Christianity in Tang China, also known as “Luminous Religion”, “Nestorian Christianity”, “Jingjiao 景教”
Creators: name: Xie, Dingjian
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2021

description: Christians in Tang China gave a Chinese name for Christianity: Jingjiao 景教, a term translated as "the Luminous Religion/Teaching" or "the Illustrious Religion" or "the Brilliant Teaching". Not a few scholars regard it as a "Nestorian" Church, a derogatory term used to call the Church of the East or East Syriac Christianity in the Western ecclesiastical traditions (Latin West and Greek East). The degree to which the Church of the East has to do with the Archbishop of Constantinople, Nestorius, who was condemned as a heresiarch during the Council of Ephesus (431), is a point that has been re-examined by a few patristic scholars. With the help of newly-discovered materials in Syriac, scholars such as James F. Bethune-Baker, Robert V. Sellers, Aloys Grillmeier, and Sebastian P. Brock began to question this ingrained preconception from the Western perspective. Scholars like Brock emphasize that the Syriac tradition, of which the Church of the East is a part, has a much earlier history than the so-called Nestorianism. The story of Christianity in Tang China begins in 635 with the coming of Aluoben 阿羅本, a Persian波斯/Daqin大秦 monk who introduced his religion in front of the second emperor of the dynasty and paved the way for the spread of Christianity in the confines of the Tang empire. This story is recorded on the famous Christian stele discovered at Xi'an in 1623/5. The text of the inscription was composed by Jingjing 景淨, who was a priest and chorespiscopus of China. The stone was set in place in 781 probably in or near the Jingjiao temple in the imperial capital Chang'an (today's Xi'an). It proffers a brief history of Jingjiao in 146 years, which arguably echoes the rise and decline of the Tang empire. The presence of Jingjiao in the Tang period was also evidenced by Chinese official records, such as Tang Huiyao 唐會要 (Institutional History of Tang), and other Chinese documents by Buddhists or Daoists. The history of Jingjiao came to an end with the issue of the edict of 845, which initiated the persecution of Buddhism as well as other foreign religions including Daqin Jingjiao. However, historical documents of the 9th and 10th centuries mentioned that a few Jingjiao Christians still survived in China after 845. In the 20th and 21st centuries, more documents and archaeological discoveries (like tomb epitaphs) have been found, especially at Dunhuang's Hidden Library. These documents not only confirm the authenticity of the stele but also enrich our knowledge of Jingjiao. The understanding of Jingjiao and the community of Jingjiao Christians, as shown in this entry, is built on the Xi'an inscription and these manuscripts, despite being fragmentary. These Jingjiao documents include Xuting Mishisuo jing 序聽迷詩所經 (“Book of Jesus-Messiah” or “Book of listening to the Messiah”), Yishen lun 一神論 (“Discourse on the One God”), Da Qin Jingjiao Sanwei mengdu zan 大秦景教三威蒙度讚 (“Hymn in adoration of the Three Persons and of salvation”), Zunjing 尊經 (“Book of Veneration”), Zhixuan anle jing 志玄 安樂經 (“Book on attaining mysterious serenity and joy”), Da Qin Jingjiao Xuanyuan zhiben jing 大秦景教宣元 至本經 (“Book of the proclamation of the highest origin of origins”), as well as Da Qin Jingjiao Dasheng tongzhen guifa zan 大秦景教大聖通真歸法讚 (“Hymn of praise for Great Holiness, attaining the truth, and returning to the dharma"). In front of the stele and other Jingjiao documents, there was a community of Jingjiao Christians, who were mostly migrants of Iranian origin and spoke Persian or Sogdian. The bilingual (Chinese-Syriac) stele itself tells of their hybrid identity. On the one hand, Jingjiao was linked with the Church of the East in the Middle East. Syriac played a significant role in the theology and liturgy of Jingjiao. The hierarchy of the Church of the East is indicated on the Xi'an stele: both Chinese and Syriac names of the Catholicos Henanisho were engraved on the stele. On the other hand, the text engaged with the historical and religious contexts of Tang China by employing a few terminologies of the pre-existing Three Religions/Teachings (sanjiao, 三教), such as Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. This was the first attempt at transmitting the Christian ideas, such as Christology and the Trinity, in the Chinese language, more specifically in Middle Chinese. In the Jingjiao corpus, introducing the idea of the Only God, who Jesus Christ is, what the Messiah teaches were some major tasks of Jingjiao Christians.