Notes on the Nestorian Monument at Sianfu

is used here as in Taoist phraseology, to indicate spiritual purity of nature, and cannot very well be translated “true” or “genuine” ( ), as Diaz takes it, followed by Legge and Saeki. A better definition is that formulated by Diaz himself when he comes to explain the word , namely: . We may observe in passing that the whole of this exordium strongly recalls the language of the Tao Tê Ching , especially in chapters 4 and 25. Nearly all that is said here of the Trinity might apply equally well to Tao. Diaz goes on to remark that is the fundamental attribute ( ) of God, and his fundamental condition ( ). But perhaps this is over-refinement. Other renderings are appended; the second and third seem to me faulty because they interpret as an adverb modifying

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