shing wind and blew it down.' He could not say when,
for he paid no attention to such mundane affairs. More than one
outsider however, said it had been deliberately destroyed, because the
priests are jealous of the interest manifested in it. The stone has
evidently been recently tampered with, several characters are effaced
and there are other signs of malicious hands."--H.C.] Pauthier's works
on the subject are--_De l'Authenticite de l'Inscription Nestorienne_,
etc., B. Duprat, 1857, and _l'Inscription Syro Chinoise de Si ngan
fou_, etc., Firmin Didot, 1858. (See also _Kircher, China Illustrata_,
and article by Mr. Wylie in _J. Am. Or. Soc._, V. 278.) [Father Havret,
S.J., of Zi ka wei, near Shang hai, has undertaken to write a large
work on this inscription with the title of _La Stele Chretienne de Si
ngan fou_, the first part giving the inscription in full size, and the
second containing the history of the monument, have been published at
Shang-hai in 1895 and 1897; the author died last year (29th September,
1901), and the translation which was to form a third part has not yet
appeared. The Rev. Dr. J. Legge has given a translation and the Chinese
text of the monument, in 1888.--H.C.]

Stone monuments of character strictly analogous are frequent in the
precincts of Buddhist sanctuaries, and probably the idea of this one
was taken from the Buddhists. It is reasonably supposed by Pauthier
that the monument may have been buried in 845, when the Emperor
Wu-Tsung issued an edict, still extant, against the vast multiplication
of Buddhist convents, and ordering their destruction. A clause in the
edict also orders the _foreign bonzes of Ta-T'sin_ and _Mubupa_
(Christian and _Mobed_ or Magian?) _to return to secular life_.

[A] [M. Grenard, who reproduces (III. p. 152) a good facsimile of
the inscription, gives to the slab the following dimensions:
high 2m. 36, wide 0m. 86, thick 0m. 25.--H.C.]

[B] [Dr. F. Hirth (_China and the Roman Orient_, p. 323) writes:
"O-LO-PEN = Ruben, Rupen?" He adds (_Jour. China Br. R. As.
Soc._ XXI. 1886, pp. 214-215): "Initial _r_ is also quite
commonly represented by initial _l_. I am in doubt whether the
two characters _o-lo_ in the Chinese name for Russia
(_O-lo-ssu_) stand for foreign _ru_ or _r