Notes on the Nestorian Monument at Sianfu

Extract

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 .