March 29. 1909.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
particular attainments. Both, moreover, were ignorant of the simplest facts in history, and neither possessed the slightest sparkle of critical intelligence. Both, more- over, were, owing to the superlative ignor ance of those with whom they were thrown in contact, elevated into the false position | of teachers, a position that neither their attainments fitted them to occupy.
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the opposition of the sugar and tariff inte. ests in the United States, he will in all
was now vacant; and naming his other nephew, PARTHAMISIRIS, asked for his inves probability succeed. In the petition to
titure from Rome, as a subject king like which reference has been made, there was
TIRIDATES. TRAJAN, who was ambitious of mention of the "splendid development" in Porto Rico since Congress gave to that
annexing Armenia, returned an evasive island the advantage of free trade with the
the East, when he would see what was to be answer, and said he was himself coming to United States which is demanded for the
d ne. Philippines, and those who signed the petition
Ón his arrival PARTHAMISIRis rode affirmed their belief that they could pledge
into the Roman camp to TRAJANʼs tent, and These thoughts were forced on the notice formally removing the crown which he had to Congress for the Philippines an equal of the writer & short time ago on taking up assumed laid it at the feet of TRAJAN, expect. return in commerce in proportion to popu- a Chinese work entitled Biographies of ing it to be as formally returned; Trajan lation if they were granted the same legis. Distinguished Buddhisacherst Te (Kao sang had, however, other things in view, and the lative advantages. In other words "where chwen ch'o tsih). The work is modern but army, seeing he did not return it, shouted, the million Porto Ricas purchase twenty-as been carefully compiled from original declaring him Emperor. ParthAmisiris, five million dollars' worth of goods in the sources. Omitting the Buddhists of the old feeling himself entrapped, demanded United States, eight million Filipinos wil, Southern Shool of the Hinavana, who came private conference which was granted, and within ten veara from the enactment in response to the Emperor MING TI's request complained of the indignity; Trajan told of a Free-Trade law, be purchasing after his famous dream, and who have left him that Armenia was now a Roman pro- two-hundred mill on dollars' worth," That no mark on modern Buddhism, the Religion vince, and would not be restored; he was, seems very sanguine prophesy when we are was really introduced by the Apostle whom | however personally at liberty, aud would dealing with a present total import trade of the older accounts style AN-SHI-KAO, which not be molested. He accordingly made his less than thirty-one million dollars. we may render as Kao, The Pacificator of arrangements to ride away, but was trea- Nous verrons. What for the moment the Age. The more modern work, while cherously set upon and murdered. On the is chiefly interesting is the fact that the mentioning the older title, calls him death of his father PACORUS a few years pre- nation which has been so insistent on the ANT'SING T'SE-SHI-KAO, which we may per-viously EXIDARES, being apparently judged policy of the open door and equal oppor. haps render as a transliteration of the too young, had himself been passed over in tunities for all in the Far East should now Sanscrit, VARDHADHRISHA KAO, The-over- the Parthian succession. He had now be embarking on a policy totally at variance increasing-in-zeal Kao. ANSHI KAO came to experienced the emptiness of human greate with these principles in the Asiatic terri- China in the second year of the reign of the ness,-put on the throne of Armenia as a tory over which her flag flies. A year ago Emperor HwAN of the later Han, i.e. 148 boy, he had been disposessed at the beck of & Convention of American Manufacturers A.D., and according to the Chinese story at New York passed a resolution in favour had had a romantic career.
a Roman Emperor; he had been passed He was the over when it came to his turn to ascend the of closing the Islands to trade with any eldest son of the King of Parthia by the other nation than the United States. Reci- Queen, and had in his youth, been carefully procal Free Traders, though they do not ask instructed in all the arts then current; he for a law in these terms, are evidently had studied the rules of justice, was able in hoping to achieve practically the same
discussion, and powerful in judgment be result.
had practiced the art of healing, and was a lover of literature; more, he was skilled in tle occult arts, and comprehended the lan- guage of birds and beasts. But although thus exalted in position, he cared nought for these things. When the King died he had as a matter of course ascended the throne; but as soon as the days of mourning had come to an end, he relinquishe all his royal honours, and resigning the throne to his uncle, retired to a monastery, where he soon rose to the head. He commenced travelling through those parts of Central Asia which then acknowledged the suzerainty of China, everywhere preaching the word; and at last, the year after the accession of the Emperor HwAN, arrived in China itself,
NEW LIGHT ON PARTHIAN HISTORY.
(Daily Press, March 23rd.) That there are many cases where chance. and incidental references to dealings with foreign states, have enabled the Chinese historical works to be made use of for correcting the granty, and often loose accounts of the classical writers, has long been known, and STANISLAS JULIAN has made considerable use of these records. i he Chinese books have also served in many instances to throw light on the extremel wild statements of the Indian authors who bave treated on the history of Buddhism; and it is, indeed, largely through the light thrown on them by Chinese writers that an approximation has been made towards a chronography of the early ages of Buddhism, Indeed of chronology, until they came into contact with the Chinese, the Indians had not the faintest conception; so that in a few years the most important occurrences had invariably become encrusted with such a fri-ge of myth that frequently the most ex- perienced reviser has to give up in despair the task of evolving a single historical fact out of the overpowering mass of rubbish, Owing, however, to the ignorance and self- sufficiency of the French translators of the eighteenth century of whom DES GUIGNES was a typical example, the most erronous conclusions were arrived at, so that instead of being helped, the historian has ever since been weighted with a whimsical assortment of mis-statements, and the history of Central Asia has, in consequence become more con- torted and entangled than ever, Of all the hindrances to Chinese studies that have ever appeared the influence of two men stand out pre-eminent, Des GuIGNES and the late Sir THOMAS WAE; both being men who to a supreme ignorance of the groundwork of the Chinese language adde: a most overweening idea of their own
Parthian throne; and last he had seen his brother PARTHAMISIRIS ignominiously dri- ven from the Roman camp, and murdered in cold blood. It was little wouder then that on the death of CHоSHOES, who was his uncle, not his father, about 128 A.D., EXIDARES should have declined the dangerous honour, and preferred to retire to his monastery. ▾ Historians have always been puzzled over the extraordinary fact that though it was known that EXIDARES was alive and the rightful heir, he was a second time passed over and the crown given to a distant relation. The Chinese narrative supplies the missing reason. Confounding the two occasions it indeed makes his uncle to have succeeded, which was the case in the first instance only.
But a still more curious fact remains behind. TIRIDATES of Armenia, was grand uncle t EXIDARES, and was, as we have seen, a Z roastrian priest; it must have been under his auspices that EXIDAREs's early. So much we learn from the Chinese education had been carried out, and, as the author, which tallies perfectly with what we Chinese story tells us, he was learned in all learn from classical sources; where we are
the wisdom of the time. We are not told told much of his earlier career, not less why it was to Buddhism that he turned. interesting than his mature life. Rome and He must, however, have come under the Parthit were at the time engaged in a influence of the great Buddhist apostle of contest for the empire of the East; and the Mahâyâoa school, ACVAGHO-HA; Now it Armenia had ecome the goal for which is curious that foremost ainongst the duc- both were striving. In the year 66 TrRI- trines taught by AC-AGHOSHA was that of DATES, who had been placed on the throne the Buddha Amida and the Paradise of of Armenia by his brother VARGASH, called the West. But Amida Buddha was but by the Romans VOLAGASES, by arrangement a Buddhistic rend ring of the old Zoroast after war had been declared between the train legend of YIMA KSHAETA and his happy two to the detriment of Parthia, went to land of the Airgano, and the inspiration Rome to be invested by the Emperor NERO,here seemingly came from TIRIDATES himself. TIRIDATES had been, it happened, a Zoroas- trian priest, and this character he seems to have retained notwithstanding his elevation He, however, died without issue, and PACORUS, who was at the time ruling King of Parthia, put as his succes or on the Armenian throne his young son, called by the Roman ExIDARES, but whose name in old Persian was KHSHATOR. This was the prince afterwards known to the Chine-e as ANSHI KAO. TRAJAN, who was now Roman Emperor, objected to this interference; and CHOSROES, brother of PACORUS. who had succeeded him on the Parthian throne, not wishing to offend TRAJAN, deposed his young nephew, and wrote to TRA- JAN stating that the Armenian crown
At all the eveuts the age was one of religious enquiry, and attempts were being made to amalgamate the principles of the greit religions of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity. TIRIDATES himself sent to the Court of King GONDOBERT, then ruling in northern India, and invited the Apostle THOMAS to visit him, so that it is almost certain that his grand nephew must have listened to the two Apostles AcуAGHOSHA and THOMAS, of Buddhism and Christianity respectively. The Buddhism brought to China by ANSHI KAO was of the northern type of the Mahayana school, and its principal doctrine was the worship of Amida in contrast to the featureless and spiritless doctrines as the Southern school taught by
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