The Monument to the Nestorian Church of Christianity
China is a great country. She has accepted many religions, but there are no conflicts between different religions. They can coexist with each other in harmony. Why? China has never been a religious country all along, so she can give equal rights to every religion.
In the middle days of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism was introduced into China. The first Buddhist temple named “the Temple of the White Horse” (白马寺) was built in Luoyang (洛阳), the capital of China at that time. In the early days of the Tang Dynasty, the Christian Religion was introduced into China. But the church wasn’t Catholicism, and it was the Nestorian Church, also named “the Assyrian Church of the East”.
In the doctrine of the Nestorian Church, Jesus Christ exists as two persons, the man Jesus and the divine Son of God; the Virgin Mary is the mother of the man Jesus, not the Mother of God. The church was popular in the Western Asia. Chinese people thought this church originated from the Roman Empire which was named “Da-Qin” (大秦) in the historical works of ancient China, so they called it as “the Jing Religion of Da-Qin” (大秦景教. “Jing” [景] means prosperity).
In the Steles’ Museum (碑林) of Xi’an, there is a high monument to the Nestorian Church of Christianity. This monument was made in the Tang Dynasty. It describes the history of the Nestorian Church in China. According to the records of the stele, in A.D. 635, a man named Alopen brought the classics of the Nestorian Church to Chang’an (长安, modern-day Xi’an) which was the capital of China at that time. Fang Xuanling (房玄龄), the prime minister of the Tang Empire, met Alopen and discussed the doctrine with him. In A.D. 638, the Tang Empire recognized the Nestorian Church, and supported Alopen to build a church in Chang’an. Tang Tai-Zong (唐太宗), Tang Gao-Zong (唐高宗) and Tang Xuan-Zong (唐玄宗), the three famous emperors gave strong support to the Nestorian Church, so the church was flourishing. However, the three emperors themselves believed in Taoism or Buddhism.
In A.D. 845, Tang Wu-Zong (唐武宗), an emperor who had blind faith in Taoism, ordered to ban Buddhism. The Nestorian Church was involved in the maelstrom, and was also banned. Since then, the Nestorian Church declined and gradually disappeared. Differing from the Nestorian Church, Buddhism had a large social base from the common people and nobles, so in A.D. 846, after the death of Tang Wu-Zong, his heir Tang Xuan-Zong (唐宣宗) cancelled the ban on Buddhism.
The following photo was taken in the Steles’ Museum of Xi’an. The monument is named “the Stele for Remembering the Prosperity of Da-Qin’s Jing Religion in China” (大秦景教流行中国碑).
The following photo shows the right side of the stele. There are many names written in both of Chinese characters and ancient Syriac letters. The men were the followers of the Nestorian Church in China at that time, and they supported the making of the monument.
