( ) 
reading believed without much Examination, becaufe 
there was Pleafure found in giving Credit to it. 
Thus did the agreeable Poifon inftnuate itfelf : The 
very Learned, or thofe who thought themfelves fuch, 
were infeded thereby. But China has its Critics as 
well as we: There are fome of them clear-fighted 
enough to difcern Fiftions, and firm enough not to 
give themfelves blindly up to the moft propagated 
Errors. 
Several in after Times oppofed Se ma fjien^ taxed 
him. with exceffive Credulity, and reproached him 
for his monftrous Over-fight. Nay, fome laying 
afide his Authority, have boldly abridged the Times, 
and fixed the true Epoque of their Hiftory at a 
fmall Number of Centuries before Jefus Chrifi, 
Among thefe is the Compiler of a new Chrono- 
logical Table of the Chinefe Hiftory, which has 
lately appeared here in Latin on a large Sheet of 
Paper. It is a Tranflation publiflied by Father Fou- 
quet^ Soc, Jef. the prefent Biftiop oiEleutheropolis^ 
who hath lived near twenty-three Years in China, 
The Chinefe Original from which the Tranflation 
was made, is owing to the learned Fiien hi yao^ a 
artafy illuftrious by Birth and Merit, and Viceroy 
of Canton in the Year 1714'^ : For the 'Tartars^ fince 
their Conqueft of China^ are become well verfed ill 
Sciences, and efpecially in the Hiftory of the Empire 
they conquered. 
Yet this Gentleman is not the Author of the Chro- 
nological Syftem he has here drawn up. He himfelf 
tells 
His Tather pojfejfed the like Poft, and in the Year 17 2 hU other w 
Tfong Tou of two Provinies, a more confiderablt and more important Em- 
ploy than that of Viceroy. 
