| Alopen | |||||||||||||
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 The name "Alopen" (阿羅本) in the Xi'an Stele. | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 阿羅本 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 阿罗本 | ||||||||||||
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Alopen (Chinese: 阿羅本, fl. AD 635; also "Aleben", "Aluoben", "Olopen," "Olopan," or "Olopuen") is the first recorded Assyrian Christian missionary to have reached China, during the Tang dynasty. He was a missionary from the Church of the East (also known as the "Nestorian Church"),[1] and probably a Syriac speaker from the Sasanian Empire or from Byzantine Syria.[citation needed] He is known exclusively from the Xi'an Stele, which describes his arrival in the Tang capital of Chang'an in 635 and his acceptance by Emperor Taizong of Tang. His is the earliest known name that can be attached to the history of the Church of the East in China.
- ^ Anderson, Gerald H. (1999). Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-8028-4680-8.