After the death of Verbiest, other missionaries continued their work at the imperial court. In 1689, when China and Russia ne- gotiated their disputes over their common border, the Jesuit priests Jeannes Franciscus Gerbillon and Grimaldi were the Latin trans- lators on behalf of China. Behind the scenes, the Russians tried to persuade the priests to speak on their behalf and told them not to allow China to build houses in Ya Ke Sa. This the Jesuits refused to do. On September 7, 1689, the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed by the two parties on an equal basis. The missionaries were crucial during the negotiating process. Emperor Kang Xi was pleased with the them and said: "The Treaty could be signed was because of your wisdom and hard work. You have done a great job.‘? Later, all these French Jesuits, such as Thomas Pereira, Franciscus Gerbillon and Joachim Bouvet, were invited to go to the Emperor"s residence to teach him about various Western subjects, namely Liang Fa, Ce San, Tian Wen and Ge Zhi. This work lasted many years.
In 1693, Kang Xi contracted malaria and Gerbillon pre- scribed him some medicine, which soon achieved a cure. Be- cause of this, the Emperor granted a piece of land to erect a Catho- lic church, which wasBeitang in Beijing. Em- peror Kangxi came to visit this church twice and gave a framed banner "Wan You Zhen Yuan‘ and two cou- plets which read, "Wu Shi Wu Zhong, Xian Zuo Xing Sheng Zhen Zhu Zai; Xuan Ren Xuan Yi, Yu Zhao Zheng Ji Da Quan Heng’?
He also wrote two words:"Jing Tian‘ which hung in- side the church.
The attitude of Qing government was to allow the mission- aries to be free to preach. It is uncertain whether the missionar- ies could preach in the countryside because there is no record found in this regard. There were missionaries in the hinterland, most of them were there for such stated purposes as "staying‘,"paying tribute to their dead parents‘ or "retreating from the world’, and not carrying out church work.
Things eventually changed dramatically, but at first the signs were good. In the 31st year of the reign of Kang Xi (1692), he issued two orders sequentially and the Imperial ceremonial de- partment carried out his order, ‘…the Westerners did not do any- thing to break the law. It is not appropriate if we forbid them from preaching. Keep the Catholic churches there without being destroyed. Do not prevent those who go to temples to pray or to offer incense. After the order is issued, all the provinces should observe it. This was greatly appreciated by the missionaries. Theyhailed this edict as "long-awaited Christian Toleration Edict.‘ This indicated that the missionaries could freely preach the Catho- lic doctrine among the peoples who could be baptized into the church. Thus, the Catholic Church had entered into another im- portant phase.
Besides the presence of the Jesuits in China, other religious orders also entered. In the years of 1626 and 1629, the Domini- cans built churches in Jilong and Danshui, Taiwan. 1630, Gao Qi, a Dominican, went on mission to Dingtou in Fujian Prov- ince. In 1633, Li Yufan also came to Fujian. In 1650, theFranciscan priest Li Andang went to Jinan, Shandong Provinceand built a church there. The number of baptisms reached 1,500 soon. Although those Franciscans and Dominicans received a cold reception from the Catholics who had been baptized by the Jesuits, they finally stabilized their missions. In 1665, the Do- minicans had 11 residences, 20 churches with about 10,000 be- lievers in Zhenjiang, Fujian and Guangdong provinces.
