In 1625, workers in Xi'an uncovered a large black tablet inscribed in Chinese and Syriac, the head of which featured low-relief sculptures of dragons flanking a central but obscured cross. Self-dated to 781, the inscription describes the arrival of the monk Aluoben and the imperial evaluation and toleration of Nestorian Christianity.
From its discovery, the stele formed the center of Western proto-scholarship on China, yet its every facet remained controversial. When and where was it really discovered? What does the inscription mean? Does it contain impossibly precocious references to purgatory and the three Magi? Is it orthodox Catholicism? Is it a simply a Jesuit deception, designed to assist their mission by demonstrating the antiquity of Christianity in China? One theory specified that the Syriac was authentic but not the Chinese. Another took “Aluoben,” transliterated as “Lopuen,” and rearranged the letters to reveal “Pol Ven,” or Polo Vénitien, or Marco Polo....
