[With reference to the translation of the oldest of the Chinese-Mongol inscriptions known hitherto (1283) in the name of Ananda, King of Ngan-si, Professor Deveria (Notes d’Epigraphie Mongolo-Chinoise, p. 9) writes:  “In 1264, the Emperor Kublai created in this region [Shen si] the department of Ngan-si chau, occupied by ten hordes of Si-fan (foreigners from the west).  All this country became in 1272, the apanage of the Imperial Prince Mangala; this prince, third son of Kublai, had been invested with the title of King of Ngan-si, a territory which included King-chao fu (modern Si-ngan fu).  His government extended hence over Ho-si (west of the Yellow River), the T’u-po (Tibetans), and Sze-ch’wan.  The following year (1273) Mangala received from Kublai a second investiture, this of the Kingdom of Tsin, which added to his domain part of Kan-Suh; he established his royal residence at K’ia-ch’eng (modern Ku-yuan) in the Liu-p’an shan, while King-chao remained the centre of the command he exercised over the Mongol garrisons.  In 1277 this prince took part in military operations in the north; he died in 1280 (17th year Che Yuan), leaving his principality of Ngan-si to his eldest son Ananda, and this of Tsin to his second son Ngan-tan Bu-hoa.  Kublai, immediately after the death of his son Mangala, suppressed administrative autonomy in Ngan-si.” (Yuan-shi lei pien).—­H.C.]

[1] I am indebted for this information to Baron Richthofen.

[2] See the small map attached to “Marco Polo’s Itinerary Map, No.  IV.,”
    at end of Vol.  I.

[3] [It is supposed to come from kang (king) dang.—­H.C.]

[4] In the first edition I was able to present a reduced facsimile of a
    rubbing in my possession from this famous inscription, which I owed
    to the generosity of Dr. Lockhart.  To the Baron von Richthofen I am no
    less indebted for the more complete rubbing which has afforded the
    plate now published.  A tolerably full account of this inscription is
    given in Cathay, p. xcii. seqq., and p. clxxxi. seqq., but the
    subject is so interesting that it seems well to introduce here the
    most important particulars:—­

The stone slab, about 7-1/2 feet high by 3 feet wide, and some 10 inches in thickness,[A] which bears this inscription, was accidentally found in 1625 by some workmen who were digging in the Chang-ngan suburb of the city of Singanfu.  The cross, which is engraved at p. 30, is incised at the top of the slab, and beneath this are 9 large characters in 3 columns, constituting the heading, which runs:  “Monument commemorating the introduction and propagation of the noble Law of Ta T’sin in the Middle Kingdom;” Ta T’sin being the term applied in Chinese literature to the Roman Empire, of which the ancient Chinese had much such a shadowy conception as the Romans had, conversely, of the Chinese