Church of the East Reaches Tang China (Alopen Mission)
- Date
- 635 CE
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Chang'an, Tang China
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
In 635 CE the Syriac monk Alopen, a missionary of the Church of the East (often called Nestorian Christianity), arrived in the Tang capital of Chang'an after travelling the Silk Road from the Sasanian-Persian sphere, marking the first documented introduction of Christianity to China.
Emperor Taizong received Alopen at court, had Christian scriptures translated for the imperial library, and judged the new faith righteous and fit to spread. In 638 an imperial edict formally sanctioned the religion, funded the construction of the first church in Chang'an, and recognised a community of twenty-one monks; the faith became known in Chinese as Jingjiao, the 'Luminous Religion.' Under Tang patronage the Church of the East flourished for over two centuries and China was organised as the ecclesiastical province of Beth Sinaye. The episode is known chiefly from the Xi'an (Nestorian) Stele of 781 and the Jingjiao Documents found at Dunhuang, and it stands as a landmark of cross-cultural exchange between West Asia and East Asia along the Silk Road.
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Empires active in 635 CE
- Tang Dynasty618 CE – 907 CE
- Sassanid Empire224 CE – 651 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Rashidun Caliphate632 CE – 661 CE
- Classic Maya Civilization250 CE – 900 CE
- Tibetan Empire618 CE – 842 CE
Related religion & ideology events
- The Hijra: Muhammad's migration to Medina622 CE
- Muhammad's first revelation in the Cave of Hirac. 610 CE
- Adi Shankara and the Revival of Advaita Vedantac. 700-750 CE
- Official Introduction of Buddhism to Japan552 CE (traditional date; 538 CE in some sources)
- Bhakti devotional movement emerges in Tamil South Indiac. 6th–7th century CE
- Battle of Karbala and the Sunni–Shia divide10 October 680 CE
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
Accessible sweep of humanity's faiths and belief systems from prehistory to the present.
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