Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/806

* SUNFLOWER. 704 SUNNITES. Sunflower stalks are useful as fuel when other materials are not abundant. SUNG, soong. One of the seven great Chinese dynasties. It was founded in 9(50 by Chao Kw'ang-j'in, a descendant of a family of officials of the T'ang dynasty lOlS-907), who had risen to high military command. With the Empire rent with disorder, and the hordes oi the Liao Tatars threatening on the north, the army con- cluded to raise their general, Chao, to the throne. He at once proceeded to repel the Liao and unify the Empire by reducing the petty States. He introduced many reforms, and for sixteen years ruled with great wisdom and ability. The Liao, however, continued to encroach on Chinese ter- ritory, and in 1126, during the reign of the ninth Emperor, established their authority over all of North China, styling their d3'nasty the Kin or 'Golden.' The Sung fled south to Hang-chow ( q.v, ), which continued to be the capital of the diminished empire of the Southern Sung. Nine emperors ruled here until 1279, when Kublai Khan and his Mongols overthrew both the Kin and the Sung, and established the Yuen dynasty in 1280. Notwithstanding the harassments and encroachments of invading armies, the Sung period was one of great prosperity and advance in civilization and culture. SUNGA'RIA, or DZUNGAKIA. A name vaguely applied to a region of imdefined extent in Central Asia (Map: Asia, H 4). It belongs to the Chinese Empire, and the name is gen- erally restricted to the region lying north of the Tarim Basin in East Turkestan, be- tween the Tian-Shan and Altai Mountains, and west of Mongolia. It is chiefly of histori- cal significance, deriving its name from the Sungarians, a Mongolian people who attained their greatest power about the middle of the seventeenth century-, when their kingdom cm- braced the territory between the Kuen-lun and the Altai Mountains, extending westward to Lake Balkhash. About 1670 the ruler of Sungaria en- tered into conflict with the Chinese, who com- pletely overran the country. The Chinese were driven out in 1710 and for a short time the rulers of Sungaria were masters of Tibet. In 17-59 the Chinese, after long campaigns, destroyed the re- established Sungarian kingdom and made the country a part of their empire, peopling it in large measure with colonists from China. SUNKEN BELL, The (Ger. Die versuiikcne Gloclc). A poetic play in blank verse by Gerhart Hauptmann ( 1S96). It is a fairy-drama, the chief human character of which is Heinrich, a master bell-founder who has completed his crowning work, a bell which is to be hung in a church on a mountain inhabited by sprites. Through their hostility the wagon bearing the bell is over- thrown and the latter is sunk in a mountain brook. Heinrich is injured and is nursed by the chief personage of the drama, Rautendclein. half child, half fairy, whose love changes Heinrich's standards and brings about the death of his wife. SUNN. A plant (Crotalaria juncea) grown in India and some other warm climates for its fibre. See Hemp, Sdnn; Crotalabia, and illus- trations on Plate of Cranberry, etc. SUN'NA (Ar. sunnali, custom, legal usage, tradition, from xniina, to establish a usage or law). In the original meaning among Moslems, the sayings and the example of Mohammed and his community, provided they are in accordance with the Koran, the meaning of which, however, is itself explained by the Sunna; As embracing traditional law, Sunna is divided into three parts: (1) what Jlohammed did; (2) what he enjoined; and (3) what was done in his presence and not forbidden by him. The term is therefore (though incorrectly) used for the collections of moral and legal traditions known as i/orfi7/i (q.v.) traced to the Prophet, which supplement the Koran, some- what like the Mishna (q.v.), which supplements the laws of the Pentateuch. The Sunna not only comprises religious doctrines and practice, but also civil and criminal laws, and the usages of common life, the way to eat and to drink, to dress, and the like. For the credibility and canonicity of a tradition, it was originally neces- sary that it should have been heard by one truth- ful witness; but this law was much relaxed in later times. By the beginning of the ninth cen- tury a large number of individual collections known as llusnads had been produced by differ- ent theologians, but the first who sifted them critically, and without regard to any special theological system, was Buchari (SlO-887). His collection contains 7275 single traditions, 4000 of which, however, occur twice in the work. iluslim. a younger contemporary (817-873), sup- plemented Buchari with another collection, con- taining 12,000 traditions, again including 4000 repetitions. Besides these, there are 'canonical' collections by Abu Daud (817-888). bv Tirmidhi (830-914), a pupil of Buchari, anil by Abu Maja (824-886), besides others that also en- joyed some measure of authority. The Sunna, as we have it in the.se collections, contains, broadly speaking, more truth than it is generally supposed to contain, and, critically used, is, be- sides the Koran, the most authentic source of a knowledge of Islam. A selection from the differ- ent collections (both canonical and otherwise), called Mishkat Al Masabih, has been translated into English by Matthews (Calcutta. 1809). The Arabic text of Buchari has been published by Krehl, Le recucil des traditions inusitlmanes (Leyden, 1862-68). and fragments of this work in German translation were embodied by Hammer-Purgstall in his Fundgruben des Orients (Vienna, 1810-19). Goldziher has a valuable treatise on the Hadith literature in his Mo- hammedanische Studien, vol. ii., pp. 1-274 (Halle, 1S90), SUNNITES, slin'its (from Ar. sunnah, cus- tom, legal usage, tradition, from snnna, to estab- lish a usage or law). The orthodox sect in Islam; politically it may be described as the Centre, in contrast to extreme theories concerning the headship of the Church. The term arose in distinction to several tendencies which early asserted themselves, but especially differentiates that sectior^ which denies the claim of the Shiites (q.v.) for the peculiar authority of Ali. as the sole legitimate successor of Mohammed. ( See Mohammedan Sects. ) These Shiites fast developed their peculiar theological and constitutional theories, and so drove their opponents to an understanding of their own posi- tion: as they were content with tradition and with things as they were, they called themselves Sunnites, or Traditionalists. The differences rapidly developed into those of a political and