The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 146 : Douglas himself, are rapidly silting up; and it is probable that the river of Chinchew

Douglas himself, are rapidly silting up; and it is probable that the river of Chinchew presented, in the 13th and 14th centuries, a far more impressive aspect as a commercial basin than it does now. But still it must have been far below Amoy Harbour in magnitude, depth, and accessibility. I have before recognised this, but saw no way to reconcile the proposed deduction with the positive historical facts already stated, which absolutely (to my mind) identify the Zayton of Polo and Ras.h.i.+duddin with the Chinese city and port of T'swan-chau. Dr. Douglas, however, points out that the whole northern sh.o.r.e of Amoy Harbour, with the Islands of Amoy and Quemoy, are within the Fu or Department of T'swan-chau; and the latter name would, in Chinese parlance, apply equally to the city and to any part of the department. He cites among other a.n.a.logous cases the Treaty Port Neuchw.a.n.g (in Liao-tong). That city really lies 20 miles up the Liao River, but the name of Neuchw.a.n.g is habitually applied by foreigners to Ying-tzu, which is the actual port. Even now much of the trade of T'swan-chau merchants is carried on through Amoy, either by junks touching, or by using the shorter sea-pa.s.sage to 'An-hai, which was once a port of great trade, and is only 20 miles from T'swan-chau.[3] With such a haven as Amoy Harbour close by, it is improbable that Kublai's vast armaments would have made _rendezvous_ in the comparatively inconvenient port of T'swan-chau. Probably then the two were spoken of as one. In all this I recognise strong likelihood, and nothing inconsistent with recorded facts, or with Polo's concise statements. It is even possible that (as Dr.

Douglas thinks) Polo's words intimate a distinction between Zayton the City and Zayton the Ocean Port; but for me Zayton the city, in Polo's chapters, remains still T'swan-chau. Dr. Douglas, however, seems disposed to regard it as _Chang-chau_.

The chief arguments urged for this last ident.i.ty are: (1.) Ibn Batuta's representation of his having embarked at Zayton "on the river," i.e. on the internal navigation system of China, first for Sin-kalan (Canton), and afterwards for Kinsay. This could not, it is urged, be T'swan-chau, the river of which has no communication with the internal navigation, whereas the river at Chang-chau has such communication, constantly made use of in both directions (interrupted only by brief portages); (2.) Martini's mention of the finding various Catholic remains, such as crosses and images of the Virgin, at Chang-chau, in the early part of the 17th century, indicating that city as the probable site of the Franciscan establishments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SKETCH MAP of the GREAT PORTS OF FOKIEN to ill.u.s.trate the Ident.i.ty of Marco Polo's ZAYTON]

[I remember that the argument brought forward by Mr. Phillips in favour of Changchow which most forcibly struck Sir H. Yule, was the finding of various Christian remains at this place, and Mr. Phillips wrote (_Jour.

China Br.R.A.Soc._ 1888, 27-28): "We learn from the history of the Franciscan missions that two churches were built in Zaitun, one in the city and the other in a forest not far from the town. MARTINI makes mention of relics being found in the city of Changchow, and also of a missal which he tried in vain to purchase from its owner, who gave as a reason for not parting with it, that it had been in his family for several generations. According to the history of the Spanish Dominicans in China, ruins of churches were used in rebuilding the city walls, many of the stones having crosses cut on them." Another singular discovery relating to these missions, is one mentioned by Father VITTORIO RICCI, which would seem to point distinctly to the remains of the Franciscan church built by ANDRe DE PeROUSE outside the city of Zaitun: "The heathen of Changchow,"

says RICCI, "found buried in a neighbouring hill called Saysou another cross of a most beautiful form cut out of a single block of stone, which I had the pleasure of placing in my church in that city. The heathen were alike ignorant of the time when it was made and how it came to be buried there."--H.C.]

Whether the application by foreigners of the term Zayton, may, by some possible change in trade arrangements in the quarter-century after Polo's departure from China, have undergone a transfer, is a question which it would be vain to answer positively without further evidence. But as regards Polo's Zayton, I continue in the belief that this was T'swan-chau _and its haven_, with the admission that this haven may probably have embraced that great basin called Amoy Harbour, or part of it.[4]

[Besides the two papers I have already mentioned, the late Mr. Phillips has published, since the last edition of Marco Polo, in the _T'oung-Pao_, VI. and VII.: _Two Mediaeval Fuh-kien Trading Ports: Chuan-chow and Chang-chow_. He has certainly given many proofs of the importance of Chang-chau at the time of the Mongol Dynasty, and one might well hesitate (I know it was also the feeling of Sir Henry Yule at the end of his life) between this city and T'swan-chau, but the weak point of his controversy is his theory about Fu-chau. However, Mr. George Phillips, who died in 1896, gathered much valuable material, of which we have made use; it is only fair to pay this tribute to the memory of this learned consul.--H.C.]

Martini (circa 1650) describes T'swan-chau as delightfully situated on a promontory between two branches of the estuary which forms the harbour, and these so deep that the largest s.h.i.+ps could come up to the walls on either side. A great suburb, Loyang, lay beyond the northern water, connected with the city by the most celebrated bridge in China.

Collinson's Chart in some points below the town gives only 1-1/4 fathom for the present depth, but Dr. Douglas tells me he has even now occasionally seen large junks come close to the city.

Chinchew, though now occasionally visited by missionaries and others, is not a Treaty port, and we have not a great deal of information about its modern state. It is the head-quarters of the _T'i-tuh_, or general commanding the troops in Fo-kien. The walls have a circuit of 7 or 8 miles, but embracing much vacant ground. The chief exports now are tea and sugar, which are largely grown in the vicinity, tobacco, china-ware, nankeens, etc. There are still to be seen (as I learn from Mr. Phillips) the ruins of a fine mosque, said to have been founded by the Arab traders who resorted thither. The English Presbyterian Church Mission has had a chapel in the city for about ten years.

Zayton, we have seen from Ibn Batuta's report, was famed for rich satins called _Zaituniah_. I have suggested in another work (_Cathay_, p. 486) that this may be the origin of our word _Satin_, through the _Zettani_ of mediaeval Italian (or _Aceytuni_ of mediaeval Spanish). And I am more strongly disposed to support this, seeing that Francisque-Michel, in considering the origin of _Satin_, hesitates between _Satalin_ from Satalia in Asia Minor and _Soudanin_ from the Soudan or Sultan; neither half so probable as _Zaituni_. I may add that in a French list of charges of 1352 we find the intermediate form _Zatony_. _Satin_ in the modern form occurs in Chaucer:--

"In Surrie whilom dwelt a compagnie Of chapmen rich, and therto sad and trewe, That wide where senten their spicerie, Clothes of gold, and _satins_ riche of hewe."

--_Man of Lawe's Tale_, st. 6.

[Hatzfeld (_Dict._) derives _satin_ from the Italian _setino_; and _setino_ from SETA, pig's hair, and gives the following example: "Deux aunes et un quartier de satin vremeil," in _Caffiaux, Abattis de maisons a Gommegnies_, p. 17, 14th century. The Portuguese have _setim_. But I willingly accept Sir Henry Yule's suggestion that the origin of the word is Zayton; cf. _zeitun_ [Arabic] olive.

"The King [of Bijanagar] ... was clothed in a robe of _zaitun_ satin."

(_Elliot_, IV. p. 113, who adds in a note _zaitun_: Olive-coloured?) And again (Ibid. p. 120): "Before the throne there was placed a cus.h.i.+on of _zaituni_ satin, round which three rows of the most exquisite pearls were sewn."--H.C.]

(_Recherches_, etc., II. 229 seqq.; _Martini, circa_ p. 110; _Klaproth, Mem._ II. 209-210; _Cathay_, cxciii. 268, 223, 355, 486; _Empoli_ in _Append._ vol. iii. 87 to _Archivio Storico Italiano; Douet d'Arcq._ p.

342; _Galv., Discoveries of the World_, Hak. Soc. p. 129; Marsden, 1st ed.

p. 372; _Appendix to Trade Report of Amoy_, for 1868 and 1900. [_Heyd, Com. Levant_, II. 701-702.])

NOTE 3.--We have referred in a former note (ch. lxxvii. note 7) to an apparent change in regard to the Chinese consumption of pepper, which is now said to be trifling. We shall see in the first chapter of Bk. III.

that Polo estimates the tonnage of Chinese junks by the number of baskets of pepper they carried, and we have seen in last note the large estimate by Giov. d'Empoli of the quant.i.ty that went to China in 1515. Galvano also, speaking of the adventure of Ferno Perez d'Andrade to China in 1517, says that he took in at Pacem a cargo of pepper, "as being the chief article of trade that is valued in China." And it is evident from what Marsden says in his _History of Sumatra_, that in the last century some tangible quant.i.ty was still sent to China. The export from the Company's plantations in Sumatra averaged 1200 tons, of which the greater part came to Europe, _the rest_ went to China.

[Couto says also: "Os portos princ.i.p.aes do Reyno da Sunda so Banta, Ache, Xacatara, por outro nome Caravo, aos quaes vam todos os annos mui perto de vinte sommas, que so embarcaces do Chincheo, huma das Provincias maritimas da China, a carregar de pimenta, porque da este Reyno todos es annos oito mil bares della, que so trinta mil quintaes." (_Decada_ IV.

Liv. III. Cap. I. 167.)]

NOTE 4.--These tattooing artists were probably employed mainly by mariners frequenting the port. We do not know if the Malays practised tattooing before their conversion to Islam. But most Indo-Chinese races tattoo, and the j.a.panese still "have the greater part of the body and limbs scrolled over with bright-blue dragons, and lions, and tigers, and figures of men and women tattooed into their skins with the most artistic and elaborate ornamentation." (_Alc.o.c.k_, I. 191.) Probably the Arab sailors also indulged in the same kind of decoration. It is common among the Arab women now, and Della Valle speaks of it as in his time so much in vogue among both s.e.xes through Egypt, Arabia, and Babylonia, that _he_ had not been able to escape. (I. 395.)

NOTE 5.--The divergence in Ramusio's version is here very notable: "The River which enters the Port of Zayton is great and wide, running with great velocity, and is a branch of that which flows by the city of Kinsay.

And at the place where it quits the main channel is the city of Tingui, of which all that is to be said is that there they make porcelain basins and dishes. The manner of making porcelain was thus related to him. They excavate a certain kind of earth, as it were from a mine, and this they heap into great piles, and then leave it undisturbed and exposed to wind, rain, and sun for 30 or 40 years. In this s.p.a.ce of time the earth becomes sufficiently refined for the manufacture of porcelain; they then colour it at their discretion, and bake it in a furnace. Those who excavate the clay do so always therefore for their sons and grandsons. The articles are so cheap in that city that you get 8 bowls for a Venice groat."

Ibn Batuta speaks of porcelain as manufactured at Zayton; indeed he says positively (and wrongly): "Porcelain is made nowhere in China except in the cities of Zaitun and Sinkalan" (Canton). A good deal of China ware in modern times _is_ made in Fo-kien and Canton provinces, and it is still an article of export from T'swan-chau and Amoy; but it is only of a very ordinary kind. Pakwiha, between Amoy and Chang-chau, is mentioned in the _Chinese Commercial Guide_ (p. 114) as now the place where the coa.r.s.e blue ware, so largely exported to India, etc., is largely manufactured; and Phillips mentions Tung-'an (about half-way between T'swan-chau and Chang-chau) as a great seat of this manufacture.

Looking, however, to the Ramusian interpolations, which do not indicate a locality necessarily near Zayton, or even in Fo-kien, it is possible that Murray is right in supposing the place intended _in these_ to be really _King-te chen_ in Kiang-si, the great seat of the manufacture of genuine porcelain, or rather its chief mart JAU-CHAU FU on the P'o-yang Lake.

The geographical indication of this city of porcelain, as at the place where a branch of the River of Kinsay flows off towards Zayton, points to a notion prevalent in the Middle Ages as to the interdivergence of rivers in general, and especially of Chinese rivers. This notion will be found well embodied in the Catalan Map, and something like it in the maps of the Chinese themselves;[5] it is a ruling idea with Ibn Batuta, who, as we have seen (in note 2), speaks of the River of Zayton as connected in the interior with "the Great River," and who travels by this waterway accordingly from Zayton to Kinsay, taking no notice of the mountains of Fo-kien. So also (supra, p. 175) Ras.h.i.+duddin had been led to suppose that the Great Ca.n.a.l extended to Zayton. With apparently the same idea of one Great River of China with many ramifications, Abulfeda places most of the great cities of China upon "The River." The "Great River of China,"

with its branches to Kinsay, is alluded to in a like spirit by Wa.s.saf (supra, p. 213). Polo has already indicated the same idea (p. 219).

a.s.suming this as the notion involved in the pa.s.sage from Ramusio, the position of _Jau-chau_ might be fairly described as that of Tingui is therein, standing as it does on the P'o-yang Lake, from which there is such a ramification of internal navigation, e.g. to Kinsay or Hang-chau fu directly by Kwansin, the Chang-shan portage already referred to (supra, p. 222), and the Ts'ien T'ang (and this is the Kinsay River line to which I imagine Polo here to refer), or circuitously by the Yang-tzu and Great Ca.n.a.l; to Canton by the portage of the Meiling Pa.s.s; and to the cities of Fo-kien either by the Kwansin River or by Kian-chan fu, further south, with a portage in each case across the Fo-kien mountains. None of our maps give any idea of the extent of internal navigation in China. (See _Klaproth, Mem_. vol. iii.)

The story of the life-long period during which the porcelain clay was exposed to temper long held its ground, and probably was only dispelled by the publication of the details of the King-te chen manufacture by Pere d'Entrecolles in the _Lettres Edifiantes_.

NOTE 6.--The meagre statement in the French texts shows merely that Polo had heard of the Fo-kien dialect. The addition from Ramusio shows further that he was aware of the unity of the written character throughout China, but gives no indication of knowledge of its peculiar principles, nor of the extent of difference in the spoken dialects. Even different districts of Fo-kien, according to Martini, use dialects so different that they understand each other with difficulty (108).

[Mendoza already said: "It is an admirable thing to consider how that in that kingdome they doo speake manie languages, the one differing from the other: yet generallie in writing they doo understand one the other, and in speaking not." (_Parke's Transl._ p. 93.)]

Professor Kidd, speaking of his instructors in the Mandarin and Fo-kien dialects respectively, says: "The teachers in both cases read the same books, composed in the same style, and attached precisely the same ideas to the written symbols, but could not understand each other in conversation." Moreover, besides these sounds attaching to the Chinese characters when read in the dialect of Fo-kien, thus discrepant from the sounds used in reading the same characters in the Mandarin dialect, yet _another_ cla.s.s of sounds is used to express the same ideas in the Fo-kien dialect when it is used colloquially and without reference to written symbols! (_Kidd's China_, etc., pp. 21-23.)

The term _Fokien dialect_ in the preceding pa.s.sage is ambiguous, as will be seen from the following remarks, which have been derived from the Preface and Appendices to the Rev. Dr. Douglas's Dictionary of the Spoken Language of Amoy,[6] and which throw a distinct light on the subject of this note:--

"The vernacular or spoken language of Amoy is not a mere colloquial dialect or _patois_, it is a _distinct language_--one of the many and widely differing spoken languages which divide among them the soil of China. For these spoken languages are not _dialects_ of one language, but cognate languages, bearing to each other a relation similar to that between Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac, or between English, Dutch, German, and Danish. The so-called '_written language_' is indeed uniform throughout the whole country, but that is rather a _notation_ than a language. And this written language, as read aloud from books, is not _spoken_ in any place whatever, under any form of p.r.o.nunciation. The most learned men never employ it as a means of ordinary oral communication even among themselves. It is, in fact, a _dead language_, related to the various spoken languages of China, somewhat as Latin is to the languages of Southern Europe.

"Again: Dialects, properly speaking, of the Amoy vernacular language are found (e.g.) in the neighbouring districts of Changchew, Chinchew, and Tungan, and the language with its subordinate dialects is believed to be spoken by 8 or 10 millions of people. Of the other languages of China the most nearly related to the Amoy is the vernacular of Chau-chau-fu, often called 'the Swatow dialect,' from the only treaty-port in that region. The ancestors of the people speaking it emigrated many years ago from Fuh-kien, and are still distinguished there by the appellation _Hok-lo_, i.e. people from Hok-kien (or Fuh-kien). This language differs from the Amoy, much as Dutch differs from German, or Portuguese from Spanish.

"In the Island of Hai-nan (Hai-lam), again (setting aside the central aborigines), a language is spoken which differs from Amoy more than that of Swatow, but is more nearly related to these two than to any other of the languages of China.

"In Fuh-chau fu we have another language which is largely spoken in the centre and north of Fuh-kien. This has many points of resemblance to the Amoy, but is quite unintelligible to the Amoy people, with the exception of an occasional word or phrase.

"Hing-hwa fu (Heng-hoa), between Fuh-chau and Chinchew, has also a language of its own, though containing only two _Hien_ districts. It is alleged to be unintelligible both at Amoy and at Fuhchau.

"To the other languages of China that of Amoy is less closely related; yet all evidently spring from one common stock. But that common stock is _not_ the modern Mandarin dialect, but the ancient form of the Chinese language as spoken some 3000 years ago. The so-called _Mandarin_, far from being the original form, is usually more changed than any. It is in the ancient form of the language (naturally) that the relation of Chinese to other languages can best be traced; and as the Amoy vernacular, which very generally retains the final consonants in their original shape, has been one of the chief sources from which the ancient form of Chinese has been recovered, the study of that vernacular is of considerable importance."

NOTE 7.--This is inconsistent with his former statements as to the supreme wealth of Kinsay. But with Marco the subject in hand is always _pro magnifico_.

Ramusio says that the Traveller will now "begin to speak of the territories, cities, and provinces of the Greater, Lesser, and Middle India, in which regions he was when in the service of the Great Kaan, being sent thither on divers matters of business. And then again when he returned to the same quarter with the queen of King Argon, and with his father and uncle, on his way back to his native land. So he will relate the strange things that he saw in those Indies, not omitting others which he heard related by persons of reputation and worthy of credit, and things that were pointed out to him on the maps of manners of the Indies aforesaid."

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Kaan's Fleet leaving the Port of Zayton]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Marco Polo's Itineraries No. VI. (Book II, Chapters 67-82) Journey through Manzi _Polo's names thus_ Kinsay]

[1] Dr. C. Douglas objects to this derivation of _Zayton_, that the place was never called _Tseut'ung_ absolutely, but _T'seu-t'ung-ching_, "city of p.r.i.c.kly T'ung-trees"; and this not as a name, but as a polite literary epithet, somewhat like "City of Palaces" applied to Calcutta.

[2] Giovanni did not get to Zayton; but two years later he got to Canton with Ferno Perez, was sent ash.o.r.e as Factor, and a few days after died of fever. (De Barros, III. II. viii.) The way in which Botero, a compiler in the latter part of the 16th century, speaks of Zayton as between Canton and Liampo (Ningpo), and exporting immense quant.i.ties of porcelain, salt and sugar, looks as if he had before him modern information as to the place. He likewise observes, "All the moderns note the port of Zaiton between Canton and Liampo." Yet I know no other modern allusion except Giovanni d'Empoli's; and that was printed only a few years ago. (_Botero, Relazione Universale_, pp. 97, 228.)

[3] Martini says of Ganhai ('An-Hai or Ngan-Hai), "Ingens hic mercium ac Sinensium navium copia est ... ex his ('Anhai and Amoy) in totam Indiam merces avehuntur."

[4] Dr. Douglas a.s.sures me that the cut at p. 245 is an _excellent_ view of the entrance to the S. channel of the _Chang-chau River_, though I derived it from a professed view of the mouth of the _Chinchew River_. I find he is quite right; see _List of Ill.u.s.trations_.

[5] In a modern Chinese geographical work abstracted by Mr. Laidlay, we are told that the great river of _Tsim-lo_, or Siam, "penetrates to a branch of the Hw.a.n.g-Ho." (_J.A.S.B._ XVII. Pt. I. 157.)

[6] CHINESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY _of the Vernacular or Spoken language of Amoy, with the princ.i.p.al variations of the Chang-chew and Chin-chew Dialects_; _by the_ Rev. Carstairs Douglas, M.A., LL.D., Glasg., Missionary of the Presb. Church in England. (Trubner, 1873.) I must note that I have not access to the book itself, but condense these remarks from extracts and abstracts made by a friend at my request.