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24. Headstone with Phags-pa and Chinese Inscriptions
Yuan dynasty (1272—1368)
Quanzhou Maritime Museum
Ricci 24 KP 072
The inscriptions in Phags-pa and Chinese are not yet deciphered. The Phags-pa inscription appears below a cross set over a cloud design, enclosed by a scrolled border.
That a number of the funerary inscriptions are in Phags-pa indicate that a fair portion of the Christian community in Quanzhou probably were not Chinese but immigrants from Central Asia, most likely employed by the Mongol Khans as civil servants to administer the important port city of Quanzhou – a major source of revenue for the imperial coffers.
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