Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/95

83 83 CHAP. III. RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT IN THE CHINESE EMPIRE TOLERANCE AND SCEPTICISM OF THE CHINESE. — PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA. FIRST METROPOLITANS. PROGRESS OF PROSELYTISM. DETAILS DRAWN FROM ARAB LITERATURE CURIOUS PASSAGE IN A BOOK ENTITLED " THE CHAIN OF CHRONICLES." REVOLUTION IN CHINA. MASSACRE OF THE CHRISTIANS. ARAB WRITERS AND MARCO POLO. MISSIONARIES SENT TO CHINA LN THE TENTH CENTURY. — NOTICE OF PRESTER JOHN. LETTER OF THIS CURIOUS PERSONAGE TO THE EMPEROR OF CONSTANTINOPLE. LETTER OF POPE ALEXANDER III. TO PRESTER JOHN. — CONVERSION OF A KHAN AND A TRIBE OF KERAITES IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. NUMEROUS CONQUESTS OF THIS MONGOL TRIBE. ORIGIN OF THE LEGEND OF PRESTER JOHN. UNG-KHAN, THE LAST SOVEREIGN OF THE KERAITES. At the period when the apostles of Christianity were erecting in the heart of the Chinese empire the remark- able monument of which we have spoken, there was a great religious movement going on in Upper Asia; a movement that has been by no means sufficiently re- marked by those who have desired to contest the authenticity of the inscription of Si-ngan-Fou. At the very time when the missionaries of Jesus Christ were scattering the seeds of divine truth in the populous countries of Upper Asia, the disciples of Mahomet and Buddha were also animated by an ardent spirit of pro- selytism. It is known with what fanatic fury the disciples of the Koran laboured to convert men to their faith. Persia had been subjugated ; its last sovereign forced, as we have seen, to seek a refuge in China, and G 2