Nestorian Christians Research Articles

몽골 카라코룸의 네스토리우스파 기독교유적 연구

This paper examines the possibility that a complex architectural site, excavated by the Mongol-German joint research team from 2006 to 2009, located in the northern outskirts of Karakorum, may have been a Nestorian Christian church. The rectangular complex, surrounded by earthen-walls, can be divided into two phases based on the building's layout and overlapping architectural features. The initial structure within the complex had a unique configuration, with a large room at the front directly connected to a smaller room at the back, situated centrally within the walled area. Unlike traditional Mongolian architecture, which typically faces south, this building faced east, and it is notable for having an altar in the smaller rear room. Artifacts found at the site include fragments of a cross, characteristic of Nestorian Christianity, and bronze artifacts resembling candlesticks popular in medieval Europe. These findings strongly suggest that the site was a Nestorian Christian church during the Mongol Empire. The site's location in the northern outskirts of Karakorum aligns with the description of a Nestorian Christian church in William of Rubruck’s book. Additionally, the basic rectangular layout with a niche(apse) at the end containing an altar, as found in Central Asian Nestorian churches, further supports this identification. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the church was constructed in the early 13th century. The excavation revealed that the church was destroyed by fire. However, after the church's destruction, three tiled buildings with a different layout were immediately erected on the site. The structure and artifacts suggest that these buildings were likely a Buddhist temple. Additionally, a significant number of cattle horns were found inside the side buildings, suggesting that specific ritual activities took place at this location.

The Indigenization Strategies of Catholic Painting in Early 20th Century China

The spread of Christianity to China initiated a process of indigenization, particularly evident in Christian art. This study explores the indigenization of early 20th-century Chinese Christian paintings through literature reviews, case studies, and comparative research. The analysis covers four forms of primary research. First, it explores the indigenization of Christian concepts, tracing their development from the introduction of Nestorian Christianity in the Tang dynasty through the establishment of Fu Jen Catholic University in the Republican era. Matteo Ricci’s implementation of the “Ricci Rule” during the late Ming dynasty, subsequently expanded by Celso Costantini, played a crucial role in the indigenous adaptation of Christian painting in China. The second facet focuses on the Beijing Catholic School of Painting, led by Chen Yuandu, a group that innovated Chinese Christian art by integrating local artistic expressions with traditional depictions of saints, assimilating symbols from Chinese literati painting, and preserving time-honored Chinese painting techniques. The third facet examines the strategy behind Christian painting methods. Fourth, this study discusses how the Fu Jen School faced varied reception and evaluations from domestic and international audiences under the complex social currents of the Republic of China and how the artists reflected the national spirit and artistic responsibility in their narrative paintings. Fundamentally, the practice of Christian painting at the early 20th-century Catholic School is not only an innovative artistic endeavor but also a significant case of cultural exchange between East and West and religious localization.

Тюркское несторианство в Казахстане и на сопредельных территориях

This article is dedicated to the question of spread of Nestorian Christianity among medieval Turks in Central Asia. Nestorian Christianity in certain period was the most spread and influential branch of Christianity in Central Asia and neighboring territories. In some regions Nestorianism received significant development, the evidence of which are archeological materials and written sources. Nestorian Christianity is associated with the teachings of the Byzantine archbishop Nestorius, a native of Syria, who became head of the Diocese of Constantinople in 428. The Diophysite teaching of Nestorius, based on the idea of the dual nature of Jesus as divine and human. This article aims to review the available sources on Turkic Nestorianism, in an attempt to classify them and analyze the materials. Sources on the history of Turkic Nestorianism in Kazakhstan and neighboring territories can be divided by origin into Syrian, Persian, Arabic, Byzantine, Chinese, native Turkic, and Syro-Turkic. Archaeological and epigraphic data play an important role. The authors analyzes the content of the Suja inscription and other texts, examines the essence of Nestorian ideas, and reveals the history of the emergence and spread of Turkic Nestorianism.

Christian temples of the Nakh peoples as manifestation of religious contaminations

The article reveals that the general principle of localization of temples and sacred complexes on the territory of the Nakhs’ residence corresponded to the radial-route model of space development: the most revered temple was necessarily located in the center of the ethnic community, temples and cult complexes existed in every patronymic community and patronymic family. Ensembleness is one of the leading characteristics of the temple architecture of this period. The hierarchical principle has received the greatest development. It is revealed that the identity of the variants of “folk” church building is determined to a greater extent by the nature of the introduction of traditional culture features into it, however, in this case, its formation was largely influenced by the Christian cultures of various directions existing in the specified territory (Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Nestorianism), as well as Islam. The significant influence of Nestorian Christian culture on the process of formation of the features of the church building of the Sunny Valley strip of Nestorian Christian culture is indicated.

Glazed Ceramics from Qaraqorum: Archaeological Evidence on Routes to the Old-Mongolian Capital

The Old-Mongolian capital Qaraqorum is described in historical sources as a vivid, international, and multicultural city with constant exchange and contacts across cultures. This is particularly so in a description that the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck made while visiting Qaraqorum in the year 1254. Rubruck noted that Muslim traders, Chinese craftsmen, Buddhists, Nestorian Christians as well as several European captives all lived and worked in Qaraqorum. Despite this, the city is seldom included on maps depicting Eurasian and Inner Asian travel and trade networks of the 13th–14th century. Such networks have left archaeological traces at various city sites, through the presence of imported ceramics, food, and other goods. This article will focus on the glazed ceramics excavated in Qaraqorum. The author classified the material and determined the production sites of the different wares. A chorological study based on this data expands our knowledge of connections to Qaraqorum in the medieval Asian trade network. The results are presented in this article. As every aspect of archaeological research reflects parts of the overall picture only, this study is meant to enable further research on the subject. This article is dedicated to the symposium “800 years Qaraqorum” and thus included in a broader research framework on the fascinating Old Mongolian capital.

시리아 문헌인 『랍반 사우마(Rabban Sauma)와 마르 야흐발라하 3세(Mar Yahballaha III)의 역사』에 나타난 13세기 아시아 기독교 - 몽골을 중심으로 -

This aims to investigate Christians presented in the 13th century Syriac document, The History of Rabban Sauma and Yahballaha III, which is about travel of Rabban Sauma and his disciple Markos (later Yahballaha III) from China to Mesopotamia and Western Europe. In other words, its purpose is to explore Nestorians or Nestorian Christians that the 13th-14th century Francis missionaries and Marco Polo met in Khanbaliq and China. In this study, it 1) is explored how Christians in the East were called and named in the Syriac source, and then 2) analyze their origin of faith and Christology revealed through the mouth of Rabban Sauma. As a result, this argues that Mongol Christians including the two protagonists in the Mongol Empire understood themselves as a member of the Church of the East who had inherited the tradition of apostles.

Uygurca töŋürge, Moğolca döŋge, Anadolu Ağızları töŋge Hakkında

Old Uyghur inscriptions and Central Asian Buddhist Culture were the mother lodes of the Old Uyghur language. Of course, these were not the limits. In terms of vocabulary, there was a wide cultural circle ranging from Manichaean-Sogdian to Nestorian Christianity. Although Uighur (~ Common Turkic) forms its basic vocabulary, it also included Sanskrit, Chinese, and words from other neighboring languages which loaned them from Tocharian. There was a rich vocabulary of an estimated 20 000 words (apart from Ottoman and Chagatai) including loanwords. Therefore, it was one of the three richest languages of the historical Turkic languages in terms of vocabulary. We can state the life range of Old Uighur, which was around for 400 years, between the 10th and 14th centuries. However, in the last period beginning from the mid-13th century, the influence of Mongolian can be seen primarily in the administrative language. In the same period, Tibetan words also entered the language due to the translation of Tibetan Buddhism works. With the adoption of Islam, Sogdian-based script was no longer used and the Arabic-based alphabet having Persian additions was adopted. However, the Uighurs' old alphabet of Sogdian origin is still being used among the Mongols as of today. The Mongols, who started using the Uighur letters and were influenced by Uighur Buddhism, also borrowed many of their words; through Mongolian they ensured the survival of some words that are forgotten among Uyghurs and other Turkic tribes today. On the other hand, as the Mongols dominated Anatolia for some period, many Mongolian words and to some extent Turkic words entered Anatolian Turkish by reborrowing (Ruckentlehnung). Here, in this article, I will mention the Uyghur toŋurge and its forms in Mongolian and Turkish, which I think is one of such words.

Несторианство: путь «светлого учения» через четыре империи

This article presents an analysis of the historical role of Nestorian Christianity in China. Also, it considers new archaeological and epigraphic materials from the Nestorian burial grounds of the Yuan dynasty (the territory of the modern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region). Despite some interest in spreading the teachings of the “Syrian Church” in Central and East Asia (the most famous example is the famous book “In Search of a Fictional Kingdom” by L. N. Gumilev) Russian science lacks publications related to the tangible Nestorians heritage located in the territory of modern China during its heyday (the Tang and Yuan dynasties). This paper is partially dedicated to partially filling this gap introducing brief data on the Wangmulian, Aolunsumu and Muhuerso-Buerga burial grounds. In addition, the authors paid attention to the interesting set of terms that the Chinese used in relation to the new religion.

False Hope and Empty Promises from a Priest-King in the East: How Environment and Communication Shape Belief

As the 12th century entered its midpoint, unease permeated through Christendom. In 1144, the County of Edessa had fallen to Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo, signalling that all was not well in the Holy Land. News of the fall of Edessa quickly travelled westward, with the Catholic Pope, Eugenius III, issuing a papal bull calling for a Second Crusade in December of the next yea r. Nevertheless, for the Edessa’s fellow Crusader states, the restlessness of being surrounded by the Islamic had turned to alarm. Help was gravely needed. Then came word of aid from an unlikely place: the East itself. Rumours had swirled of a Christian monarch in the East, but actual proof of his existence was scant, based mainly on fantastical tales of the Orient. That changed in December of 1145, with a conversation between Bishops Otto of Freising and Hugh of Jabala. Hugh told Otto of a Nestorian Christian priest-king “beyond Persia and Armenia”, who had “warred upon the so-­called Samiards, the brother kings of the Medes and Persians.” More critically, Hugh reported that this priest-king had “moved his army to aid the church of Jerusalem” but was unable to cross the Tigris and returned home. Such was the legend of Prester John, the ruler of an eastern Christian kingdom that offered hope and little else to a Christian West that would steadily lose its grip on the Holy Land. Why did Prester John never come to the aid of the Crusader states? The story o f this priest- king, his supposed interactions with western Christendom and ultimate failure to deliver on his promises, reveals how the environmen t we inhabit and the methods we use to communicate shape our beliefs and values, and that as our environments and communication methods change, so do these beliefs and values.

The First Contact between the West and China: Sinology´s Origin

In this study the first contact between Western and Asia culture, specifically with China, is reviewed. It begins with a reference to the Roman Empire mentioning the most relevant reference works for a more in-depth study. Next, it focuses on the diaspora of Nestorian Christianity towards the East and specifically its location in Chinese territory, considering also the main reference works and following a historical and lineal story.Then, the trips of Benjamín de Tudela, althoughthey did not go beyond Mesopotamia and thePersian Gulf, served to verify the existence ofJewish communities in the Far East. In that frameof reference, the context of the Silk Road wouldexplain its dedication on the one hand and, onthe other, it delimits them curiously outside theChinese territory, delving into the hermetism ofthe Asian country. In the Middle Ages and theEuropean Renaissance, and anticipating the tripsof Spaniards and Portuguese, the figure of MarcoPolo is undoubtedly the most outstanding in thetask of spreading the knowledge about China inthe West. And in that sense also Ibn Battuta, then,is relevant. Finally, and from the stories writtenby these three travelers, multiple expeditions toMongolia and China are evinced. A selection ofthese concludes the present work.

돈황문서로 본 중고(中古)시기 돈황불교의 포용성 연구

The Dunhuang manuscripts are a cache of important religious and secular documents discovered in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, in the early 20th century. Dating from the 5th to early 11th centuries, the manuscripts include works ranging from history and mathematics to folk songs and dance. Most of the religious manuscripts are Buddhist, but other religions including Daoism, Nestorian Christianity and Manichaeism are also represented. In this paper, I have discussed about the catholicity of Dunhuang Buddhism contained in Dunhuang manuscripts from four aspects, i.e. Miao zhen zan in the Guiyijun period, school of the Dunhuang temple, Dunhuang vulgar literature texts, the religious manuscripts except Buddhism, namely Daoism, Nestorian Christianity and Manichaeism. Finally, I have discussed about the cause and background of the formation of Dunhuang Buddhism’s catholicity.

Hippocratic Medicine in China: Comparison with a 9th Century Chinese Manual on Bone Setting: 希波克拉醫學與中國 - 第九世紀的中國跌打手冊與希波克拉醫學文獻庫之比較

Chinese history annals recorded cultural interchange between China and the Roman Empire during the Han dynasty. The first medical missionaries were Nestorian Christians from the Middle East who arrived in China in ad 635. They introduced Western medical practice into China. This paper compares the first comprehensive Chinese treatise on bone and joint injuries by a hermit monk named Lin and the Hippocratic Corpus. Based on external knowledge from the author's background as well as textural comparison the text of Hippocrates, a remarkable similarity is noted. Although these similarities could have arisen by chance, it is reasonable to hypothesize that traditional bone setting in China originated from the Hippocratic tradition and was later integrated with indigenous herbal medicine.

Diet as Culture. On the Medical Context of Food Consumption in the Medieval Middle East

AbstractGreco‐Arabic medicine was based on ancient Greek foundations, or more precisely, on the Galenic doctrine of humoral pathology, which conditioned both the preventive and curative proper diet. This doctrine had been imported into the Arabic‐Islamic world in the course of the eighth and ninth centuries, when Nestorian Christians, sponsored by the elites of early‐Abbasid Baghdad, translated the ancient Greek legacy into Arabic. With time, Galenic thought spread all over the Islamic world, where it became the prevailing medico‐dietetic‐philosophical system. As the humoral doctrine was taken for granted by most cultured people, it shaped their thinking on medicine, health, illness, diet, food, and drink.A large number of studies over the past decades were devoted to both Graeco‐Arabic medicine and the culinary culture of the medieval Arabic‐Islamic world. But although the Galenic doctrine had an immense influence on dietary consciousness and thus on daily food choices of those who inhabited that world, contemporary scholarship rarely recognized the medico‐dietary culture as a separate subject. The present paper is a review of the questions involved in its study.

Medical missionaries to China: the antecedents

Notwithstanding the traditional belief that disciples of Jesus Christ introduced Christianity into China, conclusive evidence showed that it was the Nestorian missionaries who entered China in AD 635. Alongside commercial contacts between the West and China during the prosperous T'ang dynasty (618-906), trepanation, bloodletting and the universal antidote theriac were introduced from the Byzantium Empire. Nestorian Christians built churches throughout China and offered some form of medical services. During the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (1260-1368), foreign physicians were present in the Royal Court; the most famous was the astronomer, linguist and physician Ai-hsieh (Isaiah), Head of the Imperial Medical Bureau. With the fall of this dynasty, Christianity, being primarily the faith of a foreign community, naturally fell into oblivion. It was not until the sixteenth-century's Age of Discovery when a safe sea route to China was found that a new phase of Christian missionaries began.

Study on Christian Stone Architecture of Song and Yuan Dynasties in Quanzhou

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, with the increasing flourished overseas transportation, large numbers of foreign merchants swarmed into Quanzhou, bringing rich exotic cultures and religions, including Nestorian Christianity and Franciscan Christianity. Christian stone architecture began to emerge in Quanzhou. A general understanding of the spread of Christianity at that time can be obtained through the analyses of the existing Christian stone tombs, gravestones and debris of stone buildings in Quanzhou. Since Christianity was not truly supported by the locals in Quanzhou during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the waves of foreign merchants left Quanzhou due to the tumultuous wartimes in the late Yuan Dynasty and the xenophobic atmosphere in the early Ming Dynasty resulted in the rapid decline of Christianity and Christian stone architecture.

Justin Perkins. A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians with Notices of the Muhammedans. Piscataway NJ, Gorgias Press, 2006, 512 p.

Justin Perkins (1805-1869), pasteur americain, raconte en 14 chapitres sa mission depuis Malte jusqu’a Constantinople, l’Armenie et enfin la region d’Urmia, consignant les evenements politiques et ecclesiaux de son temps. Cette relation de voyage se presente comme un carnet de bord tenu de 1834 a 1841. Une breve introduction expose l’histoire des chretiens dits nestoriens et une description des debuts de la mission americaine au Moyen-Orient. Sa narration fourmille de details sur la vie quoti...

The influence of Christianity on medicine from Graeco-Roman times up to the Renaissance

In this overview of the effect of early Christianity on empirical medicine in Graeco-Roman times, it is shown that the first two centuries represented peaceful cooperation, since the Christians saw secular medicine as a legitimate form of supernatural cure and not as magic. Christianity brought caring communities with indiscriminate personalised care for the ill and aged. This ultimately led to the creation of hospitals as we know them today. Monastic institutions appeared which often had hospitals, and provided a degree of medical scholarship. When Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century, the Church Fathers became increasingly authoritarian regarding the practice of medicine which was to be based on their interpretation of Galen. Progressive stagnation of scientific development and medicine specifically, set in. However, during the 5th century Nestorian Christians, fleeing from persecution by the Church, settled in Persia where they initiated a blossoming of medical science during the Golden Age of Islam (8th to 13th centuries), coexisting with the Dark Ages of Medieval Europe. After this period Jewish and Christian doctors reintroduced Arabic versions of the works of the Greek masters from the teaching hospitals of Islam to the young European medical schools at Palermo and Montpellier. The Church which had in the mean time persisted with antiquated dogmas, resented the new teachings from heathen Islam, and responded with reactionary measures against supposed heretics, inter alia by instituting the Inquisition. But after the Reformation and Henry VIII of England’s break with the Vatican, the hegemony of the Church had come apart and Christianity and medicine gradually became realigned according to the realities of the Age of Enlightenment.

The Story of a Stele: China’s Nestorian Monument and Its Reception in the West, 1625–1916 by Michael Keevak (review)

100 Journal of Chinese Religions by similar stories. The seeking and delivery of “divine justice” is after all as much a discursive fact as a social fact. A minor comment to end this review: the footnotes are on the same pages as the texts they address, which makes for much more convenient reading. I wonder who first invented the dreadfully inconvenient endnotes, where all notes to all chapters are relegated to the end of the book, which requires a more scholarly reader to constantly flip back and forth between the text and the notes? ADAM YUET CHAU, University of Cambridge The Story of a Stele: China’s Nestorian Monument and Its Reception in the West, 1625-1916 MICHAEL KEEVAK. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008. xii, 195 pages. ISBN 978-962-209-895-4. HK$295.00, US$39.50 hardcover. In 1625, workmen near Xi’an 西安 uncovered a large stele dating from 781, which had apparently been buried there late in the Tang dynasty, remaining unknown and undiscovered for centuries. The stele recorded the history of the propagation in Tang China of the thenunknown Jingjiao 景教 religion, later understood as a branch of Nestorian Christianity. This slim volume traces the history of European fascination with this object, arguing that the “Nestorian Monument” assumed a place in European ideas of China that was far out of proportion to its actual importance as a curious record of a minor aspect of Tang cultural history. Furthermore, the author claims, the monument “served as a kind of prism onto which [Europeans] could project their own self-image and this is what they were looking at, not China” (p. 3). The first claim, that the stele loomed larger in European minds than was warranted by its importance in Chinese history, is persuasive, but the second claim that the stone became a prism for a pervasive and wilful miscomprehension of China is overstated. The Story of a Stele is divided into four chapters, treating the discovery and first accounts of the stone, the treatment of the stone by Athanasius Kircher and his detractors and successors, the role of the stone in Enlightenment-era discussions of China, and the renewed interest in it during the treaty era. A short epilogue discusses Martin Palmer’s recent treatment of Tang Nestorianism as “Daoist Christianity,” and the author’s own trip to view the monument and other Nestorian sites near Xi’an in 2006. The book is beautifully produced, with forty-six images, all well-chosen and well-printed. Book Reviews 101 Although as a non-sinologist he focuses of necessity on works in European languages, Michael Keevak, who is Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, has traced exhaustively the works and editions dealing with the monument (the notes, bibliography and index account for more than a quarter of the book’s length), and he has packed his account with interesting detail. For instance, he shows how Kircher’s use of the stele text as an introduction to the Chinese language in turn influenced (and misled) Andreas Muller and Christian Mentzel, two of the pioneer students of the Chinese language in the seventeenth century (pp. 50-55). He devotes considerable attention to the European preoccupation with the cross that appears above the text, which is in fact a very minor feature of the monument, and argues that the significance of the cross on the monument was exaggerated because it enabled the object to be domesticated and assimilated into a Western narrative of Christian expansion (pp. 89-102). Keevak traces the centuries-long polemics around whether the stele was a Jesuit forgery, and the bizarre attempt of Frits Holm in the early twentieth century to rescue the monument from supposed Chinese neglect, which resulted in a full-scale copy being made and shipped first to the Metropolitan Museum and then to the Vatican (pp. 110-125). As Keevak shows, the European preoccupation with the stele stemmed in large measure from excitement that it appeared to confirm a hitherto-unknown Christian presence in the Chinese empire, including imperial patronage of it, many centuries before the arrival of the Jesuits in the sixteenth century...

The Revolts of Nestorian Christians Against the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey

The Revolts of Nestorian Christians Against the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey

A Study of the History of Nestorian Christianity in China and Its Literature in Chinese: Together with a New English Translation of the Dunhuang Nestorian Documents (review)

A Study of the History of Nestorian Christianity in China and Its Literature in Chinese: Together with a New English Translation of the Dunhuang Nestorian Documents (review)