Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/75

63 WHAT COUNTRY IS MEANT BY TA-THSIN ? 63 some have even thought it might mean Persia, since most Chinese writers, both ancient and modern, are apt to confound Ta-Thsin with Po-sse, evidently a tran- scription of the word Persia. The denomination of Ta-Thsin appears, by the evidence of some Chinese books, to correspond with the western part of Asia, which was subject to the great empire of Byzantium, and has always been called Romania by Asiatics. Thus Ta-Thsin may mean either the Roman empire of Byzan- tium, or Judea, or Persia, or it may be a general ap- pellation for all the countries of the West, just as at the present day the Chinese apply the word Si-yang, which signifies Western Seas, to the country of all the nations of Europe — English, French, Spaniards, and even some- times also to that of the Americans. It is hardly worth while to seek in Chinese authors for a geographical accuracy, which they do not even pretend to themselves. The authenticity of the monument of Si-ngan-Fou does not in the least depend on the question of what particular country is meant by Ta-Thsin. If it should be Persia, as appears to be indicated in a Chinese work, called, " A History of the Barbarous Nations," the Syriac character of the inscription is accounted for. Here is an extract from this production : — " The king- dom of Ta-Thsin is the rendezvous of all the kingdoms of the Western sky, and there meet the foreign mer- chants of the country of the Ta-chi (Arabs). The present king is named Malo-Fo. He envelopes his head in apiece of silk stuff, ornamented with letters of gold in relief. His palace is surrounded by walls, in which are seven gates, each guarded by thirty men. When an envoy arrives from another kingdom to offer tribute