The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 5

[1] "Lui dist que il feust le mal venuz."

CHAPTER XL.

CONCERNING THE GREAT RIVER CARAMORAN AND THE CITY OF CACHANFU.

When you leave the castle, and travel about 20 miles westward, you come to a river called CARAMORAN,[NOTE 1] so big that no bridge can be thrown across it; for it is of immense width and depth, and reaches to the Great Ocean that encircles the Universe,--I mean the whole earth. On this river there are many cities and walled towns, and many merchants too therein, for much traffic takes place upon the river, there being a great deal of ginger and a great deal of silk produced in the country.[NOTE 2]

Game birds here are in wonderful abundance, insomuch that you may buy at least three pheasants for a Venice groat of silver. I should say rather for an _asper_, which is worth a little more.[NOTE 3]

[On the lands adjoining this river there grow vast quant.i.ties of great canes, some of which are a foot or a foot and a half (in girth), and these the natives employ for many useful purposes.]

After pa.s.sing the river and travelling two days westward you come to the n.o.ble city of CACHANFU, which we have already named. The inhabitants are all Idolaters. And I may as well remind you again that all the people of Cathay are Idolaters. It is a city of great trade and of work in gold-tissues of many sorts, as well as other kinds of industry.

There is nothing else worth mentioning, and so we will proceed and tell you of a n.o.ble city which is the capital of a kingdom, and is called Kenjanfu.

NOTE 1.--_Kara-Muren_, or Black River, is one of the names applied by the Mongols to the Hw.a.n.g Ho, or Yellow River, of the Chinese, and is used by all the mediaeval western writers, e.g. Odoric, John Marignolli, Rashiduddin.

The River, where it skirts Shan-si, is for the most part difficult both of access and of pa.s.sage, and ill adapted to navigation, owing to the violence of the stream. Whatever there is of navigation is confined to the transport of coal down-stream from Western Shan-si, in large flats. Mr.

Elias, who has noted the River's level by aneroid at two points 920 miles apart, calculated the fall over that distance, which includes the contour of Shan-si, at 4 feet per mile. The best part for navigation is above this, from Ning-hia to Chaghan Kuren (in about 110 E. long.), in which Captain Prjevalski's observations give a fall of less than 6 inches per mile. (_Richthofen_, _Letter_ VII. 25; _Williamson_, I. 69; _J.R.G.S._ XLIII. p. 115; _Petermann_, 1873, pp. 89-91.)

[On 5th January, 1889, Mr. Rockhill coming to the Yellow River from P'ing-yang, found (_Land of the Lamas_, p. 17) that "the river was between 500 and 600 yards wide, a sluggish, muddy stream, then covered with floating ice about a foot thick.... The Yellow River here is shallow, in the main channel only is it four or five feet deep." The Rev. C. Holcombe, who crossed in October, says (p. 65): that "it was nowhere more than 6 feet deep, and on returning, three of the boatmen sprang into the water in midstream and waded ash.o.r.e, carrying a line from the ferry-boat to prevent us from rapidly drifting down with the current. The water was just up to their hips."--H.C.]

NOTE 2.--It is remarkable that the abundance of silk in Shan-si and Shen-si is so distinctly mentioned in these chapters, whereas now there is next to no silk at all grown in these districts. Is this the result of a change of climate, or only a commercial change? Baron Richthofen, to whom I have referred the question, believes it to be due to the former cause: "No tract in China would appear to have suffered so much by a change of climate as Shen-si and Southern Shan-si." [See pp. 11-12.]

NOTE 3.--The _asper_ or _akche_ (both meaning "white") of the Mongols at Tana or Azov I have elsewhere calculated, from Pegolotti's data (_Cathay_, p. 298), to have contained about 0_s._ 2.8_d._ worth of silver, which is _less_ than the grosso; but the name may have had a loose application to small silver coins in other countries of Asia. Possibly the money intended may have been the 50 _tsien_ note. (See note 1, ch. xxiv. supra.)

CHAPTER XLI.

CONCERNING THE CITY OF KENJANFU.

And when you leave the city of Cachanfu of which I have spoken, and travel eight days westward, you meet with cities and boroughs abounding in trade and industry, and quant.i.ties of beautiful trees, and gardens, and fine plains planted with mulberries, which are the trees on the leaves of which the silkworms do feed.[NOTE 1] The people are all Idolaters. There is also plenty of game of all sorts, both of beasts and birds.

And when you have travelled those eight days' journey, you come to that great city which I mentioned, called KENJANFU.[NOTE 2] A very great and fine city it is, and the capital of the kingdom of Kenjanfu, which in old times was a n.o.ble, rich, and powerful realm, and had many great and wealthy and puissant kings.[NOTE 3] But now the king thereof is a prince called MANGALAI, the son of the Great Kaan, who hath given him this realm, and crowned him king thereof.[NOTE 4] It is a city of great trade and industry. They have great abundance of silk, from which they weave cloths of silk and gold of divers kinds, and they also manufacture all sorts of equipments for an army. They have every necessary of man's life very cheap. The city lies towards the west; the people are Idolaters; and outside the city is the palace of the Prince Mangalai, crowned king, and son of the Great Kaan, as I told you before.

This is a fine palace and a great, as I will tell you. It stands in a great plain abounding in lakes and streams and springs of water. Round about it is a ma.s.sive and lofty wall, five miles in compa.s.s, well built, and all garnished with battlements. And within this wall is the king's palace, so great and fine that no one could imagine a finer. There are in it many great and splendid halls, and many chambers, all painted and embellished with work in beaten gold. This Mangalai rules his realm right well with justice and equity, and is much beloved by his people. The troops are quartered round about the palace, and enjoy the sport (that the royal demesne affords).

So now let us quit this kingdom, and I will tell you of a very mountainous province called Cuncun, which you reach by a road right wearisome to travel.

NOTE 1.--["_Morus alba_ is largely grown in North China for feeding silkworms." (_Bretschneider, Hist. of Bot. Disc._ I. p. 4.)--H.C.]

NOTE 2.--Having got to sure ground again at Kenjanfu, which is, as we shall explain presently, the city of SI-NGAN FU, capital of Shen-si, let us look back at the geography of the route from P'ing-yang fu. Its difficulties are great.

The traveller carries us two days' journey from P'ing-yang fu to his castle of the Golden King. This is called in the G. Text and most other MSS.

_Caicui_, _Caytui_, or the like, but in Ramusio alone _Thaigin_. He then carries us 20 miles further to the Caramoran; he crosses this river, travels two days further, and reaches the great city Cachanfu; eight days more (or as in Ramusio _seven_) bring him to Si-ngan fu.

There seems scarcely room for doubt that CACHANFU is the HO-CHUNG FU [the ancient capital of Emperor Shun--H.C.] of those days, now called P'U-CHAU FU, close to the great elbow of the Hw.a.n.g Ho (_Klaproth_). But this city, instead of being _two days west_ of the great river, stands _near_ its _eastern_ bank.

[The Rev. C. Holcombe writes (pp. 64-65): "P'u-chau fu lies on a level with the Yellow River, and on the edge of a large extent of worthless marsh land, full of pools of brackish, and in some places, positively salt water.... The great road does not pa.s.s into the town, having succeeded in maintaining its position on the high ground from which the town has _backslided_.... The great road keeping to the bluff, runs on, turning first south, and then a trifle to the east of south, until the road, the bluff, and Shan-si, all end together, making a sudden plunge down a precipice and being lost in the dirty waters of the Yellow River."--H.C.]

Not maintaining the infallibility of our traveller's memory, we may conceive confusion here, between the recollections of his journey westward and those of his return; but this does not remove all the difficulties.

The most notable fortress of the Kin sovereigns was that of T'ungkwan, on the right bank of the river, 25 miles below P'u-chau fu, and closing the pa.s.sage between the river and the mountains, just where the boundaries of Ho-nan, Shan-si, and Shen-si meet. It was constantly the turning-point of the Mongol campaigns against that Dynasty, and held a prominent place in the dying instructions of Chinghiz for the prosecution of the conquest of Cathay. This fortress must have continued famous to Polo's time--indeed it continues so still, the strategic position being one which nothing short of a geological catastrophe could impair,--but I see no way of reconciling its position with his narrative.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plan of Ki-chau, after Duhalde.]

The _name_ in Ramusio's form might be merely that of the Dynasty, viz.

_Tai-Kin_= Great Golden. But we have seen that Thaigin is not the only reading. That of the MSS. seems to point rather to some name like _Kaichau_. A hypothesis which has seemed to me to call for least correction in the text is that the castle was at the _Ki-chau_ of the maps, nearly due west of P'ing-yang fu, and just about 20 miles from the Hw.a.n.g Ho; that the river was crossed in that vicinity, and that the traveller then descended the valley to opposite P'u-chau fu, or possibly embarked and descended the river itself to that point. This last hypothesis would mitigate the apparent disproportion in the times a.s.signed to the different parts of the journey, and would, I think, clear the text of error. But it is only a hypothesis. There is near Kichau one of the easiest crossing places of the River, insomuch that since the Shen-si troubles a large garrison has been kept up at Ki-chau to watch it.[1] And this is the only direction in which two days' march, at Polo's rate, would bring him within 20 miles of the Yellow River. Whether there is any historic castle at Ki-chau I know not; the plan of that place in Duhalde, however, has the aspect of a strong position. Baron v. Richthofen is unable to accept this suggestion, and has favoured me with some valuable remarks on this difficult pa.s.sage, which I slightly abridge:--

"The difficulties are, (1) that for either reading, _Thaigin_ or _Caichu_, a corresponding place can be found; (2) in the position of _Cachanfu_, setting both at naught.

"_Thaigin_. There are two pa.s.sages of the Yellow River near its great bend.

One is at T'ungkwan, where I crossed it; the other, and more convenient, is at the fortress of Taiching-kwan, locally p.r.o.nounced _Taigin_-kwan. This fortress, or rather fortified camp, is a very well-known place, and to be found on native maps; it is very close to the river, on the left bank, about 6 m. S.W. of P'u-chau fu. The road runs hence to Tung-chau fu and thence to Si-ngan fu. T'aiching-kwan could not possibly (at Polo's rate) be reached in 2 days from P'ing-yang fu.

"_Caichu_. If this reading be adopted Marsden may be right in supposing _Kiai-chau_, locally _Khaidju_, to be meant. This city dominates the important salt marsh, whence Shan-si and Shen-si are supplied with salt. It is 70 or 80 m. from P'ing-yang fu, but _could_ be reached in 2 days. It commands a large and tolerably populous plain, and is quite fit to have been an imperial residence.

"May not the striking fact that there is a place corresponding to either name suggest that one of them was pa.s.sed by Polo in going, the other in returning? and that, this being the only locality between Ch'eng-tu fu and Chu-chau where there was any deviation between the two journeys, his geographical ideas may have become somewhat confused, as might now happen to any one in like case and not provided with a map? Thus the traveller himself might have put into Ramusio's text the name of _Thaigin_ instead of _Caichu_. From Kiai-chau he would probably cross the River at T'ungkwan, whilst in returning by way of Taiching-kwan he would pa.s.s through P'uchau-fu (or _vice versa_). The question as to Caichu may still be settled, as it must be possible to ascertain where the Kin resided."[2]

[Mr. Rockhill writes (_Land of the Lamas_, p. 17): "One hundred and twenty _li_ south-south-west of the city is Kiai Chou, with the largest salt works in China." Richthofen has estimated that about 150,000 tons of salt are produced annually from the marshes around it.--H.C.]

NOTE 3.--The eight days' journey through richly cultivated plains run up the basin of the Wei River, the most important agricultural region of North-West China, and the core of early Chinese History. The _loss_ is here more than ever predominant, its yellow tinge affecting the whole landscape, and even the atmosphere. Here, according to Baron v.

Richthofen, originated the use of the word _hw.a.n.g_ "yellow," as the symbol of the Earth, whence the primeval emperors were styled _Hw.a.n.g-ti_, "Lord of the Earth," but properly "Lord of the _Loss_."

[The Rev. C. Holcombe (l.c. p. 66) writes: "From T'ung-kwan to Si-ngan fu, the road runs in a direction nearly due west, through a most lovely section of country, having a range of high hills upon the south, and the Wei River on the north. The road lies through one long orchard, and the walled towns and cities lie thickly along, for the most part at a little distance from the highway." Mr. Rockhill says (_Land of the Lamas_, pp.

19-20): "The road between T'ung-kwan and Si-ngan fu, a distance of 110 miles, is a fine highway--for China--with a ditch on either side, rows of willow-trees here and there, and substantial stone bridges and culverts over the little streams which cross it. The basin of the Wei ho, in which this part of the province lies, has been for thousands of years one of the granaries of China. It was the colour of its loess-covered soil, called 'yellow earth' by the Chinese, that suggested the use of yellow as the colour sacred to imperial majesty. Wheat and sorghum are the princ.i.p.al crops, but we saw also numerous paddy fields where flocks of flamingoes were wading, and fruit-trees grew everywhere."--H.C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Reduced Facsimile of the celebrated Christian Inscription of Singan fu in Chinese and Syrian Characters]

Kenjanfu, or, as Ramusio gives it, Quenzanfu, is SI-NGAN FU, or as it was called in the days of its greatest fame, Chang-ngan, probably the most celebrated city in Chinese history, and the capital of several of the most potent dynasties. It was the metropolis of Shi Hw.a.n.g-ti of the T'sin Dynasty, properly the first emperor and whose conquests almost intersected those of his contemporary Ptolemy Euergetes. It was, perhaps, the _Thinae_ of Claudius Ptolemy, as it was certainly the Khumdan[3] of the early Mahomedans, and the site of flourishing Christian Churches in the 7th century, as well as of the remarkable monument, the discovery of which a thousand years later disclosed their forgotten existence.[4] _Kingchao-fu_ was the name which the city bore when the Mongol invasions brought China into communication with the west, and Klaproth supposes that this was modified by the Mongols into KENJANFU. Under the latter name it is mentioned by Rashiduddin as the seat of one of the Twelve _Sings_ or great provincial administrations, and we find it still known by this name in Sharifuddin's history of Timur. The same name is traceable in the _Kansan_ of Odoric, which he calls the second best province in the world, and the best populated Whatever may have been the origin of the name _Kenjanfu_, Baron v. Richthofen was, on the spot, made aware of its conservation in the exact form of the Ramusian Polo. The Roman Catholic missionaries there emphatically denied that Marco could ever have been at Si-ngan fu, or that the city had ever been known by such a name as Kenjan-fu. On this the Baron called in one of the Chinese pupils of the Mission, and asked him directly what had been the name of the city under the Yuen Dynasty. He replied at once with remarkable clearness: "QUEN-ZAN-FU." Everybody present was struck by the exact correspondence of the Chinaman's p.r.o.nunciation of the name with that which the German traveller had adopted from Ritter.

[The vocabulary _Hwe Hwei_ (Mahomedan) of the College of Interpreters at Peking transcribes King chao from the Persian Kin-chang, a name it gives to the Shen-si province. King chao was called Ngan-si fu in 1277.

(_Deveria, Epigraphie_, p. 9.) Ken-jan comes from Kin-chang = King-chao = Si-ngan fu.--H.C.]

Martini speaks, apparently from personal knowledge, of the splendour of the city, as regards both its public edifices and its site, sloping gradually up from the banks of the River Wei, so as to exhibit its walls and palaces at one view like the interior of an amphitheatre. West of the city was a sort of Water Park, enclosed by a wall 30 _li_ in circ.u.mference, full of lakes, tanks, and ca.n.a.ls from the Wei, and within this park were seven fine palaces and a variety of theatres and other places of public diversion. To the south-east of the city was an artificial lake with palaces, gardens, park, etc., originally formed by the Emperor Hiaowu (B.C. 100), and to the south of the city was another considerable lake called _Fan_. This may be the Fanchan Lake, beside which Rashid says that Ananda, the son of Mangalai, built his palace.

The adjoining districts were the seat of a large Musulman population, which in 1861-1862 [and again in 1895 (See _Wellby, Tibet_, ch. XXV.) --H.C.] rose in revolt against the Chinese authority, and for a time was successful in resisting it. The capital itself held out, though invested for two years; the rebels having no artillery. The movement originated at Hwachau, some 60 miles east of Si-ngan fu, now totally destroyed. But the chief seat of the Mahomedans is a place which they call _Salar_, identified with Hochau in Kansuh, about 70 miles south-west of Lanchau-fu, the capital of that province. [Mr. Rockhill (_Land of the Lamas_, p. 40) writes: "Colonel Yule, quoting a Russian work, has it that the word Salar is used to designate Ho-chou, but this is not absolutely accurate.

Prjevalsky (_Mongolia_, II. 149) makes the following complicated statement: 'The Karatangutans outnumber the Mongols in Koko-nor, but their chief habitations are near the sources of the Yellow River, where they are called Salirs; they profess the Mohammedan religion, and have rebelled against China.' I will only remark here that the Salar have absolutely no connection with the so-called Kara-tangutans, who are Tibetans. In a note by Archimandrite Palladius, in the same work (II. 70), he attempts to show a connection between the Salar and a colony of Mohammedans who settled in Western Kan-Suh in the last century, but the _Ming shih_ (History of the Ming Dynasty) already makes mention of the Salar, remnants of various Turkish tribes (_Hsi-ch'iang_) who had settled in the districts of Ho-chou, Huang-chou, T'ao-chou, and Min-chou, and who were a source of endless trouble to the Empire. (See _Wei Yuen, Sheng-wu-ki_, vii. 35; also _Huang ch'ing shih kung t'u_, v. 7.) The Russian traveller, Potanin, found the Salar living in twenty-four villages, near Hsun-hua t'ing, on the south bank of the Yellow River. (See _Proc.R.G.S._ ix. 234.) The Annals of the Ming Dynasty (_Ming Shih_, ch. 330) say that An-ting wei, 1500 _li_ south-west of Kan-chou, was in old times known as _Sa-li Wei-wu-ehr_. These Sari Uigurs are mentioned by Du Plan Carpin, as _Sari_ Huiur. Can _Sala_ be the same as _Sari_?"

"Mohammedans," says Mr. Rockhill (Ibid. p. 39), "here are divided into two sects, known as 'white-capped Hui-hui,' and 'black-capped Hui-hui.' One of the questions which separate them is the hour at which fast can be broken during the Ramadan. Another point which divides them is that the white-capped burn incense, as do the ordinary Chinese; and the Salar condemn this as Paganish. The usual way by which one finds out to which sect a Mohammedan belongs is by asking him if he burns incense. The black-capped Hui-hui are more frequently called _Salar_, and are much the more devout and fanatical. They live in the vicinity of Ho-chou, in and around Hsun-hua t'ing, their chief town being known as Salar Pakun or Paken."