| Show DR HIRTH A chinese official visits our city yesterday afternoon we had the pleasure of a call from dr Friedr friedrick lck virth hirth lately president of the asiatic society of china in which country he be has resia resided ted a number of years he was employed by its government in the customs department and was located at Shan shanghai gUal he is now DOW op his way to Fatherland having been grin granted ted a two years leave of absence dr hirth is the author of a boo book k in which he shows beyond question that christianity hristian ity was introduce ed into china in the seventh century by la a nea torian monk hook from syria there is in existence near the ancient capital of china a stone atone tablet bearin bearing a date of the eighth century on which is inscribed details of the establishment of the mission it is written in the chinese character but has also the games aames of individuals in syriac it tells the story of the birth of the Savio a virgin at bethlehem this tablet was discovered in 1627 and has caused a great deal of speculation one prominent french author declaring that it was a fraud perpetrated by the jesuits alexander has shown however that such an assertion is absurd because he be discovered chinese works that existed as far back as the century that contained direct references to this same tablet and it is a well established and understood fact th tb atthe jesuits did not visit china until the century dr hirth has made mad e a thorough examination of chinese records which show plainly that the authors of we the statements on the tablets came irom syria and he be also found of syrian industries among the them rn a statement to the effect that they took chinese silk fabrics and by an ingenious mechanical process split them and returned them to china in that gauzy transparent shape these facts agree with a statement made by pliny the roman historian that has always been viewed with doubt to the effect that the syrians produced a thin silk fabric of the kind described and that roman ladies created a great scandal by wearing it without introducing any g upon their persons dr hirth very consistently claims that this goes gees to establish the baet of the existence of a commercial relationship between china and syria in those early ages the doctor describes the better class of chinese as shrewd intelligent and conservative people some of their social customs are very interesting but we have not space to ti mention them in detail at present |
