"A Model for All Christian Women": Candida Xu, a Chinese Christian Woman of the Seventeenth Century

by Gail King

Overview

This biography of Candida Xu (1607–1680), granddaughter of the prominent Chinese Christian convert and statesman Xu Guangqi (1562–1633) and foremost Chinese Christian woman of the seventeenth century, is based on the biography of Candida Xu titled Histoire d’une dame chrétienne de la Chine (Paris, 1688) written by her confessor Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693), an obituary of his mother and other writings by her eldest son, and the Xu family history. Using these as well as other relevant European missionary and Chinese language sources, Candida Xu’s life as daughter, wife, mother, and generous contributor to the Christian Church is recounted. Events in her life are set in the context of historical and religious circumstances in China at the time. Consideration of the situation of women, particularly Christian women, draws out how Candida Xu’s faith helped her and other believing Christian women to gain greater freedom of choice and action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000333565
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/29/2020
Series:	Collectanea Serica. New Series , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	178
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Gail King was born and raised in a small farming town in Colorado in the western U.S. She received a B.A. in East Asian Studies from the University of Colorado, worked as a bookmobile librarian in Colorado for four years, and completed an M.A. and Ph.D. (1982) in Chinese Literature at the University of Chicago. From October 1982 until retirement in May 2019 she served as the Asian Studies Librarian in the Harold B. Lee Library of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Roots of the Xu Family: The Generations before Candida Xu

2. Childhood and Married Life

3. The Widowed Years

4. The Legacy of Candida Xu

Editorial Reviews

Selected for The Society for the Study of Chinese Religions Celebration of First Books at the AAS Annual Meeting (March 26, 2022), featuring books that exemplify new groundbreaking work in the study of Chinese Religions.

'The depiction of Candida Xu in this book (published in 2021) has broadened our horizon in rediscovering the life of women in Chinese Christianity.'

- Wai-yin Christina WONG 黃慧賢, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

From the Publisher