The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-12-19

capital was again established at Si-
 ngan. It was here that the great Tait-
 song, the most famous of all the sov- Iereigns of China of Chinese race, held
 his court, and sanctioned the practice
 of Christianity at the same time that
 he introduced it's more successful rival,
 Buddhism, from Thibet. With the fall
 of the Tangs C907 A. D. Si-ngan ceased to be the capital, and the next dynasty
 of importance, the Sungs, fixed it first at Kienfong and afterwards at Nan king.
 Although Si-ngan never again be-
 came the seat of dynasty, it always
 remained city of importance. Its
 name, indeed, signifies the capital of
 the west and Marco Polo describes it.
 under the Mongol or Yuen dynasty, by the name of Kenjan-fu as "a city of great trade and industry The Rev.
 Alexander Williamson, one of the few
 English visitors to Si-ngan in de- Iscrlbing it in 1868 (the reader will find much of interest in his almost forgot ten Journeys in North China") says
 that, after Picking, 1t most resembles
 a capital of all the. cities of China. The
 walls are as high and as solid as those of Picking, while the gateways are far handsoner. Opinions generally differ about dimensions and population, but the walls are credibly stated to present four equal sides, each from eight to ten miles in length The population is
 given by some authorities at a million, by others at half a million. All agree in saying that much of the area inside
 the walls is under cultivation, and MT Williamson speaks of the lofty trees and countless roolSeries occupying them There is a considerable colony of Mo
 hammedans in the city, and on several
 occasions Si-ngan has been involved in
 the troubles arising from the Moham-
 medan insurrections in the northwest.
 This was especially the case in the Tun-
 gan insurrection of 1S62-7, when the
 rebels caused great deal of mischief
 in the neighborhood of the city, al-
 though they never absolutely dared to
 attack 1t. MT. Williamson visited it
 when it was just recovering from the
 losses of this period. Among the most
 interesting descriptions of Si-ngan is
 that given by Herr Kreitner, in his I'm | Fernen Osten," the history of Count | Szechenvki's tour through China. He speaks of its grand walls, fine streets,
 and the curiosity of its good-temepered pleasure seeking crowds Richthofen, Prejevalsky, the Abbe Huc and others give very similar descriptions of a city
 whose ancient importance if not it's splendor, may be about to be restored to it by the development of modern pol lttpc tThApn ara a1 oi,,t,, r interest connected with Si-ngap There is, of course, the Nestorian Tablet dat ed in the year 639 A. D., an authentic survival of the reign of the Emperor Taitsong already mentioned, and of his patronage of the Christian religion. This was discovered in 1925, and with the Chinese reverence for what Is old, has been carefully preserved down to the present day although it is now To- cally associated with "the men from afar," who are called by vituperatve Chinese mobs foreign devils'' But there are far more interesting things at Si-ngan than the Nestorian Tablet There is the Pei Lin, or Forest of Tab let's being a whole collection of his torcal records on stone of the highest value, relating not only to the dynasties specially connected with Si-ngan, but also to the Mongol dynasty, and it's successor, the Ming
 These archaeological curiosities and treasures are not the magnet that has drawn the Empress Dowager westward to a city associated more than any other with Chinese greatness and tri- | umphs over her own Tartar ancestors. | The one attraction in her eyes of Si- | ngan is it's remoteness from the for | eigner. It lies in an almost inaccessible | spot, surrounded by mountains and pro- | tected by the remains at least of the | most famous fortresses in China, Tung- | Kwan 'the Eastern Fortress'' on the | HWang-ho might again prove bull | wark of the Wei-ho valley, of which Si- | ngan forms the gem The marshy re- | zion known as "the Lake of Grass" is | another of its defences, while to the | south lies the formidable Smiling range, barring the approach from Han-kau and the Han valley. At the same time, | Si-ngan commands all the important | routes in Western China. It is the starting point of roads once excellent, and still traversed, to the northwest in to Central Asia, to the southwest into Szechuen, and southward to Han-kau and the Lower Yang-tse. The extent of l it's trade interests may be gathered | from the fact that it is one of the chief marts for the silk of Che-kiang. Origi- nally place of trade, the Mohamme- dan rebellion drew attention to its mili- tary importance, and in 1869 an arsenal was established there and worked bv trained mechanics from the similar in- sututions at Shanghai. More recently | Yung Lu was sent there about the year