The pre-Confucian period has come, during the last decade, to occupy a central place in the attention of students of the history of Chinese culture. Research on the oracle bones, scientific excavations at Anyang and elsewhere, and other investigations and discoveries have not served merely to throw light on the civilization of late Shang and early Chou times. They have also shown us that those periods saw the laying of the foundations of the whole structure of Chinese culture, as it has persisted even to our own day, so that to understand them is no mere concern of antiquarians, but a vital necessity for any deep understanding of the currents of Chinese history.

Surâqah B. Mirdâs al-Bâkiqî was a contemporary of the great trio, al-Akhṭal, al-Farazdaq, and Jarîr, whose names stand out so pre-eminently in the list of the Umayyad bards that all contemporary poets are thrown into the shade. Thus there is no article on our poet in the Aghâdnî, and he would have passed quite unnoticed but for his taking part in the literary duel between al-Farazdaq and Jarir. The public scolding match () in which these two masters were engaged for many years attracted our poet and, like the well-known Akhṭal, he, too, joined in the fray with his sympathies for al-Farazdaq. The anecdotes relating to the “flytings” (), which he and Jarir composed against each other, as narrated on the authority of Abû. 'Ubaidah, will be found interesting. It is said that Muhammad b. 'Umair b. 'Utârid al-Dârimî, a noble, offered four thousand dirhams and a horse to the poet who could compose a poem giving al-Farazdaq preference over Jarîr. Of all poets Surâqah, who had already composed some invective upon Jarîr, took up the challenge and produced a piece of lampoon which was carried to Jarîr, requiring him to make a reply forthwith. Jarîr tried throughout the whole night but failed. At break of day, however, his poetical genius came to his aid and the sharp lampoon that this great poet then produced is said to have silenced Surâqah against Jarîr once for all.

In Darlowe and Mode's Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scriptures, 1903 (=DM.), the earliest Hindi translation of the Gospels is entered as follows: “1806. The Gospels translated by Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1765–1837), president of the bench at Calcutta, and honorary professor in Fort William College, the first great Sanskrit scholar of Europe.” This is confirmed by Pearce Carey's book, William Carey (=PC.). In the third edition, p. 408, he writes “so far from vaunting how many versions he and his colleagues could add to their credit, they postponed the publication of their translated Hindi Gospels till Colebrooke's was printed in 1806”. In the eighth edition, 1934, p. 420, “they postponed till 1811 the publication of their translated Hindi Gospels leaving the field to Judge Cole brooke's version for five years.”