THE INSTITUTE FOR CRITICAL INVESTIGATION

PRESENTS

SYRIAN CHRISTIANITY

IN CHINA, AD 635

Christian missions along the Old Silk Road from the 7th to the 10th centuries

CHRISTIANITY IS ASIANIn his introduction, Dr. Moffett wrote, "...the Church began in Asia. Its earliest history, its first centers were Asian.

Asia produced the first known church building, the first New Testament translation, perhaps the first Christian king, the first Christian poets, and even arguably the first Christian state...Asian Christians...mounted global ventures in missionary expansion the West could not match until after the 13th century.

By then the Nestorian Church exercised ecclesiastical authority over more of the earth than either Rome or Constantinople".

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYIn 635, the first Christian missionary, Alopen, arrived at the Chinese capital of Chang An (Xian) from the Syrian Church of the East.

In 1625, workers digging in Chang An discovered the Nestorian tablet, constructed in 781 by Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty to celebrating 150 years of Christianity in China, with the arrival of the ‘Religion of Light’ in 635.

Who were these Syrian and Persian missionaries? How did their legacy spread all across the steppes as ‘Nestorian’ Christianity? Where are they now? Why did their influence in China decline along with the fall of the Tang dynasty?

What can we learn about Christian missions along the Old Silk Road from the 7th to the 10th centuries?

THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT

A Monument Commemorating the Propagation of the

Daqin Luminous Religion in the Middle Kingdom

大秦景教流行中國碑 abbreviated to

大秦景教碑

The stele was erected on January 7, 781, at the imperial capital city of Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an), composed by the Nestorian monk Jingjing.

A gloss in Syriac identifies Jingjing with "Adam, priest, chorepiscopus and papash of Sinistan.”

Adam was the metropolitan of the Nestorian ecclesiastical province of Beth Sinaye, under the Nestorian patriarch Hnanishoʿ II (773–780), news of whose death several months earlier had not yet reached the Nestorians of Chang'an.

In fact, the reigning Nestorian patriarch in January 781 was Timothy I (780–823), consecrated in Baghdad on 7 May 780.

THEY SAME FROM SYRIA & IRAN

Some of the Nestorian monks had distinctive Persian names (e.g. Isadsafas, Gushnasap), suggesting that they might have come from Fars or elsewhere in Persia, but most of them had commonplace Christian names or the kind of compound Syriac name (e.g. ʿAbdishoʿ, 'servant of Jesus') much in vogue among all Nestorian Christians.

THE NESTORIAN TABLET OR STELE

WHAT WAS ON IT?

About 1,900 Chinese characters, occasionally in Syriac. Calling God "Veritable Majesty", the text refers to Genesis, the cross, and the baptism.

It pays tribute to missionaries and benefactors of the church, known to have arrived in China by 640. The text contains the name of an early missionary, Alopen.

The tablet describes the "Illustrious Religion", emphasizing the Trinity and the Incarnation, but there is nothing about Christ's crucifixion or resurrection.

The Syriac proper names for God, Christ and Satan (Allaha, Mshiha and Satana) were rendered phonetically into Chinese.

Chinese transliterations were also made of one or two words of Sanskrit origin, such as Sphatica and Dasa.

There is also a Persian word denoting Sunday

DISCOVERY, IDENTIFICATION, TRANSLATIONAccording to the account by the Jesuit Alvaro Semedo, workers who found the stele reported to the governor, who had it installed on a pedestal, under a protective roof. The stele attracted attention of local intellectuals. Zhang Gengyou first identified the text as Christian. Zhang was aware of Christianity through Matteo Ricci, and sent a copy of the stele's Chinese text to his Christian friend, Leon Li Zhizao in Hangzhou.

Li published the text and told about it to the locally based Jesuits.

DISCOVERY, IDENTIFICATION, TRANSLATIONAlvaro Semedo was the first European to visit the stele (between 1625 and 1628).

Nicolas Trigault's Latin translation of the monument's inscription made its way in Europe, and was published in a French translation in 1628.

Portuguese and Italian translations, and a Latin re-translation, were soon published as well.

Semedo's account of the monument's discovery was published in 1641, in his Imperio de la China.

CHALLENGESThe Nestorian Stone attracted the attention of some anti-Christian, Christian anti-Catholic, or Catholic anti-Jesuit groups in the 17th century.

They argued that the stone was a fake or that the inscriptions had been modified by the Jesuits who served in the Ming Court.

HOW DID THE GOSPEL GET TO CHINA?

WHERE IS THE TABLET NOW?

The Danish scholar and adventurer Frits Holm came to Xi'an in 1907 with the plans to take the monument to Europe but local authorities intervened.

It is now housed in Xi'an's Beilin Museum (Forest of Steles Museum) Room Number 2.

REPLICA & COPYHolm made an exact copy of the stele and had it shipped to New York, planning to sell it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which rejected it as of no artistic value.

In 1917 George Leary purchased the replica stele and sent it to Rome, as a gift to the Pope.

A full-sized replica cast from that replica is on permanent display in the Bunn Intercultural Center on the campus of Georgetown University.

Another copy of the stele exists in Japan, installed on Mount Kōya

ODE

The true Lord is without origin,Profound, invisible, and unchangeable;

With power and capacity to perfect and transform,He raised up the earth and established the heavens.

Divided in nature, he entered the world,To save and to help without bounds;

The sun arose, and darkness was dispelled,All bearing witness to his true original.

The glorious and resplendent, accomplished Emperor,Whose principles embraced those of preceding monarchs,

Taking advantage of the occasion, suppressed turbulence;Heaven was spread out and the earth was enlarged.

ODE

The true doctrine, how expansive!Its responses are minute;How difficult to name it!To elucidate the three in one.

The sovereign has the power to act!While the ministers record;We raise this noble monument!To the praise of great felicity.

WHY ‘NESTORIAN’ CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA DECLINED BY THE 10TH

CENTURY?

6th C: Earliest documented presence of Christianity in China - Persian or Bactrian traders, settling in Lin-Tao, Kansu.

7th C: Patriarch Yeshuyab II sent a Persian monk from Syria, Alopen to China. In 635, he reached Chang An, the largest city in the world , with a library of 200,000 volumes. Here, the first translation of the Bible into Chinese was made.

8th-9th C: Patriarch Timothy I (780-823) via his Metropolitan, ruled over Christians in all 10 provinces of China.

10th C: Christianity in China declined with the Tang dynasty.

17th C: Rediscovered with the Nestorian tablet of 781.

BRIEF HISTORY OF REDISCOVERY

16th C: Jesuits from Rome arrived in China and reported that there was no trace of Christianity in Cathay (China).

17th C: Discovery of Nestorian stele originally erected at a monastery. Inscribed with a Persian Cross standing in a lotus blossom and edged withflame, flowers and cloud formations.

20th C: Archaeological finds at the Dunhuang Oasis and the Turfan discoveries include 9 Christian mssin Chinese (4 which date to the 7th century and are now known as ‘the Bishop Alopen documents’

TEXTS OF THE TABLET1900 Chinese characters.

70 words of Syriac and names of bishops, presbyters, monks and others, both in Syriac and Chinese.

The Chief composer: T’sing-tsing (Adam), a Chinese scholar of Chinese classics, Taoism and Buddhist philosophy .

‘The Tablet of the Spread of the Ta Chin Illustrious Religion in China’

IN SYRIAC. In the year one thousand and ninety-two of the Greeks (1092-311=.D 781) my lord Yezdbuzid, Presbyter and Chorepiscopos of Kumdan228 the royal city, son of the departed Meles, Presbyter of Balh, city of Tehuristan, erected this stone tablet, wherein are written the disposition of our Saviour, and the preaching of our fathers to the kings of the Chinese.

IN CHINESE. The priest Ling-pao.

IN SYRIAC. Adam, Deacon, son of Yezdbuzid, Chorepiscopos; Mar Sergius, Presbyter and Chorepiscopos.

IN CHINESE. Examiner and Collator at the erection of the stone tablet, the priest Hsing T'ung.

IN SYRIAC. Sabran Yeshu, Presbyter; Gabriel, Presbyter and Archdeacon, and Head of the Church of Kumdan and of Sarag.

IN CHINESE. Assistant Examiner and Collator, the Presbyter Ye-li, Chief of the Monastery, Director of the Sacrificial Court, and gifted with the Purple Cassock.

‘Whereupon one person of our Trinity became incarnate: ... and came into the world as a Man (or among men).

An Angel proclaimed the joy. A Virgin bore a Sage in Ta Chin (Palestine)...He fulfilled the Old Law of the Twenty-Four Sages’ discourses (Old Testament)...

He rowed ‘Mercy’s Barge’ which took him up to the courts of light...His mighty task once done, at noonday, he ascended into Heaven.

‘When the accomplished emperor Tai Tsung, an enlightened Sage over his people, began his magnificent career in glory and splendor ...

there was a highly virtuous man, a bishop (Lofty Virtue) named Alopen in the Kingdom of the Ta Chin (Roman Empire or Syria).

Auguring from the azure sky, he decided to convey the true Scriptures (Sutras) with him, and observing the course of the winds, he made his way through hardship and danger, difficulties and perils.

Thus in the 9th year of Cheng Kuan (635) he arrived at Chang An. The Emperor dispatched his Chancellor, Duke Fang Hsuan-ling to meet the visitor with an escort at the western suburb, and conduct him to the Palace as a guest.

The Scriptures were translated in the Imperial Library, and their doctrine examined in the Private Apartments, knowing full well that it was right and true, the Emperor expressly commanded its propagation.’

In the ... seventh month of the twelfth year of Cheng Kuan (638), he issued this proclamation ;

“The Way (Dao) has no constant name, nor the sage a constant form. According to its environment, religion is set forth quietly affording salvation to all the living” ...

Alopen, bringing Scriptures and images from afar...for the salvation of creatures and he benefit of man it ought to spread throughout the Empire’

SYNCRETISM: WAY – DAO?The Dao of Chinese folk religion is compared to the ‘Way’ used in New Testament Christianity. Both religions claim a pathway to blessings. It is not difficult to see the temptations for syncretism between Christianity and the Asian religious language already in use.

The reference to the Dao with no specific and static name may be an accommodation to the reception of Christianity among the other religions or it could be due to the less than precise way in which the Scriptures were translated.

The question of whether the mistake was wittingly or inadvertently made determines the answer to the question of orthodoxy.

SYNCRETISM – GOOD OR BAD?

There is debate among scholars on whether syncretism is merely a more aggressive form of ‘accommodation’ or of becoming more ‘user-friendly’, what church growth experts regard as becoming more ‘outward-face friendly’.

The arguments tend to base their positions on Paul’s injunction to become as a Jew to the Jews and all things to all men that he might by all means save some (1 Corinthians 9:20).

HERETICAL CHRISTIANITY?

The Persian missionaries from Syria who made it to China chose to leave their theological and ecclesiastical quirks at home and concentrated on the core message of Christianity, ignoring the issue of Theotokos or Christokos.

The Chinese ideographs, loosely translated ‘Three One Body Divide’ was sufficient to affirm the divinity of Jesus as well as his full partnership in the Trinity

JESUS-MESSIAH SUTRA

The ‘Jesus-Messiah Sutra’ contained a brief summary of the essentials of orthodox Christianity, along with the specific name of Jesus, written as Hsu-ting, but pronounced in the seventh century as Yesu

10 COMMANDMENTS‘Three great Precepts’ and the ‘Seven Other Commandments’ do add up to the ‘Ten Commandments’ with minor variations.

The sin of all caused God to send the ‘Cool Wind’ (Holy Spirit) to enter a virgin named Moyen (Mary) so that all may return to good relation. Moyen bore a son named Ishu (Jesus).

Those who did not believe in him brought him before Pilotussu (Pilate), who was forced by the wicked ones to sentence Ishu to death. One of the three precepts was to obey the emperor.

On December 6th: Marco Polo & Kublai Khan in Cambaluc. Niccolo and Matteo Polo met Kublai Khan in the 13th century and discovered that the Great Khan of the Yuan dynasty grew up as the son of a Christian princess, Sorkakthani-beki, wife of Chinggis' son Tolui Khan.In this little known encounter, Kublai asked the Polo brothers to send him 100 Christian monks to enlighten him about the Man on the Cross. Kublai was also interested to learn from the West, the SEVEN (Liberal) ARTS of the Medieval Age. When the brothers returned to Cathay (China) in 1274 with the young MARCO POLO, the Great Khan too a liking to the Venetian and for the next 20 years, Marco and Kublai forged a tumultuous and fascinating friendship.How did the Great Khan even know about the Christian West and the Man on the Cross?

TIMELINE - CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA First recorded Christian mission to

China - 7th century Marco Polo and Kublai Khan - 13th

century 13th century - Genghis Khan stabilized

Asia and permitted Christianity 15th century - Tamerlane destabilized

Asia and stopped Christian missions