Historical background for this thread.
So suppose the Southern Ming had held on, for whatever reason, and Roman Catholicism slowly becomes the court religion of the Ming. How would that affect their administration of the lands they held on to? Furthermore, could their survival have been aided by Portuguese or other European assistance? Maybe Zheng Chenggong and his group holds out in Taiwan as well? How would this entire situation play out, could we have a redux of one of those north-south divisions that always happens every few dynasties?
Irony points if the Shunzhi emperor of the Qing happens to also get converted at the same time.
This happened in the late 1640s, when the last emperor of the Ming loyalist regime (or Southern Ming), Zhu Youlang - also known as the Yongli emperor after his reign title - converted to Roman Catholicism partly in the hope of receiving aid from the European states (especially the Portuguese) against the Manchus who had by now conquered almost all of China. Zhu Youlang's family and much of his court seems to have converted along with him, and his official mother (i.e., his father's official wife, but not his natural mother) Empress Dowager Wang was baptized as Helena. His natural mother Lady Ma was baptized as Maria, while his wife Empress Wang was baptized as Anna. Matteo Ricci had nothing to do with the conversion (he was already dead at this time); rather, Zhu Youlang and his family were converted and baptized by the German Jesuit Andreas Xavier Koffler (who died in 1652).
In 1650, Zhu Youlang's court entrusted the Polish Jesuit Michal Boym with the mission of bringing letters from himself and the Empress Dowager to the Pope, the Doge of Venice, and the King of Portugal. These letters were primarily requests for military aid against the Manchus. Boym's mission was exceptionally difficult and dangerous, because the Venetians and Portuguese were both inclined to abandon the seemingly hopeless Ming loyalist cause and concentrate on developing trade relations with the victorious Manchus. Even the leaders of the Jesuit Order did not approve of getting involved in the Ming-Qing conflict. Boym had to wait until 1655, when the new pope Alexander VII was elected, to get a positive response from the Vatican. Even then, the pope did not offer any practical support, only a letter expressing sympathy and blessing for the Ming loyalist court. With this letter, Boym was able to secure a promise of military aid from the Portuguese king, but again it was only a promise without any practical action taken.
Nonetheless, Boym began his return journey to China and reached Vietnam (then known as Dai Viet) in 1658. He then tried to reach Zhu Youlang's court in Yunnan by travelling through Guangxi, but died en route in 1659. Zhu Youlang and his court fled to Burma in 1661, but the Burmese king handed him over to Wu Sangui (who was now serving the Manchus) in 1662 and Wu put him to death.
On Zhu Youlang, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Youlang
On Michal Boym and his diplomatic mission, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Boym
To read a 1650 letter from Empress Dowager Helena to the Pope, carried by Michal Boym to the Vatican and now kept in its archives, see http://asv.vatican.va/en/visit/doc/zoom04.html
After reading the story of Michal Boym's mission, I have great respect for his tenacity, courage, and refusal to abandon the Ming loyalist cause despite its bleak prospects.
In the case of Empress Dowager Wang (Helena) and Zhu Youlang, there is no evidence that their conversions to Christianity caused any division in the Ming loyalist court. One loyalist minister did object to Zhu Youlang's replacement of the Ming empire's official Datong calendar with the Gregorian calendar (which the minister referred to as a 'barbarian calendar' 夷曆) on Andreas Xavier Koffler's recommendation, arguing that this was a violation of ancestral traditions, with the result that Zhu Youlang changed back to using the Datong calendar (this incident is recorded in the Veritable Record of the Yongli Reign or Yongli Shilu, written by the Ming loyalist scholar Wang Fuzhi). But this was a problem of cultural conservatism and chauvinism rather than religious conflict. Also, because Koffler was esteemed as a mentor by the powerful eunuch Pang Tianshou (baptized Achilleus Pang), his position in the loyalist court remained safe until his death in 1652.
Interestingly, by this time (the late 1640s) the Qing regime had adopted a revised and updated version of the Datong calendar, which was originally developed in the early 1630s by the Jesuit Johann Adam Schall von Bell and the learned Christian convert Xu Guangqi (Paul Xu) by incorporating European astronomical knowledge. This revised calendar was called the Chongzhen calendar until the fall of the Ming empire, but was never officially adopted by the Ming court due to opposition from conservative courtiers and preoccupation with the Manchu and rebel threats. Adam Schall then became an advisor to the Shunzhi emperor of Qing, who adopted the Chongzhen calendar in 1645 under the new name 'Shixian calendar'. This is the version of Chinese calendar that is still used today. The Gregorian calendar was not adopted by another Chinese regime until 1912, when the Republic of China did so.
So suppose the Southern Ming had held on, for whatever reason, and Roman Catholicism slowly becomes the court religion of the Ming. How would that affect their administration of the lands they held on to? Furthermore, could their survival have been aided by Portuguese or other European assistance? Maybe Zheng Chenggong and his group holds out in Taiwan as well? How would this entire situation play out, could we have a redux of one of those north-south divisions that always happens every few dynasties?
Irony points if the Shunzhi emperor of the Qing happens to also get converted at the same time.