SiNGAN — The Present Chinese Capital 65 



given, commends the principles of this 

 new religion and closes with these com- 

 mands: ' ' L,et it be published throughout 

 the Empire, and let the proper authorit}^ 

 build a Syrian church in the capital in 

 the I-ning Way, which shall be gov- 

 erned by twenty-one priests." Then 

 ■comes a summary of prominent events 

 •connected with the " Illustrious Relig- 

 ion " and a recapitulation of them in an 

 ■ode in octosyllabic verse. At the end is 

 the date of its erection, A. D. 781, " in 

 the second year of Kiengchung, of the 

 Tang dynasty, on the 7th day of the 

 ist month, being Sunday," and the 

 names, possibly of donors, of sixt}'- 

 seven priests in Syriac characters and 

 sixt3='-one in Chinese. 



The tablet, which is said to be the old- 

 ■est Christian inscription yet found in 

 Asia, was discovered in 1625 and is now 

 in a brick inclosure outside the cit}^ walls 

 amid heaps of stones, bricks, and rub- 

 bish. Its preservation is due, strangel)^, 

 to the care of a Chinese, as an inscrip- 

 tion on the edge of the stone shows. 

 It is to the effect that, in 1859, a man 

 named Han-tai-wha, from Wu-lin, had 

 come to visit it, and had found the char- 

 acters and ornamentation perfect, and 

 that he had rebuilt the brick covering in 

 which it stood. The last words are: 

 "Alas ! that my friend Woo-tze-mi was 

 not with me, that he also might have seen 

 it. On this account I am ver}^ sorry." 



The tablet is, or was — for it may have 

 been destroyed in the fanatical hatred of 

 all that is foreign which has taken pos- 

 session of the people — a striking witness 

 ■of the power which the Christian faith 

 had over the Chinese a thousand years 

 ago and in the nineteenth century, for 

 this restorer and his friend must have 

 been native Christians. 



It is remarkable that Singan is identi- 

 fied with the greatest men whom China 

 has produced and with the most glori- 

 ous epochs of Chinese history. • This is 

 -especially true of the time, B. C. 1122, 

 when it was first made the capital of 



the Middle Kingdom by Wu-wang, the 

 founder of the Chau dynasty. 



"No period of ancient Chinese his- 

 tory," says Dr. Wells Williams, "is 

 more celebrated among the people than 

 that of the founding of this dynasty, be- 

 cause of the high character of its leading 

 men, who were regarded by Copernicus 

 as the impersonation of everything wise 

 and noble." The Emperor, with his 

 father and brother, ranked " among the 

 most distinguished men of antiquity for 

 their erudition, integrit)^, patriotism, and 

 inventions. ' ' It was then known, and for 

 many centuries afterwards, as Changan, 

 or ' ' Perpetual Peace " — a name still pre- 

 served as that of one of the quarters of 

 the modern city. In B. C. 246 one of the 

 greatest rulers China ever had chose it for 

 his residence. This was Chi Hwangti, 

 the "first universal emperor. ' ' Though 

 a boy of but thirteen years of age when he 

 ascended the throne, he speedily showed 

 great capacity for governing and as a 

 warrior. To improve the communica- 

 tion between his capital and the prov- 

 inces he constructed magnificent roads 

 and bridges, some of which remain to 

 the present day. This work was car- 

 ried on by his successor, who is said to 

 have spanned the valleys of the neigh- 

 boring mountains with suspension or 

 "flying" bridges, thus anticipating 

 western science by twenty centuries. 



But the " universal emperor's " fame 

 as conqueror of the Tatars and the 

 builder of these public works and the 

 Great Wall is eclipsed by his unwise 

 efforts to secure certain reforms. He 

 had become convinced that the fanatical 

 worship of the past which characterized 

 the teaching of the scholars was fatal to 

 progress and full of danger to the state. 

 He determined therefore to break once 

 and for all with the past, and ordered 

 that all books having reference to the 

 past history of the Empire should be 

 burned. This decree, which was almost 

 universally obeyed, and with consider- 

 able loss of life, apparently but strength- 



