Meltha Magazine Online

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1996, Volume 2, No.1(5) pages 32-33

PART IV SEMINARS :

“THE STONE THAT CRIES OUT”

From the Famous Book:

"The Nestorian Monument in China"

By the Japanese Professor P.Y.Saeki-1916

Edited by His Grace Mat Gewargis Sliwa

Metropolitan of the Church of the East

This famous stone can be seen at Hsi-an-fu. It has been spelled Hsian; Si-an:Si-gan. It is about ten feet high, and 3.5. feet in width, its weight being two tons.

It was erected in 781 A.D. by the Church of the East missionaries who reached China on foot in 635 A.D.; during the T'ang Dynasty, who came into power in 618 and lasted till 906.

The 'Nestorian' missionaries were received by the Chinese Emperor in Hsian in 635, and were permitted to settle down and teach their religion, and it has been said that they trans- , 1ated the book of Gospels into Chinese language and presented it to the Emperor in 640.

The famous general, Kwo-Tsy-Yih, the prince of Fen-Yang in Shansi, who lived in 697-781, became a believer in Nestorian religion.

The inscription of the stone consists of one thousand nine hundred Chinese characters and about fifty Assyrian words, besides some seventy Assyrian names in rows at the narrow side of the stone.

The stone had been standing there for years. Then it was buried for fear of being destroyed; as it was ordered to destroy all temples and monasteries by the Emperor Wu-Tsung in 845. The stone was discovered sometime about 1623-1625, while some workmen found it where the stone was buried.

Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen, the first president of the Chinese Republic, in his official letter to the people of China on the 5th of January, 1912, referred to the Nestorian Inscription in order to prove that China was once not behind the rest of .the. world in opening up her territories to foreign intercourse.

Professor P. Y .Saeki, the author of "The Nestorian Monument in China" says, "The visit of the Nestorian Missionaries is only one of the many results of the political, social, and economical relations which had been for centuries between China and Persia. We must acknowledge that the relation of Nestorianism in the seventh and eighth centuries to the civilization of the Chinese Empire some what resembles that of Christianity to the Greco-Roman civilization of the Roman Empire in St. Paul's time.

The Nestorian missionaries stood before , the Emperors of China as the apostles stood before Roman governors whilst the Nestorians, like the prophet Daniel, and the monks of the west in sub-apostolic age, were the trusted advisers of the Chinese and possibly Japanese Sovereigns!

. Studying this inscription carefully we can clearly see how severe the religions struggle for existence was, and in what a difficult position the Nestorian missionaries found themselves, in spite of the favor and recognition they received from the reigning sovereigns of China.

What became of the Nestorians in China?

When this Imperial Edict (.which was chiefly aimed at the Buddhists) was enforced to the letter, the Nestorian Mission doubtlessly also received a great blow. The native born Christians of the Assyrian Church in China, being naturally mixed up with the most important question of all in the study of the Inscription, and we are glad to announce that we have discovered some remnants of the Assyrian Christians in China."

After the severe blow they received in the ninth century, the Chinese Nestorians gradually become amalgamated with other religions. As for the foreign missionaries who survived the Emperor We-tsung's persecution in the year 485, some remained in China, but most wondered back westward, and reached the nearest sees of the Assyrian Church in Western Turkstan.

The Chinese Christians who did not join the Mohammedan body may be found among the Secret Societies. Of these ten secret societies, the Chin-tan Chiao, the "Religion of the Pill of Immorality", is decidedly Christian in character, and that is a relic of the Nestorians who set up our Monument we are convinced from both internal and external evidence.

We learn from foreign sources that there were several Nestorian Churches in China in the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. So, we can say that Assyrian Christians remnants can be found partly in the Chin-tan Chiao, whose number amounts to ten millions and partly among the twenty millions Mohammedans in China.

There is a fact that the Japanese were, consciously or unconsciously, and directly or indirectly, much influenced by the Nestorians. Some of the thoughts that their ancestors derived from China during the eighth, and ninth centuries were Christian thoughts in Chinese garb.

If we have to call the Ch'ang-an civilization "a kind of Christian Civilization", then we must necessarily admit that those countries that received the Chang-an civilization in the Middle Ages were normally as good as any European countries which profess the Roman Catholic or the Greek Orthodox Faith in Christendom, because this Chinese Christendom was a daughter of the Assyrian Christians which claimed descent from the Apostle Thomas and his immediate disciples.

Whilst European scholars have taken so much interest in the Nestorian Stone of China" during so many years, very little indeed has been done by either the Chinese or Japanese; and we are ashamed to confess that nothing at all has been done by our "Church of the East".

That is the reason that has pushed me to pay a personal visit to China, which I have long been looking forward to. Everything has been arranged by the help of Chinese Embassy in Baghdad, where my office is, for this historical visit, and we will be received by Chinese Christians Society in early July, 1996.