 These works by Xu and Wei, ironically, were initially more influential in Japan than in their own country, where Wei's book went out of print, and Xu's was reprinted in 1866 and was also republished in Japan.Eventually these books changed the Sinocentric view of the geographical world.In 1853, an excerpt about George Washington from "A Short Account" was inscribed on the stone donated to the Washington Monument by a group of Chinese Christians.