The Vegan Nestorian Church in Ancient China, Part I: The Xian Stele. By Dr Chapman Chen

To borrow the words of Rev. Prof. Andrew Linzey, “There existed an authentic Christian church in China long before the Jesuit missionaries arrived in the late sixteenth century. And, what is more, this Christian community was committed to a doctrine of non-violence to animals as well as humans, lived a vegan life, and preached a Gospel of compassion for all living beings” (Linzey 2009, Creatures of the Same God, p.75).

The Nestorian Church—known in China as Jingjiao (景教) or the "Luminous Religion"—flourished during the Tang Dynasty after arriving via the Silk Road in 635 AD.

A Syriac Christian missionary named Alopen (A-lou-ben) reached the Tang capital of Chang'an (modern Xi'an) in 635 AD. With imperial patronage, the Church of the East built churches in multiple regional cities and attracted followers among foreign merchants, Persians, and Central Asians.  

Erected in 781 AD, the Xian Stele is a large limestone monument inscribed with both Chinese and Syriac text. It details 150 years of early Christian history, doctrine, and the vital patronage received from Tang emperors.  It was accidentally unearthed near Xian 西安 around 1623–1625. The Stone offers this description of the new religion: 

“Its transforming power penetrates the mysterious principle, and its prayers bring a conscience without shame. As for being expansive yet empty, devoted to stillness and forgiveness, extending great compassion to save all who suffer, and graciously bestowing benevolence upon all sentient beings—these are the great principles of our religious practice and the successive steps by which beings are drawn toward salvation.

If wind and rain come in due season, the realm is at peace, people are rightly ordered, all beings are pure, the living flourish, the dead find joy, thoughts arise and receive a response, and feelings are expressed with sincerity—these are the effects which the power of our Luminous Religion is able to accomplish.”  (my translation)

Note that the Nestorian Church in ancient China advocates kindness and compassion for ALL sentient beings, not just humans.

Because the church relied heavily on imperial sponsorship and served mostly a non-native minority, it largely collapsed in China alongside the fall of the Tang Dynasty in 907 AD.

A remarkable body of Chinese vegan Nestorian (Jingjiao) scriptures surfaced in the early twentieth century as manuscripts dug out from Tunhuang or attributed to Tunhuang, one of which is the Sutra of Hearing the Messiah 《序聽迷詩所經》. Andrew Linzey (2009) compares them to the Ebionite Gospel. The sutra states that God commands that no sentient being be killed, no flesh be eaten, and no animal be sacrificed, for all living beings share in the same divine life. It represents Jesus as a compassionate teacher who died for all sentient beings and John the Baptist as a strict vegan (to be continued).

Full Text: https://www.vegantheology.net/post/the-vegan-nestorian-church-in-ancient-china-part-i-the-xian-stele-by-dr-chapman-chen