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Notes on the Nestorian Monument at Sianfu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Lionel Giles
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Extract

When I wrote my note on (33) , etc. (Bulletin, I, 3, p. 39), I was unaware, that Père Havret had discussed and amplified his previous translation of the passage in a small pamphlet entitled La Stèle Chrétienne de Si-ntgan-fou: quelques notes extraites d'un commentaire inédit, which was published at Leiden in 1897. Through the kindness of my friend Mr. A. C. Moule I have since had access to these notes, where it is conclusively shown that the passage in question conceals an allusion to the following words in the Slhih chou clti, spoken bv the envoys from Yüeh-chih to the Emperor Wu Ti: “Notre état est à trois cent mille li d'ici; on y observe constainment les présages célestes. Or, le vent d'est a soufflé d'après les lois harmoniques durant des centaines de décades sans discontinue; et les images azurés ont donné leur note musicale des mois entiers sans interruption. De lá, nous pûmies inférer qu'en ce même temps il se trouvait en Chine un prince vertueux.” Pére Havret then turns to the sentence in the Inscription, and interprets it in the light of his discovery: “En définitive, il faut voir dans ces nuages et dans ce vent, non point des phénomènes météorologiques qui accompagnèient le voyage d'Olopen, mais une formule flatteuse pour l'empereur T'ai-tsong dont la renommée attirait vers la Chine les prédicateurs d'Occident.” It will be seen that the compliment is delicately implied rather than actually expressed in the Chinese text, being only recognizable by one who is acquainted with the passage in the Shih chou chi. My translation, therefore, may stand; but the initial note about Kaban's forecasting of the weather will need some modification.

Type
Papers Contributed
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , October 1920 , pp. 15 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1920

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References

page 16 note 1 I follow MeClatehie's divisions of the text in preference to Legge's, which diverge from the ordinary Chinese arrangement.

page 17 note 1 His edition, like that of Wu Ch'êng, divides the Tao tê ching into 68 chapters, of which this is the 43rd.

page 22 note 1 The Chinese here is a little obscure.

page 22 note 2 See T'u shu chi ch'êng, xvii, ch. 703–12.

page 22 note 3 The order of the “terrestrial branches” being etc.

page 22 note 4 The name of a star corresponding in the above system of divination to the 11th branch, hsü. See T'u shu, xvii, ch. 703,, 17, ff. 36 and 40 seq.

page 23 note 1 Wylie's version (published in Chinese Researches after his death) is not accompanied by the Chinese text, so that we do not know how he arrived at this rendering, which is reasonably correct but needs explanation. He may have followed Pauthier, who prints , and yet translates: “Son nom fut ensuite inscrit sur les etendards militaires du commandement.”