Church of the East in Sichuan

[2] David Crockett Graham noted that Marco Polo found East Syriac monasteries in Sichuan and Yunnan in the 13th century.

[3] According to the 12th-century biji collection Loose Records from the Studio of Possible Change by Wu Zeng [zh], during the Tang dynasty, "Hu" missionaries built a Daqin temple [ja] (i.e., an East Syriac church) into the existing ruins of the former Castle of Seven Treasures[a] at Chengdu, which was constructed by ancient Shu kings of the Kaiming dynasty (666 BC – 316 BC) and had pearl curtains installed as decorative applications.

He was unaware of the site being the ruins of a church, for he went on to write: "I suspect that in olden days these were tombs of a minister or grandee, they set the stones up as markers, and they still survive today.

"[10] According to volume 7 of Du Gongbu's Poems Annotated by Thousand Scholars [zh],[i] Pearl Temple was "later destroyed and fell to the ground, but the foundation remained.

[12] Zhao Bian [zh]'s Stories of Shu Commandery[k] (11th century) also mentions the temple: "The Daqin empire, whence a variety of precious stones is obtained, namely, lapis lazuli, emeralds, pearls, and luminous jade.

[16] The rest are crosses within Bodhi leaves carved on a round granite stone base, now in front of an antique shop on a back-street in Ciqikou.

[20] According to local testimonies, Fang Kuan's name was carved on the no-longer-extant Nestorian stele at Wang Hsiang T'ai Temple.

[24] A report by the 9th-century writer Li Weigong included in A Complete Collection of Tang-era Prose Literature [zh] states that a certain Daqin cleric proficient in ophthalmology[25][26] or optometry[27] was present in the Chengdu area.

In volume 12 of The Collected Works of Li Weigong,[n] it is recorded that in 829, Wang Cuodian [zh], a powerful official of the Kingdom of Nanzhao (modern-day Yunnan), "led his troops to attack Shu and returned with much plunder."

Chen Ming stated in his 2007 article that he was "inclined to agree with Lo Hsiang-lin, and to conclude that Li Xun was probably a Nestorian who was influenced by Taoism".

[30] Lo's idea was also supported by Zhang Xushan as the latter called Li Xun an East Syriac Christian proficient in medical skills.

One of the Ciqikou crosses
Duke Fang Stone
Memorial arch of Fang Kuan within the yamen