Shroro

The Syriac Orthodox Christian Digest - August, 2005

Syriac Christianity in China During the Tang Dynasty

By Fr. Dale Johnson

Part II of a series on the so called Nestorian Crosses of China

Three events occurred in 8th century China demonstrating the influence of Syriac Christianity in Buddhist culture which lays the foundations for interpreting Christian and Buddhist symbolism.

1. The transmorphing of Kuan Yin into Mary.

2. The transformation of Buddhist ritual using Christian form and Buddhist content.

3. The translation of Christian texts into Chinese using Taoist and Buddhist imagery and theology.

Each of these historical circumstances established theological role models for not just Christian Buddhist dialogue, but for cross pollination of each religion in positive ways. The examples point to methods we can employ today. It relieves us from the burden of having to invent without precedent. It offers hope that some had walked this path before and they have blazed a trail.

Transmorphing Kuan Yin

It is said that Kuan Yin was so concerned for humanity that, upon receiving enlightenment, she chose to retain human form rather than transcend it as pure energy. And so she would stay until every single living creature attained enlightenment. Her name translates "she who hears the cries of the world". Kuan Yin sat on her paradise island P'u T'o Shan answering every prayer addressed to her. The mere utterance of her name in prayer is said to assure salvation from physical and spiritual harm. Her most devout worshipers eat no flesh and live entirely without doing violence to other beings.

As early as the fifth century, Kuan Yin was always depicted as a man, although a very slight and graceful of form. Many of the forms of Kuan Yin were clearly male, though somewhat androgynous. In all the early translations of the Lotus Sutra, Kuan Yin is indisputably male. While it is recognized within the text that he is capable of taking a female form, this is not considered his main form. His is clearly male in the prodigious records of Hsuan Tsang (596-664 CE) throughout China and India and in such texts as the Cheng Ming Ching, which dates to the end of the seventh century. He is also clearly male in the Surangama Sutra, which was first produced in AD 705 in Chinese. But by the mid to late ninth century Kuan Yin is considered female.

What happened during that time to turn Kuan Yin from a male into a female figure? The female Kuan Yin's roots lie not only in the heartlands of historic China, but on the northwest frontier, on the Silk Road. This is where numerous cultures met and interacted. The male cult of Kuan Yin had already penetrated as a result of the dissemination of the Lotus Sutra, but the distinctive female forms only began to fan out extensively from the northwest in the eighth century through the expansion of Syriac Christianity.

Mary is largely unknown or ignored in the Buddhist world, one of a few exceptions is Maria-Kannon. The latter is a hybrid of Mother Mary and the bodhisattva (an enlightened being) of love and compassion whom the Japanese call Kannon, the Chinese Kuan Yin. In Indo-Tibetan Buddhism this bodhisattva is male, but in Sino-Japanese Buddhism it became female. Because Mother Mary and Kannon have so much in common (in appearance as well as in character), persecuted Japanese Christians of past centuries secretly worshipped Jesus and Mary in the form of Maria-Kannon with child.

Like Mary, Kannon is an expression of the feminine aspect of the divine, a personification of love and compassion, a savior in calamity, and a miracle worker. She appears to her devotees as a lovely, gentle lady of heavenly beauty, sometimes exuding the scent of sweet flowers. Much like Mary, the Chinese Kuan Yin is said to have lived a human life of extreme self-sacrifice and holiness before she ascended into heaven and became a celestial Goddess of Mercy and Compassion.

A remarkable Mary-like story appears in Chinese Buddhist lore. "Huang Kuei-nien and some companions undertook the pilgrimage to P’u-t’o Sha. They went to the Cave of Tidal Sounds and prayed with great devotion, chanting the name of Kuan Yin. Suddenly they saw a brilliant light, and Kuan Yin appeared, sitting on a rock above the cave. So moved was Huang that he vowed to dedicate his life to studying the Buddhist scriptures, eating only a vegetarian diet, and refraining from killing." (Gill Farrer-Hall, "The Feminine Face of Buddhism", p.62)

Many trace the striking similarities between Mary and especially the White Clad Kuan Yin back to the historical influence of Syriac Christians in China in the early Tang Dynasty.

The Syriac Nestorian Church (hereafter referred to as the "Assyrian Church of the East") did venerate the Mother of Jesus (but not as the "Bearer of God") and imported images of Madonnas all over Persia, Arabia, along the Silk Road, into Mongolia, China, Tibet, and India in the 8th century. At the time Chinese Buddhism needed someone who could compete with the powerful Taoist goddesses. So the Madonna with child merged with Kuan Yin; women prayed for babies, especially baby boys. Hence Kuan Yin as the child bearer came to be depicted with a baby boy either in her arms or beside her.

At the same time Mary's features fuse with Kuan Yin for Buddhists, it seems that the same thing happens among Syriac Christians. Mary becomes dressed as Kuan Yin and is featured on Christian altars throughout China.

Here is what we learn; Christians studied Buddhist images and ideas and found not only useful similarities but bonded to fundamental truths they recognized. The same happened with Buddhists. Could we not do the same thing today?

Transformation of Buddhist Ritual

One of the major factors that brought about the practice of masses for the dead within Buddhism was that it had nothing to counter the fact that masses for the dead were held in the Syriac Church. During the period of the Syriac Church in the seventh and eighth centuries CE, new mystical mantra writings filled with magic formulas and incantations found their way from India to China.

Amogha Vajra is inseparably connected with the rapid development of masses for the dead. Amogha Vajra was a monk, who went to China from Northern India with his great teacher in the year 719 CE. He would later succeed his master as patriarch of the Yogacharya School in 732. Between 741 and 746, he was sent to India by the Emperor Hsuan Tsung to get more Buddhist writings. During his lifespan, Amogha realized that it was important to compete against the Syriac Christians in the masses for the dead. When one examines closely the rituals, which he issued, one can see that he and his helpers copied the rituals of the Syriac Church in many places (Reichelt, Truth Triumphant, 1928, p.90).

Amogha worked for fifty years to try to outperform the Syriac Church in masses for the dead. Finally, he was able to arrange his “opening night” for the great drama that is now so well known in the East as the “Feast of the Wandering Spirits.” The ceremony later came to be named “Yu-lan-p’en” (Reichelt, p.90). Although Amogha’s work did play a great role in helping to bring about the Hungry Ghost Festival, there still needed to be more of a foundational premise for the festival.

The Hungry Ghost Festival found a foundational premise for the festival in the sixth century CE. Two texts are associated with the festival. These are the Yu-lan-p’en Sutra and the Sutra on Offering Bowls to Repay Kindness. The origins of these texts are not exactly known. We do know that the first certain record of any celebration of a ghost festival is 561 CE. The main character and perhaps even the hero in these two texts is Mu-lien. Mu-lien was a monk who desired to save his parents from their agony in Hades in order to repay them for the kindness they had shown him in caring for him.

In the southern provinces, a group of priests carry out the ceremony for Hungry Ghosts by slowly making their way down the streets chanting the invocation: “Omi to Fo”, “Buddha Amidha,” uttered as a prayer for the dead. The priests will then stop at each table repeating formulas that may nourish an infinite number of spirits. The procession will come to an end at a local temple. At this temple, scaffolding is erected high above the usual altar, decorated with flags, colored streamers, and lanterns. Then some men lift up the subscription gifts on to the platform. This usually involves cakes and meats that are arranged in the forms of pyramids. After all this is on the platform, the abbot of the temple then places a doll on top of the scaffold. The effigy represents an incarnation of Kuan Yin who has the miraculous power, which is able to deliver souls from Hades and to keep order among the hungry ghosts.

Here is a clear example of how Christianity influenced Buddhism. In this case it was by a competitive action rather than by syncretic adoption. Even in this example we can learn that by modeling what we admire in another faith community can result in positive constructs for our own community. Without imitating one another, Christians and Buddhists can learn to adapt practices and even rituals that are innovative and affirming.

Translations of Christian texts for Buddhist Audiences

Perhaps as early as the 6th century, Syriac Christians from Persia were expanding into China. It seems they were welcomed under the cosmopolitan policies of the T’ang dynasty.

They were in China not only to evangelize the people but also to participate in a great religious event of inter religious dialogue and discovery. The emperors of the T’ang dynasty encouraged religious tolerance and religious dialogue. It had a profound influence on Taoism, Confusianism, Buddhism, and Christianity.

The priests and monks of the Syriac Church found a niche as translators in the Chinese Kingdom. For example, a monk by the name of Father Adam helped to translate the life of Buddha from the Pavi language and literature at the end of the 8th century. He was a product of centuries of translation tradition in the Persian Empire.

Syriac Christians fleeing persecution by Byzantines (Orthodox Christians of Constantinople) were received by the Sassanid Persian Empire and were commissioned to translate Greek and Syriac texts into Pahlavi. Paul the Persian dedicated Works of logic to the king. The Greek philosopher Priscianus Lydus wrote a book in response to the king's questions on a number of subjects in Aristotelian physics, theory of the soul, meteorology and biology. Books in medicine, astronomy, Ptolemy's Almagest, Aristotle's Organon and a number of texts in crafts and skills were translated from Greek sources.

Indian scientific material in astronomy, astrology, mathematics and medicine were also translated into Pahlavi along with Chinese Herbal medicine and religion. Indian popular literature was also translated; Kalila va Dimna and Sinbad have survived.

In addition to major cities such as Alexandria, Constantinople and Jerusalem, intellectuals and scientists moved and carried ideas from Edessa in the West, through Nisbis and Mosul (Iraq) to Merv and Gundishapur in Western Persia. It is this latter city where Father Adam was trained. Three writers emerge within this great effort: Bishop Alopen, Father Adam, and Bishop Qing Qing. Bishop Alopen is sent on official mission to China as were learned from the Assyrian Monument found in Xian, dated 718 CE. Father Adam rises up to translate the Life of Buddha from Pavi, having been trained in the great Persian school of Gundashapur. Bishop Qing Qing creates the great literary masterpieces that communicate the Christian doctrines as understood by the Syriac Christians but for a Buddhist audience.

As early as 638 we have an excellent narrative of the Nativity, the Ministry and the Passion in The Sutra of Jesus the Messiah. The first half of this book is a manual on Christian living. Alopen tried to reconcile Christianity with Chinese ethics. The Buddhist influence was very apparent "The life of all sentient beings," the sutra added, "Is the same as the life of man." It is, however, the second half of the book, which especially holds our attention. For the first time, Chinese readers were privileged to read an account of the Nativity. "God in Heaven above shed his light on heaven and earth. In the place where Jesus the Messiah was born, the dwellers in the world saw bright light on the earth, a star of good omen dwelling in the sky." The simile that the star was as large as a cartwheel is interesting. The Chinese assistant of Alopen was familiar with Buddhist sutras and we have reason to believe that the simile was taken from the Buddhist scriptures where the size of the lotus is compared with that of the cartwheel.

In this document we read that at the Baptism "A voice was heard saying, 'Messiah is my son, all people who are in the world must obey his commandments.' " Yet according to St. Mark's Gospel, a similar saying is placed in the context of the Transfiguration. This is not a mistake but a product of an earlier proto-Gospel called the Diatesseron favored by Syriac Christians.

In The Messiah's Discourse on Charity which appeared in 642. Some of the terms adopted are quite creative. The Holy Spirit is the "Pure Wind;" the Resurrection is the "Holy Transformation." The first half of this latter document was devoted to a paraphrase of the Sermon on the Mount. The second half resumed the narrative of the life of Christ. It began with a description of the events, which occurred at the time of the death and resurrection of Christ the splitting of the rocks, the opening of the tombs of the saints and their appearance for a period of 44 days (Matthew 27:52). In the section on the Ascension, the document ended thus, " Take My words and preach to all peoples. Call them to come to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I shall be with you in all your ways until the end of the earth. " Again it is reminiscent of the last verse of St. Matthew's Gospel. Indeed, St. Matthew is the Gospel par excellence for the Syriac Christians and Alopen used it as the basis of his narrative both in 7th Sutra of Jesus the Messiah and in its sequel. The Book of the Honored Ones (ninth century) gave a list of saints and scriptures. The list of scriptures includes the titles of thirty-five books, which were venerated by the church in China. One can easily identify the Gospels, the Acts, Epistles of St. Paul, the Psalms, parts of the Pentateuch, a Breviary, and at least two of the original Chinese Syriac books - Sutra Proclaiming the Origin and Root of the Holy Religion and the Sutra of Mysterious Peace and Joy. The Syriac Christians used Buddhist terms and phrases in order to call the attention of the Chinese intellectuals who favored Buddhism to the Syriac religion. Yet after the turn of the ninth century, it is obvious that Syriac writings were increasingly becoming syncretic in nature. The way Buddhist thoughts were freely borrowed had gone beyond Alopen or Adam. In the Sutra of Mysterious Peace and Joy, the Christian elements had largely disappeared. As His disciples, like the Buddha, surrounded the Messiah He enlightened them with divine mystery and at the conclusion of the teaching, the disciples were filled with joy and withdrew. The setting bears little resemblance to that by the Sea of Galilee. But what was taught is even more amazing. It was not an adaptation of the Sermon on the Mount; it was rather a discourse on the overcoming of desire and thereby attaining inner peace and happiness.

The congregations of the Syriac monastic churches in Chang-an and Loyang must have been largely Persian or Central Asian. But it is likely that missionary work among the Chinese also stood high on the list of purposes. The very fact that the liturgy was written in Chinese is sufficient to show that there must have been a number of Chinese in the Syriac congregations. In the persecution of foreign religions in 845 we learn that, besides foreign monks of Persian or Central Asian origin, there were a number of Chinese monks serving the Assyrian Church. These too must "be compelled to return to lay life and resume their original callings and pay taxes." Still, this was not a case of Christians becoming Buddhists. The missionary impulse was clearly stated in the Hymn of Eternal Salvation (720), "The Great Holy and Merciful Father will use His wisdom and strength to save the hundreds of millions of people . . . so that they could also return to the great truth." So it seems that within this context the Syriac Sutras would have been considered Christian and perhaps even used for evangelistic purposes.

We know that in 635, according to both Chinese dynastic records and the Assyrian Church of the East's stone monument in Xian, Bishop Alopen arrived in China with the Gospel to proclaim Christianity. He brought with him books to be translated into Chinese and Uhigur.

One of the books was translated into a Syriac Sutra modeled on the Milindapanha, which comes from the Gandharian area of present day Afghanistan. This is where Alopen and Father Adam were trained. There, in this region, is the belief in karma. The Sutra of Cause, Effect and Salvation take karma and reincarnation as an human crisis, which Christ has come to solve.

'So it was that He existed before existing in His mother's womb. But to change your karma, you must exist in this physical world. A person can only change karma residue by being born again into this world.........There was no other way to free us from sins but for Him to enter this world. So He came and suffered a life of rejection and pain before returning.'

Christ is the answer to karma.

Within a hundred years, the Church in China, the Church of the East was creating its own masterpieces, led by the remarkable Bishop Qing Qing, who was perhaps the greatest literary genius of the T’ang dynasty.

Bishop Qing Qing wrote the text of the Stone Sutra, but he also wrote one of the most unique books of Christianity; 'The Sutra of Returning to Your Original Nature.' In this sutra, written c780 AD, Chinese Christianity draws upon the I Ching, Buddhist imagery and Confucian thought to describe Christianity.

The Church by 720 was reinterpreting Jesus in a Chinese context. The Sutra Taking Refuge in the Three reads:

"Great Holy Law Giver
You bring us back to our original nature.
And the souls that are saved are countless:
Divine compassion lifts them up from the dust
Redeeming them from the sad realm of ghosts.
...
See the angelic spirits crossing the ocean of Dharma!
We know to practice peace in our hearts through you.
This whole gathering unites in singing to you, Honored One:

The Great Law is now the Heavenly Wheel
Of Returning to You."

Here Buddhist imagery - Dharma, Heavenly Wheel, Returning - is used to proclaim the Christian message of salvation. But it is also Christian imagery found in the eleventh Song of Solomon favored by Syriac Christians.

Furthermore, Jesus proclaims in another Syriac Sutra:

"This is why I say: no wanting, no doing, no piousness, no truth.
These are the Four essential Laws. They cannot teach you in themselves
But follow them and you will be free
From trying to sort out what to believe."

Bishop Qing Qing presents us with a Buddha type Christ.

The Syriac Sutras show us a Gospel unlike any Gospel the West knew. Here is a fusion between distinct traditions, which produces a gospel in Sutra form. In a world where increasingly the interaction between faiths is being taken as normal, the Syriac Sutras show us that the encounter between faiths has taken place before - 1300 years ago in China.

For over a thousand years, the history of Church of the East in China and its contact with Buddhism has remained hidden. It was temporarily rediscovered 400 years ago, but the Jesuit missionaries were too confused at the bonding of Buddhism and Christianity to want to discover what the Church in China had done. We have a chance once again to look at this beautiful jewel formed out of the pressure of forces of Buddhism and Christianity under the weight of the Chinese Empire and offer it to the world again. Let us not fail to dream of adventure and creativity like the Syriac missionaries of Persia.

Footnotes available at the end of the third article