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Formulated by a native of the Antioch
Theological School,
Archbishop of Constantinople Nestorius radical diophysitism
not only caused active controversy within the Mediterranean Christendom but
also became the starting point for the rapid advancement of evangelical ideas
into Asia up to the Far East. Despite the fact
that the “theologoumenon” of Nestorius quickly
emerged from theological practice, we know “Syrian Christians” of the Silk Road as “Nestorians” in Western historiography. On
the territory of the PRC (People's Republic of China), primarily through
epigraphic and archaeological sources, at the same time it is revealed a lot
of new information about the existence of a “bright doctrine” on the
territory of the Celestial Empire (a famous exonym
derived from the name of Nestorius who was not known in China, therefore they
called the new religion “景教”, where the first hieroglyph means “sunlight”, “radiance”, and
“brilliance”, and the second — “teaching”,
“religion”). In this work, based on materials discovered in recent decades,
the author will try to partially reconstruct the existence of Christianity
among the Sogdians, who were one of the most active
trading nations on the Great Silk Road. One of the interesting categories of
equipment that we often see in the burials of Sogdians
is Romean coins (and more often it is imitations of
such of varying degrees of quality). Often such “solids” carry Christian
symbols (though their general semantics and functions are debatable). But at
the same time, for example, the Nestorian religion of the Mi Jifen family proves that the Nestorian stele installed in
Changan is by no means a lonely and random
artifact. Although the number of “followers of shining teachings” in the Tang
Empire itself and Western destinies vassal to China cannot be accurately
estimated, it is quite certain that many Christians from there influenced the
religious life of the Celestial Empire.
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