Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/68

56 56 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. Fen- Yang, was at first charged with military affairs in Lo-Fan. The emperor Sou-Tsoung wished that he should accompany him in a distant expedition, and though he was admitted familiarly into the imperial tent, he behaved as if he had been nothing more than a simple soldier. He was, nevertheless, the teeth and the claws of the empire, the eyes and the ears of the army. He distributed to others his pay and his presents, and did not know how to accumulate riches in his house. He offered vases of glass, and gilded carpets ; he restored the ancient temples, and enlarged the Palace of the Law. He raised roofs and porticoes, and embellished edifices in such a man- ner that they were like pheasants spreading their wings to fly. He rendered perpetual service to the Luminous Gate * ; he distributed alms generously ; every year he assembled the religious and faithful from the four temples ; he served them with zeal, he provided them with suitable dishes, and he continued his good offices for fifty days ; those who were hungry came, and he fed them ; those who were cold came, and he clothed them ; he took care of the sick, and cured them ; he buried the dead, and put them to rest. It has not been heard that there existed anything finer among the Ta-So f, of pure duty. The religious men of the Luminous Doctrine, clothed in their white robes, admired this illustrious man, and wished to engrave on stone the memorial of his sublime actions. ' ; 15. The monument expresses itself thus : — The true Lord is Avithout beginning, eternally pure, and solitary. He was the Maker and reformer of the whole world ; he fixed the earth and prepared the throne emperors who had been driven from it by foreigners or rebels. He died at the age of eighty-four, in 781, the very year when this monument was erected. The whole empire, say the annals, went into mourning for his death, and this mourning was the same as that worn for a parent, and lasted three years. His name has remained popular in China till this day ; he is often made the hero of dramatic pieces, and we have ourselves repeatedly heard his name pronounced with respect and admiration in assemblies of mandarins. There is every reason to believe that this great man was a Christian. f According to tradition, Ta-So was a religious Buddhist, who having convoked all the Bonzes in a great assembly, lodged them, fed them, and procured for them all the necessaries of life. — Alvarez Semedo, " Histoire Generale de Chine," p. 229.
 * The Christian religion.