The Communist Manifesto rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy [sic!] of rural life". As Eric Hobsbawm noted, however: Marx and Engels’ political influences were wide-ranging, reacting to and taking inspiration from German idealist philosophy, French socialism, and English and Scottish political economy. "The Communist Manifesto" also takes influence from literature. In Jacques Derrida’s work, "Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International", he uses Shakespeare’s "Hamlet" to frame a discussion of the history of the International, showing, in the process, the influence that Shakespeare’s work had on Marx and Engel’s writing.
The Christian Manifesto aims to educate them about the social and political position of Christianity in China. Many, if not most, Chinese Protestants thought that the manifesto was too radical. The Methodist Church in China refused to sign the manifesto, as did, initially, the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (Anglican Church in China). Both issued alternative manifestos of their own. All Anglican bishops in China later caved in and signed "The Christian Manifesto", and almost all of them became TSPM associates. Initially, foreign missionary societies were perplexed by the manifesto that had been preceded by mixed messages. It was labeled as a partisan