Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/87

75 QUOTATION FROM STANISLAS JULIEN. 75 ment of Si-ngan-Fou, consists in the alleged absolute silence of Chinese writers on the subject. This silence indeed, if it really existed, could never afford more than a negative proof, and must be of little importance to those who are aware of the profound disdain of Chinese historians for foreign nations and "barbarians." But this supposed silence does not really exist. Chinese books do actually contain a great number of valuable hints concerning the propagation of Christianity in China in general, and the monument of Si-ngan-Fou in particular. JM. Stanislas Julien, who has a profound knowledge of Chinese literature, has collected some most important passages on this subject, which he has been kind enough to place at our disposal, and which prove that the learned of the Celestial Empire have condescended to interest themselves in this monument. This is the manner in which the discovery is related in the Collec- tion of Inscriptions, the Kin- Che-Sui- Pirn * : — "In the period Tsong-Tching (1628—1643) of the dynasty of Ming, the Governor of Si-ngan-Fou, named Tsing-Ling-Tseou, and surnamed Master Tsing-Tchang, had a young son, called Hoa-Sing. Nature had en- dowed him with rare intelligence, and scarcely was he able to walk, before he knew how to fold his hands and adore Fo.f At the age of twelve years he showed the greatest ardour for study ; but soon there came a spot upon his eyes, and at the moment when he was smiling at his father, he suddenly died. " After having consulted the fates, his friends desired to bury him, to the south of the monastery of Kin- t The Chinese name for Buddha.
 * Lib. 102. vol. viii., " Bibliotheque Imperiale," No. 574.