As traders moved back and forth along the Silk Road, they carried more with them than luxury goods. Art, concepts, beliefs changed hands during the trade – but how to track this part of the commerce? Liuhong Fu '09 (New York City, N.Y.) is willing to try. This rising junior will spend his summer working with Professor of Religion Jay Williams and researching the development and change in early Christianity on the Southeast coast of China.
Fu is researching a branch of Christianity called Nestorianism, the result of a schism in 431 C.E. when Nestorius the Patriarch of Constantinople was accused of recognizing Christ as two figures, one human and one divine, instead of a single divine entity. Outlawed in the West, Nestorian beliefs continued in the East, and Nestorian Christianity reached China around 365 C.E., where it received the royal encouragement of the Tang dynasty.
The religion, which had flourished in the Chinese plain, declined with the Tangs and vanished after 907 C.E. During the Yuan dynasty, however, (1271 C.E. and forward), Nestorianism made a surprising recovery, appearing in port cities Fu-Zhou and Quan-Zhou, where it had not previously been common.
Fu will concentrate on this southern revival of the Church of the East, a blended form of Christianity which he described as Nestorianism heavily influenced by Buddhism and Daoism. He is considering two explanations for this revival: either that Tang Nestorianism had gone underground to a number of places in China including the coastal cities, or that the Church of the East was reintroduced to the coast through trade routes. Given the cultural contact which must have taken place on the maritime Silk Road, Fu finds it very likely that a mixed Christianity like the Church of the East might have arrived on the boats of the coastal trade.
Fu is based in China for the summer, spending time in both Fu-Zhou and Quan-Zhou. He is visiting museums which contain Nestorian artifacts, including several important and under-analyzed stelae (blocks of inscribed stone). He will also visit monasteries and religious centers, although the ones he has so far visited have not been as useful as he hoped. He is not too disappointed though; any information is exciting for Fu "since not many scholars have fully explored this field before."
A rising junior, Fu has been fascinated by early Chinese Christianity and the Church of the East since his first year when Williams (now his project advisor) gave Fu a copy of The Secret Sayings of Ye Su, a book which dealt with a Greek-written manuscript found in the Central Plain in China. Although Fu, a double major in mathematics and religious studies, has been reading on his own time, he explained that "now it is time for me to close books for a while and go to the places for the first-hand information."
Fu's research this summer is funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant Program, which provides students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty mentors, researching an area of mutual interest. Recipients typically undertake some combination of fieldwork, laboratory investigation, library research and the development of teaching materials. A public presentation of their findings is required of all Emerson Scholars during the academic year.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
Fu is researching a branch of Christianity called Nestorianism, the result of a schism in 431 C.E. when Nestorius the Patriarch of Constantinople was accused of recognizing Christ as two figures, one human and one divine, instead of a single divine entity. Outlawed in the West, Nestorian beliefs continued in the East, and Nestorian Christianity reached China around 365 C.E., where it received the royal encouragement of the Tang dynasty.
The religion, which had flourished in the Chinese plain, declined with the Tangs and vanished after 907 C.E. During the Yuan dynasty, however, (1271 C.E. and forward), Nestorianism made a surprising recovery, appearing in port cities Fu-Zhou and Quan-Zhou, where it had not previously been common.
Fu will concentrate on this southern revival of the Church of the East, a blended form of Christianity which he described as Nestorianism heavily influenced by Buddhism and Daoism. He is considering two explanations for this revival: either that Tang Nestorianism had gone underground to a number of places in China including the coastal cities, or that the Church of the East was reintroduced to the coast through trade routes. Given the cultural contact which must have taken place on the maritime Silk Road, Fu finds it very likely that a mixed Christianity like the Church of the East might have arrived on the boats of the coastal trade.
Fu is based in China for the summer, spending time in both Fu-Zhou and Quan-Zhou. He is visiting museums which contain Nestorian artifacts, including several important and under-analyzed stelae (blocks of inscribed stone). He will also visit monasteries and religious centers, although the ones he has so far visited have not been as useful as he hoped. He is not too disappointed though; any information is exciting for Fu "since not many scholars have fully explored this field before."
A rising junior, Fu has been fascinated by early Chinese Christianity and the Church of the East since his first year when Williams (now his project advisor) gave Fu a copy of The Secret Sayings of Ye Su, a book which dealt with a Greek-written manuscript found in the Central Plain in China. Although Fu, a double major in mathematics and religious studies, has been reading on his own time, he explained that "now it is time for me to close books for a while and go to the places for the first-hand information."
Fu's research this summer is funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant Program, which provides students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty mentors, researching an area of mutual interest. Recipients typically undertake some combination of fieldwork, laboratory investigation, library research and the development of teaching materials. A public presentation of their findings is required of all Emerson Scholars during the academic year.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
