Xi'an Stele (Jingjiao / 'Nestorian' Stele)

Assembled from 29 blocks · 1 evidence · 38 related

1. Story
2. A limestone stele about 2.79 m high, erected on 4 February 781 CE at or near the Tang capital Chang'an, carrying text in Chinese and Syriac that records roughly 150 years of the Church of the East in China, beginning with the missionary Alopen's reception by Emperor Taizong in 635. The church described itself as 'the Luminous Religion of Daqin'. The stele is the single most important epigraphic object for this Journey: it is physical, dated and bilingual, and its Chinese text renders Christian doctrine in vocabulary drawn from Daoist and Buddhist usage — syncretism visible in the wording itself. Now held in the Beilin (Stele Forest) Museum, Xi'an.
3. Knowledge
4. Church of the East (Nestorian Christianity)
5. Religious syncretism at contact points
6. Xi'an Stele (Jingjiao / 'Nestorian' Stele)
7. Connections
8. Church of the East (Nestorian Christianity)
9. Religious syncretism at contact points
10. Alopen received at the Tang court
11. The Xi'an stele is erected
12. Chang'an
13. Christianity
14. Limits of religious diffusion
15. Silk Road religious corridor
16. Alopen reaches Chang'an
17. The Nestorian Stele is erected at Chang'an
18. Xi'an Stele (Jingjiao / 'Nestorian' Stele)
19. Alopen received at the Tang court
20. The Xi'an stele is erected
21. Mogao Caves
22. Borobudur
23. Gandhara
24. Xi'an Stele (Jingjiao / 'Nestorian' Stele)
25. Anthropomorphic Buddha images appear in Gandhara and Mathura
26. The Xi'an stele is erected
27. Construction of Borobudur under Shailendra patronage
28. Evidence
29. A limestone stele 279 cm high, bilingual in Chinese and Syriac, records roughly 150 years of the Church of the East in China, names the missionary Alopen as received by Emperor Taizong in 635, and calls the church 'the Luminous Religion of Daqin'; its Chinese text uses Daoist and Buddhist vocabulary.