al of the
doctrine and permission to teach it publicly. There follows a decree
of the Emperor (T'ai Tsung, a very famous prince) issued in 638 in
favour of the new doctrine and ordering a church to be built in the
Square of Peace and Justice (_I ning Fang_) at the capital. The
Emperor's portrait was to be placed in the church. After this comes a
description of Ta T'sin (here apparently implying Syria), and then some
account of the fortunes of the Church in China. Kao Tsung (650-683 the
devout patron also of the Buddhist traveller and Dr. Hiuen Tsang)
continued to favour it. In the end of the century, Buddhism gets the
upper hand, but under HIUAN TSUNG (713-755) the Church recovers its
prestige, and KIHO, a new missionary, arrives. Under TE TSUNG (780-783)
the monument was erected, and this part ends with the eulogy of ISSE,
a statesman and benefactor of the Church. 3rd. There follows a
recapitulation of the purport in octosyllabic verse.

The Chinese inscription concludes with the date of erection, viz. the
second year _Kienchung_ of the Great T'ang Dynasty, the seventh day of
the month _Tait su_, the feast of the great _Yaosan_. This
corresponds, according to Gaubil, to 4th February, 781, and _Yaosan_
is supposed to stand for _Hosanna_ (i.e. Palm Sunday, but this
apparently does not fit, see infra). There are added the name chief
of the law, NINGCHU (presumed to be the Chinese name of the
Metropolitan), the name of the writer, and the official sanction.

The _Great Hosanna_ was, though ingenious, a misinterpretation of
Gaubil's. Mr. Wylie has sent me a paper of his own (in _Chin. Recorder
and Miss. Journal_, July, 1871, p. 45), which makes things perfectly
clear. The expression transcribed by Pauthier, _Yao san wen_, and
rendered "Hosanna," appears in a Chinese work, without reference to
this inscription, as _Yao san wah_, and is in reality only a Chinese
transcript of the Persian word for Sunday, "_Yak shambah_." Mr. Wylie
verified this from the mouth of a Peking Mahomedan. The 4th of
February, 781 _was_ Sunday, why _Great_ Sunday? Mr. Wylie suggests,
possibly because the first Sunday of the (Chinese) year.

The monument exhibits, in addition to the Chinese text, a series of
short inscriptions in the Syriac language, and _Estranghelo_ character,
containing the date of erection, v