The Church of the East in China

Missionaries from the Church of East (often called Nestorians), reached China in the 7th century CE from the Sassanian Persian Empire (224-636) via the Silk Road. The migration of Christians into Tang dynasty China was intensified as a result of the conquest of the Sassanians by the Arabs in the following century. Eastern Christian missionaries were given permission to establish monasteries in Xi’an and proselytise by Emperor Taizong in 638.

The imperial Edict of Toleration of 638 reads:

Raban, the Persian monk bringing the religion of the Scriptures from afar has come to offer it at the chief metropolis. The meaning of his religion has been carefully examined: it is mysterious, wonderful, calm; it fixes the essentials of life and perfection; it is the salvation of living beings; it is the wealth of men. It is right that it should spread through the domains of the Empire.

In China, Christianity was first called Bosijiao or “the Persian Religion” because of its long connection with Sassanian Persia. However, the leaders of the sect (who were mainly Syriac-speakers) petitioned hard for the religion to be renamed Da Qinjiao or the “Roman Religion,” which was duly granted in 745 CE. This unique term is found on inscriptions in Chinese in Quanzhou, a surprising example of continuation, as the Church of the East is much better known in Medieval China as Jingjiao or “the Luminous Religion.”

The Church of the East in China suffered several significant periods of brutal repression, beginning in the later Tang years, only regaining a foothold again with the turbulence surrounding the arrival of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in the middle of the 13th century.