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Adam / Jingjing
ܐܕܡ / 景淨
"Adam" in Syriac in the Xian Nestorian Stele, in Hebrew and in Written Hebrew (reads from right to left)
Personal life
Born	750/751 CE China
Died	unknown, but after 781 CE China
Flourished	8th century CE
Occupation	Deacon
Religious life
Religion	Christianity
School	Nestorianism

Adam (Syriac: ܐܕܡ Adam), also known by his Chinese name Jingjing (Chinese: 景淨; pinyin: Jǐngjìng; Wade–Giles: Ching-ching), was an 8th-century Syriac Christian monk and scholar in China. He composed the text on the Nestorian Stele, which described the history of the Church of the East in China from 635 to 781. Many scholars believe he is also the author of the later Jingjiao Documents.

Biography

Scholars place Adam's probable birth at around 750 or 751. Adam's father was named Yazedbozid (Syriac: ܝܙܕܒܘܙܝܕ Yazedbuzid, Chinese: 伊斯; Yīsī), who was part of a fighting unit invited to come to China by the Tang court to help quell the An Lushan Rebellion. According to the Syriac text on the stele, Adam's grandfather was named Mailas (ܡܝܠܝܣ Milis), and was a priest from Balkh (ܒܠܟ݂ Balkh) in Tokharistan (ܬܟ݂ܘܪܝܣܬܢ Takhouristan), in northern Afghanistan. It has been posited that Adam was raised or born in China and received a Chinese education due to his grasp of Classical Chinese and Chinese religious thought that's observed in his writings.

Nestorian stele

Around 781, Adam composed the text of the Nestorian Stele. Sources also state that Adam translated (by imperial order) multiple Biblical texts into Chinese. The texts in question seemed to be paraphrases of certain portions of the New Testament and to a smaller extent, parts of the Old Testament. In 786, Adam helped an Indian Buddhist monk from Kapisha called Prajna translate the Buddhist text Sutra of the Six Mahayana Paramitas from an Iranian language (Sogdian or Bactrian) to Chinese. The translated text was presented to Emperor Dezong in 787, who rejected the translation on the grounds it was faulty, corrupted, and confused by a fusion of Buddhist and Nestorian concepts.

Adam was bilingual in Persian and Chinese. He may also have been literate in Syriac, Arabic and possibly Sogdian or Bactrian.

References

1. Toshikazu S. Foley (July 2008). "Translating Biblical Texts into Chinese: The Pioneer Venture of the Nestorian Missionaries" (PDF). Technical Papers for the Bible Translator. 59 (3): 113–121. doi:10.1177/026009350805900301. S2CID 163841626.
2. Malek, Roman; Hofrichter, Peter (2006). 景教: The Church of the East in China and Central Asia. Institut Monumenta Serica. p. 93. ISBN 978-3-8050-0534-0.
3. ^ Godwin (2018), p. 142
4. ^ Kurian, George Thomas; III, James D. Smith (2010). The Encyclopedia of Christian Literature. Scarecrow Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-8108-7283-7.
5. Havret, Henri (1848–1901) Auteur du texte (1895–1902). La stèle chrétienne de Si-ngan-fou. 3 / par le P. Henri Havret,... ; avec la collab. du P. Louis Cheikho,... [pour la IIIe partie]. p. 61.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
6. Tang, Li; Winkler, Dietmar W. (2013). From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 114. ISBN 978-3-643-90329-7.
7. Covell, Ralph (2004). Confucius, the Buddha, and Christ: A History of the Gospel in Chinese. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-59244-533-2.
8. Godwin (2018), p. 10
9. Gillman, Ian; Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim (1999). Christians in Asia Before 1500. Psychology Press. p. 282. ISBN 978-0-7007-1022-5.
10. Godwin (2018), p. 145-146
11. Godwin (2018), p. 176
12. Mendoza, Juan González de (17 December 2020). History of the Kingdom of China (Vol. 1&2). p. 9.
13. Lieu, Samuel N. C. (1985). Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China: A Historical Survey. Manchester University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-7190-1088-0. Lo-yang (Sarag in Sogdian)
14. Holm, Frits Vilhelm. "The Nestorian Monument: An Ancient Record of Christianity in China".

Bibliography

• Godwin, R. Todd (2018). Persian Christians at the Chinese Court: The Xi'an Stele and the Early Medieval Church of the East. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78673-316-0.

v t e Church of the East in China
Context and origin	Thomas the Apostle Nestorius and Nestorianism Church of the East Peshitta Nestorian cross Silk Road and Sino-Roman relations
Tang dynasty	Clergy Patriarch Ishoyahb II Alopen Adam Artifacts Murals from the Christian temple at Qocho Xi'an Stele Nestorian pillar of Luoyang Mogao Christian painting Pearl Temple Daqin Pagoda (speculated) Writings Jingjiao Documents Yishenlun [zh] Sutra of Hearing the Messiah Nestorian Gloria in excelsis Deo [zh] Zunjing [zh] Related Emperor Taizong of Tang Three Persian religions of the Tang dynasty Guo Ziyi Emperor Wuzong of Tang Huichang persecution of Buddhism
Yuan dynasty	Clergy Simeon Rabban Ata Rabban Bar Sauma Patriarch Yahballaha III Sites Cross Temple, Fangshan Related Christianity among the Mongols Sorghaghtani Beki Marco Polo John of Montecorvino John of Marignolli
By region	Shaanxi Sichuan Xinjiang Beijing Fujian
Related modern people	Paul Pelliot Arthur Christopher Moule Reginald Johnston Haneda Toru [ja] P. Y. Saeki Chen Yuan F. S. Drake Patriarch Gewargis III Martin Palmer Patriarch Awa III

• 8th-century Chinese people
• 8th-century Christian monks
• Iranian Christians
• Chinese people of Iranian descent
• Christians from Imperial China