“Christian artifacts and images from Tang to Yuan dynasty. A brief account on practicing Christianity along the Silk Roads from the 7th to the 15th century
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | The Silk Road. Proceedings from the Sixth International conference on Chinese Studies “The Silk Road” organized by the Confucius Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria, 4-5 June 2021 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | Tang dynasty; Christianity in China; Silk Road |
| Description | Syriac Christian communities reached China starting from the seventh century and their presence has been widely debated by recent scholarship. Their cross-cultural interactions with Chinese elites and the presence of monasteries and Christian objects in the Tang empire attracted the attention of scholars as early as the 17 th century, when the Xi'an stele was unearthed. This paper aims to provide a concise account of the objects, images and artifacts produced, or discovered, since the 7 th century to the 15 th century in China showing the cross-cultural and interreligious interactions between Christianity and Chinese culture along the Silk Roads. Given the substantial scholarship on the topic, this paper will take into consideration especially objects and images that are particularly relevant in reconstructing the daily life of Christians in China and their liturgical and religious innovations showing the active role of inculturation between Christianity and Chinese culture. |