[Illustration: West Gate Of Chin-Kiang Fu In 1842.]

There are in this city two churches of Nestorian Christians which were established in the year of our Lord 1278; and I will tell you how that happened.

You see, in the year just named, the Great Kaan sent a Baron of his whose name was MAR SARGHIS, a Nestorian Christian, to be governor of this city for three years. And during the three years that he abode there he caused these two Christian churches to be built, and since then there they are. But before his time there was no church, neither were there any Christians.[NOTE 1]

NOTE 1. - CHIN-KIANG FU retains its name unchanged. It is one which became well known in the war of 1842. On its capture on the 21st July in that year, the heroic Manchu commandant seated himself among his records and then set fire to the building, making it his funeral pyre. The city was totally destroyed in the T'ai-P'ing wars, but is rapidly recovering its position as a place of native commerce.

[Chen-kiang, "a name which may be translated 'River Guard,' stands at the point where the Grand Canal is brought to a junction with the waters of the Yang-tzu when the channel of the river proper begins to expand into an extensive tidal estuary." (Treaty Ports of China, p. 421.) It was declared open to foreign trade by the Treaty of Tien-Tsin 1858. - H.C.]

Mar Sarghis (or Dominus Sergius) appears to have been a common name among Armenian and other Oriental Christians. As Pauthier mentions, this very name is one of the names of Nestorian priests inscribed in Syriac on the celebrated monument of Si-ngan fu.

[In the description of Chin-kiang quoted by the Archimandrite Palladius (see vol. i. p. 187, note 3), a Christian monastery or temple is mentioned: "The temple Ta-hing-kuo-sze stands in Chin-kiang fu, in the quarter called Kia-t'ao h'eang. It was built in the 18th year of Chi-yuen (A.D. 1281) by the Sub-darugachi, Sie-li-ki-sze (Sergius). Liang Siang, the teacher in the Confucian school, wrote a commemorative inscription for him." From this document we see that "Sie-mi-sze-hien (Samarcand) is distant from China 100,000 li (probably a mistake for 10,000) to the north-west. It is a country where the religion of the Ye-li-k'o-wen dominates.... The founder of the religion was called Ma-rh Ye-li-ya. He lived and worked miracles a thousand five hundred years ago. Ma Sie-li-ki-sze (Mar Sergius) is a follower of him." (Chinese Recorder, VI. p. 108). - H.C.]

From this second mention of three years as a term of government, we may probably gather that this was the usual period for the tenure of such office. (Mid. Kingd., I. 86; Cathay, p. xciii.)

CHAPTER LXXIV.

OF THE CITY OF CHINGINJU AND THE SLAUGHTER OF CERTAIN ALANS THERE.

Leaving the city of Chinghianfu and travelling three days south-east through a constant succession of busy and thriving towns and villages, you arrive at the great and noble city of CHINGINJU. The people are Idolaters, use paper-money, and are subject to the Great Kaan. They live by trade and handicrafts, and they have plenty of silk. They have also abundance of game, and of all manner of victuals, for it is a most productive territory.[NOTE 1]

Now I must tell you of an evil deed that was done, once upon a time, by the people of this city, and how dearly they paid for it.

You see, at the time of the conquest of the great province of Manzi, when Bayan was in command, he sent a company of his troops, consisting of a people called Alans, who are Christians, to take this city.[NOTE 2] They took it accordingly, and when they had made their way in, they lighted upon some good wine. Of this they drank until they were all drunk, and then they lay down and slept like so many swine. So when night fell, the townspeople, seeing that they were all dead-drunk, fell upon them and slew them all; not a man escaped.

And when Bayan heard that the townspeople had thus treacherously slain his men, he sent another Admiral of his with a great force, and stormed the city, and put the whole of the inhabitants to the sword; not a man of them escaped death. And thus the whole population of that city was exterminated.[NOTE 3]

Now we will go on, and I will tell you of another city called Suju.

NOTE 1. - Both the position and the story which follows identify this city with CHANG-CHAU. The name is written in Pauthier's MSS. Chinginguy, in the G.T. Cingiggui and Cinghingui, in Ramusio Tinguigui.

The capture of Chang-chau by Gordon's force, 11th May 1864, was the final achievement of that "Ever Victorious Army."

Regarding the territory here spoken of, once so rich and densely peopled, Mr. Medhurst says, in reference to the effects of the T'ai-P'ing insurrection: "I can conceive of no more melancholy sight than the acres of ground that one passes through strewn with remains of once thriving cities, and the miles upon miles of rich land, once carefully parcelled out into fields and gardens, but now only growing coarse grass and brambles - the home of the pheasant, the deer, and the wild pig." (Foreigner in Far Cathay, p. 94.)

NOTE 2. - The relics of the Alans were settled on the northern skirts of the Caucasus, where they made a stout resistance to the Mongols, but eventually became subjects of the Khans of Sarai. The name by which they were usually known in Asia in the Middle Ages was Aas, and this name is assigned to them by Carpini, Rubruquis, and Josafat Barbaro, as well as by Ibn Batuta.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 91 of 360
Words from 91995 to 92994 of 370046