A-lo-pen

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A-lo-pen (7th cent. CE). Chinese name of a Persian Christian (Nestorian) monk who was a missionary in China. According to a stele discovered by Jesuits in 1625, the emperor Taitsung (627–50) gave permission to A-lo-pen and sixty-seven others to work as missionaries in Sian-fu. These missions established an extensive church which was ended by Ming persecutions.