Nestorius (涅斯多留) was born in Syria about AD 381. In 428 he became the bishop of Constantinople. Tending to exaggerate the distinction between divinity and humanity of Christ, he preached against ascribing the title “Mother of God” to Virgin Mary. To him a more authentic title should be the Mother of Christ. This teaching was challenged by Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria, Egypt. As a result, Nestroius was condemned as a heretic, and subsequently removed from his see in 431. He was sent into exile in Upper Egypt where he lived till about 451. However, the Church in the eastern part of the Roman Empire never accepted his condemnation. This led later to Western Christians dubbed the Eastern Church as the “Nestorian Church.”
Nestorianism (涅斯多留主義), continued to flourish in the 7thcentury. Many of the followers migrated eastwards. The church continued to grow as the believers brought the Christian faith to the Near East, Asia Minor, and along the Silk Road. Then in 635, the 9thyear of Zhenguan (貞觀九年) during the reign of Emperor Tai Zong of the Tang Dynasty(唐太宗), Aluoben (阿羅本), a so-called “Nestorian” missionary from Persia (now known as Iran) officially arrived in Changan (長安, now Xian [西安]), then the capital city of the Tang Dynasty to spread Christianity.[The editor’s note: Tai Zong, whose name was Li Shi Min (李世民), was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty. His titular name (年號)to denote his reign was Zhenguan.]
In 781, the 2ndyear of Jianzhong (建中二年) during the reign of Emperor Teh Zong (唐德宗), the ninth emperor of the Tang Dynasty, a monument was erected. That stele, the Nestorian Tablet, was a black marble, about nine feet high, three feet wide and one foot thick. It weighs two tons.
The heading of the tablet, written in Chinese, are nine characters in a square as follows 大秦景教流行中國碑,which means the memorial of the spreading in China of Jingjiao from Daqin. A brief explanation of the terminology is in order. In ancient China, Daqin (大秦) was used generally to refer to the Roman Empire and its territories in the Near East. In the context, it referred to Persia. Jingjiao (景教) was the name given to Christianity in Chinese at that time. Jiao (教) means religion, and Jing (景) means sunlight, luminary, brilliance, or admiration.
Besides the Chinese characters, there are also Syriac inscriptions in the tablet. The Chinese text consists of 1,800 Chinese characters. It first presents a gist of Christian teachings and then relates the 150 years of history in spreading the message in China. When Aluoben brought the “true scripture” to Changan in 635, he was welcome by Prime Minister Fang Xuan Ling (房玄齡). All through the years, the imperial court looked in favor of Christianity.
Some sixty years after the erection of the bi-lingual Nestorian Tablet, Wu Zong (武宗) became the 15themperor of the Tang Dynasty. Being a believer of Taoism, and because of political reasons he was against Buddhism and other religions. To preserve the monument from destruction, the Christians buried it.
Nearly 800 years later, when some villagers were digging the foundations of a house, the Nestorian Tablet was unearthed at a village near Xian (西安) in 1625, the 5thyear of Tianqi (天啓), during the reign of Xizong (熹宗) of the Ming Dynasty (明朝).The tablet is now part of the collection of Xian Bei Lin Bo Wu Guan (西安碑林博物館).Before it was moved to its present site, some Westerners had made casts of the tablet and presented them to museums in different parts of the world. Because of the testimony of the Nestorian Tablet, we now know that way back to the Tang Dynasty Christianity was firmly introduced and spread extensively in China.