Welcome to the Sheng Lu Shan Gong Digital Archive

These two booklets, one published in 1931 and the other in 1932, are an exceptional glimpse of the localizing of Catholic devotional practice from early-twentieth-century China. Though both bear the same title, they were printed from different dioceses and show contrasting patterns of linguistics, layout style, and spirituality. Both concurrently testify to the creative interplay of indigenous culture and universal faith. Here you will receive access to comparative research and interactive explorations — and we invite you to explore this strange intersection of history and religion.

Sheng Lu Shan Gong refers quite simply to “Good Works of the Holy Way.” It is the Catholic Stations of the Cross devotional exercise, in which Christians meditate on fourteen key events of the Passion of Christ. Using prayer and attention, Christians spiritually experience the sufferings of Jesus. Even the book's title runs parallel with that of St. Aloysius Gonzaga (Shenglǜsī), yet this book cannot be a vita of a saint, since it comes as a guidebook teaching the faithful this devotional practice.

In the 1930s individual Catholic publications in China were often locally printed by religious orders or dioceses and therefore exhibited variation of translation and format. Sheng Lu Shan Gong offers a typical example of a process of localization. Its differing versions reveal as much about the vitality of Republican Chinese Catholicism as they do about the resourcefulness of faithful at praying with their own cultural and linguistic context.

Acquisition Note:

Fuzhou Edition (1932)

The Fuzhou edition of the Sheng Lu Shan Gong (1932) entered this archive through the purchase of a mixed lot of older Chinese books from an online dealer specializing in rare and religious texts. The booklet was discovered among miscellaneous printed matter, without any prior cataloging of its historical significance.

A handwritten date, “1950,” appears on the cover in ink, which initially led to misidentification of the printing year. Closer examination of the typography, layout, and ecclesiastical approval marks confirmed that this was in fact the 1932 Fuzhou impression, produced under the authority of the Catholic vicariate at the time.

Despite its age and the political turbulence of mid-20th century China — periods in which Catholic devotional texts were often destroyed, hidden, or dispersed — the volume remains in relatively good condition. This preservation allowed for a full digital scan, ensuring that the edition can now be studied as part of a long history of Catholic devotional print in China.

The object itself bears witness not only to the devotional practices of Republican-era Catholics but also to the survival of religious material culture through decades of upheaval.