Chinese Chronology and Cycles

credible as that of Assyria and Egypt. Unfortunately for such an analogy, no authentic ancient monuments have yet been discovered in China that corroborate the country's chronological system through their testimony, as has been done in Egypt.

And even then, if contested, it would not be sufficient to persuade that China is more than...??

The only monument that claims any antiquity is the so-called "Tablet of Yu," a description of which was published by Hager Joseph Hager (1757–1819) was an Austro-German philologist who wrote on Chinese inscriptions. Dr. Legge James Legge (1815–1897) was a famous Scottish sinologist and missionary known for his translations of Chinese texts, in his introduction original: "prolegomena" to the Chinese Classics (Volume III, part 1, page 67 and following), reviews the history of its discovery in the 13th century AD original: "of our era" and concludes: "The review I have given of the history of the stone sufficiently shows, in my own opinion, that it is not entitled to the least credit; and I am supported in this view by the great majority of Chinese archaeologists" (page 71).

Mr. C. T. Gardner of Her Majesty’s Consular Service in China has also provided an account of this Tablet of Yu in the China Review (March and April 1874, page 293). Although on the whole he argues for its "probable antiquity," he admits that no Chinese scholar claims original: "pretends" "that this inscription found in 1212 AD was the original tablet engraved by Yu." He suggests original: "supposes" that when "all the books and ancient records were destroyed by the order of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang original: "She hwang-ti," the first emperor of a unified China in 212 BC," the "Yu monument perished among them for a time." However, there is no proof that the tablet existed then, and the edict of Qin Shi Huang so clearly specifies the books that were destroyed that Mr. Gardner's hypothesis is entirely