[[zoroastrianism]] --- # Zoroastrianism & China Courtesy of Sigmundr Úlfheðinn. "In Classical Chinese, Zoroastrianism was first referred to as hútiān, which later was applied to all northern nomads in the Wei‐Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties. But in the early period of the Tang Dynasty a new letter xiān, meaning ‘heaven worship’, was invented for Zoroastrianism. It was then referred to as the ‘heaven worshiping religion’, pronounced xiānjiào in Chinese and kenkyo in Japanese. In the Far East, Zoroastrians were regarded not as “fire worshipers” but as “heaven worshipers”. It is quite a rare case for the Chinese to create a new character for a foreign religion, and from this it is clear that Zoroastrians made an impact on medieval Chinese society. Although Chinese historians, at least in the 10th century, knew that this religion was established by in Chinese language Suluzhı and Japanese Soroshi (both meaning Zarathustra) they preferred the name of xiānjiào for Zoroastrianism. *** The history of Zoroastrianism in the Far East is divided into three periods. ▪The first period started with the Wei and Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties (220–589 CE) when Sogdians advanced to China with their variety of Zoroastrianism, though they seem to have had no intention of propagating Zoroastrianism within China. Apparently, the Sogdian Zoroastrians did not bring any scriptures, as suggested by the fact that there are only two currently known Zoroastrian Sogdian fragments. One is a fragment of a Sogdian translation of the Ašem Vohu brought by Aurel Stein (1862–1943) from Dunhuang, which is now at the British Museum, and the other, “Zarathustra’s Questions to Ahura Mazda on the Posthumous Soul,” also from Dunhuang, is now at the Kyoto National Museum. There also appear to be no Chinese books on Zoroastrianism, in sharp contrast to what we find for Manichaeism and Nestorianism. The Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) prohibited Chinese people from professing Zoroastrianism, so it remained primarily a foreign religion for foreign people. In addition to the Sogdian Zoroastrians, after the fall of the Sasanian Dynasty in 651 CE, Iranian Zoroastrians migrated to northern China. This period ended when the Tang Dynasty collapsed in 907 CE. ▪The second period started from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960 CE) and lasted until modern times. During this period, the gods of Sogdian Zoroastrianism were assimilated into the pantheon of Chinese folk beliefs. After the Yuan period (1271–1368 CE), Zoroastrian gods and exotic Sogdian customs are often found as literary symbolism in Chinese folk literature. If this religion, which was increasingly professed by Chinese people, can be regarded as one of the varieties of Zoroastrianism, it is then a “Sinicized” form of Zoroastrianism. This form of Chinese Zoroastrianism flourished until the 1940s. ▪The third period started in the 18th century when Parsi merchants sailed from Bombay to Macao, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou. They were engaged in the opium trade in the first half of the 19th century and went to Japan for the cotton trade in the early 20th century. Parsi cemeteries and fire‐temples were built at these coastal cities in the Far East. Most Parsis were exiled from China when the Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, but the Parsis in Japan have remained there for several generations till today." The Chinese viewed Heaven as the realm of their God, and Earth as the mother. The Emperor was viewed as God on Earth. The Middle East were sun worshippers stemming from a patriarchal society. This went into India as Buddhism and all plagiarized by the Christians. However, the true genesis of all, lies in Mongolian Shamanism.