The Xi'an Stele or the Stele ( zh, c=景教碑, p= Jǐngjiào bēi), sometimes translated as the "Nestorian Stele," is a
Tang Chinese stele
A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...
erected in 781 that documents 150 years of early
Christianity in China
Christianity has been present in China since the early medieval period, and became a significant presence in the country during the early modern era. The Church of the East appeared in China in the 7th century, during the Tang dynasty. Catholic C ...
.
It is a
limestone block
Limestone is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Limestone forms when these ...
high with text in both
Chinese and
Syriac 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 ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...
had met recognition by the Tang
Emperor Taizong, due to efforts of the Christian missionary
Alopen in 635.
According to the stele, Alopen and his fellow
Syriac missionaries came to China from
Daqin (the
Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
) in the ninth year of
Emperor Taizong (Tai Tsung) (635), bringing sacred books and images. The Church of the East monk
Adam
Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam).
According to Christianity, Adam ...
( in Chinese) composed the text on the stele. Buried in 845, probably during the
Huichang persecution of Buddhism, 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 1 ...
in
Xi'an
Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...
.
Discovery
The stele is thought to have been buried in 845, during the Huichang persecution, which also affected Christians.
The stele was unearthed in the late
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
(between 1623 and 1625) beside Chongren Temple () outside of
Xi'an
Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...
.
According to the account by the
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
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 (; ; 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. In 2022, the Apostolic See decl ...
, 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
Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...
, 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 Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
s in China, called
Nestorianism
Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinary, doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian t ...
a
heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy.
Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...
, 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 ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...
and not the Roman Catholic Church.
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 Society of Jesus, Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works of comparative religion, geology, and medicine. Kircher has been compared to fellow Jes ...
. ''China Illustrata'' edited by Kircher (1667) included a reproduction of the original inscription in Chinese characters,
romanization
In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...
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 (; ; 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. In 2022, the Apostolic See decl ...
's collaborator
Lazzaro Cattaneo (1560–1640).
The work of the transcription and translation was carried out by
Michał Boym
Michał Piotr Boym, SJ ( zh, c=卜彌格, p=
Bǔ Mígé;Transliterated also (using Wade-Giles) as ''Pu Che-yuen Mi-ko'' c. 1612 – 1659) was a Polish Jesuits, Jesuit missionary to China, scientist and explorer. He was an early Western traveller w ...
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 or Grüber (28 October 1623 30 September 1680) was an Austrian Jesuit missionary who served as an explorer of China and Tibet. He worked as an imperial astronomer in China.
Life
Grueber was born in Linz on 28 October 1623. He jo ...
.
[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, (, "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 being the Chinese language term for the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
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 February 4, 781 ("
Jianzhong 2, Taic
month, 7th day" in the inscription), at the imperial capital city of
Chang'an
Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...
(modern-day
Xi'an
Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...
), or at nearby
Zhouzhi County. The
calligraphy
Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...
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 Temple"). A gloss in Syriac identifies Jingjing with "Adam, priest, chorepiscopus and ''papash'' of 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 (714–28). A Syriac dating formula refers to the
Church of the East patriarch II (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 (780–823), who had been consecrated in
Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
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 , '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). Referring to
God
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
using the title , Pinyin: (literally "Veritable Majesty" or "True Lord"), the text refers to
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...
, the
cross
A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...
, and
baptism
Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...
. 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
The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...
and the
Incarnation
Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It is the Conception (biology), conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic form of a god. It is used t ...
, 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, particularly something that the renunciant has previously enjoyed or endorsed.
In religion, renunciation often indicates an abandonment of pursuit of material comforts, in the inte ...
.
[ 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
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
origin such as ''Sphatica'' and ''Dasa
DASA (officially Deutsche AeroSpace AG, later Daimler-Benz AeroSpace AG, then DaimlerChrysler AeroSpace AG) was a German aerospace manufacturer.
It was created during 1989 as the aerospace subsidiary arm of Daimler-Benz, Daimler-Benz AG (later D ...
''. There is also a Persian word denoting Sunday
Sunday (Latin: ''dies solis'' meaning "day of the sun") is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. Sunday is a Christian sabbath, day of rest in most Western countries and a part of the Workweek and weekend, weekend. In some Middle Ea ...
.
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 p ...
militarily crush the Sogdian-Turk led An Lushan rebellion
The An Lushan rebellion was a civil war in China that lasted from 755 to 763, at the approximate midpoint of the Tang dynasty (618–907). It began as a commandery rebellion attempting to overthrow and replace the Tang government with the rogue ...
, 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
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
who served in the Ming Court. The three most prominent early skeptics were the German-Dutch Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
scholar Georg Horn (1620–1670) (''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 and Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...
.[Mungello, p. 170-171]
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.[ ]Ernest Renan
Joseph Ernest Renan (; ; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, writing on Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote wo ...
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
James Legge (; 20 December 181529 November 1897) was a Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator
who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English. Legge served as a representative of the Lond ...
, 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 the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire-era manuscripts and ...
(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 Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
or some other "suitable" location (e.g., Frederic H. Balfour in his letter published in ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' in early 1886). The Danish scholar and adventurer Frits Holm came to Xi'an
Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...
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
Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...
, from its location near Chongren Temple to Xi'an's Beilin Museum (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 Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
. The museum's director Caspar Purdon Clarke, 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 Mrs. George Leary, a wealthy New Yorker, purchased the replica stele from Holm and sent it to ]Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, as a gift to the Pope. Another full-sized replica cast from that replica, gifted by Mrs. George Leary in 1919, is on permanent display in the Bunn Intercultural Center on the campus of Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
(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, on Mount Kōya
is a large temple settlement in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan to the south of Osaka. In the strictest sense, ''Mount Kōya'' is the mountain name ( sangō) of Kongōbu-ji Temple, the ecclesiastical headquarters of the Kōyasan sect of Shingon Bu ...
in Japan, and, in Tianhe Church, Guangzhou
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
.
Other early Christian monuments in China
Numerous Christian gravestones have also been found in China in the Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
region, Quanzhou
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...
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 a district of the city of Beijing. It is situated in the southwest of Beijing, away from downtown Beijing. It has an area of and a population of 1,312,778 (2020 Census). The district is divided into 8 subdistricts, 14 tow ...
, near Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
.
In 2006, a mortuary stone pillar with Church of the East inscriptions was discovered in Luoyang
Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...
, the Nestorian pillar of Luoyang. Erected and engraved in 815, the inscriptions give partial details surrounding the background of a Sogdia
Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemen ...
n Christian community living in Luoyang.
In popular culture
* In the 20th episode of '' The Longest Day in Chang'an'', the Monk Jingde () hands a missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...
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) was a Christian organization with 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� ...
* 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
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.
*
* . Published by Éditions du Cerf, Paris, includes a critical edition of the Chinese and Syriac text, introduced and annotated, together with a French translation.
External links
* ttp://epapers.bham.ac.uk/755/1/stele.jpg Large photograph of a rubbing of the stele from University of Birminghambr>"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, display=title
8th-century inscriptions
Monuments and memorials in Xi'an
Church of the East in Shaanxi
Chinese steles
8th-century Christian texts
Multilingual texts
Nestorian texts
Religion in the Tang dynasty
Chinese cultural relics forbidden to be exhibited abroad