Li M'Ha Ong

Li Ma Li-hong or M'Hâ Ong (ca. 650 - ca. 730), scholar Chinese from Jiangnan, from a family of officials clerk involved in tea transactions.

He is assumpted to be the author of the translation of Christian texts into Chinese but also, the transmission of Buddhist comments in Sanskrit. He was a member of the "Library of corrections and embellishments" of the Imperial Palace, the Mecca of thought and theological exchanges.

Only one piece of composition is awarded. Although the original was lost, "Treaty of Seeds and Stars" is known through the copy and translation, unfortunately partial, that Melchior Nuñez done, maybe from a Sogdian original. The latter arrived in China in 1555 had a sophisticated knowledge of Chinese. He transmits to Matteo Ricci this valuable work that included, in addition, a half-dozen landscapes of the green and blue era - including compositions "three mountains" - very popular in the Tang Dynasty.

Nuñez described him as a Nestorian monk but it is likely that the Jesuit has used this trick to give the translation a Nestorian impression with impunity.

The early Christians land in China in 635 (under the Tang Dynasty 618 - 907), are indeed Nestorians of Iranian origin. . They directly dive into the study of Chinese to explain the concepts to the Christian faith (one God creator of all things, transcendence, ...) but their biggest challenge is finding a suitable vocabulary, which inevitably a long theory of proofreading and corrections. Among the 70 000 rolls discovered in 1909 in the Thousand Buddhas Cave, sealed in the tenth century, there are some Nestorian texts, few of them in Sogdian.

Very quickly cut off from their roots, these Nestorians are often forced to make decisions without theological able to refer to any authority. Over time, they rely increasingly in Chinese culture and attract the sympathy of some Chinese scholars, some of which are converted. Nevertheless, they remain little known because they don't interest the all-oriented Chinese Taoism. The little is known of their small communities, however, is extremely accurate and detailed information with carefully recorded and carefully, as we all know so well do so in China.

By the middle of the ninth century, however, during the reign of Wu Tang Zong, all "barbarians" (ie foreign) religions are prohibited in China. We can trace the Nestorians that in 1260, the Court of Kubilai Khan whose mother was a Nestorian and where they are close to power. In the seventeenth century, the Nestorians have quite disappeared from China.

Two paintings are attributed to anonymous Li Ma-hong (private collection):

* Reflections of Giants : vertical roll, ink and light color on silk, 79.5 x 36.3 cm. Steep mountain peaks, alternating with deep gorges and shaded, overlooking a lake, fed by a waterfall and surrounded by vegetation generous . The games of shadow and light tones of green and blue and the superposition of different plans (mountains / valleys, waterfall, lake / vegetation) give a sense of depth to the landscape in which it appears that there is a step to blend into its immensity, in the silence of its heights in the vertigo of its steep slopes, in view of its panorama.

*Spring in the garden of Ma vertical roll, ink and colors on silk, 69 x 30 cm, kept in a wooden box without a subscription. On a beautiful garden remains. A lake of water, a few judiciously placed rocks as the mountains. Mountains and water are important elements of the Chinese garden. In this painting, the author happily married two arts specifically Chinese landscape painting and garden. The composition, in its lower part, shows a massive peonies in full bloom near a rock forms crooked. In the foreground, a highly engineered grid protects the trunk of a gnarled tree. The space is furnished: table, chairs covered with fabric cameo, lacquered screen richly decorated with intertwining floral quite stylized. A feeling of comfort calm emerges from the ensemble, accentuated by the presence of a cat asleep.

*This article is mainly inspired from a 1955 exposition catalog in Musée Guimet, Paris, (France) and from Monde de la Bible, special issue "Chrétiens en route vers Pékin", july/aug 2008.

see also

*Nestorianism
*Guimet Museum