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Watchman Nee and ihe Little Flock
Movement in Maoist China^
JOSEPH
TSE-HEI LEE
The experience of Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng) and the Christian
Assembly (Jidutu juhuichu or Jidutu juhuisuo) in Mainland China after
the Communist Revolution of 1949 reveals the complexity of church
and state relations in the early 1950s. Widely known in the West as the
Little Flock
(Xiaoqun),
the Christian Assembly, founded by Watchman
Nee,
was one of the fastest growing native Protestant movements in
China during the early twentieth century.^ It was not created by a
foreign missionary enterprise. Nor was it based on the Anglo-American
Protestant denominational model. And its rapid development fitted
well with an indigenous development called the Three-Self Move-
ment, in which Chinese Christians created self-supporting,
self-
governing, and self-propagating churches. But it did not share the
highly politicized anti-imperialist rhetoric of another Three-Self
Movement, the Communist-initiated "Three-Self Patriotic Movement"
{sanzi aiguo yundong): self-rule autonomous from foreign missionary
and imperialist control, financial self-support without foreign dona-
tions,
and self-preaching independent of any Christian missionary
influences.
As the overarching organization of the one-party state,
the Three-Self Patriotic Movement sought to ensure that all C!hinese
Protestant congregations would submit to the socialist ideology.
Because the Little Flock was Chinese in origin and a truly Three-Self
Christian movement. Watchman Nee and his followers refused to be
subject to the control of the Maoist state. They strongly believed that
they were called out of this world to follow and serve Jesus Christ and
that they could exist outside of politics yet coexist with the Commu-
1. Throughout this article, the term "Christian" refers to members of the Little Flock
Movement and followers of other Protestant denominations in China. The terms "Cath-
olics"
and "Protestants" refer to specific sectarian groups.
2.
The term "Christian Assembly" refers to a community of Christian worshippers rather
than a church institution. The term "Little Flock" comes from Jesus' words to his
followers in the Gospel of Luke 12:32, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has
been pleased to give you the kingdom," Philip L. Wickeri,
Seeking
the Common
Ground:
Protestant
Christianity,
the
Three-Self
Movement,
and China's United
Front
(Maryknoll,
N.Y.:
Orbis Books, 1988), 162.
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee is an associate professor of History at Pace University.
© 2005, The American Society of Church History
Church History 74:1 (March 2005)
68
WATCHMAN NEE 69
nist government in the post-1949 era. As with the Chinese imperial
officials, fear of ideological autonomy drove the Maoist social engi-
neers to impose tight control over Protestant communities. At the
political level, state control relied on censorship, anti-Christian prop-
aganda, and the careful rewriting of history. At the local level, control
was achieved through intimidation, arrest, and punishment of those
church leaders who refused to cooperate with the Maoist state and
who upheld a different view of church and state relations, especially
when it contradicted the Communist version of a new China. In this
hostile environment, the Little Flock had no choice but to confront the
mighty Communist state. This pattern of Christian activism not only
highlights the role of popular resistance against state-imposed mo-
dernity, but it also reminds us of what James C. Scott calls "weapons
of the weak" in popular protests by a subordinate group against the
hegemonic power under the most oppressive circumstances.^
The Little Flock's reluctance to affiliate with the state-controlled
Three-Self Patriotic Movement raised the problem of political identi-
fication with the Maoist state. Since the state perceived ideological
identification as synonymous with absolute loyalty to the new polit-
ical and social order, Christian conversion was a direct attack on
Maoist ideology and a protest against state intervention into church
affairs.* By rejecting Maoism, the Little Flock adhered to Watchman
Nee's theological perspectives on the autonomy of the church, assert-
ing that all churches were directly under the authority of Jesus Christ
rather than any external organization; and that each church should be
an independent body, selecting its leaders and running its affairs. In
affirming their Christian identity, the Little Flock Christians found
themselves divided between preaching the divine or affirming the
Maoist ideology, and opting for political stability by submitting to the
state or resisting the state in endless political campaigns. Some Little
Flock members chose to collaborate with the state, whereas other
members refused to do so, but either way, they were embroiled in
politics. The degree of tension and conflict with the state made them
an easy target of attack throughout the Maoist era (1949-76).
Beginning with an account of Watchman Nee's Christian Assembly
and his views on church-state relations, this article examines the fluid
and complex political circumstances that the Little Flock experienced
3.
James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985), and Domination and the Arts of
Resistance:
Hidden
Transcripts (New Haven, Conn.; Yale University Press, 1990).
4.
Satish KoUuri, "Minority Existence and the Subject of (Religious) Conversion," Cultural
Dynamics 14:1 (March 2002): 81-95.
70 CHURCH HISTORY
and the ways they interacted with the Maoist state in the early 1950s.
A critique of the state persecution of Chinese Christian communities
under the cover of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement follows. Then,
the article discusses a wide range of strategies that the Little Flock
employed for survival during the Maoist era. Rather than sitting in
judgment on what they did, this study seeks to analyze the problems
confronted by Watchman Nee and the Little Flock in order to gain a
better understanding of human strengths and weaknesses in one of
the most turbulent periods of modern Chinese history.
What happened inside the Little Flock communities? Admittedly,
the lack of archival sources and ethnographic data limits our knowl-
edge of the Little Flock Movement in post-1949 China. Tensions and
conflicts with the Communist government drove the Little Flock
underground throughout the Maoist era. Though the Little Flock
resumed its activities openly when China was opened to the outside
world in 1978, its members remained critical of the state-controlled
Three-Self Patriotic churches. Its controversial status has made it
difficult for Chinese and foreign researchers to conduct fieldwork
among the Little Flock in China today.
It is also difficult to piece together the thorough account of their
leader. There are a few biographical works on Watchman Nee written
by Christians abroad.^ Aimed at the Overseas Chinese churches crit-
ical of Communist religious policy, these works emphasize the saintly
character of Watchman Nee without addressing the contexts in which
he interacted with the government. Recent studies by Leung Ka-Lun
and Ying Fuk-Tsang of Hong Kong are important for our understand-
ing of the subject.^ Drawing on published and unpublished Chinese
official sources, Leung and Ying present invaluable findings about
the changing attitude of Watchman Nee towards the Communist
state and his ambiguous relationship with leaders of the Three-Self
Patriotic Movement. This study builds on their research to explore the
complexities of church-state relations in post-1949 China.
With respect to Communist religious policy, this study relies on an
unpublished report compiled by the First Department of the Bureau
of Public Security of the People's Republic of China {Zhonghua renmin
5.
Angus
Kinnear,
Against
the
Tide:
The
Story
of
Watchman
Nee
(Fort
Washington,
Penn.:
Christian Literature
Crusade,
1973);
Newman
Sze, Ni
Tuosheng xundaoshi
[The
Martyr-
dom of
Watchman
Nee], 2nd ed.
(Culver,
Calif.;
Testimony,
1995);
and
Stephen
C. T.
Chan,
Wode jiufu
Ni
Tuosheng
[My
Uncle,
Watchman
Nee\, 4th ed.
(Hong
Kong:
Logos,
1999).
6. Leung Ka-Lun, Ni Tuosheng de rongru shengchu [Watchman Nee: His Glory and Dishonor]
(Hong
Kong:
Alliance Bible
Seminary,
2003);
and
Ying
Fuk-Tsang,
"Ni
Tuosheng
yu
sanzi gexin yundong [Watchman
Nee and the
Three-Self
Movement,
1949-1951]," ]ian
Dao:
A journal of
Bible
and Theology 20 Quly 2003): 129-75.
WATCHMAN NEE 71
gongheguo
gong'anhu diyiju) in August 1955. As Vivian Wagner points
out, the archival system of tbe Maoist state was a powerful instrument
of control used by the Bureau of Public Security in all major political
purges.^ Tbis official report on the Little Flock is no exception: it was
compiled to provide tbe Communist officials witb information to
destroy tbe Little Flock Movement. It consists of bigbly controversial
evidence about "political crimes" of Watcbman Nee and other Little
Flock leaders. Tbe political nature of the report presents two metb-
odological problems for bistorical research.^
The first problem concerns tbe nature of the report. A confidential
document from "internal publications"
(neibu),
tbe report is written in
the orthodox Maoist discourse and intended for Communist Party
officials in charge of public security and religious affairs. It character-
izes the Little Flock leaders as "counter-revolutionaries," "reactionary
forces," and "class enemies." These labels are not bollow slogans.
They strongly accuse the Little Flock leaders of acting like "class
enemies"—those wbo had been socially and politically dominant
under tbe former Nationalist regime and were unwilling to surrender
tbeir privileges to the People's Government after 1949. Sucb accusa-
tions justify persecution by all available means, including state vio-
lence, against tbem.^ Therefore, it is important to be aware of tbe
anti-Cbristian biases tbat went into the report.
The second problem concerns factual discrepancies in tbe report.
From tbe late 1940s oriwards, the Communist Party bad recruited
some Little Flock church members as informants and collaborators.
Tbis was a bottom-up strategy of coalition politics typical of the
revolutionary movement. ^° Tbe report, tben, presents an insider's
perspective on tbe Little Flock activities. Its primary focus is on the
7.
Vivian Wagner, "The Management of Memory in the
PRC:
How to Keep Pandora's Box
Tightly Closed" (paper presented at the VII European Association of Chinese Studies
Conference in Edinburgh, September 10-13,1998), and "Class Struggle and Commerce;
Utilizing the Archival Heritage of the PRC" (paper presented at the XIV European
Association of Chinese Studies Conference in Mosow, August 26-28, 2002). See also
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, "Testing Missionary Archives against Congregational Histories;
Mapping Christian Communities in South China,"
Exchange:
journal
of
Missiological and
Ecumenical Research
32;4 (2003); 361-77.
8.
Zhonghua renmin gongheguo gong'anbu
diyiju [The First Department of the Bureau of
Public Security of the People's Republic of China] (comp.), jidutu
juhuichu (xiaoqun)
gaikuang [Report
on the
Christian
Assembly (Little
Flock)]
(hereafter
Report
on the Little
Flock),
1-21.
9. Cheng-Chih Wang,
Words
Kill:
Calling
for the
Destruction
of
"Class
Enemies"
in China,
1949-1953
(New York; Routledge, 2002), 27-59 and
84-93.
10.
Odoric Y. K. Wou,
Mobilizing the
Masses:
Building Revolution
in
Henan
(Stanford,
Calif.;
Stanford University Press, 1994),
187-211.
72 CHURCH HISTORY
Little Flock's connection with Nationalist government officials before
and after the Communist Revolution. However, throughout the mid-
twentieth century, China was in perpetual flux, and the views of Little
Flock leaders towards the Communist Party varied in time and place.
Their views about the Communist Party recorded in the report—what
was said in public—might differ considerably from opinions ex-
pressed in private. Instead of making generalizations about the Little
Flock activities and their interaction with the state, scholars should
highlight the complexities of Communist religious policy and the
diverse responses of Little Flock Christians.
Nevertheless, these problems are not sufficient reasons for rejecting
the report completely. For one thing, the Communist state has not
released all archival materials about Watchman Nee and the Little
Flock Movement. The report gives us valuable information about the
Little Flock expansion into different parts of China before and after
1949,
its organizational structure, geographical mobility, and nation-
wide networks, as well as its responses to the Three-Self Patriotic
Movement. All these details are unavailable in any other sources, and
it was these very features that aroused the state suspicion towards this
tiny fraction of the Christian population.
1. WATCHMAN NEE AND THE LITTLE FLOCK
The Christian Assembly originated from the teaching and ministry
of Watchman Nee (1903-72), who was probably the most influential
Chinese Protestant preacher in the early twentieth century. Born in
1903,
Watchman Nee grew up in a third-generation Anglican family.
His paternal grandfather, Ni Yucheng (d. 1890) was a native of
Fuzhou and baptized in 1857. Reputedly a gifted preacher, he later
became the first ordained Chinese pastor in northern Fujian province.
Nee's father, Ni Wenxiu, was a customs official in the treaty port of
Shantou in northeastern Guangdong province and a member of the
Board of the Fuzhou Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA)
during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Coming from a
relatively well-off and well-established Christian family. Watchman
Nee inherited a strong connection with the Anglican mission in
Fuzhou. While studying at a Christian high school, Anglican Trinity
College, in Fuzhou in 1920, he underwent an "emotional conversion"
experience at a meeting held by the famous independent evangelist,
Dora Yu (1873-1931), who had conducted revival meetings among
Chinese Protestant congregations during the 1900s and 1910s, and
WATCHMAN NEE 73
founded a Bible Study and Prayer House in Shanghai for teaching
women the Bible and evangelistic skills.^^
Upon his conversion. Nee left the Anglican school for Shanghai and
worked with Dora Yu. At the age of 17, he gave up pursuing a
teaching, medical, or business career and decided to become a full-
time evangelist like Dora Yu. He later returned to Fuzhou and pros-
elytized in the local area. In 1922, he and the two Wang brothers
(Wang Zai and Wang Lianjun) baptized each other in the Min River
and then launched the Christian Assembly in Fuzhou and nearby
villages. In 1923, he went to study Christian doctrines with Margaret
E. Barber (1860-1930), known as He Shou'en in Chinese. Originally an
Anglican missionary from England, Barber came to Fuzhou in 1899
and taught in a mission school for seven years before returning home.
In 1911, the year the Qing dynasty was overthrown. Barber, after
being influenced by the Brethren Movement, returned to China to
found a Bible school southeast of Fuzhou.^^
The Brethren Movement (or the Plymouth Brethren) was a sectarian
movement in early-nineteenth-century England that sought to recap-
ture the outlook and beliefs of the New Testament church. The
founders of the Brethren Movement envisioned their Communion
service as a form of Christian fellowship that transcended denomina-
tions.
Rejecting priestly hierarchy, they believed in the "priesthood of
all believers." They also shared a strong belief in the Second Coming
of Jesus Christ and renounced the possessions, pleasures, and status
of this world. From the beginning, the Brethren Movement had two
different emphases. The leader of one group, John Nelson Darby
(1800-1882), a grandson of British naval commander Lord Nelson
Darby, regarded the Church of England as corrupted by the world
and the Nonconformists as too widely divided. Darby asserted that
the assemblies were not to be institutional churches led by elders and
deacons, but simply to be groups of people separated from the world
awaiting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. These "exclusive" as-
semblies were labeled to outsiders as Exclusive Brethren. The second
group, called Christian Brethren or "open" Brethren, developed into a
small but influential nonconformist movement. Overall, what distin-
guishes the Brethren from other denominations is the absence of
11.
Kinnear, Against the Tide, 41, 46-55; Silas Wu, Yu Cidu: Ershi shiji Zhongguo jiaohuifuxing
de xianqu [Dora Yu: Harbinger of Christian Church Revival in Twentieth-Century China]
(Boston, Mass.: Pishon River, 2000), 189-94; and Grace
Y.
May, "Watchman Nee and the
Breaking of Bread: The Missiological and Spiritual Forces that Contributed to an
Indigenous Chinese Ecclesiology" (Th.D. diss.. School of Theology, Boston University,
2000),
74-86.
12.
May, "Watchman Nee and the Breaking of Bread," 86-100.
74 CHURCH HISTORY
church government beyond the local church. Unconstrained by a
hierarchy or centralized organization, local churches were free to
adapt the Christian message to contemporary needs and the local
situations.^^ It was Margaret E. Barber, a member of the first group,
who introduced to Watchman Nee the ideas and organization of the
Exclusive Brethren.
Under the influence of Brethren ideas. Watchman Nee challenged
the division between clergy and laity. Dissatisfied with the hierarchy
that he saw in the Catholic Church and most of the Protestant de-
nominations in China, he rejected the pastoral office partly because he
felt that the office of the priesthood obstructed believers' communion
with the Christian God and contradicted the biblical teaching that all
God's people were priests," and partly because it kept ordinary
Christians from service within the church. His rejection of the pastoral
office also stemmed from the context of Western imperialism in
China.^^ For decades, Chinese pastors served as extensions of Chris-
tian missionary enterprises. They were employed by foreign mission
societies. Many of the Chinese denominational churches reflected this
dependent relationship of local workers on foreign missionaries.^^
Therefore, Nee urged Chinese Christians to develop strong lay leaders
and to break away from their dependence on foreign missionary
enterprises for doctrinal instruction and administrative support.
Other features that distinguished Watchman Nee from other Prot-
estant denominations were his antagonism towards denominational
affiliation and his emphasis on the church as a local entity. To Watch-
man Nee, the most vivid expression of Christian community was the
local church
{difang jiaohui)
or local assembly
(difang
juhuisuo).
He saw
a local church or an assembly as "a spiritual body" composed of a
group of Christians who were called out of this world—a concept
derived from his interpretation of the Book of Acts in the New
Testament. Strongly in favor of autonomous and independent local
13.
Kenneth Scott Latourette,
Christianity
in a
Revolutionary
Age:
A
History
of
Christianity
in
the Nineteenth
and
Twentieth
Centuries,
Volume IL The Nineteenth
Century in
Europe:
The
Protestant
and
Eastern Churches
(London.: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1960), 344-45; and
Harold H. Rowdon, "The Brethren," in A
Lion
Handbook:
The History of
Christianity,
eds.
John H. Y. Briggs, Robert D. Linder, and David Wright (Oxford: Lion, 1977),
520-21.
14.
This idea of the priesthood of all believers is derived from
1
Peter in the New Testament:
"As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and
precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be
a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ,"
1 Peter 2:4-5.
15.
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee,
The Bible and
the
Gun:
Christianity
in South
China,
1860-1900
(New
York: Routledge, 2003).
16.
May, "Watchman Nee and the Breaking of Bread," 245-47.
WATCHMAN NEE 75
churches, he maintained that there should be "one church in one
locality."^^ He emphasized the necessity to maintain independent
local churches because on a doctrinal level, a local church could serve
as a guardian of Christian teaching and contain heresy within one
specific place. At an administrative level, the idea of "one church in
one locality" would discourage denominational competition in the
same area. A church should not represent an area smaller or larger
than a city and, therefore, its jurisdiction should correspond with
administrative limits of a city. Only natural barriers and distance
justified meeting in two separate churches in the same area. He saw
no religious and practical reason for a group of Christians in the same
locality to divide themselves into different denominations. On the
issue of settling intrachurch disputes, he allowed a local church to
seek the advice of another church but asserted that the final court of
appeal remained in the church where the original dispute occurred.^^
What he sought to promote was a locally autonomous and nonde-
nominational church independent of any external control.
On the surface. Watchman Nee's emphasis on the locality of the
church seems to advocate the idea of a democratic religious body at
the grass-roots level. But he institutionalized leadership roles as a
means to safeguard the local character of the church. He differentiated
apostles, elders, and deacons in the area of church leadership. The
apostles traveled frequently, preached the Christian message,
founded churches in different localities, trained elders and church
leaders, and decided doctrinal matters.^^ Once a church was estab-
lished, the apostle was expected to transfer the authority to the elders.
In this perspective, apostles were simply wandering evangelists
whose ministry and authority lay outside, not inside, the local church.
By comparison, elders occupied the only office of leadership in the
local church. To qualify, elders needed to demonstrate spiritual ma-
turity and a strong commitment to serve in one locality. The emphasis
on demonstrated character and experience, rather than professional
17.
Luke Pei-Yuan Lu, "Watchman Nee's Doctrine of the Church with Special Reference to
Its Contribution to the Local Church Movement" (Ph.D. diss., Westminster Theological
Seminary, 1992),
248-51;
and Watchman Nee, The Open
Door,
no. 20, The Collected
Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 55 (Anaheim,
Calif.:
Living Stream Ministry, 1994), 179,
cited from May, "Watchman Nee and the Breaking of Bread," 272.
18.
Lu, "Watchman Nee's Doctrine of the Church," 252-54; May, "Watchman Nee and the
Breaking of Bread," 272-73.
19.
According to its usage in the New Testament, the term "apostles" refers to people who
Jesus Christ had assigned the task of preaching his religious message and who had
witnessed the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In using this term. Watchman Nee sought to
highlight the continuity of the apostolic church created in the first century
A.D.
and the
Little Flock, even though this connection was entirely imaginary.
76 CHURCH HISTORY
skills,
manifested a strong work ethic, which Watchman Nee acquired
from Confucianism and his own strict upbringing. He expected elders
to meet regularly to pray and to counsel church members. While
elders attended to church members' religious needs, deacons primar-
ily administrated the church's practical needs.^° He described elders
as fathers overseeing God's household, suggesting that the real au-
thority rested in the hands of elders. This patriarchal image of elders
implied absolute obedience to them from church members and ex-
cluded women from the position. Nee's interpretation of the authority
of elders is neither historical nor biblical, but draws on his Chinese
traditional family heritage.^^
Calling for a return to the early forms of Christian fellowship as
shown in the Book of Acts, Watchman Nee encouraged Christians to
break away from the well-established denominational churches. He
believed that the denominations had lost their faith in the biblical
truth and become corrupted by their hierarchical structure. Apart
from converting non-Christians, he "reconverted" regular church-
goers,
members of denominational churches, and graduates of pres-
tigious Christian mission schools. Many Chinese Christians left their
denominations to join the Little Flock, to the extent that the Protestant
missionaries in Fuzhou often accused the Little Flock of "stealing
sheep."
It was indeed very common for Christians of other denomi-
nations to "convert" to the Little Flock throughout the 1920s and
1930s.
As Watchman Nee wrote on December 4,1932, "For three years
now, more than ten places in Tsao Ning (Zaoning), of Kiangsu
(Jiangsu), belonging to the [American] Presbyterians, more than ten
places in T'ai Shuen (Taishun), of Chekiang (Zhejiang), belonging to
the [China] Inland Mission, a number of places in Fukien (Fujian) of
other sects, agreeing in doctrine, have already been amalgamated,
have done away with their original name, changed the rules of pastors
and leaders, and attached themselves to the Little Flock. "^^ Given his
emphasis on the independence of local churches, many Chinese Chris-
tians found it irresistible to affiliate with the Little Flock. Thus, the
theme of xenophobia and Western imperialism was a strong element
in these conversions.
The rapid development of the Little Flock points to the complicated
relations between Chinese Christian communities and foreign mis-
20. May,
"Watchman
Nee and the
Breaking
of
Bread,"
284-86.
21.
Ibid.,
287.
22.
Watchman
Nee,
"Recounting Things
of the
Past,"
December
4,
1932,
cited from Norman
Howard
Cliff,
"The
Life
and
Theology
of
Watchman
Nee,
Including
a
Study
of the
Little
Flock Movement Which
He
Founded"
(M.
Phil,
diss..
Open
University,
U.K., 1983)
90-91.
WATCHMAN
NEE T7
sionary enterprises. Daniel H. Bays has argued that Chinese churches
in
the
early twentieth century reacted
to the
history
of
foreign
mis-
sionary control
by
displaying
a
profound "congregational egalitari-
anism
or
anti-ecclesiasticism."^''
As
Watchman
Nee had
neither been
ordained
as a
minister
nor
sought
to
work
in an
established denom-
inational church,
he
simply followed
the
Chinese tradition
of
adher-
ing strictly
to
Scriptures
and
organizing
a
sectarian movement.
It was
from
the
Bible alone,
not
Christian theology
or
Western denomina-
tional doctrines, that
he
derived
his
religious authority.
In
addition,
Nee's rejection
of the
clergy revealed
his
discontent with
the
very
class
of
people who
had
excluded lay people from ministry
in
denom-
inational churches.
As
Grace Y.
May
points
out,
"The empowerment
of the laity was the backbone
of
the [Christian] Assembly and the goal
of
his
[Watchman Nee's] ministry. Unlike denominational churches,
which were clergy centered,
the
Assembly
was
clearly
a
ministry
by
and
for
the people."^* Evidently,
the
Little Flock
not
only represented
a growth
of
consciousness among significant numbers
of the
Chinese
Protestant population,
but
also redefined the power relations between
Chinese converts
and
their missionary patrons over
the
issue
of
church management.
After
his
earlier success
in
Fuzhou, Watchman Nee went
to
Shang-
hai
in
1928, where
he
built
a
three-thousand-seat assembly hall
in the
city center.
He
also published
his
most famous theological work
at
that time.
The Spiritual
Man,
which shaped Chinese Christians' under-
standing
of
spirituality
in the
early twentieth century.^^ Watchman
Nee,
in his
late twenties,
had
become
one of the
most celebrated
Protestant evangelists
and
writers
in
China.
His
ideas spread from
Fuzhou throughout Fujian
and
Zhejiang provinces, from Shanghai
into inland provinces,
and
from coastal China into
the
Overseas
Chinese communities across Southeast Asia.
His
followers organized
themselves into proselytizing communities
and
created
a
nationwide
network
of
Little Flock assemblies with headquarters
in
Shanghai.
As
the number
of
assemblies increased
and
leaders tried
to
assert
doc-
trinal orthodoxy,
a
series
of
internal disputes undermined
the
Little
Flock,
and
Watchman
Nee
resigned from
the
Shanghai Assembly
in
23.
Daniel H. Bays, "Indigenous Protestant Churches in China, 1900-1937: A Pentecostal
Case Study," in Indigenous
Responses
to Western Christianity, ed. Steven Kaplan (New
York: New York University Press, 1995), 138.
24.
May, "Watchman Nee and the Breaking of Bread," 293.
25.
Leung Ka-Lun, "Shulingren yu Ni Tuosheng de sanyuanren lun [Trichotomistic An-
thropology
of
Watchman
Nee in The
Spiritual Man]," Alliance Bible Seminary Centenary
Issue—A joint Issue with
the
Pastoral Journal,
No. 8 and
]ian Dao,
No. 13
(December 1999):
183-232.
78 CHURCH HISTORY
1942.
But in 1948, he returned to take charge of the Little Flock by
declaring that the Fuzhou Assembly would be called the "Little
Flock's Jerusalem," which dismissed the original principle of one
church per locality.^*^ Instead, he created a national center for coordi-
nating evangelistic work across China. Other Little Flock leaders
severely challenged this move, but the "Jerusalem" church growth
continued.
With regards to its membership, the Little Flock was a grass-roots
movement comprised of people from widely diverse backgrounds.
Scholars have focused on those assemblies founded in major cities,
but there were also many smaller assemblies in rural areas. As with
other independent Chinese Christian groups like the True Jesus
Church (founded in 1917) and Jesus Family (founded in 1921), the
Little Flock experienced a rapid growth of its church membership
between 1927 and 1949. Several reasons explain the popularity and
safety in joining these groups during that era. The groups' Chinese
origins protected them from attacks in antiforeign campaigns during
the late 1920s. Their institutional flexibility and nationwide networks
shielded them from the Nationalist government control. Their mille-
narian and otherworldly belief systems, their emphasis on individual
salvation, their rejection of the sinful world, and their belief in the
Second Coming of Jesus Christ spoke to the strong sense of fear and
insecurity pervasive in Chinese society during the Sino-Japanese War
(1937-45). It is estimated that by 1949 these independent Christian
groups made up about 25 percent of the entire Chinese Protestant
population, and the Litfle Flock had as many as seventy thousand
adherents.^^
Though the Little Flock leaders were highly critical of the foreign
missionary enterprises in China, they were not totally separated from
the mission churches. In fact, as Ryan Dunch points out, there was
considerable overlap of membership between the Little Flock and the
well-established mission churches. Many Little Flock members came
26.
Leung Ka-Lun, "Ni Tuosheng zai yijiu siba nian de fuchu yu xiangguan zongjiao lilun
[Religious Justifications for Watchman Nee's Retum to Leadership in 1948]," in Ni
Tuosheng de rongru shengchu [Watchman Nee: His Clory and Dishonor] (Hong Kong:
Alliance Bible Seminary, 2003), 97-184.
27.
The Chinese government claimed that the Little Flock had as many as 870 assemblies
with eighty thousand adherents in 1955, but other scholars estimated the Little Flock
adherents to be seventy thousand. For details, see
Report on the Little
Flock,
4; Kenneth
J. Guest, Cod in Chinatown: Religion and Survival in New York's Evolving Immigrant
Community
(New York: New York University Press, 2003), 92-94; and Kinnear,
Against
the
Tide,
101-13.
WATCHMAN NEE 79
from Chinese Christian families or from mission schools.^^ A closer
look at the profile of the Little Flock leaders in the Shantou Assembly
in South China during the early 1950s confirms that they were all
trained by Protestant missions: Sun Wuxin, a chemist and a graduate
of a Christian university in Shanghai, returned to Shantou in 1953
after working in the chemical industry in central China for ten years;
Mai Tongshi, after his graduation from a local Presbyterian mission
school, worked in a Little Flock business enterprise in Shantou; Cai
Muling, a graduate of the local Presbyterian mission school, became a
medical practitioner and owned a clinic; Hong Hongwei graduated
from a local Baptist mission school and then joined the Shantou City
Post Office in the 1940s; and both Huang Fuliang and Sun Ludian
graduated from the local Basel mission school and joined the Shantou
Assembly in the early 1950s.^^ Their early exposure to Christianity in
Protestant mission schools undoubtedly made it easier for them to
appreciate the teaching of Watchman Nee and to affiliate with the
Little Flock.
Institutionally speaking, the Shanghai Assembly was the de facto
headquarters of the Little Flock Movement in China. The authority
was concentrated in the hands of "God's apostles" (Shen de shitu),
namely Watchman Nee and his female co-workers, Li Yuanru, Wang
Peizhen, and Yu Chenghua, who were famous evangelists before
joining the Little Flock. The Home of Deacons
{zhishi zhijia)
at Guling
in Fuzhou was the national training center of Little Flock leaders
while the Gospel Bookstore (fuyin shufang) in Shanghai published
Christian pamphlets. There were many such business enterprises run
by Watchman Nee in support of the Little Flock activities.
During the Sino-Japanese War, while the country was in the midst
of political and social upheavals, the Little Flock launched a very
aggressive evangelistic campaign of inland migrations. Under the
initiative of Li Changshou, known in the West as Witness Lee, the
Little Flock selected from the assemblies across China groups of
families representing a cross section of professions and sent them to
other provinces. The assemblies would provide these families with
travel expenses, but expected them to be financially self-sufficient
28.
Ryan Dunch, "Protestant Christianity in China Today: Fragile, Fragmented, Flourish-
ing," in
China
and
Christianity:
Burdened
Past,
Hopeful
Future,
eds. Stephen Uhalley, Jr.
and Xiaoxin Wu (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2001), 200.
29.
Shantou City Archive, Zongjiaoju dang'an [The Archives of the Bureau of Religious
Affairs],
Folder no. 85-1-53, "Shantou shi jidujiao sanzi aiguo yundong weiyuanhui
wenyuan jianlibiao [The Curriculum Vitas of the Committee Members of the Three-Self
Patriotic Movement Committee in Shantou]."
80 CHURCH HISTORY
within three months' time.''° From the Fuzhou Assembly, new assem-
blies were founded in the region's hinterlands and other major cities
including Xiamen, Zhangzhou, and Dongan. A number of families
from tbe Shanghai Assembly founded new assemblies in Suzhou,
Jinjiang and Nanjing in Jiangsu province. In Shandong province dur-
ing the spring of 1943, a group of thirty families migrated northward
to Manchuria from tbe Qufu Assembly, and another band of seventy
families to areas westward up tbe Baotou railway across Sbanxi
province into Taiyuan. These Christian families created as many as
forty assemblies in northwestern China. By 1949, the Little Flock
established a nationwide cburch network and continued to expand
westward into the frontier provinces. In particular, tbe Little Flock
followed the railroad networks, establishing assemblies in cities at
major railroad junctions, entering the interior not yet reached by
Protestant Christianity.
For tbe purpose of effective management, tbe Little Flock leaders
divided China into thirteen ecclesiastical districts (jiaoqu), indicating
tbat tbe Movement was widespread across tbe country (see Appen-
dix).
In some large churches, the mass of members was divided into
several "families"
(jia),
each one of which was run by a "family head"
(jiazhang),
usually the deacon. Under jia were smaller cell groups run
by cell leaders. By tbe early 1950s, each assembly bad a wide range of
staff:
secretary, treasurer, librarian, cleaner, youtb workers, workers
dealing witb tbe Tbree Self Patriotic Movement and local government
officials.^^ Though tbe Little Flock Movement reached every corner of
Cbina and established a highly diffused organizational structure, its
success aroused strong suspicion from tbe newly established Com-
munist state.
11.
WATCHMAN
NEE'S
VIEWS
ON
MAOISM
AND THE
LITTLE
FLOCK
SURVIVAL
STRATEGIES
How did Watchman Nee understand Maoism? Before answering
this question, let us discuss Communist religious policy. In a manner
similar to tbe imperial states of the past, the Communist state contin-
uously pursued a "united front" policy of engaging China's Protes-
tant communities in order to sever their ties with foreign missionary
enterprises, to place tbe diverse Protestant denominations under the
control of a Leninist mass organization, and to purge reactionary
forces and class enemies from the churcb. As Anthony C. Yu states,
"there bas never been a period in China's historical past in wbicb the
30.
Kinnear, Against the Tide, 184-93; and Report on the Little
Flock,
9-11, 20.
31.
Report on the Little
Flock,
6-7.
WATCHMAN NEE 81
government of the state, in imperial and post-imperial form, has
pursued a neutral policy towards religion, let alone encouraged, in
terms dear to American idealism, its 'free exercise.' The impetus to
engage religion, on the part of the central govemment, is for the
purpose of regulation, control, and exploitation whenever it is
deemed feasible and beneficial to the state."^^ Underlying the Com-
munist policy towards the Little Flock Movement is the ideological
conflict between state and religion. C. K. Yang argues that the Maoist
ideology was a nontheistic "faitb" tbat manifested distinctly religious
cbaracteristics. Tbe essence of its ideology is expressed in two aspi-
rations of the Cbinese nation: materialist progress and nationalism.
All reforms, revolutions, and radical movements in tbe nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries sougbt to promote materialist progress
and establish a strong nation. Tbe Maoist state made tbe same claim,
but demanded from people unconditional surrender of all personal
concerns. Tbis appeal was based on tbe premise tbat tbe Maoist
ideology was tbe only guide to China's ultimate destiny, tbe only
means to national independence and modernization.^''
Tbougb tbe Maoist ideology was installed as the new national faitb,
Cbristian cburcbes, Buddbist and Taoist institutions, and otber sec-
tarian societies continued to operate at tbe grass-roots level. Tbe
Communist state bad yet to accommodate tbese institutional and
diffused religions into tbe new political and social order. But tbe
Communist state was determined to emancipate the common people
from religion and "superstition" and to propagate a secular, scientific,
and rationalistic worldview. It denounced religion as "tbe opium of
tbe people" and an obstacle towards tbe socialist transformation of
Cbina. Its effort to undermine Cbristianity and to control Catbolic and
Protestant communities finally led to a coercive assimilation of all
Cbristian institutions.
Under tbe Communist Party's united front policy, tbe Tbree-Self
Patriotic Movement was designed as a mass organization to sever tbe
cburcbes' ties witb foreign missionary enterprises and to legitimatize
32.
Anthony C. Yu, "On State and Religion in China: A Brief Historical Reflection," Religion
East and West 3 (2003): 1-20. See also Lars Peter Laamann, "Anti-Christian Agitation as
an Example of Late Imperial Anticlericalism," Extreme-Orient, ExtrSme-Occident 24
(2002):
47-62; Leung Ka-Lun, "Zongjiao gongju lun—Zhonggong dui zongjiao de lijie
yu liyong [Religion for State: The Political Exploitation of Religion by the CCP in
China],"
]ian
Dao:
A Journal of
Bible
and Theology 22 Guly 2004): 1-26; and Daniel H. Bays,
"A Tradition of State Dominance," in Cod and Caesar in China: Policy Implications of
Church-State Tensions, eds. Jason Kindopp and Carol Lee Hamrin (Washington, D.C:
Brookings Institution, 2004), 25-39.
33.
C. K. Yang, Religion in Chinese
Society:
A Study of Contemporary
Social
Functions of Religion
and Some of Their Historical Factors (Prospect Heights,
111.:
Waveland, 1991), 381-87.
82 CHURCH HISTORY
tbe state's intervention into Cbinese cburcb affairs. On June 28,1949,
Y.
T. Wu (Wu Yuzong), tbe Secretary for Publications of tbe National
Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in
Cbina, mediated between tbe Chinese Communist Party and the
National Cbristian Council, urging all denominational and indepen-
dent cburcb leaders to support tbe Communist movement. Many
leaders of tbe YMCA and Young Women's Cbristian Association
(YWCA) assisted Y. T. Wu in pursuing a pro-Communist agenda in
tbe Protestant
circle.
Why did some YMCA and YWCA leaders choose
to align with the Communist state? The collaboration between tbe
Communist Party, YMCA, and YWCA dates back to tbe revolutionary
movement during tbe 1920s. Zbou Enlai, later tbe Premier of tbe
People's Republic of Cbina, and bis comrades used tbe YMCA in
Tianjin as a base for tbeir revolutionary activities in Nortb Cbina. In
a similar fasbion, tbe YMCA in Sbangbai provided a safe baven for
Communist underground activists in tbe Lower Yangtze Region.
Tbose YMCA and YWCA leaders wbo were dissatisfied witb tbe
Nationalist government and sympatbetic to tbe Communist cause bad
been recruited as party members. Y. T. Wu was said to bave become
an underground party member after be first met witb Zbou Enlai in
1943.""*
Prior to its revolutionary victory in 1949, tbe Communist Party
had successfully co-opted some of tbe YMCA and YWCA leaders.
In July 1950, Y. T. Wu led nineteen Protestant cburcb leaders to
meet with Premier Zbou Enlai and draft a public statement, known as
"Tbe Christian Manifesto," which expressed Chinese Christians' loy-
alty to the Communist state. At that time, the Korean War (1950-53)
had broken out and anti-American sentiment ran bigb. The Manifesto
called on Christians to fight imperialism, to make known the political
stand of Christians in China, and to build a Cbinese Cburcb under tbe
management of Cbinese tbemselves. It urged Cbristians to support
"tbe common political platform under tbe leadersbip of tbe [Commu-
nist] government." It formally establisbed the Three-Self Patriotic
34. National Archives and Records Administration of the United States (hereafter National
Archives), College Park, Maryland, United States Department of State Archives (here-
after USDSA), Record Group Number 59 (RG59), Records of Office of Chinese Affairs
(1948-56), Microfilm C0012, Roll No. 24/0298, Eile No. 570.3, "Notes on Reports of
Conferences with Premier Chow En Lai Regarding the Christian Church in China." See
also Burke Library of the Union Theological Seminary, New York, Missionary Research
Library Collections on China, David Willard Lyon, Box 1, Folder 20,
Y.
T. Wu, "A New
Era in Chinese Student Movements," February 5, 1931; and Yale Divinity School
Library, China Records Project Miscellaneous Personal Papers Collections, Record
Group Number 8 (RG8), Box 244, Gu Changsheng, Yesu
kuliao:
Cu
Changsheng
huiyilu
(1945-1984) [Jesus
Wept:
Memoir of Cu Changsheng (1945-1984)], 31-32.
WATCHMAN NEE
83
Movement.^^
On the
surface,
the
Movement called
for the
indigeniza-
tion
and
ecclesiastical autonomy
of
Chinese churches.
But its
fiinda-
mental goal
was to
force
the
Chinese Christians
to
sever their insti-
tutional ties with foreign missionary enterprises
in
particular,
and
foreigners generally.
In
the
midst
of tbe
Korean War,
the
"Preparatory Committee
of the
Oppose America
and Aid
Korea Three-Self Reform Movement
of tbe
Cbristian Cburcb"
was
founded
for tbe
purpose
of
conducting
de-
nunciation campaigns against Western missionaries. After
a
series
of
denunciations,
tbe
first National Cbristian Conference sponsored
by
the Preparatory Committee
was
held
in the
summer
of
1954,
in
which
the YMCA-based
Wu was
elected Chairman
and
assigned
to
take
charge
of the
Three-Self Patriotic Movement.
The
officials
of the
Bureau
of
Religious Affairs served
as
"advisors"
to the
Movement.
Within less than
a
decade,
the
Three-Self Patriotic Movement ended
the missionary
era in
China
and
marked
the
beginning
of the Com-
munist takeover
of
Cbristian cburcb affairs.^'' Clearly,
tbe
leaders
of
tbe Tbree-Self Patriotic Movement
bad
served
as
mere agents
of tbe
state
to
control
and
resbape Cbristian cburcbes according
to tbe
Communist Party's designs. Under
tbe
tremendous pressure
for ab-
solute loyalty
to tbe
Maoist state, political neutrality
was not an
option,
and tbe
cburcbes could only exist
in
limited scope
and pre-
cariously.^^
Did Watcbman
Nee
misread
the
political situation
in
post-1949
China? During
the
Civil
War
period (1947-49),
he was
largely
indif-
ferent
to
Mao's revolutionary movement, even though
he was
later
accused
of
having prayed
for the
Communist forces
to
drown while
crossing
the
Yangtze River
in
1949.''^ After
the
Communist takeover of
35.
National Archives, USDSA, RG 59, Microfilm C0012, Roll No. 20/0164, Eile No. 620.004,
"Meeting with Representatives of Mission Boards and Relief Organizations," July 19,
1950;
Roll No. 24/0298, File No.
570.3,
Tom Lee, Hong Kong, April 21, 1951 and April
28,
1951.
36.
Yale Divinity School Library, China Records Project Miscellaneous Personal Papers
Collections, RG8, Box
113,
Thomas
1.
Lee, "Release Number 10; To Friends Interested in
the Christian Church in China," March 17, 1956, 1-5. See also Wickeri, Seeking the
Common Cround, 117-53; Oi-Ki Ling,
The
Changing Role
of
the British Protestant Mission-
aries in China, 1945-1952 (London: Associated University Presses, 1999), 122-80; and
K.
K.
Yeo, Chairman
Mao
Meets the Apostle Paul: Christianity, Communism,
and the
Hope of
China (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brazos, 2002), 152-62.
37.
Deng Zhaoming, "Indigenous Chinese Pentecostal Denominations,"
China
Study
journal
16:3 (December 2001): 5-22; and Jason Kindopp, "Bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to
China: China's Protestants in Movement" (paper presented at the Religion, Political
Economy and Society Project, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard
University, February 18, 2003).
38. Report
on the
Little Flock,
13.
84 CHURCH HISTORY
China, he was initially skeptical of the united front policy and ex-
pressed his concern about the implications of Mao's atheistic ideology
and revolutionary agenda. In early 1950, he visited Hong Kong and
conducted revival meetings for the Little Flock there. He indeed had
a chance to stay abroad but chose instead to go back to China. At that
time,
he was rather optimistic about the future of the Little Flock in
China. He believed that the Little Flock would be tolerated by the
Communist state, more than would the denominational churches,
because of its Chinese origin and Three-Self nature, and that the
Communist formula for Protestantism in China as expressed in the
Three-Self Patriotic Movement was one of cooperation rather than one
of confrontation. There seemed to be much room for peaceful coex-
istence with the Communists. He urged his followers to stay in China
and stressed in his preaching a Christian sense of civil duties. In the
spirit of Romans 13:1-7, he taught his followers to be prepared for
giving up material comforts and, as devoted Christians and good
Chinese, to help the Communist government rebuild the war-torn and
poverty-stricken country.^^ This emphasis on civil duties was a de-
parture from his earlier millenarian and otherworldly thought.
With this view, upon his return to China in March 1950, Watchman
Nee did not oppose the Three-Self Patriotic Movement as had the
nationally renounced fundamentalist preacher Wang Mingdao.*° In-
stead, he helped legitimatize Three-Self Patriotic leaders within the
Little Flock circle. He called on all the Little Flock to participate in the
Three-Self Patriotic Movement. From August 1950 to April 1951, he
submitted a petition with 34,983 signatures in support of the Christian
Manifesto. Most of the signatures had actually been collected earlier
for another petition, which urged the government not to nationalize
the Little Flock's landholdings in Guling; he simply reproduced the
earlier signatures for the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. The Little
Flock's signatures made up 17 percent of all the 200,195 signatures
collected among the Chinese Protestant churches. Underlying his
decision was an attempt to find a way to coexist with this mighty
Communist state by redefining the role of the Little Flock in China.
39.