Nestorian Christianity in tang China (according to the epitaph of Mi Jifen)

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.