CHRISTIANITY IN EARLY CHINA.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Rubbing of the Nestorian Stele. A rubbing of the most famous document of Chinese Christianity. When rediscovered, the Nestorian Stele transformed understanding of the cross-cultural history of Tang dynasty China. "The discovery of this monument is what made Westerners aware of the presence of Christianity in China prior to the mission of the Franciscans in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and those of the Jesuits" (Nicolini-Zani, p. 117).The Nestorian Stele was carved in 781 and stands at almost three metres tall. The Chinese inscription, in the calligraphy of a local official, Lu Xiuyan, describes how Christians arrived at the Tang capital of Xi'an in 635 and, with official permission, founded churches. The stele also introduces, in Chinese and Syriac, some of the community's senior clergy and the present state of the Nestorian church. "Erecting a stone monument to describe, commend, and propagate its teachings was no small undertaking for the Tang Christian community. Putting up stone monuments was an expensive exercise because of the price of the stone and the fee of the expert artisan who engraved the text... The monument itself makes an important statement about the place of Christianity within Tang society" (Nicolini-Zani, pp. 120-1).In 845, Christianity was banned by Emperor Wuzong and the stele was buried. Rediscovered by Chinese antiquarians around 1625, it brought to light a lost dimension to China's history, and translations soon appeared in Jesuit writings,

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.