have sent ambassadors to the
Emperor Julian[2], and for the first time to have established a friendly
connection with China. It is strange, considering the religious
sympathies which united the two people, that the native chronicles make
no mention of the latter negotiations or their results, so that we learn
of them only through Chinese historians. The _Encyclopoedia_ of
MA-TOUAN-LIN, written at the close of the thirteenth century[3], records
that Ceylon first entered into political relations with China in the
fourth century.[4] It was about the year 400 A.D., says the author, "in
the reign of the Emperor Nyan-ti, that ambassadors arrived from Ceylon
bearing a statue of Fo in jade-stone four feet two inches high, painted
in five colours, and of such singular beauty that one would have almost
doubted its being a work of human ingenuity. It was placed in the
Buddhist temple at Kien-Kang (Nankin)." In the year 428 A.D., the King
of Ceylon (Maha Nama) sent envoys to offer tribute, and this homage was
repeated between that period and A.D. 529, by three other Singhalese
kings, whose names it is difficult to identify with their Chinese
designations of Kia-oe, Kia-lo, and the Ho-li-ye.

[Footnote 1: PLINY, lib. vi. c. 24.]

[Footnote 2: AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, lib. XX. c. 7.]

[Footnote 3: KLAPROTH doubts, "si la science de l'Europe a produit
jusqu'a present un ouvrage de ce genre aussi bien execute et capable de
soutenir la comparaison avec cette encyclopedie chinoise."--_Journ.
Asiat._ tom. xxi. p. 3. See also _Asiatic Journal_, London, 1832, xxxv.
p. 110. It has been often reprinted in 100 large volumes. M. STANISLAS
JULIEN says that in another Chinese work, _Pien-i-tien_, or _The History
of Foreign Nations_, there is a compilation including every passage in
which Chinese authors have written of Ceylon, which occupies about forty
pages 4to. _Ib_. tom. xxix. p. 39. A number of these authorities will be
found extracted in the chapter in which I have described the intercourse
between China and Ceylon, Vol. I. P. v. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 4: Between the years 317 and 420 A.D.--_Journ. Asiat._ tom.
xxviii. p. 401.]

In A.D. 670, another ambassador arrived from Ceylon, and A.D. 742,
Chi-lo-mi-kia sent presents to the Emperor of China consisting of pearls
(_perles de feu_), golden flowers, precious stones, ivory, and pieces of
fine cotton cloth. At a later period mutual intercourse became frequent
between the two countries, and s