True, Chinese and Jewish Christians are a relatively NEW phenomenon. My 'dog' reference was from 'A Christmas Story' movie -- they end up at a Chinese restaurant at the end since they probably follow Confucianism and are the only place open. It's the 1950's. There's a very un-PC scene by today's standards with the Chinese waiters singing 'Deck the Halls' and pronouncing the 'l's like 'r's. Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra... Cute movie.
I get the point but you might be surprised to know:
The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Centuries
Apparently no later than the seventh century, history suggests that there were Sabbath-keepers in China who claimed Christianity.
“Christianity Today” (CT) reported the following on Christianity in China:
Did You Know?
In 635, a Christian leader from Persia named Alopen arrived in Chang’an, the capital of the Tang dynasty. Christianity was at first welcomed by the Chinese. But two centuries later, imperial persecution forced Christians to flee mainland China. A nine-foot-tall limestone monument in Chang’an, erected in 781, commemorates the “Luminous Religion” brought by Alopen and his fellow missionaries. (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/index.html#didyouknow viewed 08/03/09).
The following excerpt provides more information on this:
The Chang-An Monument
“It was in the year 1625; the Jesuits had infiltrated the fabric of the Chinese cultured classes, when a sensational discovery was made. A large monument stone inscribed with nineteen hundred Chinese characters, and fifty Syrian words, was unearthed just outside the walls of Chang-An, the ancient capital of the Tang Dynasty. The news of this discovery caused a bustle of excitement in the ancient metropolitan city, and thousands were anxious to know what information about their cultural heritage was hidden in the writing.
The Jesuits, who were regarded as the teachers and scholars, were immediately summoned to decipher the inscriptions. To the astonishment of these haughty priests, there before their eyes, was a description of the prestigious position, and vast extent of the seventh-day Sabbath-keeping Christian Church of the East of a millennia before!
The ancient Chinese characters were inscribed in 781 AD, at the command of Emperor Tae-Tsung, to honor the arrival of an Assyrian missionary and his companions to the capitol in the year 635 AD from Ta Tsin, or Judea. The stone revealed beliefs and practices of the primitive Christian church, which were unrelated and out of harmony with the Roman Catholic beliefs.
One of the passages reads:
“On the Seventh Day we offer sacrifices after having purified our hearts, and received absolution from our sins. This religion, so perfect and so excellent, is difficult to name, but it enlightens darkness by its brilliant precepts.”
In a state of shock, the Jesuits, and the Mandarins, a class of scholarly religious Chinese rulers, worked to alter the Chinese characters to reflect the Catholic doctrines, for if the expectant population were to learn what the stone really said, it would greatly damage their beliefs in the Catholic doctrines, and diminish the influence of the Mandarins.
But something very different than the expected resulted. Today, after carefully comparing the known facts of history with an examination of the historical and doctrinal facts written on the stone, a fraud is obvious.
The Chang-An Monument, or the “speaking stone,” as it is called, is considered to be as important a find as the Rosetta Stone, for it had the inscriptions in more than one language. The truth was preserved because the Jesuits were not able to read the inscription that was in Syrian.
From the reading of the stone today an irrefutable fact of history quickly becomes obvious. That ancient Sabbath-keeping Christianity had been very prominent and extensive throughout the Orient as late as the eighth and ninth centuries. “ (Excerpt from “Our Sabbath Heritage” by James Arrabito. Sabbath Sentinel. September-October 2000).
How long some in China kept the Sabbath is unclear. But apparently some did. And since that monument dates from the eighth century to commemorate the arrival from Judea of missionaries in 635, it is certainly possible that Sabbath-keeping occurred well after the monument was made. It is also possible that Sabbath-keeping occurred in China previous to that particular missionary trip and that no records were made (or at least found) as well.
Here is more information about this period:
The earliest record of any Christian mission to China is found inscribed on the Nestorian monument in Sianfu, erected in A.D. 781. Sianfu was the capital of the T’ang empire (A.D. 618-906) and the center of the then-greatest civilization in the world. This monument recorded the visit to the T’ang court of a band of Christians led by Alopen from Ta-chin (Syria). Alopen brought with him the “true scriptures.” They were given to T’ang T’ai-tsung who commanded that they be translated in the royal library. These Christians flourished under royal sponsorship until A.D. 845, when they suffered persecution, and soon afterward, near extinction...
In 1908 other Christian documents were found...Sir Aurel Stein, a British archaeologist, purchased these ancient manuscripts, one of which was dated 641 A.D., and is thus the oldest Chinese translation of any gospel portion. It is thought that these documents were written by the same Christian group as those in Sianfu (Kang C.H., Nelson E.R. The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 1979, p. 28).