In Answer
To A Question As To When And How The Covering Was Destroyed, The Old
Priest Replied, With A
Twinkle in his eye as if his conscience pinched,
'There came a rushing wind and blew it down.' He
Could not say when,
for he paid no attention to such mundane affairs. More than one
outsider however, said it had been deliberately destroyed, because the
priests are jealous of the interest manifested in it. The stone has
evidently been recently tampered with, several characters are effaced
and there are other signs of malicious hands." - H.C.] Pauthier's works
on the subject are - De l'Authenticite de l'Inscription Nestorienne,
etc., B. Duprat, 1857, and l'Inscription Syro Chinoise de Si ngan
fou, etc., Firmin Didot, 1858. (See also Kircher, China Illustrata,
and article by Mr. Wylie in J. Am. Or. Soc., V. 278.) [Father Havret,
S.J., of Zi ka wei, near Shang hai, has undertaken to write a large
work on this inscription with the title of La Stele Chretienne de Si
ngan fou, the first part giving the inscription in full size, and the
second containing the history of the monument, have been published at
Shang-hai in 1895 and 1897; the author died last year (29th September,
1901), and the translation which was to form a third part has not yet
appeared. The Rev. Dr. J. Legge has given a translation and the Chinese
text of the monument, in 1888. - H.C.]
Stone monuments of character strictly analogous are frequent in the
precincts of Buddhist sanctuaries, and probably the idea of this one
was taken from the Buddhists.
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