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The Xi'an Stele or the Jingjiao Stele ( zh, c=景教碑, p= Jǐngjiào bēi), sometimes translated as the "Nestorian Stele," is a Tang Chinese stele erected in 781 that documents 150 years of early
Christianity in China Christianity in China has been present since at least the 3rd century, and it has gained a significant amount of influence during the last 200 years. While Christianity may have existed in China before the 3rd century, evidence of its existe ...
. It is a limestone block high with text in both
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...
and
Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages ...
describing the existence of Christian communities in several cities in northern China. It reveals that the initial
Church of the East The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...
had met recognition by the Tang Emperor Taizong, due to efforts of the Christian missionary
Alopen Alopen (, ; also "Aleben", "Aluoben", "Olopen," "Olopan," or "Olopuen") is the first recorded Assyrian Christian missionary to have reached China, during the Tang dynasty. He was a missionary from the Church of the East (also known as the "Nestori ...
in 635. According to the Stele, Alopen and his fellow
Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages ...
missionaries came to China from
Daqin Daqin (; alternative transliterations include Tachin, Tai-Ch'in) is the ancient Chinese name for the Roman Empire or, depending on context, the Near East, especially Syria. It literally means "great Qin"; Qin () being the name of the founding dyn ...
(the Eastern Roman Empire) in the ninth year of Emperor Taizong (Tai Tsung) (635), bringing sacred books and images. The Church of the East monk
Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as ...
(Jingjing in Chinese) composed the text on the stele. Buried in 845, probably during religious suppression, the stele was not rediscovered until 1625. It is now in the
Stele Forest The Stele Forest or Beilin Museum is a museum for steles and stone sculptures in Beilin District in Xi'an, Northwest China. The museum, which is housed in a former Confucian Temple, has housed a growing collection of Steles since 1087. By 19 ...
in Xi'an.


Discovery

The stele is thought to have been buried in 845, during a campaign of anti-Buddhist persecution, which also affected these Christians. The stele was unearthed in the late Ming dynasty (between 1623 and 1625) beside Chongren Temple () outside of Xi'an. According to the account by the
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...
Alvaro Semedo, the workers who found the stele immediately reported the find to the governor, who soon visited the monument, and had it installed on a pedestal, under a protective roof, requesting the nearby Buddhist monastery to care for it.Mungello, p. 168 The newly discovered stele attracted attention of local intellectuals. It was Zhang Gengyou ( Wade-Giles: Chang Keng-yu) who first identified the text as Christian in content. Zhang, who had been aware of Christianity through
Matteo Ricci Matteo Ricci, SJ (; la, Mattheus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610), was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the , a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. ...
, and who himself may have been Christian, sent a copy of the stele's Chinese text to his Christian friend, Leon Li Zhizao in Hangzhou, who in his turn published the text and told the locally based Jesuits about it. Alvaro Semedo was the first European to visit the stele (some time between 1625 and 1628).
Nicolas Trigault Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628) was a Jesuit, and a missionary in China. He was also known by his latinised name Nicolaus Trigautius or Trigaultius, and his Chinese name Jin Nige (). Life and work Born in Douai (then part of the County of Flanders ...
's Latin translation of the monument's inscription soon made its way in Europe, and was apparently first 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''.Mungello, p. 169 Early Jesuits attempted to claim that the stele was erected by a historical community of Roman Catholics in China, called Nestorianism a heresy, and claimed that it was Catholics who first brought Christianity to China. But later historians and writers admitted that it was indeed from the
Church of the East The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...
and not Roman Catholic. The first publication of the original Chinese and Syriac text of the inscription in Europe is attributed to
Athanasius Kircher Athanasius Kircher (2 May 1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works, most notably in the fields of comparative religion, geology, and medicine. Kircher has been compared t ...
. ''China Illustrata'' edited by Kircher (1667) included a reproduction of the original inscription in Chinese characters, Romanization of the text, and a Latin translation. 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 Matteo Ricci, SJ (; la, Mattheus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610), was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the , a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. ...
's collaborator
Lazzaro Cattaneo Lazzaro Cattaneo (Sarzana, Italy, 1560 - Hangzhou, China, 19 January 1640), (), was an Italian Jesuit missionary who invented the first tone markings for Chinese transcription. Early life Cattaneo was born into a noble family at Sarzana, near Gen ...
(1560–1640). The work of the transcription and translation was carried out by
Michał Boym Michał Piotr BoymHis first name is also often rendered as ''Michele'', ''Michel'', ''Miguel'', ''Michael Peter'' (;Transliterated also (using Wade-Giles) as ''Pu Che-yuen Mi-ko'' c. 1612 – 1659) was a Polish Jesuit missionary to China, scienti ...
and two young Chinese Christians who visited Rome in the 1650s and 1660s: Boym's traveling companion Andreas Zheng () and, later, another person who signed in Latin as "Matthaeus Sina". D.E. Mungello suggests that Matthaeus Sina may have been the person who traveled overland from China to Europe with
Johann Grueber Johann Grueber (28 October 1623, Linz – 30 September 1680, Sárospatak, Hungary) was an Austrian Jesuit missionary and astronomer in China, and noted explorer. Life He joined the Society of Jesus in 1641 and went to China in 1656, where he was ...
.Mungello, p. 167


Content

The heading on the stone, Chinese for Memorial of the Propagation in China of the Luminous Religion from Daqin (, abbreviated ). An even more abbreviated version of the title, (Jǐngjiào bēi, "The Stele of the Luminous Religion"), in its Wade-Giles form, Ching-chiao-pei or Chingchiaopei, was used by some Western writers to refer to the stele as well. 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 (; alternative transliterations include Tachin, Tai-Ch'in) is the ancient Chinese name for the Roman Empire or, depending on context, the Near East, especially Syria. It literally means "great Qin"; Qin () being the name of the founding dyn ...
", Daqin being the Chinese language term for the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, and in later eras also used to refer to the Syriac Christian churches).


Authorship

The stele was erected on January 7, 781 (" Year of the Greeks 1092" in the inscription), at the imperial capital city of Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an), or at nearby
Zhouzhi County Zhouzhi County () is a county under the administration of Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province, China. It is the most spacious but least densely populated county-level division of Xi'an, and also contains the city's southernmost and westernmos ...
. The
calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
was by Lü Xiuyan (), and the content was composed by the Church of the East monk Jingjing in the four- and six- character euphemistic style (大秦寺僧㬌淨述, "Related by Jingjing, monk of the
Daqin Daqin (; alternative transliterations include Tachin, Tai-Ch'in) is the ancient Chinese name for the Roman Empire or, depending on context, the Near East, especially Syria. It literally means "great Qin"; Qin () being the name of the founding dyn ...
Temple"). A gloss in Syriac identifies Jingjing with "Adam, priest, chorepiscopus and ''papash'' of Sinistan" (ܐܕܡ ܩܫܝܫܐ ܘܟܘܪܐܦܝܣܩܘܦܐ ܘܦܐܦܫܝ ܕܨܝܢܝܣܬܐܢ, ''Adam qshisha w'kurapisqupa w'papash d'Sinistan''). Although the term ''papash'' (literally "pope") is unusual and the normal Syriac name for China is Beth Sinaye, not Sinistan, there is no reason to doubt that Adam was the metropolitan of the Church of the East ecclesiastical province of Beth Sinaye, created a half-century earlier during the reign of Patriarch
Sliba-zkha Sliba-zkha (the name means 'the cross has conquered' in Syriac) was patriarch of the Church of the East from 714 to 728. Sources Brief accounts of Sliba-zkha's patriarchate are given in the ''Ecclesiastical Chronicle'' of the Jacobite writer Bar ...
(714–28). A Syriac dating formula refers to the Church of the East patriarch
Hnanisho II Hnanisho II (born c.715) was patriarch of the Church of the East between 773 and 780. His name, sometimes spelled Ananjesu or Khnanishu, means 'mercy of Jesus'. Sources Brief accounts of Hnanisho's patriarchate are given in the ''Ecclesiastical ...
(773–780), news of whose death several months earlier had evidently not yet reached the Church of the East of Chang'an. In fact, the reigning Church of the East patriarch in January 781 was
Timothy I Timothy I may refer to: * Pope Timothy I of Alexandria, Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark in 378–384 * Timothy I of Constantinople, Patriarch of Constantinople in 511–518 * Timothy I (Nestorian patriarch), Catholicus-Patri ...
(780–823), who had been consecrated in
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
on 7 May 780. The names of several higher clergy (one bishop, two chorepiscopi and two archdeacons) and around seventy monks or priests are listed. The names of the higher clergy appear on the front of the stone while those of the priests and monks are inscribed in rows along the narrow sides of the stone, in both Syriac and Chinese. In some cases, the Chinese names are phonetically close to the Syriac originals, but in many other cases, they bear little resemblance to them. Some of the Church of the East monks had distinctive Persian names (such as Isadsafas, Gushnasap), suggesting that they might have come from Fars or elsewhere in Persia, but most of them had common Christian names or the kind of compound Syriac name (such as Abdisho, 'servant of Jesus') much in vogue among all Church of the East Christians. In such cases, it is impossible to guess at their place of origin.


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 In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
"Veritable Majesty", the text refers to
Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
, the
cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...
, and
baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
. 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 Alopen (, ; also "Aleben", "Aluoben", "Olopen," "Olopan," or "Olopuen") is the first recorded Assyrian Christian missionary to have reached China, during the Tang dynasty. He was a missionary from the Church of the East (also known as the "Nestori ...
. 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 Tonsure () is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word ' (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice in ...
, and
renunciation Renunciation (or renouncing) is the act of rejecting something, especially if it is something that the renunciant has previously enjoyed or endorsed. In religion, renunciation often indicates an abandonment of pursuit of material comforts, in t ...
. 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. Yazedbuzid (Yisi in Chinese) helped the Tang dynasty general
Guo Ziyi Guo Ziyi (Kuo Tzu-i; Traditional Chinese: 郭子儀, Simplified Chinese: 郭子仪, Hanyu Pinyin: Guō Zǐyí, Wade-Giles: Kuo1 Tzu3-i2) (697 – July 9, 781), posthumously Prince Zhōngwǔ of Fényáng (), was a Chinese military general and po ...
militarily crush the Sogdian-Turk led
An Lushan rebellion The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general off ...
, 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.


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 Jesuits who served in the Ming Court. The three most prominent early skeptics were the German-Dutch Presbyterian scholar Georg Horn (born 1620) (''De originibus Americanis'', 1652), the German historian Gottlieb Spitzel (1639–1691) (''De re literaria Sinensium commentarius'', 1660), and the Dominican missionary Domingo Navarrete (1618–1686) (''Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos, y religiosos de la monarchia de China'', 1676). Later, Navarrete's point of view was taken up by French
Jansenists Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by t ...
and Voltaire.Mungello, p. 170-171 By the 19th century, the debate had become less sectarian and more scholarly. Notable skeptics included
Karl Friedrich Neumann Karl Friedrich Neumann (28 December 1793 – 17 March 1870) was a German orientalist. Life Neumann was born, under the name of Bamberger, at Reichsmannsdorf, near Bamberg. He studied philosophy and philology at Heidelberg, Munich and Götting ...
,
Stanislas Julien Stanislas Aignan Julien (13 April 179714 February 1873) was a French sinologist who served as the Chair of Chinese at the Collège de France for over 40 years and was one of the most academically respected sinologists in French scholarship. Jul ...
, Edward E. Salisbury and Charles Wall. Ernest Renan initially had "grave doubts", but eventually changed his mind in the light of later scholarship, in favor of the stele's genuineness. 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).
Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French Sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and his discovery of many important Chinese texts such as the Dunhuang manuscripts. Early life and caree ...
(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). His and Havret's works are still regarded as the two "standard books" on the subject.


Modern location, and replicas

Since the late 19th century a number of European scholars opined in favor of somehow getting the stele out of China and into the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...
or some other "suitable" location (e.g.,
Frederic H. Balfour Frederic Henry Balfour (1846 – 27 May 1909) was a British expatriate editor, essayist, author, and sinologist, living in Shanghai during the Victorian era. He is most notable for his translation of the ''Tao Te Ching''. Many of these translati ...
in his letter published in '' The Times'' in early 1886). The Danish scholar and adventurer
Frits Holm Frits Vilhelm Holm (c. 1881
, ''The New York Times'', Ju ...
came to Xi'an in 1907 planning to take the monument for himself to Europe.. Holm's original report can be found in , and also in more popular form in Local authorities prevented him and moved the stele, complete with its tortoise, from its location near Chongren Temple to Xi'an's
Beilin Museum The Stele Forest or Beilin Museum is a museum for steles and stone sculptures in Beilin District in Xi'an, Northwest China. The museum, which is housed in a former Confucian Temple, has housed a growing collection of Steles since 1087. By 19 ...
(Forest of Steles Museum). 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 Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum's director
Caspar Purdon Clarke Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke (21 December 1846 – 29 March 1911) was an English architect and museum director. Early years Born in 1846, Clarke was the second son of Edward Marmaduke Clarke and Mary Agnes Close. He was educated at Gaultier's Sch ...
, however, was less than enthusiastic about purchasing "so large a stone ... of no artistic value". Nonetheless, the replica stele was exhibited in the museum ("on loan" from Mr. Holm) for about 10 years. Eventually, in 1917 some Mr. George Leary, a wealthy New Yorker, 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 (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 The list of Chinese cultural relics forbidden to be exhibited abroad (Chinese: 禁止出境展览文物; pinyin: Jìnzhǐ Chūjìng Zhǎnlǎn Wénwù) comprises a list of antiquities and Artifact (archaeology), archaeological artifacts held by vari ...
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 The Daqin Pagoda () is a Buddhist pagoda in Zhouzhi County of Xi'an (formerly Chang'an), Shaanxi Province, China, located about two kilometres to the west of Louguantai temple. The pagoda has been claimed as a Church of the East from the Tang Dynas ...
, on Mount Kōya in Japan, and, in
Tianhe Church Christian Church of Guangzhou Tianhe (), also known as Tianhe Church (), is a Christian TSPM Church in Guangzhou, China. It is located at No. 16-20 Daguan Middle Road, Tianhe District, and hence its name. It is considered the largest church in G ...
, Guangzhou.


Other early Christian monuments in China

Numerous Christian gravestones have also been found in China in the Xinjiang region, Quanzhou and elsewhere from a somewhat later period. There are also two much later stelae (from 960 and 1365) presenting a curious mix of Christian and Buddhist aspects, which are preserved at the site of the former Monastery of the cross in the
Fangshan District Fangshan District () is situated in the southwest of Beijing, away from downtown Beijing. It has an area of and a population of 814,367 (2000 Census). The district is divided into 8 subdistricts, 14 towns, and 6 townships. The district administ ...
, near
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 2 ...
. In 2006, a mortuary stone pillar with Church of the East inscriptions was discovered in Luoyang, the
Nestorian pillar of Luoyang The Nestorian pillar of Luoyang is a Tang Chinese pillar erected in 814–815 CE, which contains inscriptions related to early Christianity in China, particularly the Church of the East. It is a Nestorian pillar, discovered in 2006 in Luoyang, w ...
. Erected and engraved in 815, the inscriptions give partial details surrounding the background of a Sogdian Christian community living in Luoyang.


In popular culture

* In the 20th episode of ''
The Longest Day in Chang'an ''The Longest Day in Chang'an'' () is a 2019 Chinese historical suspense drama directed by Cao Dun and written by Paw Studio. The series stars Lei Jiayin and Jackson Yee. It is based on the novel of the same name by Ma Boyong. ''The Longest Day i ...
'', the Monk Jingde () 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 The Church of the East (also known as the Nestorian Church) historically had a presence in China during two periods: first from the 7th through the 10th century in the Tang dynasty, when it was known as ''Jingjiao'' ( zh, t=景教, w=Ching3-chiao4 ...
*
Jingjiao Documents The Jingjiao Documents (; also known as the Nestorian Documents or the Jesus Sutras) are a collection of Chinese language texts connected with the 7th-century mission of Alopen, a Church of the East bishop from Sassanian Mesopotamia, and the 8th-ce ...
* Adam (Jingjing) *
Nestorian pillar of Luoyang The Nestorian pillar of Luoyang is a Tang Chinese pillar erected in 814–815 CE, which contains inscriptions related to early Christianity in China, particularly the Church of the East. It is a Nestorian pillar, discovered in 2006 in Luoyang, w ...
*
Painting of a Christian figure The ''Painting of a Christian figure'', also known as ''Fragment of a Christian figure'', is a late 9th-century Tang dynasty fragmentary silk painting of a haloed man with crosses on his head and chest who has been interpreted as a Christian fig ...
*
Murals from the Christian temple at Qocho The murals from the Christian temple at Qocho (german: Wandbilder aus einem christlichen Tempel, Chotscho) are three Church of the East mural fragments—''Palm Sunday'', ''Repentance'' and ''Entry into Jerusalem''—discovered by the German Tur ...
* Central Asian objects of Northern Wei tombs


References


Further reading

* Henri Havret 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 foun
on archive.org
* * . Originally published by: Hutchinson & Co, London, 1924. *


External links



* ttp://itsee.bham.ac.uk/online/stele/index.htm Large photograph of a rubbing of the stele from University of Birmingham (scroll to bottom of page)br>"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).

Japanese text. * SIR E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, KT.,

(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
{{coord missing, China 8th-century inscriptions Monuments and memorials in China Church of the East in China Chinese steles Xi'an 8th-century Christian texts Nestorian texts