Alopen

File:Nestorians-1-.jpg artifact, mentioning Alopen]]

Alopen's name is known only from the Chinese of the Xi'an Stele. This may be a transliteration of the Semitic "Abraham"{{Citation | last = Saeki | first = PY | author-link = P. Y. Saeki | title = The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China | edition = 2nd | place = Tokyo | publisher = Academy of Oriental Culture | year = 1951}}. or aloho punoya, "the conversion of God."{{Citation | last = Ethridge | first = J.W | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WKkAAAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA85 | title= The Syrian Churches | place = London | publisher = Longman, Green, Brown & Longmans | year = 1846}}. Amy Chua posits that his name could be a transcription of "Ruben"{{Cite book |last=Chua |first=Amy |url=https://archive.org/details/dayofempirehowhy0000amyc/page/71/mode/1up |title=Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance–and Why They Fall |publisher=Doubleday |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-385-51284-8 |edition=1st |location=New York |page=71 |oclc=123079516}}, Alexis Balmont rather advocates for Ardaban{{Cite book |last=Balmont |first=Alexis |title=Le christianisme chinois du haut Moyen Âge |publisher=Cerf |year=2025 |isbn=978-2204168694 |edition=1st |location=Paris |page=323}}.

According to the Stele, Alopen and his fellow missionaries came to China from Daqin (or Ta Tsin – the Byzantine Empire) in the ninth year of Emperor Taizong (Tai Tsung; 635), bringing sacred books and images.{{cite book |title=Jingjiao: the Church of the East in China and Central Asia |editor1-last =Malek | editor1-first = Roman | editor2-last = Hofrichter | editor2-first = Peter |year=2006 |isbn= 978-3-8050-0534-0 |publisher= Steyler Verlagsbuchhandlung | chapter= Remnants of Christianity from Chinese Central Asia in Medieval ages| last = Ding | first = Wang}} He would have come to China via the Silk Road. The Church of the East mission benefited from Taizong's policy of religious tolerance, which reversed measures his father Gaozu had taken against Buddhism and other foreign religions and influences. Many of the religions that were tolerated entered through the Silk Road: Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Taizong appreciated Jesus as another sage, and Christian doctrines as being profound and promoting peace, and therefore welcome to be preached throughout the Empire.

{{quote|太宗文皇帝，光華啓運，明聖臨人，大秦國有上徳曰阿羅本，占青雲而載真經，望風律以馳艱險。貞觀九祀，至扵長安。

In the time of the accomplished Emperor Taitsung, the illustrious and magnificent founder of the dynasty, among the enlightened and holy men who arrived was the Most-virtuous Olopun, from the country of Syria. Observing the azure clouds, he bore the true sacred books; beholding the direction of the winds, he braved difficulties and dangers. In the year AD 635 he arrived at Chang-an.|Extract from the Xi'an Stele, about the arrival of Alopen.{{cite web |last1=Holm |first1=Frits Vilhelm |title=The Nestorian Monument: An Ancient Record of Christianity in China |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Nestorian_Monument:_An_Ancient_Record_of_Christianity_in_China/Translation_of_the_Nestorian_Inscription}}{{cite web |title=Wikisource |url=https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E7%A7%A6%E6%99%AF%E6%95%99%E6%B5%81%E8%A1%8C%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%E7%A2%91%E9%A0%8C}}}}

According to the Stele, Taizong welcomed Alopen and arranged for the translation of the holy writings he had brought with him at the Imperial Library. Upon studying them, Taizong, a great scholar and patron, found them most acceptable and arranged for their dissemination. Indeed, four documents from the early period of Christianity in China date to around Alopen's time. Three years later, in 638, Taizong issued an official declaration protecting the Church of the East. He erected China's first Christian church and recognized twenty-one priests, likely all Persians, to administer it. Under Taizong's son and successor Gaozong, who continued this policy of toleration, Alopen's status expanded even further, and he was appointed bishop over the many churches built by the emperor.{{cite web |title=Nestorian Tablet: Eulogizing the Propagation of the Illustrious Religion in China, with a Preface, composed by a priest of the Syriac Church, 781 A.D. |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/eastasia/781nestorian.asp |access-date=January 28, 2010 |work=East Asian History Sourcebook |publisher=www.fordham.edu/halsall}}

After Alopen's time, the Church of the East was prominent in China for the remainder of the Tang Dynasty's power. Different emperors treated it differently, with some showing it the tolerance it received in the early decades, and some openly persecuting it. The Church of the East disappeared with the fall of the Tang Dynasty in the early 10th century. It did not return for three centuries, when it was reintroduced by the Mongols. The story of Alopen became prominent again in the 17th century, when the Xi'an Stele was rediscovered and the Chinese were surprised to find that the "new" religion being preached by the missionaries, had actually been in existence in China more than 1,000 years earlier.

• Adam (monk)

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{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120206012925/http://www.christianityinchina.org/Common/Admin/showNews_auto.jsp?Nid=304&Charset=big5 Early Christianity in China]
• Samuel Hugh Moffett, "[http://bdcconline.net/en/stories/alopen Alopen]," Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.

{{Christianity in China}}

{{Syriacs}}

{{Church of the East in China}}

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Category:Christian missionaries in China

Category:Church of the East in Shaanxi

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:Year of death unknown

Category:7th-century bishops of the Church of the East

Category:History of Christianity in Asia

Category:7th-century Christian clergy

Category:West Asian diaspora

Category:Place of birth unknown