The form of Christianity often called Nestorianism but better described as the Church of the East spread widely across the continent of Asia following the banishment and condemnation of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, at the Council of Ephesus in 431. The belief system seemed to have entered China in the 7th century, according to the Nestorian Stele and Chinese records. In China, the religion was known as Jingjiao (景教).

It has been suggested that the Patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon created a metropolitan see in China in 411. Others have written that the first metropolitans were created in China at the time of Saliba Zacha, the Nestorians' patriarch from 714 to 728.

In 745, the Tang emperor Xuanzong issued an edict stating that the temples popularly known as "Persian temples" should be thenceforth known as Da Qin (Roman) temples.

Under the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty Nestorian Christianity once again gained a foothold in China. Yet the centralizing policies of the Ming Emperors meant that all things foreign were suspect, so Christianity was once again forced to go underground. The last known monument of Nestorian Christianity in China seems to be one dating to ca.1365 and found near Zhoukoudian in the Fangshan District of Beijing.

In 1625 the Nestorian Stele was found in Xian; it is a stone on which the story of the Nestorian missionaries coming to China was written in both Mandarin and Syriac. This discovery was of great importance to Christians in China at the time, because it proved that Christianity was part of China's past and not a recent foreign incursion, thus giving support to Christians against those who called for the religion to be banned.