Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/70

58 58 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC "21. Kien-Tchoung*, master of his passions, rendered virtue beautiful and brilliant. By his arms he pacified the four seas ; he organised and civilised ten thousand countries ; he penetrated like a torch the hidden miseries of men ; he reflected like a mirror the colours of all things ; he resuscitated and revived the world ; he gave laws to a hundred barbarian nations. The most excellent law is as- suredly in harmony with all perfections. If we are forced to name it, we shall call it the Triple Unity. The sovereign acts, and the subject publishes his actions ; and that is why we erect this monu- ment, to celebrate the primordial felicity. " This stone was raised in the second year of Kien-Tchoung, of the great dynasty of Thang (a.d. 781.), on the seventh day of the moon of the great increase.f At this time the devout Ning-Chou, lord of the doctrine J, governed the luminous multitude in the Eastern country. " Lu-Siou-Yen, councillor of the palace, and previously member of the Council of War, himself traced these characters." Such is the translation of the famous inscription found at Si-ngan-Fou in 1625. On the left of the monu- ment are to be read the following words, in the Syriac language. " In the days of the Father of Fathers, Anan-Yeschouah, Patriarch Catholicos.§ To the right could be traced, "Adam, Priest, and Chor-Episcopus ;" and at the base of the inscription, " In the year of the Greeks one thousand nine hundred and two (a. d. 781) Mar Yezd-bouzid, Priest, and Chor-Episcopus of the Imperial City of Komdam, son of Millesius, priest, of Tchoung. f The first moon. ^ Bishop. § He was the second patriarch of that name, and consecrated in 774. His death, which took place in 778, was not known in China when the stone was erected.
 * The emperor Te-Soung, who reigned under the title of Kien-