The judicialization of religious governance in Qing China: the Calendar case and kangxi policy toward Christianity, 1667–1721

This article examines Qing policy toward Christianity during the Kangxi reign (1667–1721) through the concept of judicialization. Here, judicialization does not mean the modern expansion of court power into politics, but the historical process by which a religious and political problem was translated into matters of jurisdiction, legal classification, Board-level review, criminal liability, and imperial decision. Centering on the Calendar Case (li yu 历狱), the 1692 Edict of Toleration, the missionary permit regime, and the renewed prohibition of 1721, the article shows how disputes first framed as controversies over astronomy, calendrical calculation, and ritual practice were gradually absorbed into the Qing legal-administrative order. The Calendar Case established Qing jurisdiction over Western missionaries and created a procedural sequence linking the Board of Rites, the Board of Punishments, high-level deliberation, and imperial ruling. The 1692 edict did not replace earlier prohibitions, but created a layered framework in which permission and restriction coexisted. Later disputes reactivated this framework under the language of imperial sovereignty. The article argues that Christianity became governable through procedure rather than through a single ideological decision.