The Luminous Way to the East Texts and History of the First Encounter of Christianity with China

The Luminous Way to the East offers a comprehensive survey of the historical, literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources of the first stage of the Christian mission to China. It explores the complex and multifaceted process of the interaction with the different cultural and religious milieux that the Church of the East experienced in its diffusion throughout Central Asia and into China during the first millennium.

Matteo Nicolini-Zani provides an overview of the Christian presence in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907) by reconstructing the composition and organization of Christian communities, the geographical location of Christian monasteries, and the related historical events attested by the sources. Through a new and richly annotated English translation of the Chinese Christian texts produced in Tang China, the volume provides a documented look at what was the earliest, and perhaps the most extraordinary, encounter of Christianity with Chinese culture and religions (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism). It shows how East Syriac Christianity in its eastward expansion along the Silk Road from Persia to China was open to the adoption of other languages and imagery and was able to enculturate the Christian teaching into new cultural and religious forms without losing its identity.

Matteo Nicolini-Zani is a Catholic monk of the ecumenical Monastic Community of Bose, Italy, and a sinologist. As an independent scholar, he conducts historical and literary research on Christianity in China. He is the author of Christian Monks on Chinese Soil: A History of Monastic Missions to
China.

Foreword

Preface

Abbreviations

PART ONE: A History of Encounters

"The Luminous Breeze Blew Eastward": The Church of the East from Persia to China

"The Brilliant Teaching Turned toward the Tang Empire": The Christian Presence in China between 635 and 845

"The Scriptures Were Translated": The First Christian Texts in Chinese


PART TWO: The Texts in Translation

Notes on Sources

Text A: "Stele of the Diffusion of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin in China"

Text B: "Hymn in Praise of the Salvation Achieved through the Three Majesties of the Luminous Teaching" and "Book of the Honored"

Text C: "Discourse on the One God"

Text D: "Book of the Lord Messiah"

Text E: "Book on Profound and Mysterious Blessedness"

Text F: "Book of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin on Unveiling the Origin and Attaining the Foundation"

Bibliography

Index of Names, Texts, and Manuscripts