oth Mongol
and Persian authorities of the period to the Taosse, we can have no doubt
that the latter are indicated, whether the facts stated about them be
correct or not.

The word Senshing-ud (the Mongol plural) is represented in the Chinese
version of Mr. Wylie's inscription by _Sin-sang_, a conventional title
applied to literary men, and this perhaps is sufficient to determine the
Chinese word which _Sensin_ represents. I should otherwise have supposed
it to be the _Shin-sian_ alluded to by Baldelli, and mentioned in the
quotations which follow; and indeed it seems highly probable that two
terms so much alike should have been confounded by foreigners. Semedo says
of the Taosse: "They pretend that by means of certain exercises and
meditations one shall regain his youth, and others shall attain to be
_Shien-sien_, i.e. 'Terrestrial Beati,' in whose state every desire is
gratified, whilst they have the power to transport themselves from one
place to another, however distant, with speed and facility." Schott, on
the same subject, says: "By _Sian_ or _Shin-sian_ are understood in the
old Chinese conception, and particularly in that of the Tao-Kiao [or
Taosse] sect, persons who withdraw to the hills to lead the life of
anchorites, and who have attained, either through their ascetic
observances or by the power of charms and elixirs, to the possession of
miraculous gifts and of terrestrial immortality." And M. Pauthier himself,
in his translation of the Journey of Khieu, an eminent doctor of this
sect, to the camp of the Great Chinghiz in Turkestan, has related how
Chinghiz bestowed upon this personage "a seal with a tiger's head and a
diploma" (surely a lion's head, _P'aizah_ and _Yarligh_; see infra, Bk.
II. ch. vii. note 2), "wherein he was styled _Shin Sien_ or Divine
Anchorite." _Sian-jin_ again is the word used by Hiuen Tsang as the
equivalent to the name of the Indian _Rishis_, who attain to supernatural
powers.

["_Sensin_ is a sufficiently faithful transcription of _Sien-seng_
(Sien-shing in Pekingese); the name given by the Mongols in conversation as
well as in official documents, to the Tao-sze, in the sense of preceptors,
just as Lamas were called by them _Bacshi_, which corresponds to the
Chinese _Sien-seng_. M. Polo calls them fasters and ascetics. It was one of
the sects of Taouism. There was another one which practised cabalistic and
other mysteries. The Tao-sze had two monasteries in Shangtu, one in the
ea