mm Nestorian Monument ! mm^ r 1 ASIA OE Hsi-AN Fu ■ i;;;::::;v:;:: James Legge CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION ON CHINA AND THE CHINESE Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023155785 THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT OF HSl-AN FtJ IN SHEN-HSi, CHINA RELATING TO THE DIFFUSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA IN THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES THE CHINESE TEXT OF THE INSCRIPTION, A TRANSLATION, AND NOTES AND A LECTURE ON THE MONUMENT With a Sketch of subsequent Christian Missions in China and their present state JAMES LEGGE PROFESSOR OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD TRUBNER & CO., 57 AND 59, LUDGATE HILL 1888 Reprinted by PARAGON BOOK REPRINT CORP. NEW YORK 1966 Library of Congress Catalogue Card No. 66-18959 All Rights Reserved An unaltered and unabridged reprint of the work published in London 1 888 Reprinted by Paragon Book Reprint Corp. "■ 1 Printed in the United States of America PREFACE. I HAD long recognised the importance of the Hsi-an FA monument, and the inscription on it had often engaged my attention. Towards the end of last year two rubbings or facsimiles of it were submitted to me, one of them more complete than I had ever seen before, showing not only the writing on the face, but also the long lists of names, mostly in Syriac but partly in Chinese, on the two sides. I made a fresh study of the inscription, in the course of which it occurred to me that there were some things to be said on it which had not been said already, — things not unimportant for the general public, and specially im- portant for parties interested, like myself, in the prosecution and conduct of Missions in China. I resolved in conse- quence to give a public Lecture on the monument here in Oxford, and afterwards to print it. In translating the inscription afresh I enjoyed many advantages. Most of the versions already made were ac- cessible to me. I may specify the two translations in Kircher's China Illustrata; that of Semedo; the two of Bishop Visdelou, with his many notes, in one of the supplementary volumes to B. D'Herbelot's Biblioth^que Orientale (A la Haye, 1779) ; those of Dr. Bridgman and of P. Dalqui^, both in the Chinese Repository for May, 1845; that of M. L^ontiewski, as translated frdm Russian into French by M. C. Marchal de Lun^ville (Paris, 1853); that of Mr. A. Wylie, with all his notes; and that of M. Pauthier (1858). In all of these — in some more, in some lesS' — there was room both for correction and improvement. I may say that my own translation was made in the first place quite independently, and that nothing was Subse- quently changed in it without mature deliberation. In studying the Chinese text in my two facsimiles, a 2 IV PREFACE. which of course agreed exactly, I was surprised to find that in all the printed copies of it there were many errors. Of those in the China Illustrata I have spoken in the Lecture, and they were naturally reproduced by Dr. Bridg- man in the Chinese Repository. The text in Wang Ch'ang's great collection of Inscriptions is much superior to Kircher's, but still not free from inaccuracies, which re-appear in Pauthier. It seemed desirable that I should annex to my translation a more correct Chinese text than had previously been printed. The easiest way to do this would have been by pho- tography, and we have a fine specimen of what can thus be accomplished by the representation of the Inscription in the and edition of Col. Yule's Travels of Marco Polo. But I was anxious that readers and especially students of Chinese should have a text in larger type, which they might read with ease, and without having their attention distracted by the peculiar forms of many of the characters in the T'ang writing of the Inscription. These do not disguise the characters from a scholar familiar with Chinese, but they are troublesome to men in the earlier stages of their progress. But for the resources of the Clarendon Press, the printing of the text as I wished to see it could not have been secured. If there be still any inaccuracies in it, they must be put down to my own want of sufficient watchfulness over the compositors. I have thus detailed the reasons for the appearance of this little publication, and have only further to acknowledge my great obligation to Mr. D. S. Margoliouth, of New College, and to the Rev. F. H. Woods, St. John's College, for their assistance in the transcription and translation of the Syriac on the monument. The lists of names on the two sides it did not seem worth while to reproduce ; they are referred to in a note at the end of the Translation. J. L. Oxford, March 28, 1888. Monument (commemorating) the diffusion of THE illustrious RELIGION OF TA TS'IN IN THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. HEAD OF THE MONUMENT. (o) i®"^ (?">■ 1HE CROSS IMMEDIA'JEI.Y /\KO\'E THE NAME OF THE MONOMF.NT. (L,,ii;cr rh'w.J TEXT AND TRANSLATION OF THE MONUMENT. =. mm'^^iM 1^ ^> t^ m i^ ^ % ^ J^ :5fe ft 7C :5fe :i: Pi ^ V n P. c » * > V c J ( C ? c S 3 5$ THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. THE EULOGISTIC VERSES ON THE STONE MONUMENT (COMMEMORATING) THE DIFFUSION OF THE IL- LUSTRIOUS ' RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE KINGDOM, WITH PREFATORY NOTICES. Handed down by Ching-tsing, a priest of the TA Ts'in Monastery. (In Syriac.) Adam, Presbyter and Chorepiscopos, and Papas OF China. I. I. It is acknowledged^ that there was One, unchangeable, true, and still, the First and unoriginated ; incomprehensible in His intel- . ligence and simplicity ; the Last and mysteriously Beins. existing ; Who,- with His hands operating in the mys- terious (abyss of space), proceeded to create ', and by His spirit to * give existence to all the Holy ones, Himself the great adorable ; — was not this our Eloah °, with His marvellous being, Three- in-One, the unoriginated True Lord ? ' It has been made an objection to the genuineness of the monument that the form of the characters and style of the composition are so much akin to the writing and style of the present day. But the same objection may be made to other inscriptions of the same date, and even of dynasties older than the T'ang. No one familiar with the character and literature of the country would be likely to make it, still there are some of the characters of an unusual form, though rarely unexampled. To two or three, not previously pointed out, attention will be found drawn in the present edition of the Chinese Text. 1 wish here to notice the character translated 'Illustrious,' and which everywhere in the monu- ment appears as B instead of "S*. There is no doubt that they are two forms of the same character, but I have nowhere found their difference of form remarked npon, and it has escaped the observation of all the lexicc^raphers, Chinese as well as foreign. The second, or conmion form, is the correct one ; the H . or symbol of meaning, is what it should be, and so is the ^ (king), or phonetic symbol. The writer of this inscription uses H for tt through- out, at which I am not surprised. How he should change the Q in the top of the character into pj surprises and perplexes me. ' The first three Books of the Shfl King begin in the same way. Bridg- man's translation of the two Chinese characters by ' Now verily ' is good. ' A difficult clause. Bridgman misreads j^ in it, as if it were j^ • a pivot,' ' an axis.' * Compare the use of "Mf in the fifth Appendix to the YJ King, par. lo. ' The phonetization in Chinese of the Syriac term for God, equivalent to the Hebrew rjS'pii. B a m «$H4'^f — ' V ^ i>x m m ■'frTt, ""^ 71 II- ^> w # A, G9 •a t^ ) irp + m M ¥ III ^ it # o M A, m O 7C M rfii 4 THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 2. Having determined the four cardinal points in space as by the extremities of the character for ten ("f")\ He called into action the primordial wind, and produced the twofold ether ■'- CreatFonrespl '^^^ ^^^^ ^"'"^ ^^^ changed, and heaven and earth daily of man. ^^re opened out. The sun and moon revolved, and day and night commenced. Having formed and fashioned the myriad things, He then made the first man, specially conferring on him the harmony of all good qualities, and commanding him to have dominion over the ocean depths (now) transformed (into the earth) ^ 3. Man's perfect original nature was void of all ambitious pre- occupation ; his unstained and capacious mind was free from all inordinate desire. When, however, Satan * employed i:, ^''^ mm^^TM '/^ m i^ m m m. IE m iFtt A m ± n m ^ -^ m ^ m M M- ^ o ^ «. fn ^ tf w -H- m + -b ft ife 51 # K 7D 0>g M >ft ^. Ai:l A>i -^ ^ # 1 M m> M (3% PI w m z W 5i S^. IrT, m. H sir 11 HI f(^. -ff ftp M ^ fl^ THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. in the world as a man. Angels ' proclaimed the glad wOTk°ofTh^ tidings. A virgin brought forth the Holy one in Ti Messiah. Ts'in "- A bright star announced the fehcitous event. Persians saw its splendour and came with tribute. He fulfilled the Old Law, as it was delivered by the twenty-four holy ones *. He announced His great plans for the regulation of families and kingdoms *. He appointed His new doctrines, operating without words " by the cleansing influence of the Tri-une. He formed in man the capacity of good-doing by the correct faith. He defined the measures of the eight (moral) conditions °, purging away the dust (of defilement) and perfecting the truth (in men). He threw open the gate of the three constant (virtues) ', thereby bringing life to light and abolishing death. He hung up the bright sun to break open the abodes of darkness. By all these things the wiles of the devil were defeated. The vessel of mercy ' was set in motion to convey men to the palace of light, and thereby all intelligent beings were conveyed across (the intervening space) °- His mighty work being thus completed, at noon- day He ascended to His true (place). He left behind Him the twenty- seven standard books ^''. These set forth the great conversion for the deliverance of the soul. They institute the washing of His Law by water and the spirit, cleansing away all vain delusions, and purifying men till they regain the whiteness of their pure simplicity". 5. (His ministers)'^ bearing with them the seal of the Cross ", diffuse a harmonizing influence wherever the sun shines, and unite all together without distinction. They strike their watch-wood ", and at its sound * A semi-Buddhistic name = ' spirits-devas.' ' Evidently TS Ts'in is here used for Judea, or at any rate Judea was con- sidered by the writer to be a part of TS Ts'in. ' Most probably the writers of the Books of the Old Testament ; see Renau- dut, in his ' Anciennes Relations des Indes etde la Chine,' p. 244. * A reference to the commencing chapter of ' The Great Learning.' • Compare a similar expression in the TSo Teh King, ch. 2. • Bridgman has here, ' He established the measure of the eight boundaries ;' and to the same effect, Wylie. A Christian Chinese suggested to Bridgman a reference to ' the eight Beatitudes.' ' Probably, the three graces of Faith, Hope, and Love.' ' The vessel of mercy or salvation appears again in the Inscription, " A reference to the 63rd hexagram of the VI King. " The Books of our New Testament. " Tdoistic phraseology. " Evidently the writer here passes from the work of Christ to that of His mmisters, and we must make a new paragraph. " The character for ten ("T*) stands here for the sign or figure of the 'Cross.' " Every one who has passed a night in a Chinese monastery knows what the striking of the wood is. WMf^^rM ^ m, i^^ jk m w M ^ ^ a 1^ >it ^, m j^^ ik m m 3fe ^ M ^ ft ^ W $/». ^. Ifli 'If. M m m o ^. r^ z m. i^ m M ^ =^. m m '^ m ^ M m 1^ z w^ M. m ^ :k. m. m i^ m A. it ^ ^ # ^ A m m m, m ^ m n m -t n z ^ ^ ^ Si :i^ ^ ± T M li. ^ # m ^ m ^ ^ m w. ^. i^ It. i^ P^ O 5S ^ ip ^ m m t:. m ^i' ^ m m - m. m n. THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT, , . are stimulated to love and kindness. They turn cere- Wa^oml moniously to the east, and hasten on in the path to Communities. '"^ and glory. They preserve their beards to show how their work lies without themselves ; they shave their crowns to show that they have no inward affections of their own'. They do not keep or maltreat slaves, male or female ^. They make no distinction between noble and mean among men. They do not ac- cumulate property or wtealth, but give all they have to our (communities). They fast to subdue (the pride of) knowledge and become pei'fect ; they keep the vigil df stillness and watchfuliie^s to maintain (their minds) firm. §even times a day they have worship and praite for the great protection of the living ai^d the dead '. Once in every sevfeti days they have » publics service ', cleansing their hearts and regaining their purity. 6. This trug and unchanging systei^ of doctfine is mysterious The name ^^^ difficult to name. To display its manifest opera- • Illustrious tioH, we make ah effort and call it the Illustrious Religion.' Religion ^ But any (such) system without (the fostering of) the sage ° (sover- eign) does not attain its full development, and a sage (sovereign) Co-operation of without the aid of sucH a system does not become the Sovereign, great. Let the sage (sovereign) and the (right) systein come together like the two halves of a seal or covenant, and the world will become polished and enlightened. II. 7. When the Accomplished Empjercir T'^i Tsung (a. D, 627-649) commenced his glorious reign over the (recently) established dynasty (of T'ang)', presiding over men with intelligence and sagehood, in the kingdom of T^ Ts'in there was a man of the highest virtue called Olopun °. Guiding himself by the azure clouds, he carried with ' This symbolism of the beard and shaven crown is curious. ' See the K'ang-hsl dictionary, under ^ffi. . ° That their services were supposed to benefit the dead as well as the living appears elsewhere. Visdelou calls attention to this feature in the Inscription. ■* No doubt, celebrated the communion. ° Compare the language of the Tao Teh King in ch. 15, and especially in ch. 25, on the latter of which that of the Inscription here is moulded. As Lao- tsze 'makes an effort,' and calls his system 'the Great Tio,' so the writer calls his ' the Illustrious Teaching (or Doctrine).' ' Illustrious ' in the Inscription is equivalent to Christian. « So, again, in the Tio Teh King, Shang (^c)' however we translate it, often stands for the sovereign. ' Tai Tsung was not the founder of the T'ang dynasty, as Wylie's and other translations unnecessarily say. His father KSo Tsil was the first emperor in 624. " Olopun is a Syriac name. The Olo is equivalent to El in many Hebrew + «$H4^^T "^ IE ;fy ^ m 1^. A. 3fc It ^^ To m o ^ ^. ^ ^ 4. ^' m ^ m m. m is ^, m A ft. J^ ^ THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. II him the True Scriptures. Watching the laws of the Olopun at the ^'*'^^> ^^ made his way through difficulties and perils. Chinese capital, In the ninth year of the period Chang-kwan (a.d. and favourable 635), he arrived at Ch'ang-in. The emperor sent his the emperor ™'°ister, duke Fang Hsiian-ling', bearing the staff of Tii Tsung. office, to the western suburb, there to receive the visi- tor, and conduct him to the palace. The Scriptures were translated in the Library ". (His Majesty) questioned him about his system in his own forbidden apartments, became deeply convinced of its correctness and truth, and gave special orders for its propagation. In the twelfth Chang-kwan year {638), in autumn, in the seventh month, the following proclamation was issued : — ' Systems have not always the same name ; sages have not always the same personality. Every region has its appropriate doctrines, which by their imperceptible influence benefit the inhabitants. The greatly virtuous Olopun of the kingdom of Ti Ts'in, bringing his scriptures and images ' from afar, has come and presented them at our High Capital. Having carefully examined the scope of his doctrines, we find them to be mysterious, admirable, and requiring nothing (special) to be done ; having looked at the principal and most honoured points in them, they are intended for the establishment of what is most important. Their language is free from troublesome verbosity ; their principles remain when the immediate occasion for their delivery is forgotten*; (the system) is helpful to (all) creatures, and profitable for men : — let it have free course throughout the empire ^.' 8. The proper officers forthwith, in the capital in the Ward of Righteousness and Repose*, built a Ti Ts'in monastery'', sufficient names. ' The Greatly Virtuous' Is perhaps not more than the equivalent of our ' Reverend,' or ' Father.' It will be found elsewhere. ' See the memoir of this minister in the 2ist chapter of the Biographies of T'ang Ly\\ '^S.j, and also a reference to him, with the title which he bears here, in the first Book of the PiSo (^^) (i. p- 2°). ' This can only mean that portions of the Scriptures were translated. ' So Fsi-hien went home from India; see his Travels, p. 115, et al. I sup- pose the images here would be crucifixes. ' M. Pauthier tried to give this clause more literally : — 'Les principes ea subsisteront encore lorsque les filets qui auront servi a la peche seront oubli^s.' The writer evidently had in his mind an expression of Chwang-tsze, near the end of his 26th Book \yy Vm)- '^^'^ meaning seems to be what I have given. ' Here I think the words of the proclamation should terminate. ° The subdivisions of Peking are called ' wards ' as here, and we know, from a work of the Sung dynasty, that there was a ' Ward of Righteousness and Repose' in Ch'ang-Sn. ' Not 'a church;' one of its halls would serve the part of one. Compare ^+mm'¥^iM ^ )S ^ w ie i^ ± m m m m m m r^ iK z ft. ^J§. 'M, M ^ k ^. ^t m n> ^p ^ m m m iJS ■^'6 ^ v^o l'3. #. ^ ft 4f -f* #, O -t A» ^ m> m 4 m B "^ m m m m> ± ii^l IE. ^ ^ M. ^ ^ M. ^ ^ ^ M ^ i M #. M ^ 0^0 ^ B ^ ^ O ^. i A :a >^ sJa ® ^ A ^ ^ M ^ I^ 3fe. THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 1 3 to accommodate twenty-one priests. The virtue of the A monastery honoured House of Chiu had died away ' ; the rider in bunt and , , , , , . » . adorned. "^^ green car had ascended to the west'; the course of the great Tang was (now) brilliant ; and the breath of the Illustrious (Religion) came eastward to fan it. The proper officers were further ordered to take a faithful likeness of the emperor, and have it copied on the walls of the monastery. The celestial beauty appeared in its many brilliant colours, the commanding form irradiated the Illustrious portals ; the sacred traces communicated a felicitous influence, for ever illuminating the precincts of the (true) Law. 9. According to the Illustrated Record of the Western Re- gions, and the histories of the Han and Wei dynasties, the kingdom of T4 Ts'in commences at the south with the Coral Sea, '^'rr'^'in' °^ *""^ reaches on the north to the mountain of all Pre- cious Things ; on the west it looks towards the flowery forests on the Borders of the Immortals, and on the east it lies open to the long winds, and the weak water. The country produces the asbestos cloth, the soul-restoring incense, the bright-moon pearls, and the night-shining gems. Robberies and thefts are unknown among the common people. Men enjoy happiness and peace. None but the Illustrious Religion is observed ; none but virtuous rulers are ap- pointed. The territory is of vast extent ; its literary productions are brilliant '. the account of the first reception of the Buddhist monks from India m our first century, as referred to in the Lecture. It appears also that Olopun must have arrived with a large company, or had arranged with the Emperor to send to Ta Ts'in for such. ' ' The honoured (Capital or House) of ChSu ' is a frequent expression in the Shfi King for the dynasty of that name (see V. xviii. i, ei al.) ; I must think that the writer was thinking of it as having been made what it was by the duke of Chau and by Confucius. ' ' The rider in the green car ' must be LSo-tsze, who was reported to have disappeared from the country in such a vehicle. The clause about him is co- ordinate with the former. The two, and the clause that follows, augur more for the Tang dynasty from the Illustrious or Christian religion than former ages had obtained through Confucianism and Taoism. ' I could wish that this paragraph about Ti Ts'in had not been in the In- BCription, and it is difficult to perceive the object which it serves. The Record to which it refers must be lost, but the Han and Wei Histories remain. For an able and exhaustive treatment of all the accounts of Ti Ts'in in the Chinese Records, see Dr. F. Hirth's 'China and the Roman Orient' (Shanghai and Leipsic, 1885). The southern boundary here assigned to the country may be the Red Sea, and the northern the mountain ranges lying far north ; but of the other boundaries I have no idea. 'Asbestos cloth' is indicated by three charac- ters, of which the second is unexampled in that meaning; though such cloth, + mm^^T^ ^ ^ O ^ "M m "^ ^ M ^ '^i m :k ^ "f- m m ^±. ^ m m '^ ^ p + « M 5t. ^, M M t(n m. 1 M' :5fc 7C ^ ^ ^. ;^H Tie. # # T if M ± w m ^ m. #. ^. m U) fill j^ ^ THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 1 5 10. The great emperor K4o Tsung (650-683) reverently continued (the line of) his ancestors. A beneficent and elegant patron of the . Truth \ he caused monasteries of the Illustrious (Re- Kao '^une^'' ''S'*"*) to be erected in every one of the Prefectures, and continued the favour (of his father) to Olopun, raising him to be Lord of the Great Law, for the preservation of the state. The Religion spread through the Ten Circuits''. The king- doms became rich and enjoyed great repose. Monasteries filled a hundred cities ; the (great) families multiplied in the possession of brilliant happiness ^ 11. In the period Shang-li (698, 699) *, the Buddhists, taking advan- tage of their strength, made their voices heard (against the Religion) in the eastern capital of Ch&u, and in the end of the year Hsien-t'ien° no doubt, is intended. The character translated 'robberies' has never been previously Identified. In Kircher's transcription it is ''^^, and even Hirth gives Ji^, which is not fotind in the dictionaries ; he can hardly be intending i^. But let any student refer to tH* , ' a cap,' in the K'ang-hsl dictionary under i— * with seven strokes, and then refer to the form of it which is the last character in the same category, and I think he will not hesitate to conclude that the character in the inscription is a disused form of tM;, 'a robber,' which I have given. ' Compare the phraseology in Confucian Analects, 14. 9. ' In his first year (627) T'ai Tsung had divided the empire into ten TSo (jg), which I have called ' Circuits.' They were really the ' provinces ' of the empire, and were afterwards increased to fifteen. The use of the term here is a strong confirmation of the genuineness of the monument. ' KSo Tsung's reign was a period of great prosperity for the new Religion. * The Inscription thus passes from 683 to 698, without intimating, by its usual method of leaving two vacant spaces, that a new succession to the throne had taken place. There was a period of great disorder in the empire from 6S3 to 713. Kio Tsung's son, known as Chung (Ph)i succeeded to him, but the empress-dowager W<1 (^T ^f ) displaced him, and appointed another son, known as Jni (^S) Tsung, in his place : at the same time she kept the reins of government in her own hands till 705, changing among other things the name of the dynasty from T'ang to Chiu. Hence we have, in this paragraph, the city of Lo appearing as the eastern capital of Ch^u, and Ch'ang-^ named 'the western HSo,' the capital of King Wfl of the ancient Ch^u, B.C. 11 32. Amid the troubles of the time and under the empress Wfl, who had herself once been the inmate of a nunnery, the Buddhists found an opportunity of endeavour- ing to check the progress of the Illustrious Religion. • In 705 Chung Tsung regained the throne, but was murdered in 710, when Jui Tsung succeeded to him. He, however, resigned the throne in 762 to his y> ^mm^^jfj ^ ^ ^ m 1) iSi it) m pT /JiS ^ ffi ^. i^. ^E m i% ^ iL m ^ m -t ^ o M tffi ^ M It >i'- ?M € M ^ ^ w> ji B# ^ :!• rfii ffl if m ^ 01 ^ THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. D J (712)1 some inferior officers greatly derided it; slan- Reverses under j. , ,. ..... '. the next reign, "^'^■"g and speaking against it in the Western Hio. But there were the chief priest Lo-han, the greatly virtuous Chi-lieh and others, noble men from the golden regions ', all eminent priests, keeping themselves aloof from worldly influences, who jolhed together in restoring the mysterious net ^ and in rebinding its meshes which had been broken. 12. Hsiian Tsung (7I3-7SS). the emperor of the Perfect Way, ordered the king of Ning' and the four other kings with him to ^ go Ih person to the blessed buildings, and rebuild their Restorations of ,, „ ™, , , f. , , , , , . Hsiian t'sung. ^^ars. 1 he consecrated beams which had for a time been torn from their places were (thus) again raised up, and the Sacred stones which had for a time been thrown doWn were again replaced. In the beginning of the period T'ien-pio (742-755), orders were given to the great general Kao Li-sze*, to send faithful likenesses of the five sacred (emperbt-s) ^ and have them pjacdd securely iri the (originall monastery, with a gift of i hundred pieces Special liiai-ks of silk. The elegallt pictures were presented with ({lie expres°sion$ Bf P^°P^^) congratulations. Although thfe dragon {t.e. sympathy. imperial) bfeard in them was too far bff; the bow arid sword could be touched with the hahd ; when the sun's horns ( = rays) shed on them their light, the fcelestial coun- tenances seemed to be within about a cubit (from the spectator); own son; and that year has two names, — those of T'ai-cht, as the last year of Jui Tsung, and of Hsien-t'ien, as the first year of Hsiian Tsung. ' Who these men from the golden regions might be we cannot tell. Any region west of China might be thus described. See the K'ang-hs! Thesaurus, under the name ■^^ Jl • ' I cannot tell whether the character in the Inscription here be equivalent to wang (otH) 'a net,' or kang (jraS) 'the great rope of a net;' whichever it be, the writer was thinking of the Illustrious Religion as a net that had been damaged. ' The king of Ning was the elder brother of the emperor Hsiian, who de- clined to be nominated heir-apparent in 710, being then king of Sung. The emperor made him king of Ning in 719. The other four kings were all brothers of the two, and the emperor built a common residence or palace for them, to which there is reference in a subsequent paragraph. * Though ' a great general,' Kao Li-sze might well be charged with this com- mission, for he was a eunuch, employed about the palace since the time of the empress Wfl ; but at the same time of more than ordinary ability and strength. See his interesting history in the is^jnd chapter of the Biographies of the T'ang History. He was made 'Great General of the Cavalry' in 748, and is so styled in the Inscription ex post facto. '- Probably Hsiian Tsung, and his predecessors. C A+WMf^^iM rfij ^0 ^ m A. @ ;liS O ii m M ^ m ^ « X ft ™» m ^. fi <§ A M m )I5^ ^ m M M m ^. n ^ ^ P|Co n 1^ ^ rtj 0>^ o ©. j^ fSj M ^ it # M >ft. M •^. ^ a ^ m Mo ^ ^> ^ # B O ^ ^. ^. 5& m ^ ^>^ MlS^ fi. w, # pj 'M ;!^ m ^^ W t^J m ;i ft ^. ;g. 0. ^ B ^ s ^ M :g ^. ^ -JU ir, ^ ^ ^ ft M ^ S i:|l 1% ^ f*. #. m ^ W^ m m 7C m Ul M # 7^ # # •^ i — M ^ t^j ®. #. -t THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. xg In the third year of the same period (744), in the kingdom of T4 Ts'in there was the monk Chi-ho. Observing the stars, he directed his steps to (the region of) transformation^; looking to the sun, he came to pay court to the most Honourable (emperor). An imperial procla- mation was issued for the priests Lo-han, P'fi-lun and others, seventeen in all ', along with this greatly virtuous Chi-ho, to perform a service of merit in the Hsing-ch'ing palace '. On this the celestial inscriptions appeared on the walls of the monastery, and its lofty front bore the dragon-writing. The precious lines were like the shining feathers of the king-fisher, and splendid as the ruby hues of the clouds about the sun. The tablets of wisdom filled each empty space, and their radiance rose up as if to provoke the sun. The gifts of favour were immense as the vast height of the southern hill ; and the flood of rich benevolence like the depth of the eastern sea. 13. There is nothing which the right principle cannot effect, and whatever it effects can be named. There is nothing which a sage (sovereign) cannot do, and whatever he does can be related. 14. The emperor S(i Tsung (756-762), Accomplished and Intelligent, rebuilt the monasteries of the Illustrious (religion) in Further Ling-wft* and four other parts. His great goodness progress. ** * « (continued to) assist it, and all happy mfluences were opened up ; great felicity descended, and the imperial inheritance was strengthened. 15. The emperor T4i Tsung (763-779), Accomplished and Martial, Favours and grandly signalized his succession to the throne, and patronage of conducted his affairs without (apparent) effort. Always Tai Tsung. ^jjg^ jjjg ^^y ^f jjis birth recurred ", he contributed » CM-ho, no doubt, came from Ta Ts'in with a reinforcement of labourers for the work of the Mission, encouraged by the news of its success which had been carried to the west. The Chinese character employed for ' year ' in the previous sentence is a remarkable proof that the Inscription is genuine. The character -Vp was changed in that year to the §^ which we have. ' • Seventeen;' I think, and not merely seven. ' The service would be one of thanksgiving and prayer. * The part of Ling-wfl corresponded to the present Ling Ch^u in the prefec- ture of Ning-hsia in Kan-sfl. In the earlier reigns of the T'ang dynasty, it was called Ling Chiu, but early in the T'ien-pSo period that name was changed into Ling-wfl Chiin, the very name used here. » Was this the birthday of the emperor? or the day of the birth of the Messiah? Wylie adopts the latter view, as does Hue. There is no doubt the other view is the correct one. We read in Nien Ch'ang's History of Buddhism (1^ jli. M f^ M ^> =^''- p- '^^ *•"" '^^' "^'""^ °° '''* ^'^^y (the same phraseology as in the text) had a service performed for him also by a large company of Buddhist monks ! c a ^^mm^^ifj m Bf. ^. ^. ^ ^ ii. ^. ^ m ^ ^ M. m ^ T t M ig ^ * ^ m> m ^ %$ n M ;0 A a ^, ^ ^. H^ B^ ^ la ^ ^ # m m. ^, m M. m> i^ z ^ 0^ i^ •^. ik ^ 5& hI # ^^\ ^ nit m m m. n ^o ^ Z M Ji^ o m i^ :^ B i, m ;^ iim m A M Z A>t ^ ^1 ro It fi # M. m Tu liX ^ It 3fe ^ rfli ;^ iiL= tl< Pi A M> ^ ^. 'It ^ l^l ^ JH m m o m THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 31 celestial incense wherewith to announce the meritorious deeds accom- plished by him, and sent provisions from his own table to brighten our Illustrious assembly. As Heaven by its beautiful ministration of what is profitable can widen (the term and enjoyment of) life, so the sage (sovereign) by his embodiment of the way of Heaven, completes and nourishes (the objects of his favour) \ 16. In this period of Chien-chung (780-783), our present emperor '■*, Sage and Spirit-like, Accomplished alike for peace and war, developes the eight objects of government ', so as to degrade the undeserving, and promote the deserving * ; and exhibits the nine The virtues of divisions of the scheme (of Royal government) °, to fr T^""8i and impart a new vigour to the throne to which he has the influence .,, . , -,,,,. . . . „ of Christianity illustriously succeeded. His transforming influence on him. shows a comprehension of the most mysterious prin- ciples ; (his) prayers * give no occasion for shame in the heart. In his grand position he yet is humble ; maintaining an entire stillness, he yet is observant of the altruistic rule. That with unrestricted gentleness he seeks to relieve the sufferings of all, and that blessings reach from him to all that have life is due to the plans of our (Illustrious Religion) for the cultivation of the conduct, and the gradual steps by which it leads men on. That the winds and rains come at their proper seasons ; quiet prevail through the empire ; men be amenable to reason ; all things be pure ; those who are being preserved flourish, and those who are ready to die have joy ; every thought have its echo of response ; and the feelings go forth in entire sincerity : — all this is the meritorious effect of its Illustrious power and operation. 17. A great benefactor to us is the priest i-sze'', a great officer of ' Evidently a quotation, in the last two characters, from the Tao Teh King, ch. 51. Failing to perceive this, most of the translators have missed the meaning. ' This was Teh (f^) Tsung, but he would not be so designated till after his death. ' " See flie Shfl, V. iv. 7. ♦ Quoted from the Shil, II. i. 27. ' See the Shu, V. iv. 3. ' This may possibly mean ' our prayers for him.' ' This 1-sze had come, we are told, ' from afar, from the city of the Royal dwelling,' which was a name for the residence of the Magadha kings from Bim- bisSra to A^oka, — the first metropolis of Buddhism. See the Travels of Fa-hien, p. 81, n. 5. He had come thence to China, which is here called ' The Middle HsiS,' a synonym of ' The Middle Kingdom,' on the title of the Inscription; see instances of such use of the name in the K'ang-hst Thesaurus, under HsiS (J5)' ^* ""'y conclude, therefore, that in the preceding reign of S(\ Tsung he had arrived as a Buddhist monk, and by his great qualities had risen to dis- tinction in the service of the government. On the robes conferred on him as a minister, see the K'ang-hsl Thesaurus, under j^ (.^ ^ and ^ ^). =.^mm'¥nmmM m ^ If. m ^ m n TTT it SI '^ s m •-p ig? ^p H. ti ft. ^ ft ^ THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 23 the Banqueting Court, wearing the robe of purple wrought with gold, bearing also the seal of Associate Commissioner for O^ ?^ virtues the Northern Regions, and, as overseer of the Exam- ^ the monk°or 'Nation Hall, gifted with the Purple Cassock ;— a man priest 1-sze. oi courtesy and most kindly nature, who zealously carries into practice the (right) way when he hears it. From afar, from the city of Rajagriha, he came to Chung-hsid (i. e. to China). His science surpassed that of the three dynasties, and his arts were extensive and in all respects complete. Performing at first certain duties in the palace ', his name came to be entered in the pavilion ' of the kings. When the duke Ko Tsze-i ', a secretary of state, and king of the division of Fun-yang, was first appointed to the charge of the military operations in the northern regions, (the emperor) Sd Tsung gave him this (t-sze) to accompany him to his command. Though he enjoyed (the duke's) favour in his sleeping- tent, he made no difference between himself and others on the march. He was claws and teeth to the duke, and was ears and eyes to the army. He distributed his emoluments and presents, accumulating nothing in his own house. He made offerings (to the Illustrious Communities) of the glittering ornaments which he received as gifts *; he spread out (in their halls) the carpets interwoven with gold as resting-places for the speakers ; in some he repaired the old monasteries as they had been before ; in others, he enlarged the preaching-halls, elevating and ornamenting their corridors and walls, tiU they appeared like pheasants Arrived in China, we may almost conclude that he became a Christian, and threw all his influence into the scale of ' The Illustrious Religion.' This con- clusion I would draw from the statement that ' when he heard the right way, he zealously practised it;' compare the Analects, IV. 8, V. 13. As Associate Commissioner for the Northern Regions he would have his seat at Ling-wfl, mentioned in paragraph 14. ' Literally, 'the Red Court;' -. name, according to Dr. Williams, for 'the imperial palace, especially the private apartments.' We want more informa- tion about it. ' And we want the same about this expression. In the K'ang-hsl Thesaurus we have a reference to ' the pavilion of the five kings,' the same expression as here, with the addition of ' five,' as from a Book of the T'ang dynasty. Of the residence of the five kings mention has been made in a note on par. 13. I suppose that a register was kept there of the officers about the court and their suitability for higher employments ; and that among these 1-sze was now registered. " The 62nd of the Biographies of the Books of T'ang gives the history of this minister at great length, one of the ablest of the commanders of the dynasty. His offices and dignities are all mentioned as here, and especially his operations as protector of the northern regions. He died in 782, the year after the erec- tion of our Monument, at the advanced age of 85. ' Literally, ' articles of glass,' including, I suppose, all that we call objets de vertu. ^mmf¥i77i ^ M ^ ^ z> n m m ^ m ^ 3E. f^. W 0# M m.. B. ^i'?» 0. * ^M ni m> n m M m M- ^ m> ^ ±* Bt 7u. e m. m )^ m M o m m '^ ±. :i- ^ M. ^ it. 7C» H ^ ^ t o ^ ^ :n< m E Ac * II -ffc. O ^. t. il *ife ^J ^ i: ^^ .^1 J%k Wj it ^ la 5*^ :i: Z. t: ^ It z> m w ^ THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. %$ on the wing^ Carrying oUt further the rules of the Illustrious Religion, he expended his acquisitions in deeds of benevolence. Every year he assembles the priests of all the monasteries*, who engage in their reverent services and pure offerings for all the space of fifty days. The hungry come and are fed ; the cold come and are clothed ; the sick are cured and restored to health j the dead are buried and laid to rest in their graves. Among the purest and most self-denying Buddhists ', such excellence was never heard of; but now the white-stoled members of the Illus- trious Religion see it in this man. III. i8. Wishing to engrave on a great monumental pillar our sense of the eminent and meritorious (events which we have related), we enter on it our eulogy as follows ; — [ i ] He, the true Lord, Himself uncaused. Profound and still, is aye the same. The universe His handiwork, Earth rose and heaven received its frame. His separate Godhead * men then saw ; His saving work no limits knew. The sun arose, the darkness fled, And all approved the mystery true. [ii] The Accomplished Sovereign gloriously Showed the old kings by him surpassed. His car o'er all disorder rode ; Heaven grew more wide, and earth more vast. Our brightest Truth then came to T'ang ; Its Scriptures spoke in Tang's own tongue ; Its monasteries in grandeur rose ; To save both quick and dead forth sprung Its ship. All blessings straight arose ; The myriad regions had repose. [iii] Kio Tsung succeeded to his sires. And built the dwellings Pure anew. Those palaces resplendent stood. Harmonious homes, the empire through. ' A line quoted from the Shih King, II. iv. ode V. 4. ' ' Four monasteries,' or ' the monasteries of the four quarters.' ' 'Buddhists' ii expressed here by iS ^r =dha-iSa, which Paulliier thinks is the transcription of the Sanskrit term da^arhas, ' a Buddhist,' and refers to Wilson's dictionary sub voc. But Wilson's meaning is 'a Buddha.' * See note 7 on par. 4. y> # «$Ht^f^ o ^ ^> * i® >g # # # ^ ^ m, ^. !?R. ^. fi # A f^ O 4 r< o id!. 7^ It ^ 2r? IE. m -ta. m ^ m A @, ^1), Si ^ ^ # 5S ^ # A^ ^ ^1 <« THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 2^ The way of Truth was clearly preached, And one was made Lord of the Law. Men joyful owned its blessed peace ; The land nor pain nor sorrow saw. [ iv ] Hsuan Tsung his sacred course began ; His mind pursued the Truth and Right. His notices adorned our walls ; His heavenly lines gave forth their light. Pictures he sent like pendent gems ; And reverence ruled throughout the land. All services were well discharged ' ; Men hailed our Law a blessing grand. [ V ] Sft Tsung's benignant reign then came '■' ; Majestic did his car appear. His sacred sun a crystal disk, Auspicious winds the night swept clear. The imperial House again was blessed ; The stifling* vapours died away. Passions were stilled and tumults checked ; Our Middle Hsii renewed its day*. [ vi ] Tii Tsung was Filial and Just, Both heaven and earth were in him found. The open hand, by nature his. Dispensed his succours all around. Incense his merits told to Heaven ; Benevolence aye marked his name. From the sun's rise men owned his might ; From the moon's caves in crowds they came. ' This line is taken from the .Shfl, I. p. 8. ' The last two characters of this line are from the Yl King, Hex. 24. ' The character in the Inscription here has always been mistaken. It is jfj^, the ^^ on the right being made irregularly, as may be seen in the concluding note on ^f in the K'ang-hsJ dictionary. Bridgman read it ^)^, or accepted it as such from Kircher, and Wylie must also have taken it so, as we see from the 'autumnal' in his version. Pauthier reads jjjWj which also is found in 'The Great Collection of Inscriptions on Metal and Stone,' of which I have spoken in the Lecture. When now we turn to *J^ in the K'ang-hsJ, we are referred for the meaning of the character to ffl^ = ' surfeiting,' ' stifling.' ' An application, not very clear, of the conclusion of the first chapter in the Shd, V. ix. Att 5$H^^T^ SI en n ± s ■I 1 .5 1 .A I o Ijllitl A ^ o ^ B# H a it ^ ^ ^ ?^ 'fi ra ± ^ ^ M iM. ft - m ^. ^ ^ ^. TU B M ^„ 'It ^ # A 0. _JL. ^ m THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 29 [ vii ] Our emperor of the present time, Has widest sway and virtue bright. Within the seas all own his power ; The myriad regions hail his light. No secrets from his view concealed, His mirror all things well describes. The world from him gets life and light, A pattern to the rudest tribes. [ viii ] How vast ' the system of our faith ! Its answers come how secretly ! 'Tis hard for us to form a name, To indicate our Trinity. Their lord can act ; his ministers Can but relate. This stone we raise. Our monument we rear thus vast, And, greatly blessed, we bless and praise. Erected in the second year of the period Chien-chung (a. D. 781) of the great T'ang dynasty, the year-star being in Tso-yo", on the seventh day of the first month', being Sunday *. The present Chief of our Law being the priest Ning-shfl, charged with the care of the Illustrious Communities of the East. (In Syriac.) In the days of the Father of Fathers, my lord Hanan- Yeshu', Katholikos, Patriarch °- (In Chinese.) Written out by Lii Hsiii-yen, Secretary of State, for- merly discharging the duties of military superintendent in T'ii-chiu. ' The inscription has here -^r. ' A pecnliar Cyclical nomenclature, intimating that the year was one of the five y*'*'. * The characters "^ y^S ^K "^T H would seem to be intended, not only to say that the day was a festival day, but also what festival it was. ° This is an important note of time, and occasions some little difficulty. We know from the Bihliotheca Orientalis Clementino Vaticana of J. S. Assemani that this Hanan-Yeshu was created Patriarch of the Nestorians at Bagdad in 774, and died in 778 ; whereas here is this monument erected in 781. But is not this discrepancy rather a proof of its genuineness? The news of the patriarch's death had not reached them at Ch'ang-Sn. In fact, according to Assemani (vol. iii. i, 347), the canon for communication between the more distant metropolitan sees and the patriarchate required the interchange of messages only once in six years. ^A^'i^o ^1 ST A\o ^r^ dvAJca rdzxzja .viOa.lU t\sn rducu.l ^.-1 rf'rt Tn ^ m ^ ^ n THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 3 1 (Below the Inscription, partly in Syriac and partly in Chinese, are the notices) : — (In Syriac.) In the year one thousand and ninety-two of the Greeks (1092-31 1 = A. D. 781) my lord Yezdbflzid, Presbyter and Chorepiscopos of Kumdan ^ the royal city, son of the departed Meles, Presbyter of Balh, city of Tehurist4n, erected this stone tablet, wherein are written the disposition of our Saviour, and the preaching of our fathers to the kings of the Chinese ". (In Chinese.) The priest Ling-pdo. (In Syriac.) Adam, Deacon, son of Yezdbuzid, Chorepiscopos ; Mar Sergius, Presbyter and Chorepiscopos. (In Chinese.) Examiner and Collator at the erection of the stone tablet, the priest Hsing T'ung. (In Syriac.) Sabran Yeshu, Presbyter; Gabriel, Presbyter and Archdeacon, and Head of the Church of Kumdin and of Sarag. (In Chinese.) Assistant Examiner and Collator, the Presbyter Yi-li, Chief of the Monastery, Director of the Sacrificial Court, and gifted with the Purple Cassock. ' This was the name given to Ch'ang-in by the early Mahommedans. ' See note on the Syriac at the commencement of the Inscription. On the two sides of the monumental stone there are about seventy names in Syriac of individuals, connected with the monastery or monasteries, of various ranks, from bishop down to deacon, the clerical names in Chinese of most of them being also given. On the latest rubbing also, and obscuring some of the Syriac names, there is this note in large Chinese characters ; — ' After its erection 1079 years, in the ninth year of the reign Hsien-Kng (1859), ^> Han T'ai-hwa of Wd-lin, came to see the monument, and, glad to find the characters all perfect, I rebuilt the shed that covers it. Alas, that my old friend, Wfl Tsze-pi— the Treasurer — has not been able to accompany me on the visit ! I grieved long because of his absence.' We do not know who this Mr. Han was, nor what authority he had for doing what he did ; but the record of his visit shows the interest which intelligent Chinese scholars still take in the monument. A LECTURE ON THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT OF HSt-AN FU; AND THE PRESENT PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN CHINA. Shen-HsI is a province of considerable size in the north-west of China, extending to the Great Wall on the north, and on the south to the still larger province of Sze-ch'wan, though it has itself an area 16,000 square miles larger than all England. The principal f (i, that is, depart- ment or prefecture, in it is that of Hsl-an, which we were accustomed, not many years ago, to call by the names Si-gan and St-ngan. Hsl-an comprehends at present fifteen districts, the chief of which is Ch'ang-an, with the city of the same name, than which no other city of the empire has played a greater part in Chinese history. Near its site, for we can hardly conceive of it as having then more than begun to be, were the capitals of Wan and Wft, the founders of the Chiu dynasty in the lath century B.C. Near it was the capital of the first imperial dynasty, — that of Ch'in. At Ch"ang-an reigned the emperors of the first Han dynasty from B. c. aoa to A. D. 24. There reigned the emperors of Sui from 589 to 618 ; and of the two capitals of the great dynasty of T'ang which succeeded to Sui and ruled from 6j8 to 906, Ch'ang-an was the first and greatest. The Rev. Dr. Williamson and the Rev. Jonathan Lees, both of whom I know well, visited Ch'ang-an in 1866. As they approached the walls. Dr. Williamson says, the sight was imposing. They were lofty and the towers over the gates were magnificent ;— in one of them could be counted forty-eight windows. When they had obtained admission, they were conducted to an inn by back streets which appeared endless. Next day they obtained a good view of D 34 A LECTURE the city from a favourable point on the wall. It striicl? them as immense and densely filled with houses, haVing few or no vacant spaces as in other citifes ^ Many of its ancient monuments attracted their &ttetition, and they particularly mention two of them. One rejoiced in the names of ' the Forest of Tablets ' ^nd ' the Palace of Tablets,' containing monuments from fi. c. loo downwards, and especially the grand set of stone Tablets, on which the text of what we call the Confucian Classics was all engraved in the reign of the emperor Wan of the T'ang dynasty, the work laeing begun in 833 and completed in 837. The visitors found the tablets apparently unblemished, and men at work taking copies from them. How would Biblical scholars all over the world rejoice if they were introduced to an enclosure exhibiting engravings in stone of all the books of our Old and New Testathents, executed 1050 years ago, and still complete and exact ! From this Palace of Tablets my friends hurried away to find another monument rather older than the above ; the Nestorian tablet which is the subject of my Lecture to-day. They found it outside the walls in a suburb, within a brick enclosure, amidst heaps of stones and rubbish, but itself sound and entire ; recognising it at once from rubbings, or facsimiles, of it in their possession, which they had purchased years before from hawjserg. Nejtt morning Mr. Lees started at day-break to have a last look at it, and to take drawings of some portions of it. It is to hiitt we are indebted for the singular figures that form the ornamentation round the title, his representation of which further study of them may somewhat modify, and also for the cross immediately above the title. The ptpcess which secures exactly the form of the incised characters fails to bring away copies of any raised work. So much by way of introduction. The monument purports to have been erected, as we shall see beyond ' See 'Journeys in North China, Manchuria, and Eastern Mongolia; iWth some account of Corea.' By Rev. Dr. Williamson ; London, 1870. On the nestorian monument, ^5 a doubt that it was, in 781 ; but our knowledge of it does not go nearly so far back, and dates only from 162,5. In that year some workmen, digging the ground in a suburb of Ch'ang-an, for a grave or for some other purpose (for there are different accounts of the matter), came on a stone monument of large size, and with a remarkable inscription on it, written mostly in Chinese characters, but having others entirely different, and evidently belonging to some other language, interspersed with them. And how strange the things which it told ! It said it was 844 years old, and that so long back there had been many strangers there from other countries, preaching and teaching things not to be found in Confucius, or Lio-tsze, or in all the books of Buddhism ; yea, preaching and teaching those things with the sanction and encouragement of the most famous monarchs of the great T'ang dynasty which was but a memory of the past. How could it be? The stone was taken out entire, and the discovery excited a great deal of curiosity. The notice of the governor of the city being called to it, he took it into his charge, placed it for a time under a cover, and finally deposited it in a Taoist temple or monastery in the neighbourhood. The only foreigners then in China were Roman Catholic missionaries, and there were none of them at that time in Ch'ang-an. A small mandarin, however, in the city, a convert, thinking it would interest the fathers, had a copy taken of it (I suppose of the Chinese portion only), and sent it to a company of them who were in hiding from persecution in Hang-chiu Fu of Cheh-chiang. Among them was Alvarez Semedo, Procurator of the Provinces of China and Japan. In his ' History of the Great and Renowned Monarchy of China *,' he tells us that the news from their friend in Ch'ang-an was received by them with 'a spiritual jubilee ;' and accord- ing to Athanasius Kircher in his ' Prodromus Coptus sive Aegyptiacus^,' they forthwith published and circulated copies ' 'Translated from the Portuguese, by a person of quality;' London, 1620. ' Romae, 1636. D 3 ^ 36 A LECTURE throughout the empire, as supplying a most important proof of the early introduction of Christianity into it, and being admirably calculated to aid them in prosecuting their own labours. Semedo tells us that he went himself to Ch'ang-an in 1638, and took many opportunities to examine and study the monument, ever more and more delighted with it. The inscription, being in Chinese, he could understand ; but the other writing that was on it he could make nothing of. He saw that it was neither Hebrew nor Greek ; but more about it than this he could not tell. It was not till he was on a visit to Cochin, that he learned at Cranganor, from Father Antony Fernandez, that the strange writing was Syriac, though even then he does not seem to have understood the true character of the monument. However, the missionaries translated the Chinese into Portuguese, had a copy of the whole monument taken, and sent it home to Lisbon. The bruit of it soon went to Rome, and the copy was carried thither. The Portuguese version of the Chinese was again turned into Italian, and the whole appeared in the head quarters of the Jesuit Missions in 1631, only six years after it had been excavated from its grave in Ch'ang-an. Athanasius Kircher, a man of various research, and then occupying the chair of mathematics in the Roman College, gave, as I have already stated, an account of its discovery in 1636. Later on he returned to the subject in his ' China Illustrata,' published at Amsterdam in 1678, and gave a transcript of the Chinese, made at Rome in 1644 by a Christian Chinese, who is styled Matthew, a native of Hsi-an Fd. The transcript abounded in errors; and Kircher accompanied it with two versions in Latin, one professing to be verbal, executed by P. Michael Boym, a Pole, and the other more diffuse and paraphrastical, in the preparation of which he must have been assisted, I suppose, by Boym and other returned missionaries. At the same time he reproduced and explained all the Syriac portions. The whole inscription ON THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 37 was thenceforth before all Europe as well as China, challenging critical judgment. Its reception was different in the East and the West. Scholars in China are, many of them, not less devoted to antiquarian research than their brethren in Europe. I have before me a 'Great Collection of Inscriptions on metal and stone,' in 160 chapters ; published in 1805, when he was at the age of eighty-two, by a Wang Ch'ang, who ch. xvi. ON THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 49 throughout the empire, and let the monks and nuns all ^ return to the ways of common life.' A few buildings were exempted from the edict, but in general it was ruthlessly- carried out. Tens of thousands of acres of land were con- fiscated ; the images, bells, and other metallic instruments of music were melted and coined into copper money ; and 150,000 slaves, male and female, were set free^. This was a terrible blow to Buddhism, and is known as ' the Third Proscription' of that System in Chinese history. But it was too widely spread and firmly rooted to be destroyed in the country by such a spasmodic effort of a sovereign like Wu Tsung. In the very next year, as the historian of Buddhism tells us, in despite of — rather in consequence of — his Taoist pills and charms, he fell ill, sank into a state of moping melancholy, and died, at the age of thirty-three. He was succeeded by an uncle, who pursued a different policy, and endeavoured to bind up the wounds of the Buddhist state. But did this persecution affect the Nestorian missionaries and their movement? It did- The text of WQ Tsung's edict still remains, and is included in a Collection of im- perial edicts and rescripts published in 1685 by orders of the great K'ang-hsi emperor of the present dynasty, with comments from his own pencil. There is a translation of it in Du Halde's History^, supplied, I believe, by P. Her- '-'' vieu ; and in the conclusion it is said, ' As to the religions of foreign nations, let the men who teach them, as well those of Td Ts'in as of Mfl-hii-pi, amounting to more than 3,000 persons, be required to resume the ways of ordinary life, and their unsubstantial talkings no more be heard.' It is the merit of Pauthier that he called attention to this edict in 1865, and it was his good fortune that he could refer to the original text, there being two copies of the K'ang-hsi Collection in the great library of Paris. It could ' See a long note on the event in the T'ung Chien Kang Mii under the year 845. 2 Vol. ii. p. 497. E 50 A LECTURE btily be from ignorance of the existence of sUch a documfent that soine have denied that there was ever any riiisfeion of Ne^torian Christianity in China; but I can hardly blame them, for who is sufficient, even in the course 6f a long life, with all the difficulties of the study, to make himself farhiliar with the vast and various stores of Chine^fe literature? What was more likely than that our monument should be thrown down when Wfl Tsung's edict was issued? I venture to suppose that it was then buried by sorrie of iiie ChristiaHs themselves to save it from being broken in pieces, and that thus it was happily preserved till it was refcovered in 1835. Who the teachers of Mii-hu-pi, that vfkre silenceB at the same time as the Nestorians, were, cannot be ascertained. We know that there were fol- Iciwers of Mattes then in China, and other teachers from Persia. The M(i-liy a Committee, the members of which should meet at Shanghai in three years. At the same time arrangements were made for occupying the fi«e newly-opened ports and Honglcong by different missions. The converts of tlie past then alive and in China known to the members qf thp Conference could be reckoned up on the fingers of one hand. Within about ten years of that meeting the trans- lation Committee had conipleted its work, and the rpsi|lt was a version both of the Old aiid New Te^stanients, which fdr fidelity to the original, and for an elegant an4 thoroughly i4iomatic Style, yet not obscure, fieed not shrink frqjp cgmparison with any version of our Sacreid Books in any language that I atn acquainted With< Since 1 843 rtiissioiiai'ies have pressed to China frojn tnopt of the Protestant Churches of Europe and thd Uhited States ; and an am0unt of work has beetj dpile and i^uccess gained which fills me with astonishment, and affords a bright prospect of greater things in the future, Without creeplhg pn with details, as I have thus far been obliged to flo, I will giv^ a nummary of the results, taketi from 'the Repoft bf a Missionary Conferenge held at Shatighdi In 1877. At that iiiiie there Were 473 represent- atives, male and female, of different Spcietips distributed over the ever-enlarging field :^25(? ftom thirteen British Societies; aio frond ten Societies of the United States ; twenty-six from two German Societies ; seven not con- nected with any Society; and eight Who were agents of Bible Societies. Connected with these there were 313 Drgat|ized dhufcheg, eighteen of which were wholly Sflf-0Upportitig, and 343 partially so, and haying a total membership of 13,035, In boarding and day schoolg there were 3,991 bpys and 64 A LECTURE 1 ,307 girls. Of theological schools there were twenty, with 231 students ; there were seventy- three ordained Chinese pastors and preachers, and 511 assistant preachers. A great feature of Protestant missions is their medical agency. In 1877 there were sixteen Hospitals, where in 1876 there had been 3,730 in-patients and 87,505 out- patients ; there were also twenty-four dispensaries, where in the same year relief and assistance had been given to 4i,a8i applicants. These figures give us some idea of the working and progress of Protestant missions ; and all this is the growth of eighty-one years since Morrison went to China ; is the growth, I may rather say, of forty-five years since 1843, when the country began to be opened to missionary labour. The increase has been great during the last ten years. The communicants now can hardly be fewer than ao,ooo, representing, with their children and dependents, 100,000 souls, as well deserving to be called Christian as the inhabitants of any parish in this countrj'. The Empire is in fact being covered with a network of small churches, gathered from among the middle classes and the poor. Of the real Christianity of the majority of their members I have no doubt. I have known some who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and some who were prepared to die and did die, rather than deny their faith. The outside world takes little heed of what is going on ; but Christianity is growing in China, without observation, through Protestant missions. And their effect has been great on the higher classes of Chinese society and the members of the government, many of whose prejudices are passing away. If none of them have declared themselves fully and like Hsii Kwang-hsi on the side of Christianity, some of them are efficient helpers in the benevolent and medical departments of the missions. The government itself has its school or college in Peking for teaching other languages ; a considerable staff of foreign and native scholars engaged in the translation of scientific ON THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT. 65 Works ; its arsenals under foreign superintendence at several places ; its embassies in Europe and the United States. There are many great scholars and skilful organizers in the Protestant camps ; some contemplating institutions of a higher educational character than have yet been estab- lished. Success to every well-contrived endeavour! Yet their dependence must be on the power of truth ; their armour must be that of righteousness ; their weapons must be forbearance and sympathy. Let their many-hued hosts move on with a common object, not striving among themselves, and all ready to acknowledge the elements of good that are to be found, not only in Confucianism, but also in Tioism and Buddhism. Christianity has been working for nearly nineteen cen- turies in Europe, and yet the best of its populations is far from being a kingdom of our God, and His Christ. How long it will be before China,.with its milleniums of history in the past and hundred-millioned population, will become such a kingdom we cannot tell ; but while there is no harder life than that of a Chinese missionary, there is none more satisfying, none that should so stir the ambition of the most cultured and noblest-aimed of the educated youth of Christendom. WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. NOTIONS OF THE CHINESE CONCERNING pMisha GOD AND SPIRITS 1852 THE CHINESE CLASSICS:— I. CONFUCIAN ANALECTS, The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean. (Triibner & Co.) . 1861 II. THE WORKS OF MENCIUS . . . . 1861 III. THE SH& XING, or Book of Historical Documents 1865 IV. THE SHE KING, or Book of Amicnt Poetry . 1871 V. 7HE CH'UN CH'iry, with the Tso Chwan 1872 VI. THE HSiAO KING, or Classic of Filial Piety. (In 'The Sacred Books of the East,' vol. iii.) 18 79 VII. THE Y1 KIN^G, or Book of Changes. (' Sacred Books,' vol. xvi.) ... ... . 1882 VIII. THE Ll K/, or Treatises on the Rules of Propriety. (' Sacred Books,' vols, xxvii, xxviii.) . . 1885 LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF CONFUCIUS . 1875 (Trubner & Co.) LIFE AND WORKS OF MENCIUS . 1875 (Trubner & Co.) THE SHE KING, or Book of Ancient Poetry in English Verse. (Trubner & Co.) ..... 1876 THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA DESCRIBED AND COMPARED WITH CHRISTIANITY . . 1881 (Hodder & Stoughton.) A RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS, OR TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN 1886 (Clarendon Press, Oxford.)