MANCHURIA. - It is the north-eastern part of the Chinese domain, bounded by the Amur, the Ussuri, Korea, the province of Hopei, and Mongolia; a territory more than three times the size of Italy, stretching across latitudes as extreme as from Denmark to Calabria and facing with a short coastline (from the Gulf of Liaotung to that of Korea) onto the Yellow Sea.
I. GEOGRAPHY
A long mountainous frame borders on the W. (Hsing-an), on the N. (Hsiao Hsing-an) and on the E. (Chang-paik) the vast plain through which flow the Zungari (2,400 km. in length) and the Liao (1,160 km.), which with their tributaries form an excellent network of internal communication routes. The climate is continental-cold, with abundant rains and notable differences between N. and S. Besides its agricultural vocation, which follows from the abundance and fertility of its alluvial soils, Manchuria reveals conspicuous industrial possibilities, owing to the presence of numerous mineral reserves, which are moreover not yet well known (coal, iron, copper, lead, manganese, bituminous shales, etc.) and to the no less notable forest resources (30% of the territorial surface); the exploitation of both is, one may say, only beginning. Agriculture yields above all soybeans, wheat, rice and sugar beet; livestock raising (5.4 million head of swine, 2 of sheep, 1.7 of cattle) is still far from its possibilities. Large-scale industry, although recently introduced, already counts conspicuous achievements in the metallurgical and chemical fields (Ansham and Penhshin), in hydroelectric power and in textiles. Trade benefits from the two ports of Antung (the larger) and Dairen (ancient Port Arthur).
The population (36.9 million inhabitants in 1946) is made up in great prevalence of Chinese; the true Manchus probably constitute no more than 1/8 of it, and the other minorities (Koreans, Japanese, Russians) are of slight numerical importance. Density is already high in southern Manchuria, where the climate is milder and economic activity more intense, and especially in the lower basin of the Liao. The large inhabited centers are numerous: one (Shenyang, formerly Mukden) exceeds a million inhabitants (1.1 in 1946); two have 500 thousand (the capital Changchun, formerly Hsinking with 790 thousand, and Pinkiang, formerly Harbin, with 662 thousand), Kao-liang (a kind of market town) and about ten have 100 thousand (among them Chilifeng with 430, Fushun and Dairen with over 300 each).
Manchuria, an independent republic in 1931, was constituted by the Japanese, who in fact controlled it, into an empire (Man-chu-Kwo) in 1934; after 1945 it was restored to China and divided into 9 provinces (Antung, Heilung-Kiang, Ho-Kiang, Hsing-an, Kirin, Liao-ning, Liaopehi, Nung-Kiang and Sung-Kiang; Jehol is excluded). The Chinese Eastern Railway (Manchuli-Harbin-Suifenho-Pogranidnaja) and the South Manchurian Railway (Changchow-Mukden-Dairen) operate under mixed Chinese-Soviet control.
Bibliography2 works
Giuseppe Caraci
II. EVANGELIZATION
In 1838 Gregory XVI detached from the diocese of Beijing the apostolic vicariate of Leaotung with jurisdiction over Manchuria and Mongolia, entrusting it to the Seminary of the Foreign Missions of Paris. In 1840 Mongolia was erected as an independent apostolic vicariate, entrusted to the Lazarists. In Manchuria there lived about 2,500 Chinese Christians who had been exiled, or were refugees who had escaped the persecutions toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. They had no resident missionaries, but were visited by priests sent by the bishop of Beijing, apostolic delegate for Chinese Tartary since 1702. The first apostolic vicar, Emmanuele Verrolles (1838-78), erected several stations. The difficulties were great: the ethnic diversity of the population, the extent of the territory, the harshness of the climate, the hostility of the pagans. The missionaries nevertheless succeeded, under Msgr. Verrolles and his successors, in organizing the existing Christian communities and in founding new ones. In 1875 the first Sisters of Providence of Portieux arrived in the mission. A real progress in conversions, however, came only after 1890.
In 1898 Manchuria was divided into 2 vicariates: northern and southern Manchuria. The persecution of the bovers largely destroyed the work accomplished with so much labor; Msgr. Lorenzo Guillon, apostolic vicar of southern Manchuria, 9 missionaries of the Foreign Missions of Paris, 2 sisters, several Chinese priests and numerous Christians perished; the other missionaries were forced to flee. In 1901 new reinforcements arrived from Paris and the mission was resumed, but it had to suffer serious damage again because of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and of brigands after the Chinese revolution of 1911. Despite all these obstacles, the mission made real progress; in 1920 the number of Christians in both vicariates rose to 57,000. In 1920 the two districts of Ilan and Yenki, where Christians who had immigrated from Korea formed the majority, were entrusted to the Benedictines of St. Ottilien of the vicariate of Wonsan; in 1928 Ilan passed to the Capuchins of Tyrol. Meanwhile new missionary institutes came to help: the Maryknoll missionaries in 1918, the missionaries of Bethlehem in 1926, the missionaries of Pont-Viau in 1925. From 1928, parts of the 2 vicariates were entrusted to them as independent missions. After the proclamation of the Republic and the erection of the Man-chu-Kwo Empire under Japanese domination in 1933, because of the prevailing activity of brigands the missionary work was seriously hindered; but once calm returned shortly afterward, it developed with good results among the immigrant Chinese. In recent years communist domination has plunged the mission into an almost complete ruin.
III. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION
The Catholic hierarchy that developed in the apostolic vicariate of M. from 1838 currently numbers 9 dioceses and 3 apostolic prefectures: MUKDEN archdiocese (erected in 1838 as the apostolic vicariate of Lesotung, in 1892 as the apostolic vicariate of southern M., in 1924 under the name of Mukden, in 1946 as an archdiocese, entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions); diocese
KIRIN (erected in 1892 as the apostolic vicariate of northern M., in 1924 under the name of Kirin, in 1946 as a diocese entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions); diocese YENKI (erected in 1928 as an apostolic prefecture, in 1937 as an apostolic vicariate, in 1946 as a diocese, entrusted to the Benedictines of St. Ottilien); diocese SZEPINGKAI (erected in 1929 as an apostolic prefecture, in 1932 as an apostolic vicariate, in 1946 as a diocese, entrusted to the missionaries of Pont-Viau); diocese FUSHUN (erected in 1933 as an apostolic prefecture, in 1940 as an apostolic vicariate, in 1946 as a diocese, entrusted to the Maryknoll missionaries); diocese of YINCKOW (erected in 1949 and entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions); apostolic prefecture KIAMUSZE (erected in 1928 as the mission of Ilan, in 1937 under the name of Kiamusze, in 1940 as an apostolic prefecture entrusted to the Capuchins); apostolic prefecture TSITSI-HAR (erected in 1928 as a mission, in 1931 as an apostolic prefecture, entrusted to the missionaries of Bethlehem); apostolic prefecture LINTUNG (erected in 1937, entrusted to the missionaries of Pont-Viau).