After the year 489, early Christianity split into the Western, Catholic branch based in Rome and what is known as the Church of the East, rooted in the land east of the Euphrates. In 635, Alopen brought Christian teaching to Chang-An, the Chinese capital during that time. The Church of the East enjoyed a period of rapid development until around 845, but after the decline of the Tang Dynasty, Christianity completely disappeared on the Central Plain for almost 400 years, only remaining in Northwest China among some Uigur and Mongol tribes. However, during the Yuan Dynasty, beginning in 1271, the southeastern city of Quan-Zhou in Chinese Fujian Province suddenly became a center of the Church of the East overnight. This phenomenon begs the question: Where did these churches come from?
Liuhong Fu '09 (Fuzhou, China) spent the summer investigating precisely this question. Fu became interested in the subject at the beginning of his freshman year, when he read a book by Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies Jay Williams '54, The Secret Sayings of Ye Su (Jesus), which discusses a mysterious Christian scroll found in China. "From then on, besides working on my college courses, I spent a lot of personal time doing research in the Church of the East," Fu says.
His hypothesis thus far is that the Church of the East may not have originated on the Central Plain when the first Christian mission arrived in AD 653; instead, he says it is "highly possible" that the religion arrived by way of the Maritime Silk Road, which connected Southeast China to the South Indian coast. The problem is to date the movement: although this branch of Christianity would have arrived earlier than the one to the Central Plain, the exact timing is uncertain. One possibility is the first-century St. Thomas mission to India, which scholars such as Samuel Hugh Moffett, A.C. Moule, and others suggested might have continued on to China.
Throughout his time at Hamilton, Fu has been deeply interested in researching the Church of the East, but he says that the time has come to close the books and pursue some firsthand, on-site research. "Once you become very familiar with the research topic through enough reading, more reading will no longer extend your scope as effectively as it used to," he explains. Fu spent part of last summer conducting research in China, but his limited budget forced him to stop midway, lacking the evidence to show whether the Church of the East really traveled to Southeast China through the Maritime Silk Road. This year, Fu received a stipend from the Emerson Foundation Grant program to continue his work, in collaboration with Professor Williams. Created in 1997, the Emerson program was designed to provide students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty members, researching an area of interest.
Fu traveled to Xi-An and Zheng-Jiang, staying for a several days in each city. He studied the many Christian headstones, churches, and crosses that have been discovered in the past few years, and have not yet been fully investigated by scholars. Besides focusing on the ancient headstones and historic texts, his work last summer showed him a new avenue to explore. While conducting research at a Mani temple, Fu met an old man who had lived there since childhood, and said he used to see Christian-like ceremony around the temple. Although Fu did not have time to interview the man at that point, he says the experience showed him the value of adding interviews as "another dimension" to his research.
His work this summer may end up as part of his senior thesis, Fu says, but that might not be the end: he plans to apply for a Watson fellowship to spend a year after graduation exploring the Church of the East in other locations along the Maritime Silk Road, such as Taiwan, Vietnam, Myanmar/Burma, and India. In addition to his research this summer, Fu is also interning in the Department of Corporate Banking of the Central Bank of China, and says that he may become a banker in the future.
-- by Laura Bramley
Liuhong Fu '09 (Fuzhou, China) spent the summer investigating precisely this question. Fu became interested in the subject at the beginning of his freshman year, when he read a book by Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies Jay Williams '54, The Secret Sayings of Ye Su (Jesus), which discusses a mysterious Christian scroll found in China. "From then on, besides working on my college courses, I spent a lot of personal time doing research in the Church of the East," Fu says.
His hypothesis thus far is that the Church of the East may not have originated on the Central Plain when the first Christian mission arrived in AD 653; instead, he says it is "highly possible" that the religion arrived by way of the Maritime Silk Road, which connected Southeast China to the South Indian coast. The problem is to date the movement: although this branch of Christianity would have arrived earlier than the one to the Central Plain, the exact timing is uncertain. One possibility is the first-century St. Thomas mission to India, which scholars such as Samuel Hugh Moffett, A.C. Moule, and others suggested might have continued on to China.
Throughout his time at Hamilton, Fu has been deeply interested in researching the Church of the East, but he says that the time has come to close the books and pursue some firsthand, on-site research. "Once you become very familiar with the research topic through enough reading, more reading will no longer extend your scope as effectively as it used to," he explains. Fu spent part of last summer conducting research in China, but his limited budget forced him to stop midway, lacking the evidence to show whether the Church of the East really traveled to Southeast China through the Maritime Silk Road. This year, Fu received a stipend from the Emerson Foundation Grant program to continue his work, in collaboration with Professor Williams. Created in 1997, the Emerson program was designed to provide students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty members, researching an area of interest.
Fu traveled to Xi-An and Zheng-Jiang, staying for a several days in each city. He studied the many Christian headstones, churches, and crosses that have been discovered in the past few years, and have not yet been fully investigated by scholars. Besides focusing on the ancient headstones and historic texts, his work last summer showed him a new avenue to explore. While conducting research at a Mani temple, Fu met an old man who had lived there since childhood, and said he used to see Christian-like ceremony around the temple. Although Fu did not have time to interview the man at that point, he says the experience showed him the value of adding interviews as "another dimension" to his research.
His work this summer may end up as part of his senior thesis, Fu says, but that might not be the end: he plans to apply for a Watson fellowship to spend a year after graduation exploring the Church of the East in other locations along the Maritime Silk Road, such as Taiwan, Vietnam, Myanmar/Burma, and India. In addition to his research this summer, Fu is also interning in the Department of Corporate Banking of the Central Bank of China, and says that he may become a banker in the future.
-- by Laura Bramley
