• Da Qin Jingjiao liuxing Zhongguo bei (The stele on the spread of Nestorianism to China from the Da Qin temple)
  大秦景教流行中國碑

Publisher:

• [China] : [publisher not identified], [Between 1800 and 1925]

Edition:

• Yuan ke, ta ben.
• 原刻, 拓本.

Extent:

• 3 rubbings

Format:

• Visual material

Description:

• Rubbing from monument commemorating the history of Nestorian Christians in Tang period China. Inscription written by Buddhist monk Jing Jin and calligraphy by Lü Xiuyan.
• 本館藏3輻碑文拓片: 正文, 左側, 右側. call number: T no. 81.
• 原碑現存陜西西安碑林, 首尾及兩側均刻有古敘利亞文題名, 唐德宗建中二年元月七日 (A.D. 781年2月4日) 立.

Subject:

• Nestorian tablet of Sian-fu.
• Assyrian Church of the East members—History
• Church of the East
• Christianity—China—Xi'an Shi
• Calligraphy, Chinese—History—Tang-Five dynasties, 618-960
• Inscriptions, Chinese—China
• Rubbing—China
• Art, Chinese

Edm rights:

• Copyright Not Evaluated

View in catalog:

• https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/99129082547006421

Curator's notes:

• Classical Chinese, Syriac
  Xi'an (Chang’an), 20th century? (or. 781), paper (rubbing)

  The surprising discovery around 1625 of this stele outside Xi’an showed Jesuits that Christianity had already been in China as early as 635. The Chinese and Syriac texts detail a history of the Church of the East, and was written in 781 during a time of Buddhist (and Christian) persecution. Reproductions, often using the Chinese rubbing technique, became popular, but the side inscriptions, with their many Syriac names, are often left out.

  Gest Collection, T no. 81

  For further reading

  Fitzgerald, Devin. “A global experiment in printing: the circulation of the Nestorian Stele from Xi’an.” In The Routledge companion to global Renaissance art, edited by Stephen J. Campbell and Stephanie Porras, 177-189. New York: Routledge, 2024.

Exhibit category:

• Commonalities
• Commonalities: Announcements

Calligrapher:

• Lü, Xiuyan, active 8th century