The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 139 : The people are Idolaters; and since they were conquered by the Great Kaan they use pap

The people are Idolaters; and since they were conquered by the Great Kaan they use paper-money. [Both men and women are fair and comely, and for the most part clothe themselves in silk, so vast is the supply of that material, both from the whole district of Kinsay, and from the imports by traders from other provinces.[NOTE 5]] And you must know they eat every kind of flesh, even that of dogs and other unclean beasts, which nothing would induce a Christian to eat.

Since the Great Kaan occupied the city he has ordained that each of the 12,000 bridges should be provided with a guard of ten men, in case of any disturbance, or of any being so rash as to plot treason or insurrection against him. [Each guard is provided with a hollow instrument of wood and with a metal basin, and with a time-keeper to enable them to know the hour of the day or night. And so when one hour of the night is past the sentry strikes one on the wooden instrument and on the basin, so that the whole quarter of the city is made aware that one hour of the night is gone. At the second hour he gives two strokes, and so on, keeping always wide awake and on the look out. In the morning again, from the sunrise, they begin to count anew, and strike one hour as they did in the night, and so on hour after hour.

Part of the watch patrols the quarter, to see if any light or fire is burning after the lawful hours; if they find any they mark the door, and in the morning the owner is summoned before the magistrates, and unless he can plead a good excuse he is punished. Also if they find any one going about the streets at unlawful hours they arrest him, and in the morning they bring him before the magistrates. Likewise if in the daytime they find any poor cripple unable to work for his livelihood, they take him to one of the hospitals, of which there are many, founded by the ancient kings, and endowed with great revenues.[NOTE 6] Or if he be capable of work they oblige him to take up some trade. If they see that any house has caught fire they immediately beat upon that wooden instrument to give the alarm, and this brings together the watchmen from the other bridges to help to extinguish it, and to save the goods of the merchants or others, either by removing them to the towers above mentioned, or by putting them in boats and transporting them to the islands in the lake. For no citizen dares leave his house at night, or to come near the fire; only those who own the property, and those watchmen who flock to help, of whom there shall come one or two thousand at the least.]

Moreover, within the city there is an eminence on which stands a Tower, and at the top of the tower is hung a slab of wood. Whenever fire or any other alarm breaks out in the city a man who stands there with a mallet in his hand beats upon the slab, making a noise that is heard to a great distance. So when the blows upon this slab are heard, everybody is aware that fire has broken out, or that there is some other cause of alarm.

The Kaan watches this city with especial diligence because it forms the head of all Manzi; and because he has an immense revenue from the duties levied on the transactions of trade therein, the amount of which is such that no one would credit it on mere hearsay.

All the streets of the city are paved with stone or brick, as indeed are all the highways throughout Manzi, so that you ride and travel in every direction without inconvenience. Were it not for this pavement you could not do so, for the country is very low and flat, and after rain 'tis deep in mire and water. [But as the Great Kaan's couriers could not gallop their horses over the pavement, the side of the road is left unpaved for their convenience. The pavement of the main street of the city also is laid out in two parallel ways of ten paces in width on either side, leaving a s.p.a.ce in the middle laid with fine gravel, under which are vaulted drains which convey the rain water into the ca.n.a.ls; and thus the road is kept ever dry.][NOTE 7]

You must know also that the city of Kinsay has some 3000 baths, the water of which is supplied by springs. They are hot baths, and the people take great delight in them, frequenting them several times a month, for they are very cleanly in their persons. They are the finest and largest baths in the world; large enough for 100 persons to bathe together.[NOTE 8]

And the Ocean Sea comes within 25 miles of the city at a place called GANFU, where there is a town and an excellent haven, with a vast amount of s.h.i.+pping which is engaged in the traffic to and from India and other foreign parts, exporting and importing many kinds of wares, by which the city benefits. And a great river flows from the city of Kinsay to that sea-haven, by which vessels can come up to the city itself. This river extends also to other places further inland.[NOTE 9]

Know also that the Great Kaan hath distributed the territory of Manzi into nine parts, which he hath const.i.tuted into nine kingdoms. To each of these kingdoms a king is appointed who is subordinate to the Great Kaan, and every year renders the accounts of his kingdom to the fiscal office at the capital.[NOTE 10] This city of Kinsay is the seat of one of these kings, who rules over 140 great and wealthy cities. For in the whole of this vast country of Manzi there are more than 1200 great and wealthy cities, without counting the towns and villages, which are in great numbers. And you may receive it for certain that in each of those 1200 cities the Great Kaan has a garrison, and that the smallest of such garrisons musters 1000 men; whilst there are some of 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000; so that the total number of troops is something scarcely calculable. The troops forming these garrisons are not all Tartars. Many are from the province of Cathay, and good soldiers too. But you must not suppose they are by any means all of them cavalry; a very large proportion of them are foot-soldiers, according to the special requirements of each city. And all of them belong to the army of the Great Kaan.[NOTE 11]

I repeat that everything appertaining to this city is on so vast a scale, and the Great Kaan's yearly revenues therefrom are so immense, that it is not easy even to put it in writing, and it seems past belief to one who merely hears it told. But I _will_ write it down for you.

First, however, I must mention another thing. The people of this country have a custom, that as soon as a child is born they write down the day and hour and the planet and sign under which its birth has taken place; so that every one among them knows the day of his birth. And when any one intends a journey he goes to the astrologers, and gives the particulars of his nativity in order to learn whether he shall have good luck or no.

Sometimes they will say _no_, and in that case the journey is put off till such day as the astrologer may recommend. These astrologers are very skilful at their business, and often their words come to pa.s.s, so the people have great faith in them.

They burn the bodies of the dead. And when any one dies the friends and relations make a great mourning for the deceased, and clothe themselves in hempen garments,[NOTE 12] and follow the corpse playing on a variety of instruments and singing hymns to their idols. And when they come to the burning place, they take representations of things cut out of parchment, such as caparisoned horses, male and female slaves, camels, armour suits of cloth of gold (and money), in great quant.i.ties, and these things they put on the fire along with the corpse, so that they are all burnt with it.

And they tell you that the dead man shall have all these slaves and animals of which the effigies are burnt, alive in flesh and blood, and the money in gold, at his disposal in the next world; and that the instruments which they have caused to be played at his funeral, and the idol hymns that have been chaunted, shall also be produced again to welcome him in the next world; and that the idols themselves will come to do him honour.

[NOTE 13]

Furthermore there exists in this city the palace of the king who fled, him who was Emperor of Manzi, and that is the greatest palace in the world, as I shall tell you more particularly. For you must know its demesne hath a compa.s.s of ten miles, all enclosed with lofty battlemented walls; and inside the walls are the finest and most delectable gardens upon earth, and filled too with the finest fruits. There are numerous fountains in it also, and lakes full of fish. In the middle is the palace itself, a great and splendid building. It contains 20 great and handsome halls, one of which is more s.p.a.cious than the rest, and affords room for a vast mult.i.tude to dine. It is all painted in gold, with many histories and representations of beasts and birds, of knights and dames, and many marvellous things. It forms a really magnificent spectacle, for over all the walls and all the ceiling you see nothing but paintings in gold. And besides these halls the palace contains 1000 large and handsome chambers, all painted in gold and divers colours.

Moreover, I must tell you that in this city there are 160 _tomans_ of fires, or in other words 160 _tomans_ of houses. Now I should tell you that the _toman_ is 10,000, so that you can reckon the total as altogether 1,600,000 houses, among which are a great number of rich palaces. There is one church only, belonging to the Nestorian Christians.

There is another thing I must tell you. It is the custom for every burgess of this city, and in fact for every description of person in it, to write over his door his own name, the name of his wife, and those of his children, his slaves, and all the inmates of his house, and also the number of animals that he keeps. And if any one dies in the house then the name of that person is erased, and if any child is born its name is added.

So in this way the sovereign is able to know exactly the population of the city. And this is the practice also throughout all Manzi and Cathay.

[NOTE 14]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plan of the City of SI-NGAN-FU]

And I must tell you that every hosteler who keeps an hostel for travellers is bound to register their names and surnames, as well as the day and month of their arrival and departure. And thus the sovereign hath the means of knowing, whenever it pleases him, who come and go throughout his dominions. And certes this is a wise order and a provident.

NOTE 1.--Kinsay represents closely enough the Chinese term _King-sze_, "capital," which was then applied to the great city, the proper name of which was at that time Lin-ngan and is now HANG-CHAU, as being since 1127 the capital of the Sung Dynasty. The same term _King-sze_ is now on Chinese maps generally used to designate Peking. It would seem, however, that the term adhered long as a quasi-proper name to Hang-chau; for in the Chinese Atlas, dating from 1595, which the traveller Carletti presented to the Magliabecchian Library, that city appears to be still marked with this name, transcribed by Carletti as _Camse_; very near the form _Campsay_ used by Marignolli in the 14th century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The ancient Lun ho-ta PaG.o.da at Hang-chau.]

NOTE 2.--+The Ramusian version says: "Messer Marco Polo was frequently at this city, and took great pains to learn everything about it, writing down the whole in his notes." The information being originally derived from a Chinese doc.u.ment, there might be some ground for supposing that 100 miles of circuit stood for 100 _li_. Yet the circuit of the modern city is stated in the official book called _Hang-chau Fu-Chi_ or topographical history of Hang-chau, at only 35 _li_. And the earliest record of the wall, as built under the Sui by Yang-su (before A.D. 606), makes its extent little more (36 _li_ and 90 paces.)[1] But the wall was reconstructed by Ts'ien Kiao, feudal prince of the region, during the reign of Chao Tsung, one of the last emperors of the T'ang Dynasty (892), so as to embrace the Luh-ho-ta PaG.o.da, on a high bluff over the Tsien-tang River,[2] 15 _li_ distant from the present south gate, and had then a circuit of 70 _li_. Moreover, in 1159, after the city became the capital of the Sung emperors, some further extension was given to it, so that, even exclusive of the suburbs, the circuit of the city may have been not far short of 100 _li_. When the city was in its glory under the Sung, the Luh-ho-ta PaG.o.da may be taken as marking the extreme S.W. Another known point marks approximately the chief north gate of that period, at a mile and a half or two miles beyond the present north wall. The S.E. angle was apparently near the river bank. But, on the other hand, the _waist_ of the city seems to have been a good deal narrower than it now is. Old descriptions compare its form to that of a slender-waisted drum (dice-box or hour-gla.s.s shape).

Under the Mongols the walls were allowed to decay; and in the disturbed years that closed that dynasty (1341-1368) they were rebuilt by an insurgent chief on a greatly reduced compa.s.s, probably that which they still retain. Whatever may have been the facts, and whatever the origin of the estimate, I imagine that the ascription of 100 miles of circuit to Kinsay had become popular among Westerns. Odoric makes the same statement.

Wa.s.saf calls it 24 parasangs, which will not be far short of the same amount. Ibn Batuta calls the _length_ of the city three days' journey.

Ras.h.i.+duddin says the enceinte had a _diameter_ of 11 parasangs, and that there were three post stages between the two extremities of the city, which is probably what Ibn Batuta had heard. The _Masalak-al-Absar_ calls it _one_ day's journey in length, and half a day's journey in breadth. The enthusiastic Jesuit Martini tries hard to justify Polo in this as in other points of his description. We shall quote the whole of his remarks at the end of the chapters on Kinsay.

[Dr. F. Hirth, in a paper published in the _T'oung Pao_, V. pp. 386-390 (_Ueber den s.h.i.+ffsverkehr von Kinsay zu Marco Polo's Zeit_), has some interesting notes on the maritime trade of Hang-chau, collected from a work in twenty books, kept at the Berlin Royal Library, in which is to be found a description of Hang-chau under the t.i.tle of _Meng-liang-lu_, published in 1274 by Wu Tzu-mu, himself a native of this city: there are various cla.s.ses of sea-going vessels; large boats measuring 5000 _liao_ and carrying from five to six hundred pa.s.sengers; smaller boats measuring from 2 to 1000 _liao_ and carrying from two to three hundred pa.s.sengers; there are small fast boats called _tsuan-feng_, "wind breaker," with six or eight oarsmen, which can carry easily 100 pa.s.sengers, and are generally used for fis.h.i.+ng; sampans are not taken into account. To start for foreign countries one must embark at Ts'wan-chau, and then go to the sea of Ts'i-chau (Paracels), through the Tai-hsu pa.s.s; coming back he must look to Kwen-lun (Pulo Condor).--H.C.]

The 12,000 bridges have been much carped at, and modern accounts of Hang-chau (desperately meagre as they are) do not speak of its bridges as notable. "There is, indeed," says Mr. Kingsmill, speaking of changes in the hydrography about Hang-chau, "no trace in the city of the magnificent ca.n.a.ls and bridges described by Marco Polo." The number was no doubt in this case also a mere popular saw, and Friar Odoric repeats it. The sober and veracious John Marignolli, alluding apparently to their statements, and perhaps to others which have not reached us, says: "When authors tell of its ten thousand n.o.ble bridges of stone, adorned with sculptures and statues of armed princes, it pa.s.ses the belief of one who has not been there, and yet peradventure these authors tell us no lie." Wa.s.saf speaks of 360 bridges only, but they make up in size what they lack in number, for they cross ca.n.a.ls as big as the Tigris! Marsden aptly quotes in reference to this point excessively loose and discrepant statements from modern authors as to the number of bridges in Venice. The great _height_ of the arches of the ca.n.a.l bridges in this part of China is especially noticed by travellers. Barrow, quoted by Marsden, says: "Some have the piers of such an extraordinary height that the largest vessels of 200 tons sail under them without striking their masts."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plan of the Imperial City of Hangchow in the 13th Century.

(From the Notes of the Right Rev. G.E. Moule.)]

Mr. Moule has added up the lists of bridges in the whole department (or _Fu_) and found them to amount to 848, and many of these even are now unknown, their approximate sites being given from ancient topographies.

The number _represented_ in a large modern map of the city, which I owe to Mr. Moule's kindness, is III.

NOTE 3.--Though Rubruquis (p. 292) says much the same thing, there is little trace of such an ordinance in modern China. Pere Parrenin observes: "As to the hereditary perpetuation of trades, it has never existed in China. On the contrary, very few Chinese will learn the trade of their fathers; and it is only necessity that ever constrains them to do so."

(_Lett. Edif._ XXIV. 40.) Mr. Moule remarks, however, that P. Parrenin is a little too absolute. Certain trades do run in families, even of the free cla.s.ses of Chinese, not to mention the disfranchised boatmen, barbers, chair-coolies, etc. But, except in the latter cases, there is no compulsion, though the Sacred Edict goes to encourage the perpetuation of the family calling.

NOTE 4.--This sheet of water is the celebrated SI-HU, or "Western Lake,"

the fame of which had reached Abulfeda, and which has raised the enthusiasm even of modern travellers, such as Barrow and Van Braam. The latter speaks of _three_ islands (and this the Chinese maps confirm), on each of which were several villas, and of causeways across the lake, paved and bordered with trees, and provided with numerous bridges for the pa.s.sage of boats. Barrow gives a bright description of the lake, with its thousands of gay, gilt, and painted pleasure boats, its margins studded with light and fanciful buildings, its gardens of choice flowering shrubs, its monuments, and beautiful variety of scenery. None surpa.s.ses that of Martini, whom it is always pleasant to quote, but here he is too lengthy.

The most recent description that I have met with is that of Mr. C.

Gardner, and it is as enthusiastic as any. It concludes: "Even to us foreigners ... the spot is one of peculiar attraction, but to the Chinese it is as a paradise." The Emperor K'ien Lung had erected a palace on one of the islands in the lake; it was ruined by the T'ai-P'ings. Many of the constructions about the lake date from the flouris.h.i.+ng days of the T'ang Dynasty, the 7th and 8th centuries.

Polo's ascription of a circ.u.mference of 30 miles to the lake, corroborates the supposition that in the compa.s.s of the city a confusion had been made between miles and _li_, for Semedo gives the circuit of the lake really as 30 _li_. Probably the doc.u.ment to which Marco refers at the beginning of the chapter was seen by him in a Persian translation, in which _li_ had been rendered by _mil_. A Persian work of the same age, quoted by Quatremere (the _Nuzhat al-Kultub_, gives the circuit of the lake as six parasangs, or some 24 miles, a statement which probably had a like origin).

Polo says the lake was _within_ the city. This might be merely a loose way of speaking, but it may on the other hand be a further indication of the former existence of an extensive outer wall. The Persian author just quoted also speaks of the lake as within the city. (_Barrow's Autobiog._, p. 104; _V. Braam_, II. 154; _Gardner_ in _Proc. of the R. Geog. Soc._, vol. xiii. p. 178; _Q. Ras.h.i.+d_, p. lx.x.xviii.) Mr. Moule states that popular oral tradition does enclose the lake within the walls, but he can find no trace of this in the Topographies.

Elsewhere Mr. Moule says: "Of the luxury of the (Sung) period, and its devotion to pleasure, evidence occurs everywhere. Hang-chow went at the time by the nickname of the melting-pot for money. The use, at houses of entertainment, of _linen and silver plate_ appears somewhat out of keeping in a Chinese picture. I cannot vouch for the linen, but here is the plate.... 'The most famous Tea-houses of the day were the _Pa-seen_ ("8 genii"), the "Pure Delight", the "Pearl", the "House of the Pwan Family,"

and the "Two and Two" and "Three and Three" houses (perhaps rather "Double honours" and "Treble honours"). In these places they always set out bouquets of fresh flowers, according to the season.... At the counter were sold "Precious thunder Tea", Tea of fritters and onions, or else Pickle broth; and in hot weather wine of snow bubbles and apricot blossom, or other kinds of refrigerating liquor. _Saucers, ladles, and bowls were all of pure, silver_!' (_Si-Hu-Chi_.)"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plan of the Metropolitan City of Hangchow in the 13th Century. (From the Notes of the Right Rev. G.E. Moule.)

1-17, Gates; 18, _Ta-nuy_, Central Palace; 19, _Woo-Foo_, The Five Courts; 20, _T'a Miao_, The Imperial Temple; 21, _Fung-hw.a.n.g shan_, Phoenix Hill; 22, _s.h.i.+h fuh she_, Monastery of the Sacred Fruit; 25-30, Gates; 31, _T'ien tsung yen tsang_ T'ien tsung Salt Depot; 2, _T'ien tsung tsew koo_, T'ien tsung Wine Store; 33, _Chang she_, The Chang Monastery; 34, _Foo che_, Prefecture; _Foo hio_, Prefectural Confucian Temple.]

NOTE 5.--This is still the case: "The people of Hang-chow dress gaily, and are remarkable among the Chinese for their dandyism. All, except the lowest labourers and coolies, strutted about in dresses composed of silk, satin, and c.r.a.pe.... 'Indeed' (said the Chinese servants) 'one can never tell a rich man in Hang-chow, for it is just possible that all he possesses in the world is on his back.'" (_Fortune_, II. 20.) "The silk manufactures of Hang-chau are said to give employment to 60,000 persons within the city walls, and Hu-chau, Kia-hing, and the surrounding villages, are reputed to employ 100,000 more." (_Ningpo Trade Report_, January 1869, comm. by Mr. N.

B. Dennys.) The store-towers, as a precaution in case of fire, are still common both in China and j.a.pan.

NOTE 6.--Mr. Gardner found in this very city, in 1868, a large collection of cottages covering several acres, which were "erected, after the taking of the city from the rebels, by a Chinese charitable society for the refuge of the blind, sick, and infirm." This asylum sheltered 200 blind men with their families, amounting to 800 souls; basket-making and such work was provided for them; there were also 1200 other inmates, aged and infirm; and doctors were maintained to look after them. "None are allowed to be absolutely idle, but all help towards their own sustenance." (_Proc.

R.G.Soc._ XIII. 176-177.) Mr. Moule, whilst abating somewhat from the colouring of this description, admits the establishment to be a considerable charitable effort. It existed before the rebellion, as I see in the book of Mr. Milne, who gives interesting details on such Chinese charities. (_Life in China_, pp. 46 seqq.)

NOTE 7.--The paved roads of Manzi are by no means extinct yet. Thus, Mr.

Fortune, starting from Chang-shan (see below, ch. lxxix.) in the direction of the Black-Tea mountains, says: "The road on which we were travelling was well paved with granite, about 12 feet in width, and perfectly free from weeds." (II. 148). Garnier, Sladen, and Richthofen speak of well-paved roads in Yun-Nan and Sze-ch'wan.

The Topography quoted by Mr. Moule says that in the year 1272 the Governor renewed the pavement of the Imperial road (or Main Street), "after which nine cars might move abreast over a way perfectly smooth, and straight as an arrow." In the Mongol time the people were allowed to encroach on this grand street.

NOTE 8.--There is a curious discrepancy in the account of these baths.

Pauthier's text does not say whether they are hot baths or cold. The latter sentence, beginning, "They are hot baths" (_estuves_), is from the G. Text. And Ramusio's account is quite different: "There are numerous baths of cold water, provided with plenty of attendants, male and female, to a.s.sist the visitors of the two s.e.xes in the bath. For the people are used from their childhood to bathe in cold water at all seasons, and they reckon it a very wholesome custom. But in the bath-houses they have also certain chambers furnished with hot water, for foreigners who are unaccustomed to cold bathing, and cannot bear it. The people are used to bathe daily, and do not eat without having done so." This is in contradiction with the notorious Chinese horror of cold water for any purpose.

A note from Mr. C. Gardner says: "There are numerous public baths at Hang-chau, as at every Chinese city I have ever been in. In my experience natives always take _hot_ baths. But only the poorer cla.s.ses go to the public baths; the tradespeople and middle cla.s.ses are generally supplied by the bath-houses with hot water at a moderate charge."

NOTE 9.--The estuary of the Ts'ien T'ang, or river of Hang-chau, has undergone great changes since Polo's day. The sea now comes up much nearer the city; and the upper part of the Bay of Hang-chau is believed to cover what was once the site of the port and town of KANP'U, the Ganpu of the text. A modern representative of the name still subsists, a walled town, and one of the depots for the salt which is so extensively manufactured on this coast; but the present port of Hang-chau, and till recently the sole seat of Chinese trade with j.a.pan, is at _Chapu_, some 20 miles further seaward.

It is supposed by Klaproth that KANP'U was the port frequented by the early Arab voyagers, and of which they speak under the name of _Khanfu_, confounding in their details Hang-chau itself with the port. Neumann dissents from this, maintaining that the Khanfu of the Arabs was certainly Canton. Abulfeda, however, states expressly that Khanfu was known in his day as _Khansa_ (i.e. Kinsay), and he speaks of its lake of fresh water called _Sikhu_ (Si-hu). [Abulfeda has in fact two Khanqu (Khanfu): Khansa with the lake which is Kinsay, and one Khanfu which is probably Canton.

(See _Guyard's transl._, II., ii., 122-124.)--H.C.] There seems to be an indication in Chinese records that a southern branch of the Great Kiang once entered the sea at Kanp'u; the closing of it is a.s.signed to the 7th century, or a little later.