Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/114

102 102 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. visited China, the capital where the sovereign resided was called Thadjouye. The empire had previously been divided into two territories ; but one of the two competitors for sovereignty had succumbed to the other, who now remained sole master. " Let us pause a moment," says M. Reinaud, li to consider these various circumstances. At the epoch to which the inscription of Si-ngan-Fou relates, China was under the laws of the dynasty of Thang. It was a brilliant period of Chinese history, for the princes of the dynasty of Thang were in general enlightened and tolerant men, who sought to maintain friendly relations with foreign nations. It was under their dominion that the Arabians and Persians kept up so active an intercourse both by sea and land with the Celestial Empire." It was in this period that Christianity was propagated in China, but the Thangs disappeared at the beginning of the tenth century, in the midst of intestine wars, and the other scourges, which anarchy always brings in its train. Various factions were formed, and it was not till towards the year 960 that the dynasty of Song esta- blished itself; which was in power at the time the monk of Xadjran undertook his mission (about 980); though, as it appears, it had hardly yet established its authority over the whole empire. The Christians had of course suffered in the general confusion, like the rest of the nation ; but when order had been restored, a violent reaction took place in favour of the ancient traditions of the country, and this finished what war and tyranny had unfortunately begun. These revolutionary movements and changes of dy- nasty, so frequent in China, could not but offer numer-