Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 253

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Topography of Shensi.

Arril,

XI. Fú chau, or the inferior Department of Fú, contains three hien districts.

Lohchuen,

Chungpú,

3 Ì

I ́kiun.

XII. Suiteh chau, or the inferior Department of Suiteh, contains three hien districts.

3米脂 Michi.

1 清澗 Tsingkien, 2吳堡 Wúpáu,

I. The department of Sí-ngán, next to Shuntien fú or Peking, con- tains the largest number of districts of any department in the provinces, and it once comprised thirty-three, half of which have been parti- tioned off, but its population is not the second; it lies along the south- side of the R. Wei, and was once more densely peopled than at pre- sent. The captial lies in lat. 34° 16′ N., near the junction of the King and Wei rivers, and was the metropolis of China during the Tsin, Hán, and Táng dynasties, and the briefer ones which inter- vened, a period of more than a thousand years; it was then called Cháng-ngán, the name by which the district is now known. In the times of Confucius, the capital of the empire, Cháng-ngán, lay north- west of the present locality; it received the name of Sí-ngán in the days of the Ming. The Nestorians found this place the seat of greater power than any other in Asia, and the celebrated empress Wú-tsih-tien here swayed her scepter over more than half the conti- nent. It was known then by them as Khoubdan or Khmumdan, under which name it is mentioned by Theophylact of Simocatta, in a. d. 582, when the house of Sui occupied the throne. There is every probability that this region was one of the localities where the progenitors of the sons of Hán first settled after their migrations through Central Asia. The region is still highly cultivated, and after Peking, Síngán fú is the largest city in the northern provinces, the residence of the governor-general of Shensí and Kánsuh, and the center of the trade of the northwestern provinces. Some remains of the palaces of former monarchs are still pointed out, but they only serve to show how trifling were the attempts of the emperors of those days to perpetuate their name and glory by rearing magnificent and durable buildings. One of the most interesting relics of antiquity ever found here is the inscription recording the preaching of the Nestorians. (See Chi. Rep, Vol. XIV.)