From some of the particulars recorded of them, the idea was once entertained that they were the descendants, not of the remnants of the Captivity, but of the ten tribes. This, however, is an evident error, as they not only possess the Book of Ezra, for whom they profess profound respect, but those of Esther and Maccabees also. There is the greatest difficulty in determining when they first arrived in China. According to some authorities, the immigration began several centuries before the birth of Christ. According to others, it was coincident with the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, or Pompey’s Jewish wars, or the siege of Jerusalem under Titus. Others date it from the period of Chosroes’s attempts at forcible proselytism; and it is certain that there is a mixture of Persian words in their language, which lends some likelihood to this belief. The most reasonable opinion at which we can arrive is, that although there may have been some connection for commercial purposes in very early times—as early even as those of David and Solomon—there was nothing like a settlement before the 3rd or 4th century preceding the birth of Christ. Then it seems likely that a number of Jews, who may in the first instance have left Palestine under terror of Haman’s persecution, established themselves in China. There may have been other immigrations between that time and the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. But at that period there was a second and a larger influx. From the Jews who then entered China the greater part of the modern Chinese Jews are descended. A third considerable entrance into the country may have taken place in the reign of Chosroes, the likelihood of which has already been pointed out. Supposing these various bodies to have settled in different districts widely removed from one another, the strange variations in their statements respecting their ancestry and date of settlement[94] in China would be accounted for. This theory is in some degree supported by the fact that many of the Chinese Jews report themselves as having sprung from seven tribes, each called after the name of one of the emperors of China. It is not unreasonable to argue that each of these tribes was called after the name of the emperor during whose reign it arrived in the country. But, whatever may have been the true length of their residence, it is certain that the Taou-kin-keaon (dividers of the sinew, Gen. xxxii. 32), as the Chinese call them, have retained in those far distant lands, and in that extreme isolation, their own habits, sentiments, and religious peculiarities as inflexibly as their countrymen in other lands have always done.