It is known to all that many shantang 善堂 were set up mainly in Jiangsu 江蘇 and Zhejiang 浙江 in China in 19th century, but why they began to spread rapidly from then on especially in southern Jiangsu has not been explained. In this study the author explains the origins of the shantang through the process of fiscal reform. From the 19th century Chinese fiscal affairs became rapidly difficult. Consequently, local governments became short of money and began to collect various illegal commission called lougui 陋規 through subordinate officials called xuli 胥吏, yayi 衙役 and dibao 地保. Collecting lougui was prohibited in Zhejiang in 1794, but in Jiangsu it continued and caused misery to the people until the fiscal reform of Ding-Ri-Chang 丁日昌 in 1868. There were various ways to collected lougui, and especially in southern Jiangsu subordinate officials often bullied people into handing over exorbitant fees when examining a person dying on the street. Then during the Jiaqing era Han-Shi-Sheng 韓是升, who lived in Xu-Shu-Zhen 滸墅鎮 in Suzhou 蘇州, established a shantang called Yi-Shan-Gong-Tang 一善公堂, which bore the expense of examination to prevent the officials from self-willed collection of lougui. This system was authorized by Ba-Ha-Bu 巴哈布 in 1812, and the establishment of shantang were promoted in other districts. They spread in Suzhou Songjiang 松江 and Taicang 太倉, and protected people from lougui until the fiscal reforms were carved out. On the other hand, they did not proliferate much in Zhejiang, where fiscal reformation had been carried at an earlier stage. Shantang were originally welfare-oriented but the purpose of this new type was to allay expenses for subordinate officials. They protected the middle classes threatened by these officials rather than the weaker social strata. The propertied people in those days founded shantang willingly, not to show mercy to the weak, but to provide for examining persons dying on the street.

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In 1868, Hudson Taylor and his colleagues from the China Inland Mission were attacked at Yangzhou, after just beginning their missionary activities. This Yangzhou Incident (Jiao-an) indicates some problems, .which include antagonism between Christianity and the Chinese traditional world view, a domestic political situation of each side, different methods of missions by different societies, and the relationship between British invasion and missionary enterprize. The real conditions of the Yangzhou Incident can be revealed only by disentangling this knot of complicated facts. The last point, however, has been over-emphasized, and it has led to over-simplification of anti-missionary movements, including the Yangzhou Incident. This simplification ascribes the cause of the incident to Taylor's "forcible" residence in Yangzhou and regards British gunboat diplomacy as a typical protection of missionaries. However, a detailed re-examination of the negotiation process after the incident shows us that such an understanding has to be re-evaluated. First, the fundamental cause of the incident is Chinese antipathy towards the Roman Catholic orphanage in Yangzhou. It was when this ill feeling was reaching a climax that Hudson Taylor and others started living there. It can be said that they were drawn into the incident. Therefore, we have to attach more importance to the meaning of the existance of the orphanage in the Chinese community of Yangzhou than to the validity of Taylor's residence in inland China. Secondly, although British authorities actually used force, its aim was never to protect the inland residence of Hudson Taylor. The government was opposed to it, causing Chinese popular antagonism and stagnation at trade between the two nations. Above all, British missionary policy became more disadvantageous to missionary activities after Yangzhou Incident. Though it is impossible to generalize from this small case study, it is necessary to consider the Yaugzhou Incident by taking a step backward from the stereotyped framework and examining the context of different conditions in order to find out what this Incident was really all about.

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