Xi'an Stele

The Xi'an Stele or the Jingjiao Stele (

The stele was unearthed in the late Ming dynasty (between 1623 and 1625) beside Chongren Temple (崇仁寺) outside of Xi'an.^[7] According to the account by the

The first publication of the original Chinese and Syriac text of the inscription in Europe is attributed to Athanasius Kircher. China Illustrata edited by Kircher (1667) included a reproduction of the original inscription in Chinese characters,^[12] romanization of the text, and a Latin translation.^[13] This was perhaps the first sizeable Chinese text made available in its original form to the European public. A sophisticated romanization system, reflecting Chinese tones, used to transcribe the text, was the one developed earlier by Matteo Ricci's collaborator Lazzaro Cattaneo (1560–1640).

The work of the transcription and translation was carried out by

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

English translation of the text on the Xi'an Stele

Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Fulltext of the Xi'an Stele (in Chinese)

The heading on the stone, Chinese for Memorial of the Propagation in China of the Luminous Religion from Daqin (大秦景教流行中國碑, abbreviated 大秦景教碑). An even more abbreviated version of the title, 景教碑 (Jǐngjiào bēi, "The Stele of the Luminous Religion"), in its

The name of the stele can also be translated as A Monument Commemorating the Propagation of the Ta-Chin Luminous Religion in the Middle Kingdom (the church referred to itself as "The Luminous Religion of Daqin", Daqin being the Chinese language term for the Roman Empire in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD,^[19] and in later eras also used to refer to the Syriac Christian churches).^[20]

Authorship

The stele was erected on January 7, 781 ("

Content

On top of the tablet, there is a cross. Below this headpiece is a long Chinese inscription, consisting of around 1,900 Chinese characters, sometimes glossed in Syriac (several sentences amounting to about 50 Syriac words). Calling God "Veritable Majesty", the text refers to Genesis, the cross, and baptism. It also pays tribute to missionaries and benefactors of the church, who are known to have arrived in China by 640. The text contains the name of an early missionary, Alopen. The tablet describes the "Illustrious Religion" and emphasizes the Trinity and the Incarnation, but there is nothing about Christ's crucifixion or resurrection. Other Chinese elements referred to include a wooden bell, beard, tonsure, and renunciation.^[1] 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.^[23]

Yazedbuzid (Yisi in Chinese) helped the Tang dynasty general Guo Ziyi militarily crush the Sogdian-Turk led An Lushan rebellion, with Yisi personally acting as a military commander and Yisi and the Church of the East were rewarded by the Tang dynasty with titles and positions as described in the Xi'an Stele.^{[24][25][26][27][28]}

Debate

The Xi'an Stele attracted the attention of some anti-Christian, Protestant anti-Catholic, or Catholic anti-Jesuit groups in the 17th century, who argued that the stone was a fake or that the inscriptions had been modified by the

By the 19th century, the debate had become less sectarian and more scholarly. Notable skeptics included Karl Friedrich Neumann, Stanislas Julien, Edward E. Salisbury and Charles Wall.^[10][30] Ernest Renan initially had "grave doubts", but eventually changed his mind in the light of later scholarship, in favor of the stele's genuineness.^[31] The defenders included some non-Jesuit scholars, such as Alexander Wylie, James Legge, and Jean-Pierre-Guillaume Pauthier, although the most substantive work in defense of the stele's authenticity – the three-volume La stèle chrétienne de Si-ngan-fou (1895 to 1902) was authored by the Jesuit scholar Henri Havret (1848–1902).^[10]

Paul Pelliot (1878–1945) did an extensive amount of research on the stele, which, however, was only published posthumously, in 1984 (a second edition, revised by Forte was then published in 1996).^[32][33] His and Havret's works are still regarded as the two "standard books" on the subject.^[34]

Modern location, and replicas

Bixi) pedestal. Left: 1907 photograph by Frits Holm, without the brick cladding/pavilion seen in earlier pictures and shortly before it was moved to the Beilin Museum

. Right: The Xi'an Stele in Beilin Museum in 2011.

Since the late 19th century a number of European scholars opined in favor of somehow getting the stele out of China and into the

tortoise, from its location near Chongren Temple^[7][37] to Xi'an's Beilin Museum (Forest of Steles Museum).^[36][38]

Holm had an exact copy of the stele made for him and had the replica stele shipped to New York, planning to sell it to the

Bunn Intercultural Center on the campus of Georgetown University

(Washington, D.C.).

The original Xi'an Stele remains in the Forest of Steles. It is now exhibited in the museum's Room Number 2, and is the first stele on the left after the entry. When the official list of Chinese cultural relics forbidden to be exhibited abroad was promulgated in 2003, the stele was included into this short list of particularly valuable and important items.

Other copies of the stele and its tortoise can be found near Xi'an Daqin Pagoda,^[41] on Mount Kōya in Japan,^[42] and, in Tianhe Church, Guangzhou.^[43]

Other early Christian monuments in China

Numerous Christian gravestones have also been found in China in the

Fangshan District, near Beijing.^[45]

In 2006, a mortuary stone pillar with Church of the East inscriptions was discovered in Luoyang, the Nestorian pillar of Luoyang. Erected and engraved in 815, the inscriptions give partial details surrounding the background of a Sogdian Christian community living in Luoyang.^[46]

In popular culture

• In the 20th episode of The Longest Day in Chang'an, the Monk Jingde (Volker Helfrich [de]) hands a missionary leaflet to Tan Qi (Rayzha Alimjan), which contains text taken from the inscription of the Xi'an Stele.

See also

• Church of the East in China
• Jingjiao Documents
• Adam (Jingjing)
• Nestorian pillar of Luoyang
• Mogao Christian painting
• Murals from the Christian temple at Qocho
• Central Asian objects of Northern Wei tombs

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Hill, Henry, ed. (1988). Light from the East: A Symposium on the Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian Churches. Toronto, Canada. pp. 108 109.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
2. ISBN 978-0-06-147280-0
   .
3. ISBN 978-3-8050-0534-0
   .
4. ISBN 978-1-78673-316-0
   .
5. ^ McGrath, Anastasia (2021-02-10). "China's Buried Christian History". SAPIENTIA. Fordham University. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
6. ISBN 0-8248-1219-0
   .
7. ^ ^{a b} Saeki, P.Y. (1951). Nestorian Documents and Relics in China (2nd ed.). Tokyo: Maruzen.
8. ^ ^{a b} Mungello, p. 168
9. ^ Mungello (p. 168), following Legge, is inclined to date Semedo's visit to Xi'an to 1628, but also mentions that some researchers interpret Semedo's account as to mean a 1625 visit.
10. ^ ^{a b c} Mungello, p. 169
11. ^ The Chinese repository, Volume 13. VICTORIA, HONGKONG: Printed for the proprietors. 1844. p. 472. Retrieved 2011-05-08.(Original from Harvard University)
12. ^ Reproduction of the original Chinese and Syriac text in Kircher's China Illustrata Archived 2010-07-30 at the Wayback Machine
13. ^ China monumentis: qua sacris quà profanis, ..., pp. 13-28. An English translation of Kircher's work can be found as an "Appendix" in: Johan Nieuhof, An embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham, emperor of China : delivered by their excellencies Peter de Goyer and Jacob de Keyzer, at his imperial city of Peking wherein the cities, towns, villages, ports, rivers, &c. in their passages from Canton to Peking are ingeniously described by John Nieuhoff ; also an epistle of Father John Adams, their antagonist, concerning the whole negotiation ; with an appendix of several remarks taken out of Father Athanasius Kircher ; Englished and set forth with their several sculptures by John Ogilby (1673); the relevant chapters appear there as "[Kircher Appendix] Chap. 2 and 3", pp. 323-339.
14. ^ Mungello, p. 167
15. ISBN 978-3-643-90329-7
    .
16. ^ Holm, Frits Vilhelm. "Translation of the Nestorian Inscription". The Nestorian Monument: An Ancient Record of Christianity in China.
17. ^ WILMSHURST, DAVID. A MONUMENT TO THE SPREAD OF THE SYRIAN BRILLIANT TEACHING IN CHINA (PDF). p. 9.
18. ^ Such as Holm 2001
19. ^ Hill, John E. (2004). "The Kingdom of Da Qin". The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu (2nd ed.). Retrieved 2008-11-30.
20. ^ Foster, John (1939). The Church in T'ang Dynasty. Great Britain: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. p. 123.
21. ^ Elijah of Nisibis, Chronography (ed. Brooks), i. 32 and 87
22. ^ Stewart, John (1928). Nestorian missionary enterprise, the story of a church on fire. Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark., p. 183.
23. ^ Saeki, pp. 14–15
24. S2CID 164239427
    .
25. ISBN 9783643903297
    .
26. ISBN 978-1786723161
    .
27. doi:10.3390/rel10100551
    .
28. ISBN 978-1351672771
    .
29. ^ Mungello, p. 170-171
30. ^ Wall, Charles (1840). An examination of the ancient orthography of the Jews, and of the original state of the text of the Hebrew Bible. Whittaker and Co. pp. 159–245.
31. ^ Keevak 2008, p. 103
32. ^ Sinologists: Paul Pelliot
33. ISBN 4-900793-12-4
34. ^ Keevak 2008, p. 4
35. ^ Henri Havret (1895), p.4
36. ^ ^{a b c} Keevak 2008, pp. 117–121. Holm's original report can be found in Carus, Wylie & Holm 1909, and also in more popular form in Holm 2001
37. ^ Keevak 2008, p. 27
38. ^ See modern photos of the stele on Flickr.com, complete with the same tortoise
39. ^ NEW CAPTAIN ON ST. LOUIS.; Hartley, Young American Line Commander, Praised for Handling Ship. The New York Times, January 29, 1917
40. ^ Holm, Frits (November 1916). "A JAPANESE AUTHOR ON THE CHINESE NESTORIAN MONUMENT" (PDF). The Open Court. pp. 686–694. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
41. ^ Photos of the replica stele outside of the Daqin Pagoda
42. ^ Keevak 2008, p. 125
43. ^ 广州市基督教两会仿制景教碑立于天河堂 盼广州教会传承景教以来众圣徒“道成肉身”的美好见证 [Guangzhou CCC&TSPM Copied Jingjiao Stele in Tianhe Church, Hoping to Pass Good Witnesses of "Incarnation" Since Jingjiao Saints] (in Chinese (China)). 福音时报 (Gospel Times). 2016-03-10.
44. ^ Manichaean and Christian Remains in Zayton (Quanzhou, South China)
45. ^ Moule, A. C. (1930). Christians in China before the year 1550. London: SPCK. pp. 86−89.
46. S2CID 190861764
    .

Further reading

• sj
  , La stèle chrétienne de Si Ngan-fou, Parts 1–3. Full text (was) available at Gallica:
  • Part 1 (1895)
  • Part 2 (1897)
  • Part 3 (1902)

Some of the volumes can also be found on archive.org.

• Carus, Paul; Wylie, Alexander; Holm, Frits (1909), The Nestorian Monument: An Ancient Record of Christianity in China, with Special Reference to the expedition of Frits V. Holm..., The Open court publishing company
• Holm, Frits (2001), My Nestorian Adventure in China: A Popular Account of the Holm-Nestorian Expedition to Sian-Fu and Its Results, Volume 6 of Georgias reprint series, Gorgias Press LLC,
  ISBN 0-9713097-6-0
  . Originally published by: Hutchinson & Co, London, 1924.
• Keevak, Michael (2008), The Story of a Stele: China's Nestorian Monument and Its Reception in the West, 1625-1916,
  ISBN 978-962-209-895-4

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nestorian Stele.

• Stele text in English from researchers at Fordham University; actually 1855 translation of A. Wiley
• Large photograph of a rubbing of the stele from University of Birmingham (scroll to bottom of page)
• "The Jesus Messiah of Xi'an" ― translation and exposition of doctrinal passages in the stele text. From B. Vermander (ed.), Le Christ Chinois, Héritages et espérance (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1998).
• Photos of a replica of the Nestorian Stele in Xi-an; photos are of a replica located in Japan Japanese text.
• SIR E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, KT., THE MONKS OF KUBLAl KHAN EMPEROR OF CHINA (1928) - contains reproductions of early photographs of the stele where it stood in the early 20th century (from Havret etc.)
• Nestorian Stele – Inscription: A slice of Christian history from China. Australian Museum.

34°10′N 108°34′E / 34.16°N 108.56°E / 34.16; 108.56