts of over 1000 missionaries in China, beginning in the year 635 and continuing through the mid-twentieth century. Missionaries to China: A Historical Dictionary is distinctive for its wide historical range, its emphasis on Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox missions, and its many entries on women and lesser-known figures in the missionary history of China. Based on sources in several languages including Chinese, German, French, and Latin, Leeb’s dictionary is a wellspring of historical and cultural information. The book’s biographical entries are contextualized by an introduction to the history and historiography of China missionaries. Enhancing its functionality as a research tool, the dictionary provides the English and Chinese names of both the missionary figures and the titles of works that they published. The dictionary lists all place names in China in both English and Chinese, and it features a bilingual index of names and a topical index. Given the book’s scope of information and user-friendly design, Missionaries to China: A Historical Dictionary is an essential resource for scholars studying Christianity and missionary activity in China.

Leopold Leeb is professor in the School of Liberal Arts at Renmin University of China.