nscription on the East side of the Kiu Yong Kwan]

[Illustration: Hexaglot Inscription on the West side of the Kiu Yong Kwan]

[At the village of Keuyung Kwan, 40 miles north of Peking, in the sub-
prefecture of Ch'ang Ping, in the Chih-li province, the road from Peking
to Kalgan runs beyond the pass of Nankau, under an archway, a view of
which will be found at the end of this volume, on which were engraved, in
1345, two large inscriptions in six different languages: Sanskrit,
Tibetan, Mongol, _Bashpah_, Uighur, Chinese, and a language unknown till
recently. Mr. Wylie's kindness enabled Sir Henry Yule to present a specimen
of this. (A much better facsimile of these inscriptions than Wylie's
having since been published by Prince Roland Bonaparte in his valuable
_Recueil des Documents de l'Epoque Mongole_, this latter is, by
permission, here reproduced.) The Chinese and Mongol inscriptions have
been translated by M. Ed. Chavannes; the Tibetan by M. Sylvain Levi
(_Jour. Asiat._, Sept.-Oct. 1894, pp. 354-373); the Uighur, by Prof. W.
Radloff (Ibid. Nov.-Dec. 1894, pp. 546, 550); the Mongol by Prof. G. Huth.
(Ibid. Mars-Avril 1895, pp. 351-360.) The sixth language was supposed by
A. Wylie (_J. R. A. S._ vol. xvii. p. 331, and N.S., vol. v. p. 14) to be
Neuchih, Niuche, Niuchen or Juchen. M. Deveria has shown that the
inscription is written in _Si Hia_, or the language of Tangut, and gave a
facsimile of a stone stele (_pei_) in this language kept in the great
Monastery of the Clouds (Ta Yun Ssu) at Liangchau in Kansuh, together with
a translation of the Chinese text, engraved on the reverse side of the
slab. M. Deveria thinks that this writing was borrowed by the Kings of
Tangut from the one derived in 920 by the Khitans from the Chinese.
(_Stele Si-Hia de Leang-tcheou_ ... _J. As._, 1898; _L'ectriture du
royaumes de Si-Hia ou Tangout_, par M. Deveria ... Ext. des Mem ...
presentes a l'Ac. des. Ins. et B. Let. 1'ere Ser. XI., 1898.) Dr. S. W.
Bushell in two papers (_Inscriptions in the Juchen and Allied Scripts,
Actes du XI. Congres Orientalistes_, Paris, 1897, 2nd. sect., pp. 11, 35,
and the _Hsi Hsia Dynasty of Tangut, their Money and their peculiar
Script, J. China Br. R. A. S._, xxx. N.S. No. 2, pp. 142, 160) has also
made a special study of the same subject. The Si Hia writing was adopted
by Yuan Ho in 1036, on which occasion he changed the title of his reign to
Ta Ch'ing, i.e. "Great Good Fortune." Unfortunately, both th