Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/57

CHAP. II.

DISCOVERY OF THE FAMOUS INSCRIPTION OF SI-GNAN-FOU.—TRANSLATION OF THIS INSCRIPTION.—STATE OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE AT THE EPOCH OF THE ERECTION OF THIS MONUMENT.— INFLUX OF FOREIGNERS INTO CHINA UNDER THE DYNASTY OF THANG.—CRITICAL STUDY OF THE INSCRIPTION OF SI-GNAN-FOU.—NATIVE COUNTRY OF OLOPEN AND OTHER MISSIONARIES TO CHINA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY.—SYRIAC CHARACTERS.—NESTORIAN DOCTRINE.—OBJECTIONS OF VOLTAIRE AND MILNE TO THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE INSCRIPTION.—REFUTATION OF THEM.—THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE MONUMENT PROVED BY CHINESE WRITERS.—ANCIENT AND MODERN BOOKS.—SIMPLE FAITH OF THE MISSIONARIES.— INFERENCE.

In 1625, some Chinese workmen, engaged in digging a foundation for a house, outside the walls of the city of Si-gnan-Fou, the capital of the province of Chen-Si, found, buried in the earth, a large monumental stone, resembling those which the Chinese are in the habit of raising to preserve to posterity the remembrance of remarkable events and illustrious men. It was a dark-coloured marble tablet, ten feet high and five broad, and bearing on one side an inscription in ancient Chinese, and also some other characters quite unknown in China. The discovery excited much attention among the mandarins and the population of the country. The stone was publicly exhibited, and visited by crowds of curious persons; and amongst others, some Jesuit missionaries, who were at that time scattered about China, in various missions, went to examine it. The first who saw it was Father Alvares Semedo; then