At about the time of this tomb -- more precisely, during the 7th century AD and thereafter -- it is known that Nestorian Christianity and Manichaeanism had reached China from the West.Too bad Mohammed didn't die in infancy. But anyway...
Nestorian TabletThis remarkable record of the fact that Christianity flourished in medieval China is a huge stone about ten feet high. Carven dragons and a cross adorn its summit, and its main shaft is completely covered with some two thousand Chinese characters. It stands now in the Peilin or "Forest of Tablets" in Sian-fu, this Peilin being a great hall specially devoted to the preservation of old historic tablets. Up to a few years ago the ancient stone stood with other unvalued monuments in the grounds of a Buddhist monastery, exposed to all the assault of the elements. Only European urgence has led to its being preserved in the Peilin... [I]n the year A.D. 781 erected this stone in commemoration of its triumphs. Now, alas, only the stone remains. The record of the sect's decay has needed no stone to make it manifest. Nestorian Christianity, shut off from its mother land by the rise of the Mohammedan powers in between, proved unable to resist the inroads of ignorance and superstition and changing political affairs. It degenerated and disappeared.
by Paul Halsall
July1998
It may also have been absorbed into Taoism. Somewhat earlier than the period we're discussing, Manichaeanism's Zoroastrian relative had been absorbed into the "Five Bushels of Rice" school of Taoism founded by Chang Ling. This may have set the stage for the later reception of Nestorianism.
The leader Chang Ling took the title “Heavenly Teacher” in 200 C.E. He created a dynasty of high priests who manipulated Taoism to support a superstitious doctrine of magic and mysticism.18 Seizing higher power as a religious leader, he pioneered a merging of Taoism and Zoroastrianism into a system called Five Bushels of Rice Taoism. Eventually this developed into a society based on Mazdaism, a Zoroastrian sect, where every believer was charged five bushels of rice.19 Although the believers followed the basic Zoroastrian worship format, they worshipped different gods: the Tao instead of Ahura-Mazda, and the various Chinese folk gods in place of the Persian Angels.20 Three hundred years later, the philosopher Honen moved away from Mazdaism and combined Taoism with Buddhism. This simplified religion he created became known as the Pure Land School, or Amidaism. Gradually, however, Taoism again became tied to magic, and it failed as a religion.21 Today, only its original philosophies survive and there are very few followers of Taoism, mostly found in Taiwan.22