M. Deveria Has Shown That The
Inscription Is Written In Si Hia, Or The Language Of Tangut, And Gave A
Facsimile of a stone stele (pei) in this language kept in the great
Monastery of the Clouds (Ta Yun Ssu)
At Liangchau in Kansuh, together with
a translation of the Chinese text, engraved on the reverse side of the
slab. M. Deveria thinks that this writing was borrowed by the Kings of
Tangut from the one derived in 920 by the Khitans from the Chinese.
(Stele Si-Hia de Leang-tcheou ... J. As., 1898; L'ectriture du
royaumes de Si-Hia ou Tangout, par M. Deveria ... Ext. des Mem ...
presentes a l'Ac. des. Ins. et B. Let. 1'ere Ser. XI., 1898.) Dr. S. W.
Bushell in two papers (Inscriptions in the Juchen and Allied Scripts,
Actes du XI. Congres Orientalistes, Paris, 1897, 2nd. sect., pp. 11, 35,
and the Hsi Hsia Dynasty of Tangut, their Money and their peculiar
Script, J. China Br. R. A. S., xxx. N.S. No. 2, pp. 142, 160) has also
made a special study of the same subject. The Si Hia writing was adopted
by Yuan Ho in 1036, on which occasion he changed the title of his reign to
Ta Ch'ing, i.e. "Great Good Fortune." Unfortunately, both the late M.
Deveria and Dr. S. W. Bushell have deciphered but few of the Si Hia
characters. - H. C.]
The orders of the Great Kaan are stated to have been published habitually
in six languages, viz., Mongol, Uighur, Arabic, Persian, Tangutan
(Si-Hia), and Chinese.
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