| Note | JapSin I, 33
Tang jingjiao beisong zhengquan 唐景教碑頌正詮.
By Yang Manuo 陽瑪諾 (Manuel Dias Jr., 1574–1659).
One volume in Chinese bamboo paper, published by Catholic Church of Wulin 武林天主堂 (Hangzhou) in 1644 (Chongzhen 17).
After the title page there is a frontispiece with a cross. The inscription on top reads: 判十字以定四方 (by the Cross the world is judged) and below: 唐景教碑額十字聖架 (the Holy Cross on top of the Nestorian monument). There is a preface by Manuel Dias written in the first month of Chongzhen 14 (1641).
The censors of this book were Fei Qigui 費奇規 (Gaspar Ferreira, 1571–1649), Ai Rulüe 艾儒略 (Giulio Aleni, 1582–1649) and Meng Ruwang 孟儒望 (João Monteiro, 1602–1648). The approval was given by Aleni, then Vice-Provincial (zhihui 值會) of China.
The Syrian Nestorian monks came to China in 635, the ninth year of Tang Taizong’s reign 唐太宗貞觀九年. The monument was unearthed in Chang’an (Shaanxi) in 1623 (Tianqi 3). In his book, Dias tries to give an explanation of the text of the Nestorian monument.
Folios 9 and 10 of this book contain an account by Zhang Geng 張賡 (cf. Jap-Sin I, 34/37, 3/1–3/3) on the discovery of Nestorian crosses in Fujian, in Quanzhou 泉州 and Wenling 溫陵 respectively.Cf. Jap-Sin I, 68 (a duplicate of this book) and Jap-Sin I, 53.4; Courant 1190–1193; Havret, 1897; Pfister, p. 109; Hsü 1949, pp. 230–234; Couplet, p. 13. This book was reprinted by Tou sè wè (Shanghai) in 1878. Source: Albert Chan, SJ, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, p. 28. |
