The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 32

For these reasons I formerly rejected Shao-hing, and looked rather to Fu-yang as the representative of Tanpiju. But my opinion is shaken when I find both Mr. Elias and Baron Richthofen decidedly opposed to Fu-yang, and the latter altogether in favour of Shao-hing. "The journey through a plenteous region, pa.s.sing a succession of dwellings and charming gardens; the epithets 'great, rich, and fine city'; the 'trade, manufactures, and handicrafts,' and the 'necessaries in great plenty and cheapness,' appear to apply rather to the populous plain and the large city of ancient fame, than to the small Fu-yang hien ... shut in by a spur from the hills, which would hardly have allowed it in former days to have been a great city."

(_Note by Baron R._) The after route, as elucidated by the same authority, points with even more force to Shao-hing.

[Mr. G. Phillips has made a special study of the route from Kinsay to Zaytun in the _T'oung Pao_, I. p. 218 seq. (_The Ident.i.ty of Marco Polo's Zaitun with Changchau_). He says (p. 222): "Leaving Hangchau by boat for Fuhkien, the first place of importance is Fuyang, at 100 _li_ from Hangchau. This name does not in any way resemble Polo's Ta Pin Zu, but I think it can be no other." Mr. Phillips writes (pp. 221-222) that by the route he describes, he "intends to follow the highway which has been used by travellers for centuries, and the greater part of which is by water." He adds: "I may mention that the boats used on this route can be luxuriously fitted up, and the traveller can go in them all the way from Hangchau to Chinghu, the head of the navigation of the Ts'ien-t'ang River.

At this Chinghu, they disembark and hire coolies and chairs to take them and their luggage across the Sien-hia pa.s.s to Puching in Fuhkien. This route is described by Fortune in an opposite direction, in his _Wanderings in China_, vol. ii. p. 139. I am inclined to think that Polo followed this route, as the one given by Yule, by way of Shao-hing and Kin-hua by land, would be unnecessarily tedious for the ladies Polo was escorting, and there was no necessity to take it; more especially as there was a direct water route to the point for which they were making. I further incline to this route, as I can find no city at all fitting in with Yenchau, Ramusio's Gengiu, along the route given by Yule."

In my paper on the Catalan Map (Paris, 1895) I gave the following itinerary: Kinsay (Hang-chau), Tanpiju (Shao-hing fu), Vuju (Kin-hwa fu), Ghiuju (K'iu-chau fu), Chan-shan (Sui-chang hien), Cuju (Ch'u-chau), Ke-lin-fu (Kien-ning fu), Unken (Hu-kwan), Fuju (Fu-chau), Zayton (Kayten, Hai-t'au), Zayton (Ts'iuen-chau), Tyunju (Tek-hwa).

Regarding the burning of the dead, Mr. Phillips (_T'oung Pao_, VI. p. 454) quotes the following pa.s.sage from a notice by M. Jaubert. "The town of Zaitun is situated half a day's journey inland from the sea. At the place where the ships anchor, the water is fresh. The people drink this water and also that of the wells. Zaitun is 30 days' journey from Khanbaligh.

The inhabitants of this town burn their dead either with Sandal, or Brazil wood, according to their means; they then throw the ashes into the river."

Mr. Phillips adds: "The custom of burning the dead is a long established one in Fuh-Kien, and does not find much favour among the upper cla.s.ses. It exists even to this day in the central parts of the province. The time for cremation is generally at the time of the Tsing-Ming. At the commencement of the present dynasty the custom of burning the dead appears to have been pretty general in the Fuchow Prefecture; it was looked upon with disfavour by many, and the gentry pet.i.tioned the Authorities that proclamations forbidding it should be issued. It was thought unfilial for children to cremate their parents; and the practice of gathering up the bones of a partially cremated person and thrusting them into a jar, euphoniously called a Golden Jar, but which was really an earthen one, was much commented on, as, if the jar was too small to contain all the bones, they were broken up and put in, and many pieces got thrown aside. In the Changchow neighbourhood, with which we have here most to do, it was a universal custom in 1126 to burn the dead, and was in existence for many centuries after." (See note, supra, II. p. 134.)

Captain Gill, speaking of the country near the Great Wall, writes (I. p.

61): ["The Chinese] consider mutton very poor food, and the butchers'

shops are always kept by Mongols. In these, however, both beef and mutton can be bought for 3_d._ or 4_d._ a lb., while pork, which is considered by the Chinese as the greatest delicacy, sells for double the price."--H.C.]

NOTE 2.--Che-kiang produces bamboos more abundantly than any province of Eastern China. Dr. Medhurst mentions meeting, on the waters near Hang-chau, with numerous rafts of bamboos, one of which was one-third of a mile in length. (_Glance at Int. of China_, p. 53.)

NOTE 3.--a.s.suming Tanpiju to be Shao-hing, the remaining places as far as the Fo-kien Frontier run thus:--

3 days to Vuju (P. _Vugui_, G.T. _Vugui, Vuigui_, Ram. _Uguiu_).

2 " to Ghiuju (P. _Guiguy_, G.T. _Ghingui, Ghengui, Chengui_, Ram.

_Gengui_).

4 " to Chanshan (P. _Ciancian_, G.T. _Cianscian_, Ram. _Zengian_).

3 " to Cuju or Chuju (P. _Cinguy_, G.T. _Cugui_, Ram. _Gieza_).

First as regards _Chanshan_, which, with the notable circ.u.mstances about the waters there, const.i.tutes the key to the route, I extract the following remarks from a note which Mr. Fortune has kindly sent me: "When we get to _Chanshan_ the proof as to the route is _very strong_. This is undoubtedly my _Chang-shan_. The town is near the head of the Green River (the Ts'ien T'ang) which flows in a N.E. direction and falls into the Bay of Hang-chau. At Chang-shan the stream is no longer navigable even for small boats. Travellers going west or south-west walk or are carried in sedan-chairs across country in a westerly direction for about 30 miles to a town named Yuh-shan. Here there is a river which flows westward ('the other half goes down'), taking the traveller rapidly in that direction, and pa.s.sing _en route_ the towns of Kwansinfu, Hokow or Hokeu, and onward to the Poyang Lake." From the careful study of Mr. Fortune's published narrative I had already arrived at the conclusion that this was the correct explanation of the remarkable expressions about the division of the waters, which are closely a.n.a.logous to those used by the traveller in ch. lxii. of this book when speaking of the watershed of the Great Ca.n.a.l at Sinjumatu. Paraphrased the words might run: "At Chang-shan you reach high ground, which interrupts the continuity of the River; from one side of this ridge it flows up country towards the north, from the other it flows down towards the south." The expression "The River" will be elucidated in note 4 to ch. lx.x.xii. below.

This route by the Ts'ien T'ang and the Chang-shan portage, which turns the danger involved in the navigation of the Yang-tzu and the Poyang Lake, was formerly a thoroughfare to the south much followed; though now almost abandoned through one of the indirect results (as Baron Richthofen points out) of steam navigation.

The portage from Chang-shan to Yuh-shan was pa.s.sed by the English and Dutch emba.s.sies in the end of last century, on their journeys from Hang-chau to Canton, and by Mr. Fortune on his way from Ningpo to the Bohea country of Fo-kien. It is probable that Polo on some occasion made the ascent of the Ts'ien T'ang by water, and that this leads him to notice the interruption of the navigation.

[Mr. Phillips writes (_T. Pao_, I. p. 222): "From Fuyang the next point reached is Tunglu, also another 100 _li_ distant. Polo calls this city Ugim, a name bearing no resemblance to Tunglu, but this name and Ta Pin Zu are so corrupted in all editions that they defy conjecture. One hundred _li_ further up the river from Tunglu, we come to Yenchau, in which I think we have Polo's Gengiu of Ramusio's text. Yule's text calls this city Ghiuju, possibly an error in transcription for Ghinju; Yenchau in ancient Chinese would, according to Williams, be p.r.o.nounced Ngam, Ngin, and Ngienchau, all of which are sufficiently near Polo's Gengiu. The next city reached is Lan Ki Hien or Lan Chi Hsien, famous for its hams, dates, and all the good things of this life, according to the Chinese. In this city I recognise Polo's Zen Gi An of Ramusio. Does its description justify me in my identification? 'The city of "Zen gi an",' says Ramusio, 'is built upon a hill that stands isolated in the river, which latter, by dividing itself into two branches, appears to embrace it. These streams take opposite directions: one of them pursuing its course to the south-east and the other to the north-west.' Fortune, in his _Wanderings in China_ (vol. li.

p. 139), calls Lan-Khi, Nan-Che-hien, and says: 'It is built on the banks of the river, and has a picturesque hill behind it.' Milne, who also visited it, mentions it in his _Life in China_ (p. 258), and says: 'At the southern end of the suburbs of Lan-Ki the river divides into two branches, the one to the left on south-east leading direct to Kinhua.' Milne's description of the place is almost identical with Polo's, when speaking of the division of the river. There are in Fuchau several Lan-Khi shopkeepers, who deal in hams, dates, etc., and these men tell me the city from the river has the appearance of being built on a hill, but the houses on the hill are chiefly temples. I would divide the name as follows, Zen gi an; the last syllable _an_ most probably represents the modern Hien, meaning District city, which in ancient Chinese was p.r.o.nounced _Han_, softened by the Italians into _an_. Lan-Khi was a Hien in Polo's day."

--H.C.]

Kin-hwa fu, as Pauthier has observed, bore at this time the name of WU-CHAU, which Polo would certainly write _Vugiu_. And between Shao-hing and Kin-hwa there exists, as Baron Richthofen has pointed out, a line of depression which affords an easy connection between Shao-hing and Lan-ki hien or Kin-hwa fu. This line is much used by travellers, and forms just 3 short stages. Hence Kin-hwa, a fine city destroyed by the T'ai-P'ings, is satisfactorily identified with _Vugiu_.

The journey from Vugui to Ghiuju is said to be through a succession of towns and villages, looking like a continuous city. Fortune, whose journey occurred before the T'ai-P'ing devastations, speaks of the approach to Kiu-chau as a vast and beautiful garden. And Mr. Milne's map of this route shows an incomparable density of towns in the Ts'ien T'ang valley from Yen-chau up to Kiu-chau. _Ghiuju_ then will be KIU-CHAU. But between Kiu-chau and Chang-shan it is impossible to make four days: barely possible to make two. My map (_Itineraries_, No. VI.), based on D'Anville and Fortune, makes the _direct_ distance 24 miles; Milne's map barely 18; whilst from his book we deduce the distance travelled by water to be about 30. On the whole, it seems probable that there is a mistake in the figure here.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Marco Polo's route from Kinsai to ZAITUN, ill.u.s.trating Mr.

G. Phillips' theory.]

From the head of the great Che-kiang valley I find two roads across the mountains into Fo-kien described.

One leads from _Kiang-shan_ (not Chang-shan) by a town called Ching-hu, and then, nearly due south, across the mountains to Pu-ch'eng in Upper Fo-kien. This is specified by Martini (p. 113): it seems to have been followed by the Dutch Envoy, Van Hoorn, in 1665 (see _Astley_, III. 463), and it was travelled by Fortune on his return _from_ the Bohea country to Ningpo. (II. 247, 271.)

The other route follows the portage spoken of above from _Chang-shan_ to Yuh-shan, and descends the river on that side to _Hokeu_, whence it strikes south-east across the mountains to Tsung-ngan-hien in Fo-kien.

This route was followed by Fortune on his way _to_ the Bohea country.

Both from Pu-ch'eng on the former route, and from near Tsung-ngan on the latter, the waters are navigable down to Kien-ning fu and so to Fu-chau.

Mr. Fortune judges the first to have been Polo's route. There does not, however, seem to be on this route any place that can be identified with his Cuju or Chuju. Ching-hu seems to be insignificant, and the name has no resemblance. On the other route followed by Mr. Fortune himself from that side we have Kwansin fu, _Hokeu_, Yen-shan, and (last town pa.s.sed on that side) _Chuchu_. The latter, as to both name and position, is quite satisfactory, but it is described as a small poor town. _Hokeu_ would be represented in Polo's spelling as Caghiu or Cughiu. It is now a place of great population and importance as the entrepot of the Black Tea Trade, but, like many important commercial cities in the interior, not being even a _hien_ it has no place either in Duhalde or in Biot, and I cannot learn its age.

It is no objection to this line that Polo speaks of Cuju or Chuju as the last city of the government of Kinsay, whilst the towns just named are in Kiang-si. For _Kiang-Che_, the province of Kinsay, then included the eastern part of Kiang-si. (See _Cathay_, p. 270.)

[Mr. Phillips writes (_T. Pao_, I. 223-224): "Eighty-five _li_ beyond Lan-ki hien is Lung-yin, a place not mentioned by Polo, and another ninety-five _li_ still further on is Chuchau or Keuchau, which is, I think, the Gie-za of Ramusio, and the Cuju of Yule's version. Polo describes it as the last city of the government of Kinsai (Che-kiang) in this direction. It is the last Prefectural city, but ninety _li_ beyond Chu-chau, on the road to Pu-cheng, is Kiang-shan, a district city which is the last one in this direction. Twenty _li_ from Kiang-shan is Ching-hu, the head of the navigation of the T'sien-T'ang river. Here one hires chairs and coolies for the journey over the Sien-hia Pa.s.s to Pu-cheng, a distance of 215 _li_.

From Pu-cheng, Fu-chau can be reached by water in 4 or 5 days. The distance is 780 _li_."--H.C.]

[1] "_Est sus un mont que parte le Flum, gue le une moitie ala en sus e l'autre moitie en jus_" (G.T.).

[2] One of the _Hien_, forming the special districts of Hang-Chau itself, now called _Tsien-tang_, was formerly called _Tang-wei-tang_. But it embraces the _eastern_ part of the district, and can, I think, have nothing to do with _Tanpiju_. (See _Biot_, p. 257, and _Chin. Repos._ for February, 1842, p. 109.)

CHAPTER Lx.x.x.

CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF FUJU.

On leaving Cuju, which is the last city of the kingdom of Kinsay, you enter the kingdom of FUJU, and travel six days in a south-easterly direction through a country of mountains and valleys, in which are a number of towns and villages with great plenty of victuals and abundance of game. Lions, great and strong, are also very numerous. The country produces ginger and galingale in immense quant.i.ties, insomuch that for a Venice groat you may buy fourscore pounds of good fine-flavoured ginger.

They have also a kind of fruit resembling saffron, and which serves the purpose of saffron just as well.[NOTE 1]

And you must know the people eat all manner of unclean things, even the flesh of a man, provided he has not died a natural death. So they look out for the bodies of those that have been put to death and eat their flesh, which they consider excellent.[NOTE 2]

Those who go to war in those parts do as I am going to tell you. They shave the hair off the forehead and cause it to be painted in blue like the blade of a glaive. They all go afoot except the chief; they carry spears and swords, and are the most savage people in the world, for they go about constantly killing people, whose blood they drink, and then devour the bodies.[NOTE 3]

Now I will quit this and speak of other matters. You must know then that after going three days out of the six that I told you of you come to the city of KELINFU, a very great and n.o.ble city, belonging to the Great Kaan.

This city hath three stone bridges which are among the finest and best in the world. They are a mile long and some nine paces in width, and they are all decorated with rich marble columns. Indeed they are such fine and marvellous works that to build any one of them must have cost a treasure.[NOTE 4]

The people live by trade and manufactures, and have great store of silk [which they weave into various stuffs], and of ginger and galingale.

[NOTE 5] [They also make much cotton cloth of dyed thread, which is sent all over Manzi.] Their women are particularly beautiful. And there is a strange thing there which I needs must tell you. You must know they have a kind of fowls which have no feathers, but hair only, like a cat's fur.

[NOTE 6] They are black all over; they lay eggs just like our fowls, and are very good to eat.

In the other three days of the six that I have mentioned above[NOTE 7], you continue to meet with many towns and villages, with traders, and goods for sale, and craftsmen. The people have much silk, and are Idolaters, and subject to the Great Kaan. There is plenty of game of all kinds, and there are great and fierce lions which attack travellers. In the last of those three days' journey, when you have gone 15 miles you find a city called UNKEN, where there is an immense quant.i.ty of sugar made. From this city the Great Kaan gets all the sugar for the use of his Court, a quant.i.ty worth a great amount of money. [And before this city came under the Great Kaan these people knew not how to make fine sugar; they only used to boil and skim the juice, which when cold left a black paste. But after they came under the Great Kaan some men of Babylonia who happened to be at the Court proceeded to this city and taught the people to refine the sugar with the ashes of certain trees.[NOTE 8]]

There is no more to say of the place, so now we shall speak of the splendour of Fuju. When you have gone 15 miles from the city of Unken, you come to this n.o.ble city which is the capital of the kingdom. So we will now tell you what we know of it.

NOTE 1.--The vague description does not suggest the root _turmeric_ with which Marsden and Pauthier identify this "fruit like saffron." It is probably one of the species of _Gardenia_, the fruits of which are used by the Chinese for their colouring properties. Their splendid yellow colour "is due to a body named crocine which appears to be identical with the polychroite of saffron." (_Hanbury's Notes on Chinese Mat. Medica_, pp.

21-22.) For this identification, I am indebted to Dr. Fluckiger of Bern.

["Colonel Yule concludes that the fruit of a _Gardenia_, which yields a yellow colour, is meant. But Polo's vague description might just as well agree with the b.a.s.t.a.r.d Saffron, _Carthamus tinctorius_, a plant introduced into China from Western Asia in the 2nd century B.C., and since then much cultivated in that country." (_Bretschneider, Hist. of Bot. Disc._ I. p.

4.)--H.C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Scene in the Bohea Mountains, on Polo's route between Kiang-si and Fo-kien (From Fortune.)

"Adonc entre l'en en roiaume de Fugin, et ici comance. Et ala siz jornee por montangnes e por bales...."]