Kircher gives a good many more Syriac names than appear on the rubbing, probably because some of these are on the edge of the slab now built in. We have no room to speak of the controversies raised by this stone. The most able defence of its genuine character, as well as a transcript with translation and commentary, a work of great interest, was published by the late M. Pauthier. The monument exists intact, and has been visited by the Rev. Mr. Williamson, Baron Richthofen, and other recent travellers. [The Rev. Moir Duncan wrote from Shen-si regarding the present state of the stone. (_London and China Telegraph_, 5th June, 1893): “Of the covering rebuilt so recently, not a trace remains save the pedestals for the pillars and atoms of the tiling. In answer to a question as to when and how the covering was destroyed, the old priest replied, with a twinkle in his eye as if his conscience pinched, ‘There came a rushing wind and blew it down.’ He could not say when, for he paid no attention to such mundane affairs. More than one outsider however, said it had been deliberately destroyed, because the priests are jealous of the interest manifested in it.... The stone has evidently been recently tampered with, several characters are effaced and there are other signs of malicious hands.”—H. C.] Pauthier’s works on the subject are—_De l’Authenticité de l’Inscription Nestorienne_, etc., B. Duprat, 1857; and _l’Inscription Syro-Chinoise de Si-ngan-fou_, etc., Firmin Didot, 1858. (See also _Kircher, China Illustrata_; and article by Mr. Wylie in _J. Am. Or. Soc._, V. 278.) [Father Havret, S.J., of Zi-ka-wei, near Shang-hai, has undertaken to write a large work on this inscription with the title of _La Stèle Chrétienne de Si-ngan-fou_; the first part giving the inscription in full size, and the second containing the history of the monument, have been published at Shang-hai in 1895 and 1897; the author died last year (29th September, 1901), and the translation which was to form a third part has not yet appeared. The Rev. Dr. J. Legge has given a translation and the Chinese text of the monument, in 1888.—H. C.] Stone monuments of character strictly analogous are frequent in the precincts of Buddhist sanctuaries, and probably the idea of this one was taken from the Buddhists. It is reasonably supposed by Pauthier that the monument may have been buried in 845, when the Emperor Wu-Tsung issued an edict, still extant, against the vast multiplication of Buddhist convents, and ordering their destruction. A clause in the edict also orders the _foreign bonzes of Ta-T’sin_ and _Mubupa_ (Christian and _Mobed_ or Magian?) _to return to secular life_.