景教士的波斯东方教会身份考辨

The Cultural and Religious Identity of the Clergy of the“Luminous Teaching”in Tang Dynasty China

在华的景教教士为自己正名,改“波斯寺”为“大秦寺”,并立起了一块《大秦景教流行中国碑》,用溢美之词描述了他们信仰的起源地“大秦国”。实际上,这些教士来自波斯本土或大波斯文化圈的东方教会,并非来自东罗马帝国的官方宗派卡尔西顿派。长期的政治、地理和宗派隔阂使他们对东罗马帝国了解有限,而他们的名字、用词、宗教实践,则体现出了浓厚的波斯和东方教会特色。本文将对景教碑文本体现出来的波斯和东方教会独有的特点做出分析,也对不符合这些特点的难解之处做出一些诠释。

The clergy of the“Luminous Teaching”in China decided to rectify their name by changing the appellation“Persian Church”to“Da Qin Church”and erecting a“Stele of the Diffusion of the Luminous Teaching of Da Qin in China.”It describes in glowing terms the place of origin of their religion,the country of“Da Qin.”In reality,these clergy came from the Church of the East either in Persia proper,or greater Iran,not from the official Chalcedonian church of the Eastern Roman Empire.Centuries of political,geographical,and denominational divide had left them with limited knowledge of the Eastern Roman Empire.On the contrary,their names,diction,and religious practices reflect a strong Persian and Church of the East identity.This paper will provide an analysis of the unique Persian and Church of the East characteristics embodied in the Stele inscriptions,as well as tentative explanations for certain statements and practices in the same text that are not in line with these characteristics.