Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 691

1850.

Defense of an Essay, &c.

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say that it (the religion of the god of Fire) was the same with the 'Ho Yáu,' this would he to confound the god of Fire with the God of Heaven: to say that the religion of the Persians comes from the Roman Empire (Ta-tsin) is like the erroneous derivation of my family from one of another surname. The Tab- let about "the (King kiau) Illustrious Religion" (i. e. that described on the Syrian Monument) is still more erroneous. The King kiáu is the religion of the fire worshipers: in the Tablet it is said, 'a bright star proclaimed the happy event;' 'he suspended the bright sun in order to break open the abodes of darkness; at mid-day he ascended to heaven:' all which refers to the sun's fire. It being also said in the Tablet, 'he determined in the form of the cross to establish the four quarters;' and, 'once in seven days they have ser- vice,' implicates it with the Tien-chú kiáu (Romish religion). When it speaks of the three-one, mysterious bodied, uncreated, true Lord Aloho, I do not

know what man (A) is referred to. And the composition of the whole

piece is in the exaggerated style of the dregs of the Budhists: it (the King kiáu) is not the religion of Fire; it is not that of Heaven (i. e. the Nestorian); it is not that of Budha: we are entirely at a loss to know by what name to call this religion; for the Persians sacrificing to the god of Fire was an ancient custom that originated among themselves, and the religion of Budha prevailed in India, its (Persia's) eastern neighbor. The religion of the God of Heaven prevailed in the Roman empire (Tá-lsin) its western neighbor. From the time of the Tang dynasty, the Tien-chú kiáu of the Roman empire (Ta-tsin) flourished more extensively, and a clever foreign priest (King Tsing, the writer of the Tablet it is to be supposed) united the three religions, and inade out of them one, to which he gave the name of King kiáu, “Illustrious religion” (or he may mean to insinuate that the priest meant it should be understood as the religion of King this being his own name), in order to exalt himself. In China the origin was not known, the people therefore followed his story and honored and believed in it, exactly according to what Chung Li says, 'You only like to hear what is strange.'

It is also said in the Tablet, that in the twelfth year of Ching-kwán (A.D. 639), Olopun, a man of great virtue, of the Roman Empire (Ta-tsin), has brought sacred books and images from afar, and presented them at our capital. This Olotuk (misprint, I presume for Olopun) coming from the Roman empire (7'a tsin) was no doubt of the Tien-chú kiáu (Romish religion); and his sacred books were the Holy Books and Gospels that have been transmitted to us from Europe: the images were those of Jesus on the cross; but we do not hear that, at that time, they had those images. With respect to that which is called King kidu, its depending upon (being derived from?) the religion of the Persian god of Fire, and having its images, dresses, decorations, &c., from the Budhists-this is what I can not explain.

"From the time of the Tang dynasty, the Budhist religion has flourished: the temples of the Foreign Yau and of the Fire Yau, and the religion of Persia and of Ta-tsin, have all not been again seen. According to western writers, in the northern country of Africa, called Abyssinia, the Ta-lsin "Ro-

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VOL. XIX. NO. XII.