《大秦景教流行中国碑》
古代中国称东罗马帝国为“大秦”，称最初传入中国的基督教（聂斯脱利派）为“景教”。《大秦景教流行中国碑》立于唐建中二年（781年），出土于明天启五年（1625年）。现存西安碑林，是一块极具历史价值和文化意义的石碑。
碑文有1780个汉字，多处刊刻古叙利亚文。碑文大致分为三个部分，第一部分是景教的教义等，借用佛道术语进行阐释；第二部分是景教传入中国的过程和发展，记载了唐贞观九年（635年）景教传教士来到长安，受到唐太宗的礼遇，开始在中国译经、建寺、传教等史实，为深入探讨古代景教史、东西方文明交流互鉴等提供了详实的研究资料，是最核心、最有价值的内容；第三部分主要是歌颂立碑资助人，他对景教发展起到重要作用。
《大秦景教流行中国碑》是早期基督教传入中国的最早见证物，是研究基督教在古代中国早期传播的必不可少的考据文献。碑文中既充满中华文明的精神，也含有罗马和波斯文明的内涵，是世界上多个民族文明交融的产物。其古叙利亚文，对于研究当时东罗马传教所用文字有着极为重要的参证价值。
Earliest record of Christianity in China
The ancient Chinese people called the Byzantine Empire "Great Qin" and Nestorianism the "Jing religion". It was the earliest Christian sect introduced to China, according to a stone tablet that was erected in the year 781 and unearthed in 1625. The tablet of historical and cultural significance is now in a museum in Xi'an.
There are 1,780 Chinese characters and some archaic Syriac letters engraved on the tablet. The inscriptions can be divided into three parts.
The first part is about the Nestorian doctrines, which were interpreted in Buddhist and Daoist terms.
The second part records the introduction of the religion to China and its further development. In the year 635, a Nestorian missionary arrived in Chang'an, capital of the Tang Dynasty, where he was received by Emperor Taizong. He settled there and engaged in translating Nestorian doctrines, building churches, and preaching to the local people. This is the core part of the inscriptions, and it provides detailed and valuable historical materials for the study of the Nestorian history and the exchanges between the East and the West.
The third part praises the man who sponsored the erecting of the tablet and contributed to the development of the Nestorian churches in China.
The stone tablet is the earliest record of the introduction of Christianity to China. It is an essential account for the research on the initial spread of Christianity in China. It is also a hybrid of the civilizations of ancient China, Rome and Persia. The Syriac letters are important for the study of the scripts used by the priests from the Byzantine Empire.
