Religious Symbol in Cross-Cultural Transmission: Why the Lotus Thrived While the Cross Faltered in Medieval China

Abstract

This study examines the divergent trajectories of two foreign religious traditions introduced to China: Nestorianism and Buddhism. While Buddhism flourished and became deeply integrated into Chinese culture, Nestorianism ultimately waned. Adopting Clifford Geertz’s conception of “religion as a system of symbols,” and integrating insights from Charles S. Peirce’s semiotics and Victor Turner’s ritual anthropology, this research focuses on the core symbols of each faith—the cross and the lotus—to explain their contrasting receptions in medieval China. The analysis demonstrates that the Nestorian cross failed to generate coherent interpretants and could not be effectively enacted or sustained through ritual practices within the Chinese culture. In contrast, the Buddhist lotus resonated profoundly with preexisting symbolic meanings in indigenous Chinese culture, enabling its successful ritual embedding and facilitating the broader dissemination of Buddhism. The study concludes that, in cross-cultural transmission, the efficacy of religious symbols constitutes a vital and often overlooked factor.