CHRIST IN THE "LI TAI SHEN HSIEN T'UNG CHIEN" 189 





•J 



God the Father (Pa-te-le) and Jesus (Yeh-su) 

 (from the Zyi tat shen hsien Vung chien). 



in his Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art 

 as representing "Christ and two Nestorian priests." In his 

 Adversaria Sinica Professor Giles has been at great pains 

 to uphold his contention ; but, though with no wish to revive 

 the controversy, I find it impossible to> agree with his view; 

 for the following reasons. 



Any portrait of Christ must of course represent a man 

 less than thirty-three years of age; and there is no record 

 showing that Christ was partially bald. The top of the skull 

 distinctly shows the protuberance on the crown of the head 

 (ushnisha) so characteristic of portraits and images of the 

 Buddha, in some more pronounced, in others less. None 

 of the portraits of Christ I have seen represent him, the 

 Nazarene, with anything but a thick head of hair. A glance 



