第七世紀
Alopen
The first recorded Christian missionary to have reached China, during the Tang Dynasty.
Of the earliest Chinese documents identified as Christian or Christian-influenced which were discovered along the Old Silk Road in Central Asia’s Takla Makan desert, four have been described very tentatively by the Japanese scholar P. Y. Saeki as dating to the period of Alopen, that is, mid-seventh century. In 638, three years after Alopen’s arrival, the policy of religious toleration was reinforced by an official edict; the first Christian church in China was built in the capital at the emperor’s expense; and the presence of twenty-one Nestorian monks in the empire was recognized. The monks were probably all Persian. This was the beginning of the first opening of China to the Christian faith.
The Nestorians were sometimes persecuted and sometimes granted unusual favor by T’ang rulers, and they prospered for at least two and half centuries, but they disappeared about A. D. 907 along with the great dynasty that had protected them. For at least the next 300 years there is no record of Christians in China. Not until the Mongol dynasty (1260-1368) do Nestorians reappear in the empire.
Attribution
This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright (c) 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of The Gale Group; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved.
Sources
- The only early source on Alopen is that Nestorian Monument itself.
- Complete English translation of the text are in John Foster, The Church of the T'ang Dynasty (1939) and P. Y. Saeki, The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China (1951).
- In addition to Foster's and Saeki's works on the T'ang church, see Samuel Hugh Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia, vol. 1 (1992), chap. 15, and A. C. Moule, Christians in China before the Year 1550 (1930), chap. 2, both with bibliographical references.
About the Author
Henry Winters Luce Emeritus Professor of Ecumenics and Mission, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
