It Is Reasonably Supposed By Pauthier
That The Monument May Have Been Buried In 845, When The Emperor
Wu-Tsung Issued An Edict, Still Extant, Against The Vast Multiplication
Of Buddhist Convents, And Ordering Their Destruction.
A clause in the
edict also orders the foreign bonzes of Ta-T'sin and Mubupa
(Christian and Mobed or Magian?) to return to secular life.
[A] [M. Grenard, who reproduces (III. p. 152) a good facsimile of
the inscription, gives to the slab the following dimensions:
high 2m. 36, wide 0m. 86, thick 0m. 25. - H.C.]
[B] [Dr. F. Hirth (China and the Roman Orient, p. 323) writes:
"O-LO-PEN = Ruben, Rupen?" He adds (Jour. China Br. R. As.
Soc. XXI. 1886, pp. 214-215): "Initial r is also quite
commonly represented by initial l. I am in doubt whether the
two characters o-lo in the Chinese name for Russia
(O-lo-ssu) stand for foreign ru or ro alone. This word
would bear comparison with a Chinese transcription of the
Sanskrit word for silver, rupya which in the Pen ts ao kang
mu (ch. 8, p. 9) is given as o lu pa. If we can find further
analogies, this may help us to read that mysterious word in the
Nestorian stone inscription, being the name of the first
Christian missionary who carried the cross to China, O lo
pen, as 'Ruben'. This was indeed a common name among the
Nestorians, for which reason I would give it the preference
over Pauthier's Syriac 'Alopeno'.
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