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Stones indicate earlier Christian link?
By Wang Shanshan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-22 06:34 According to the legend, St. Thomas, one of the 12 Apostles, left Jerusalem
for Babylon and from there sailed to India. He landed in Cranganore, now called
Kodungallur, on the southwestern coast of India, about 1,300 kilometres south of
Bombay.
Legend says that after Thomas established a base of operations there, he
headed for China. He was killed in India in AD 72 after he returned from the
trip.
Both J. Xaveriana (1506-52) and Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), two of the most
influential missionaries from the Society of Jesus, claimed in their writings
that they found evidence supporting that Thomas had made his way to China
successfully. They said they were quoting evidence from documents in Indian and
Roman churches, Gu said.
"If St Thomas really made it, he should have left some clues for us to find,"
he added.
The controversy
One of those clues could be the 10 stone bas-reliefs in the aristocrat's
tomb, which, archaeologists have determined through various methods including
carbon dating, was built during the Eastern Han Dynasty.
"The owner of the tomb, about whom little has been known, was probably a
Christian, though he was not necessarily converted by St Thomas or his
disciples," Professor Wang Weifan said.
"It was natural that people had a statement made in their tombs of their
identities," remarked Qi Tieying, president of the Yanjing Seminary in Beijing.
"It happened that Christians usually buried a copy of the Bible with them.
"The tomb owner probably commissioned artisans to make the beautiful stones
stating his beliefs."
Other scholars, however, doubt Wang Weifan's opinion. About Wang's linking
the reliefs to the Bible stories. Zhu Qingsheng, professor at Peking University,
said: "Stone reliefs from the Han Dynasty can be interpreted in too many ways
because they are all vague and dim."
And Xin Lixiang, director of the department of archaeology at the National
Museum of China, was more direct.
"Fancy those stones having anything to do with Christianity!" he said. "I am
more than familiar with those reliefs in the Jiunudun Tomb and cannot imagine
their telling the Bible stories. It's impossible."
Other Chinese theological researchers also thought the Nanjing-based
professor's interpretation "hard to believe."
"Why was such an evidence of early Christianity was found only in Xuzhou?"
said Wang Meixiu, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "The city lies
inland, away from the ancient route of communications between the East and West.
How could the ancient Christians travel there without leaving any trace in those
towns along the route?"
Xin cited a parallel in the arrival of Buddhism to China.
"As often was the case, foreign religions first arrived in China through
international transportation," he said. "There were recent pieces of evidence of
the arrival of Buddhism during the Han Dynasty, also earlier than it is commonly
thought. But they were all collected from excavation sites in coastal cities,
such as Lianyungang and Yinan, both on the East China Sea. Little, so far as I
know, could be obtained from Xuzhou, which is more than 250 kilometres away from
the sea."
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