The Vegan Nestorian Church in Ancient China, Part V: Both Humans & Animals Come from the Same Godly Wind. Dr Chapman Chen
- Chapman Chen
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
In the Sutra of Hearing the Messiah《序聽迷詩所經》(n.1) , a major scripture of the Nestorian Church flourishing in ancient China between the 7th century and the 10th century, it is stated that all sentient beings come from the same wind of God:-
為此天尊顏容似風。何人能得見風。天尊不盈少時巡歷世間居編…為此風流轉世間。風流無處不到…眾生身命。為風無活。
God is like the wind. Who is able to see the wind? God is never still but always moving in the world… There is nowhere in the world where this wind does not reach and move. All sentient beings exist only because the Wind gives them life (my trans.; cf. Palmer 2001, p.160).
1. God’s Life-giving Wind and Ruach
In my submission, “the wind” is equivalent to God’s life-giving breath or “ruach” in the OT.
Ruach is the Hebrew word used in scripture for the breath of God. It is wind, Spirit, life. It’s not so much a physical force but an essence—God’s essence that sustains life. Ruach is sometimes also translated as Spirit of God, such as in Genesis 1:2, where it describes the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. God breathes ruach into man in Genesis 2:7, turning dust into a living being.
2. God = “I AM”
It follows that God is the Universal Consciousness, the ground of being in which humans and animals all participate, and from which they all originate. That’s why God asserts, "I am who I AM" (Exodus 3:14), and rhetorically asks, “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:24). Likewise, Jesus says, "I AM” (John 8:56–59)m and "The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
So humans and animals come from the same Godly wind. And humans are supposed to love animals as co-creatures rather than to harm them.
3. The Canonical Parallels of The Sutra
The Sutra of Hearing the Messiah is not much different from the canons in terms of framework, just much more concise (2830 Chinese characters). For example, the Sutra mentions the various miracles performed by Jesus:
彌師訶及有弟子十二人。遂受苦迴。飛者作生。瞎人得眼。形容異色者遲差。病者醫療。得損被鬼者趁鬼跛脚特差。所有病者求向彌師訶邊把著迦沙。並總得差He instructed his followers, especially his twelve disciples and travelled the land teaching and healing. Those departed from this world were restored to life. The crippled and sick were restored and able to walk. Those troubled by ghosts [demons/unclean spirits] had them cast out. Some of the sick were healed simply by asking, others by holding on to his gown —but all were healed (Palmer 2001).
All these miracles are well recorded in the canons. The particularly close canonical parallels for the last two ideas are Matthew 14:36, where people beg merely to touch the fringe of Jesus' garment and “as many as touched it were made well,” and Luke 6:19, where the multitude seeks to touch him because healing power proceeds from him and he heals them all.
4. Conclusion
To conclude, let’s quote Prof. Andrew Linzey’s conclusion about the Nestorian Church:-
“There are still believers, like myself, who are eager to see the rebirth of an authentic non-violent and compassionate Christian faith. In fact… Asian Christians have an opportunity – perhaps a unique one in world Christianity – to engage thoughtfully and constructively with the new movements of ethical sensitivity for the environment, vegetarianism, and animal protection, and to demonstrate how these emerging concerns resonate with the deepest aspirations of authentic Asian Christianity.” (Linzey 2009, p. 81)
(It’s Japan, instead of the oriental red dragon, that has inherited the traditional culture of the Tang Dynasty. Nara and Kyoto have preserved a lot of architectural forms closely derived from 7th-9th-century Chinese architecture, especially Tang China.)
Notes
Thank you, Chapman. I enjoyed this series of articles.