The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 166

Regarding Kingsmill's note, Mr. John C. Ferguson writes in the _Journal North China Branch Roy. As. Soc._, x.x.xVII., 1906, p. 190: "It is evident that Tiju and Yanju have been correctly identified as Taichow and Yangchow. I cannot agree with Mr. Kingsmill, however, in identifying Tinju as Ichin-hien on the Great River. It is not probable that Polo would mention Ichin twice, once before reaching Yangchow and once after describing Yangchow. I am inclined to believe that Tinju is Hsien-nu-miao [Chinese], a large market-place which has close connection both with Taichow and Yangchow. It is also an important place for the collection of the revenue on salt, as Polo notices. This identification of Tinju with Hsien-nu-miao would clear up any uncertainty as to Polo's journey, and would make a natural route for Polo to take from Kao yu to Yangchow if he wished to see an important place between these two cities."

LXVIII., p. 154.

YANG CHAU.

In a text of the _Yuen tien chang_, dated 1317, found by Prof. Pelliot, mention is made of a certain Ngao-la-han [Abraham?] still alive at Yang chau, who was, according to the text, the son of the founder of the Church of the Cross of the rkagun (_Ye-li-k'o-wen she-tze-sze_), one of the three Nestorian churches of Yang-chau mentioned by Odoric and omitted by Marco Polo. Cf. _Cathay_, II., p. 210, and PELLIOT, _T'oung Pao_, 1914, p. 638.

LXX., p. 167.

SIEGE OF SAIANFU.

Prof. E.H. PARKER writes in the _Journ. of the North China Branch of the Roy. As. Soc._, x.x.xVII., 1906, p. 195: "Colonel Yule's note requires some amendment, and he has evidently been misled by the French translations.

The two Mussulmans who a.s.sisted Kublai with guns were not 'A-la-wa-ting of Mu-fa-li and Ysemain of Huli or Hiulie,' but A-la-pu-tan of Mao-sa-li and Y-sz-ma-yin of Shih-la. Shih-la is Shiraz, the Serazy of Marco Polo, and Mao-sa-li is Mosul. Bretschneider cites the facts in his _Mediaeval Notes_, and seems to have used another edition, giving the names as A-lao-wa-ting of Mu-fa-li and Y-sz-ma-yin of Hu-lieh; but even he points out that Hulagu is meant, i.e. 'a man from Hulagu's country.'"

LXX., p. 169.

"P'AO."

"Captain Gill's testimony as to the ancient 'guns' used by the Chinese is, of course (as, in fact, he himself states), second-hand and hearsay. In Vol. XXIV. of the _China Review_ I have given the name and date of a General who used _p'ao_ so far back as the seventh century." (E.H. PARKER, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, pp. 146-7.)

LXXIV., p. 179 n.

THE ALANS.

According to the _Yuen Shi_ and Deveria, _Journ. Asiat._, Nov.-Dec., 1896, 432, in 1229 and 1241, when Okkodai's army reached the country of the Aas (Alans), their chief submitted at once and a body of one thousand Alans were kept for the private guard of the Great Khan; Mangu enlisted in his bodyguard half the troops of the Alan Prince, Arslan, whose younger son Nicholas took a part in the expedition of the Mongols against Karajang (Yun Nan). This Alan imperial guard was still in existence in 1272, 1286, and 1309, and it was divided into two corps with headquarters in the Ling pei province (Karakorum). See also Bretschneider, _Mediaeval Researches_, II., pp. 84-90.

The ma.s.sacre of a body of Christian Alans related by Marco Polo (II., p.

178) is confirmed by Chinese sources.

LXXIV., p. 180, n. 3.

ALANS.

See Notes in new edition of _Cathay and the Way thither_, III., pp. 179 seq., 248.

The ma.s.sacre of the Alans took place, according to Chinese sources, at Chen-ch'ao, not at Ch'ang chau. The Sung general who was in charge of the city, Hung Fu, after making a faint submission, got the Alans drunk at night and had them slaughtered. Cf. PELLIOT, _Chretiens d'Asie centrale et d'Extreme-Orient, T'oung Pao_, Dec., 1914, p. 641.

LXXVI., pp. 184-5.

VUJU, VUGHIN, CHANGAN.

The Rev. A.C. Moule has given in the _T'oung Pao_, July, 1915, pp. 393 seq., the Itinerary between Lin Ngan (Hang Chau) and Shang Tu, followed by the Sung Dynasty officials who accompanied their Empress Dowager to the Court of Kublai after the fall of Hang Chau in 1276; the diary was written by Yen Kw.a.n.g-ta, a native of Shao King, who was attached to the party.

The Rev. A.C. Moule in his notes writes, p. 411: "The connexion between Hu-chou and Hang-chou is very intimate, and the north suburb of the latter, the Hu-shu, was known in Marco Polo's day as the Hu-chou shih. The identification of Vughin with Wu-chiang is fairly satisfactory, but it is perhaps worth while to point out that there is a place called Wu chen about fifty _li_ north of Shih-men; and for Ciangan there is a tempting place called Ch'ang-an chen just south of Shih-men on a ca.n.a.l which was often preferred to the T'ang-hsi route until the introduction of steam boats."

LXXVI., p. 192. "There is one church only [at Kinsay], belonging to the Nestorian Christians."

It was one of the seven churches built in China by Mar Sarghis, called _Ta p'u hing sze_ (Great Temple of Universal Success), or _Yang yi Hu-mu-la_, near the _Tsien k'iao men_. Cf. _Marco Polo_, II., p. 177; VISSIeRE, _Rev.

du Monde Musulman_, March, 1913, p. 8.

LXXVI., p. 193.

KINSAY.

Chinese Atlas in the Magliabecchian Library.

The Rev. A.C. Moule has devoted a long note to this Atlas in the _Journ.

R. As. Soc._, July, 1919, pp. 393-395. He has come to the conclusion that the Atlas is no more nor less than the _Kuang yu t'u_, and that it seems that _Camse_ stands neither for Ching-shih, as Yule thought, nor for Hang chau as he, Moule, suggested in 1917, but simply for the province of Kiangsi. (_A Note on the Chinese Atlas in the Magliabecchian Library, with reference to Kinsay in Marco Polo_.)

Mr. P. von Tanner, Commissioner of Customs at Hang chau, wrote in 1901 in the _Decennial Reports, 1892-1901, of the Customs_, p. 4: "While Hangchow owes its fame to the lake on the west, it certainly owes its existence towards the south-west to the construction of the sea wall, called by the Chinese by the appropriate name of bore wall. The erection of this sea wall was commenced about the year A.D. 915, by Prince Ts'ien Wu-su; it extends from Hang Chau to Chuan sha, near the opening of the Hw.a.n.g pu.... The present sea wall, in its length of 180 miles, was built.

The wall is a stupendous piece of work, and should take an equal share of fame with the Grand Ca.n.a.l and the Great Wall of China, as its engineering difficulties were certainly infinitely greater.... The fact that Marco Polo does not mention it shows almost conclusively that he never visited Hang Chau, but got his account from a Native poet. He must have taken it, besides, without the proverbial grain of salt, and without eliminating the over-numerous 'thousands' and 'myriads' prompted less by facts than by patriotic enthusiasm and poetical licence."

LXXVI., p. 194 n.

BRIDGES OF KINSAY.

In the heart of Hang-chau, one of the bridges spanning the ca.n.a.l which divides into two parts the walled city from north to south is called _Hwei Hwei k'iao_ (Bridge of the Mohamedans) or _Hwei Hwei Sin k'iao_ (New Bridge of the Mohamedans), while its literary name is _Tsi Shan k'iao_ (Bridge of Acc.u.mulated Wealth); it is situated between the Tsien k'iao on the south and the _Fung lo k'iao_ on the north. Near the _Tsi Shan k'iao_ was a mosk, and near the _Tsien k'iao_, at the time of the Yuen, there existed Eight Pavilions (_Pa kien lew_) inhabited by wealthy Mussulmans.

Mohamedans from Arabia and Turkestan were sent by the Yuen to Hang-chau; they had prominent noses, did not eat pork, and were called _So mu chung_ (Coloured-eye race). VISSIeRE, _Rev. du Monde Musulman_, March, 1913.

LXXVI., p. 199.

KINSAY, KHANFU.

Pelliot proposes to see in Khanfu a transcription of Kw.a.n.g-fu, an abridgment of Kw.a.n.g chau fu, prefecture of Kw.a.n.g chau (Canton). Cf. _Bul.

Ecole franc Ext. Orient_, Jan.-June, 1904, p. 215 n., but I cannot very well accept this theory.

Lx.x.x., pp. 225, 226. "They have also [in Fu Kien] a kind of fruit resembling saffron, and which serves the purpose of saffron just as well."

Dr. Laufer writes to me: "Yule's identification with a species of _Gardenia_ is all right, although this is not peculiar to Fu Kien. Another explanation, however, is possible. In fact, the Chinese speak of a certain variety of saffron peculiar to Fu Kien. The _Pen ts'ao kang mu shi i_ (Ch.

4, p. 14 b) contains the description of a 'native saffron' (_t'u hung hwa_, in opposition to the 'Tibetan red flower' or genuine saffron) after the Continued Gazetteer of Fu Kien, as follows: 'As regards the native saffron, the largest specimens are seven or eight feet high. The leaves are like those of the p'i-p'a (_Eriobotrya j.a.ponica_), but smaller and without hair.

In the autumn it produces a white flower like a grain of maize (_Su-mi, Zea mays_). It grows in Fu Chou and Nan Ngen Chou (now Yang Kiang in Kw.a.n.g Tung) in the mountain wilderness. That of Fu Chou makes a fine creeper, resembling the _fu-yung_ (_Hibiscus mutabilis_), green above and white below, the root being like that of the _ko_ (_Pachyrhizus thunbergia.n.u.s_).

It is employed in the pharmacopeia, being finely chopped for this purpose and soaked overnight in water in which rice has been scoured; then it is soaked for another night in pure water and pounded: thus it is ready for prescriptions.' This plant, as far as I know, has not yet been identified, but it may well be identical with Polo's saffron of Fu Kien."

Lx.x.x., pp. 226, 229 n.

_THE SILKY FOWLS OF MARCO POLO_.

Tarradale, Muir of Ord, Ross-shire, May 10, 1915.

In a letter lately received from my cousin Mr. George Udny Yule (St.

John's College, Cambridge) he makes a suggestion which seems to me both probable and interesting. As he is at present too busy to follow up the question himself, I have asked permission to publish his suggestion in _The Athenaeum_, with the hope that some reader skilled in mediaeval French and Italian may be able to throw light on the subject.

Mr. Yule writes as follows:--

"The reference [to these fowls] in 'Marco Polo' (p. 226 of the last edition; not p. 126 as stated in the index) is a puzzle, owing to the statement that they are _black_ all over. A black has, I am told, been recently created, but the common breed is white, as stated in the note and by Friar Odoric.

"It has occurred to me as a possibility that what Marco Polo may have meant to say was that they were _black all through_, or some such phrase.

The flesh of these fowls is deeply pigmented, and looks practically black; it is a feature that is very remarkable, and would certainly strike any one who saw it. The details that they 'lay eggs just like our fowls,' i.e., not pigmented, and are 'very good to eat,' are facts that would naturally deserve especial mention in this connexion. Mr. A.D. Darbishire (of Oxford and Edinburgh University) tells me that is quite correct: the flesh look horrid, but it is quite good eating. Do any texts suggest the possibility of such a reading as I suggest?"