Manchuria (MANCIURIA) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, p. 1152

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

MANCIURIA. – It is the northeastern 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, extending between extreme latitudes comparable to those from Denmark to Calabria and facing the Yellow Sea along a short coastline (from the Gulf of Liaotung to that of Korea).

I. GEOGRAPHY

A long mountainous framework borders the vast plain on the W. (Hsing-an), N. (Hsiao Hsing-an), and E. (Chang-paik), across which flow the Zungari (2,400 km. in length) and the Liao (1,160 km.), whose tributaries together form an excellent network of internal communications. The climate is cold and continental, with abundant rainfall and marked differences between N. and S. In addition to its agricultural potential, deriving from the abundance and fertility of its alluvial soils, M. has considerable industrial prospects, owing to the presence of numerous mineral reserves, still, moreover, insufficiently known (coal, iron, copper, lead, manganese, oil shale, etc.), and to its no less significant forest resources (30% of the total area); exploitation of both may be said to be still in its infancy. Agriculture produces chiefly soybeans, wheat, rice, and sugar beet; livestock farming (5.4 million pigs, 2 million sheep, 1.7 million cattle) is still far from reaching its potential. Large-scale industry, although recently introduced, has already achieved notable successes in the iron and steel and chemical sectors (Ansham and Penhshin), as well as in hydroelectric power and textiles. Trade benefits from the two ports of Antung (the larger) and Dairen (formerly Port Arthur).

The population (36.9 million inhabitants in 1946) consists overwhelmingly of Chinese; the Manchus proper probably constitute no more than one eighth of it, while the other minorities (Koreans, Japanese, Russians) are numerically insignificant. Population density is already high in southern M., where the climate is milder and economic activity more intense, especially in the lower basin of the Liao. There are numerous large population centers: one (Shenyang, formerly Mukden) exceeds one million inhabitants (1.1 million in 1946); two have more than 500,000 (the capital Changchun, formerly Hsinking, with 790,000, and Pinkiang, formerly Harbin, with 662,000), Kao-liang (a kind of borough), and about ten have 100,000 (among them Chilifeng with 430,000, and Fushun and Dairen with more than 300,000 each).

M., an independent republic in 1931, was transformed into an empire (Man-chu-Kwo) in 1934 by the Japanese, who in fact controlled it; after 1945 it was returned 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 joint Chinese-Soviet control.

BIBL.: L. Gilbert, Dictionnaire historique et géographique de la Mandchourie, Hong Kong 1934; Il Manchouko: geografia, storia, economia, Milan 1940. Giuseppe Caraci

II. EVANGELIZATION

In 1838 Gregory XVI separated from the Diocese of Beijing the Apostolic Vicariate of Leaotung, with jurisdiction over M. and Mongolia, entrusting it to the Seminary of the Foreign Missions of Paris. In 1840 Mongolia was established as an independent apostolic vicariate, entrusted to the Lazarists. Approximately 2,500 Chinese Christians lived in M., exiles or refugees who had escaped the persecutions toward the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. They had no permanent missionaries, but were visited by priests sent by the Bishop of Beijing, who since 1702 had also been the apostolic delegate for Chinese Tartary. The first apostolic vicar, Emmanuele Verrolles (1838–78), established several stations. The difficulties were considerable: the ethnic diversity of the population, the vastness of the territory, the severity of the climate, and the hostility of the pagans. Under Bishop Verrolles and his successors, however, the missionaries succeeded in organizing the existing Christian communities and founding new ones. In 1875 the mission received its first Sisters of Providence of Portieux. Genuine progress in conversions, however, occurred only after 1890.

Article illustration — MANCIURIA - 1) State boundaries; 2) boundaries of ecclesiastical jurisdictions; 3) railways.

In 1898 M. was divided into 2 vicariates: northern and southern M. The persecution of the bovers largely destroyed the work accomplished with so much effort; Mgr Lorenzo Guillon, apostolic vicar of southern M., 9 missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions, 2 nuns, 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 further damage because of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and the bandits 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 immigrated from Korea formed the majority, were entrusted to the Benedictines of St. Ottilia of the vicariate of Wonsan; in 1928 Ilan passed to the Capuchins of Tyrol. Meanwhile new missionary institutes came to their aid: the Maryknoll missionaries in 1918, the missionaries of Bethlehem in 1926, and the missionaries of Pont-Viau in 1925. From 1928, parts of the two vicariates were entrusted to them as independent missions. After the proclamation of the Republic and the establishment of the Man-chu-Kwo Empire under Japanese domination in 1933, missionary activity was seriously hindered by the predominance of the bandits; 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 almost complete collapse.

III. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION

The Catholic hierarchy that developed in the apostolic vicariate of M. from 1838 currently comprises 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, and in 1946 as an archdiocese, entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions); KIRIN diocese (erected in 1892 as the apostolic vicariate of northern M., in 1924 under the name of Kirin, and in 1946 as a diocese entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions); YENKI diocese (erected in 1928 as an apostolic prefecture, in 1937 as an apostolic vicariate, and in 1946 as a diocese, entrusted to the Benedictines of St. Ottilia); SZEPINGKAI diocese (erected in 1929 as an apostolic prefecture, in 1932 as an apostolic vicariate, and in 1946 as a diocese, entrusted to the missionaries of Pont-Viau); FUSHUN diocese (erected in 1933 as an apostolic prefecture, in 1940 as an apostolic vicariate, and in 1946 as a diocese, entrusted to the Maryknoll missionaries); YINCKOW diocese (erected in 1949 and entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions); KIAMUSZE apostolic prefecture (erected in 1928 as the Ilan mission, in 1937 under the name of Kiamusze, and in 1940 as an apostolic prefecture entrusted to the Capuchins); TSITSI-HAR apostolic prefecture (erected in 1928 as a mission, in 1931 as an apostolic prefecture, entrusted to the Bethlehem missionaries); LINTUNG apostolic prefecture (erected in 1937, entrusted to the missionaries of Pont-Viau).

BIBL.: A. Launay, Mons. Verrolles et la mission de Mandchourie, Paris 1895; Vicariat apostolique de la Mandchourie settentrionale (1898-1923), Hongkong 1922; La Société des Missions étrangères en Mandchourie, in Annales de la Société des Missions étrangères, 38 (1936), pp. 146-54.

Giovanni Rommerskirchen