Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/180

the nineteenth century. There is no evidence that, prior to the time of the Great Manchu Emperor Chienlung (1736—1796), Mohammedanism presented any deterrent aspect to the Chinese. That renowned ruler, whose conquests carried his banners to the Pamirs and the Himalayas, did indeed conceive a strong dread of the potentialities of Islamic fanaticism reinforced by disaffection on the part of the aboriginal tribes among whom the faith had many adherents. He is said to have entertained at one time the terrible project of eliminating this source of danger in Shensi and Kansuh by killing every Mussulman found there, but whether he really contemplated an act so foreign to the general character of his procedure is doubtful. The broad fact is that the Central Government of China has never persecuted Mohammedans or discriminated against them. They are allowed to present themselves at the examinations for civil or military appointments, and the successful candidates obtain office as readily as their Chinese competitors.

Concerning the exact time when Christianity became known to the Chinese there is no historical evidence. Some affirm that St. Thomas himself was the apostle; others that later, though still early, propagandists carried the faith thither. What seems certain is that very soon, if not immediately, after the condemnation of Nestorius in Constantinople for the heresy of denying that Mary was the mother of God, some of his dis-