Assyrian Christian Missions in China
635 - 1550 AD

In the time of the Emperor Taitsung, in the year AD 635 an Assyrian man named Olopun arrived at Chang-an (Hsian-Fu), China and was received by the prime minister, Duke Fan Hiuen-ling. Olopun translated the holy book into Chinese, and in July 638 AD the emperor issued a proclamation ordering the publication and dissemination of this Chinese translation of the Holy Bible. The emperor also ordered the building of an Assyrian church in the capital of the I-ning May; this church was to be governed by 21 priests.

The next emperor, Kausung honored emperor Taitsung' proclamation. During his time churches were being built in every province in China, he also appointed Olopun as the great conservator of doctrine for the preservation of the state.

On January 7, 781 AD, the year of Kienchung of the Tang dynasty, the Assyrian christian (Nestorian) Monument was erected to commemorate the diffusion of christianity in China. The monument bore Syro-Chinese inscriptions composed by an Assyrian priest from Persia (Iran) named Adam, also known As Ching-tsing in Chinese, he was a monk of the Ta-ts'in monastery.

The Assyrian monk, Adam(Ching-tsing) is mentioned in a contemporary buddist work entitled Cheng-Yuan Hsin-ting shih-chiao-mo-lu, meaning, "The New Catalogue of the teaching of Sakya" in The period of cheng-yuan (AD 785-804).

Professor Saeki mentions that Japanese buddism borrowed the wedding religious ceremony from the Assyrians as well as the feast of departed souls, "Yu Lan P'en".

In AD 845 persecution of the Assyrian and Chinese Christians of the Assyrian Church of the East began by the emperor Wu-tsung. These persecutions lead to the burying of the Assyrian monument to save it from destruction. The monument remained burried untill February 1625 when some workmen digging a foundation at a place not far from His-an-fu came across a large stele burried underground.

A pagan friend of a Christian mandarin happen to witness the discovery of the monument. This pagan man sent a copy of the monument to his mandarin Christian friend, Leo, who lived in Han chow. It is believed that this Leo was none other than the celebrated Catholic letteratus, Li Chih-tsao (1570- 1670). Through him the news of the discovery of the Assyrian monument reached the Jesuits at Peking and elsewhere. Nicholas Trigault, a french Jesuit father visited the monument in October 1625 and soon after, the discovery was announced throughout China and Europe.

The name of the city "Hsi-an-fu" has been spelled and pronounced in so many different ways, here is a list of some of the other spellings and pronounciations:      Hsi-an, Si-an, Si-gan, Sengan, Si-ngan, Hsingan, Ching-chao yin, Yung-chou (Chung-chao), Shang-tu (Ching-chao-fu).

Hsi-an-fu is located at 109 30' longtiude and 34 17' North latitude. The eastern part of Hsi-an-fu, known as Hsien-ning there is a place known as "Pei-lin", meaning "Forest of Tablest", this is where the Chinese kept the precious stone monuments of the city. The Assyrian Monument was kept here since October 2, 1907, well protected from wind and rain. Just before it was moved to "Pei-lin", there was an attempt by some foreigner to buy the Assyrian Monument for 3,000 teals in order that he might sell it to the British Museum. This event startled the Governor of the Province of Shensi, that he ordered the moving of the Assyrian Monument to the forest of tablets, and it was ordered that no one without prermission from the proper government authorities was allowed to come near the monument. Later that year the Han-Kow Daily News had published an article regarding the attempt by one Danish journalist named Mr. Fritz Von Holm who after failing to purchase the original Assyrian monument had tried to get a replica and still failed.

Mr. Fritz Von Holm writes the following: I did everything in my power to obtain the original by applying to the local authorities in an indirect manner; but although the Chinese do not care more today for the stone than for any ordinary brick, they at once got suspicious; and I might as well have endeavoured to lift the Rosetta Stone out of the British Museum, or take the Moabite Stone from the Louvre, as to carry away the Ching-chiao-pei from Hsi-an!".

"This replica is one of the most beautiful pieces of Chinese workmanship I have ever seen. In the first place, there is not a measure, not a character, not a detail that differs from the original tablet, even the weight is the same. In the second place, this piece of art was executed by four native stone-cutters in eleven days, including polishing after the huge slabs had been brought from the Fu-P'ing quarries to Hsi-an. In the third place, the Chinese artisans have been able to accomplish the miracle of carving the Cross and chiselling the Syriac characters, which they did not of course know, to absolute perfection".

On the 16th of June, 1908, in accordance with the arrangement with Sir Purdon Clarke, Director, the replica was deposited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as a loan.

The second replica, made by Mr. Fritz Von Holm, was set up at the top of Mt. Koya, Japan on September 21, 1911 and was dedicated with full Buddhist ceremonial on Sunday, October 3, 1911. Annually, over one half of a million pilgrims of all ages and classes and from all parts of Japan climb the Holy Mountain to visit the tomb of Kobo Daishi in the Okuno-in, so that the Assyrian Monument is sure to speak aloud and strongly in God's due time!.

The Monument is ten feet high by 3,1/3 feet wide and just under one foot thick and it weighs two tons. It is made of a black, sub-granular oolitic limestone. The figure-head decoration of the tablet consists of an immense pearl between two creatures called "Kumbhira", described by Dr. Eitel as a monster with the body of a fish, but shaped like a snake and carrying pearls in its tail; others have described it as a four-footed crocodile over 20 feet long.

The pearl is called "hoshu" or "tama" in Japanese, and in Sanscrit chindamani; it is believed that the pearl symbol has a regular Assyrian (Nestorian) significance. Arthur John Maclean wrote in the "East Syrian Daily Offices:    "O illustrious martyr, Mar Sergius! A pearl wihtout flaw. A light hath shone in thy soul: thou hast bought it with they blood, and become rich thereby".

The "Kumbhira" design at the head of the stone is thoroughly Buddhistic. It is a Hindoo idea which the Assyrian Missionaries adopted; this "Kumhira" design was quite common at the time as seen in other monuments in Seoul in Korea.

In the center of the figured-head, right under the Pearl is the apex of a triangle, which forms a canopy over nine clearly carved large Chinese characters arranged vertically in three lines which form the "Titular Heading" of the stone. The literal translation of these 9 Chinese characters is "The Monument Commemorating the Propagation of the Ta-Ch'in Luminous Religion in the Middle Kingdom.".

The Cross on the stone is not very clear and must be searched for to be seen. It is said that the form of the cross is a copy from the memory of the Roman Papal Cross of the sixth century; but it somehow resembles that on St. Thomas' tomb in Meliapo, south India. Beneath the Cross, there is the cloud, a characterstic symbol of Taoists as well as Muslims in China and beneath this cloud there lies a Lotus-flower which is a characteristic emblem of the Buddhists.

Below this comes an inscription consisting of one thousand nine hundred Chinese characters and about fifty Syriac words, besides some seventy Sryiac names in rows on the narrow sides of the stone with the corresponding Chinese characters denoting the Chinese synonyms or phonetics for the Syriac names.

There were three or four theories as to where this monument was discovered. Martini's theory insisted that the stone was first dug out at an old town called "San-Yuan" located 35 miles North of "Hsi-an-fu". Secondly, Lin Lai-Chai asserted that the monument was found in the suburb of "Hsi-an-fu". Thirdly, Pere Havret, in his book "La Stele Chrestienne d-Si-ngan-fou" concluded, the monument was discovered at or near "Chou-Chihi" which is 30 miles from "Hsi-an-fu". He supports his theory with quotes from some rare books on the monument as well as documents preserved at Rome by authors such as Kircher, Trigault, Bartoli, Thomas Ignace Dunyn-Szpot and Antoine de Gouvea. The fourth theory, that of Emanuel Diaz and Alvarez Semedo insist on the stone being found in the neighbourhood of "Hsi-an-fu". This theory is strongly supported by the writings of two of the most famous Chinese Christians of the time, Dr. Leon Li and Dr. Paul Hsu.

When the famous missionary Alvarez Semedo visited the Assyrian monument in "Hsi-an-fu" in 1628 AD, he could not decipher the curious foreign writing so he went to "Cochin-China" to consult Pere Antony Fernandez, knowing that he was well versed in reading the books of the Christians of St. Thomas (Assyrians). Fernandez assured Semedo that the writing was in the Syriac font of Estrangelo.

The Syriac text was translated into Latin by Nicholas Trigault, a member of the Society for Jesus. In 1628 A.D. an annonymous translation from Latin to French appeared and in 1631 A.D. a complete Italian translation was made from Protuguese, probably by Alvarea Semedo.

Translations into English were made much later by the historian Edward Gibbon and during the 19th century other translations were made such scholars as Dr. Bridgman in 1845, Alexander Wylie in 1854 and Dr. Legge in 1888.

The Syriac inscription indicates the time when the monument was first erected to be "in the days of the father of fathers, my lord Hanan-Ishu, Catholicos, Patriarch", "In the year one thousand and ninety-two of the Greeks", calculating to 781 A.D. Some argue that according to the great Assyrian Orientalist, J.S. Assemani that Patriarch Hanan-Ishu died in 778 A.D. However it is also accepted that in those days, news from Baghdad, where the official seat of the Assyrian Church of The East, to China would take a few years to travel.

In a book entitled "Spring and Autumn", compiled by Confucius in 481 B.C., it mentions of "the arrival of the white foreigners"; an indication that people from the Roman Empire, Persia or Assyria were already in China duirng this time.

In 845 A.D., an imperial edict ordered the destruction of the Buddist temples and monesteries and that foreign missionaries to return to secular life and cease their religious work. Assyrian Missions received a great blow from their imperial edict. Native-born Christians of the Assyrian Church in China, were integrated with the mass of the Chinese population and disolved. However they did not totally disappear, but remnanets of the Assyrian Christians were discovered in China. It is believed these Assyrians, later by the 14th century were absorbed with Chinese Muslims. As for those Assyrian Missionaries who survived Emperor Wu-Tsung's persecutions of 845 A.D., some remained in China, but most of them returned to western Turkey.

The Chinese Christians who did not join the Muslim body may be found among the "Secret Societies," of which about ten are known. (1) Fa-luChiao; (2) T'ai-yang Chiao; (3) Pai- yun Chiao; (4) Chao-kuan Chiao; (5) Wu-wie Chiao; (6) Chin-tan Chiao; (7) Pai-lien Chiao; (8) Pa-kua Chiao; (9) Tzumu-Chiao; (10) Shen-hsien Chiao.

Sources: