42 SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT 



Voltaire, Julian and Renan stigmatised it as a 

 forgery, but it is now regarded as genuine by 

 sinologists. 



The Forest of Monuments, another relic of 

 interest, consists of a vast number of large tomb- 

 like stones on which are engraved the classics of 

 Confucius in 250,000 different characters. They 

 are nearly seventeen hundred years old. Peking 

 holds a similar set. Close by is a statue of 

 Confucius two or three hundred years old and a 

 stone with his likeness carved on the surface. 

 Most of the classics have had rubbings taken 

 of them, but this is now forbidden, as one of 

 the tablets was broken. The reason given for 

 their origin is as follows : The great despot 

 Tsui-chi-hwaiig (246-202 b.c.) — he who began 

 the Great Wall, and who for the first time con- 

 solidated under one rule the whole of what is 

 now China Proper — was persuaded that all the 

 misery and distresses of his kingdom were caused 

 by the literati. He accordingly put them all to 

 death and burned their books. The tablets were 

 subsequently engraved to prevent the recurrence 

 of such a disaster. 



Having called on the President of the Local 

 Board of Foreign Affairs, we were invited to a 

 meal. The festive table was decorated with hide- 

 ous lodging-house-looking vases, plates of cakes, 

 peaches, apples and plums, trays of cigarettes 

 and some poisonous-looking cigars. Our hosts 

 curiosity was insatiable and the doctor's answers 

 could hardly keep pace with his inquiries. He had 

 the vaguest ideas of geography, despite the position 

 he occupied, and quite believed we came from 



