The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 122 : "Je boz di q'il ont un lac qe gire environ bien cent miles."]Five days

"Je boz di q'il ont un lac qe gire environ bien cent miles."]

Five days forward from Ch'eng-tu fu brought us on Tibetan ground. Five days backward from Yun-nan fu should bring us to the river Brius, with its gold-dust and the frontier of Caindu. Wanting a local scale for a distance of five days, I find that our next point in advance, Marco's city of Carajan undisputably _Tali-fu_, is said by him to be ten days from Yachi.

The direct distance between the cities of Yun-nan and Ta-li I find by measurement on Keith Johnston's map to be 133 Italian miles. [The distance by road is 215 English miles. (See _Baber_, p. 191.)--H.C.] Taking half this as radius, the compa.s.ses swept from Yun-nan-fu as centre, intersect near its most southerly elbow the great upper branch of the Kiang, the _Kin-sha Kiang_ of the Chinese, or "River of the Golden Sands," the MURUS USSU and BRICHU of the Mongols and Tibetans, and manifestly the auriferous BRIUS of our traveller.[1] Hence also the country north of this elbow is CAINDU.

I leave the preceding paragraph as it stood in the first edition, because it shows how _near_ the true position of Caindu these unaided deductions from our author's data had carried me. That paragraph was followed by an erroneous hypothesis as to the intermediate part of that journey, but, thanks to the new light shed by Baron Richthofen, we are enabled now to lay down the whole itinerary from Ch'eng-tu fu to Yun-nan fu with confidence in its accuracy.

The Kin-sha Kiang or Upper course of the Great Yang-tzu, descending from Tibet to Yun-nan, forms the great bight or elbow to which allusion has just been made, and which has been a feature known to geographers ever since the publication of D'Anville's atlas. The tract enclosed in this elbow is cut in two by another great Tibetan River, the Yarlung, or Yalung-Kiang, which joins the Kin-sha not far from the middle of the great bight; and this Yalung, just before the confluence, receives on the left a stream of inferior calibre, the Ngan-ning Ho, which also flows in a valley parallel to the meridian, like all that singular _fascis_ of great rivers between a.s.sam and Sze-ch'wan.

This River Ngan-ning waters a valley called Kien-ch'ang, containing near its northern end a city known by the same name, but in our modern maps marked as Ning-yuan fu; this last being the name of a department of which it is the capital, and which embraces much more than the valley of Kien-ch'ang. The town appears, however, as Kien-ch'ang in the _Atlas Sinensis_ of Martini, and as _Kienchang-ouei_ in D'Anville. This remarkable valley, imbedded as it were in a wilderness of rugged highlands and wild races, accessible only by two or three long and difficult routes, rejoices in a warm climate, a most productive soil, scenery that seems to excite enthusiasm even in Chinamen, and a population noted for amiable temper.

Towns and villages are numerous. The people are said to be descended from Chinese immigrants, but their features have little of the Chinese type, and they have probably a large infusion of aboriginal blood. [Kien-ch'ang, "otherwise the Prefecture of Ning-yuan, is perhaps the least known of the Eighteen Provinces," writes Mr. Baber. (_Travels_, p. 58.) "Two or three sentences in the book of Ser Marco, to the effect that after crossing high mountains, he reached a fertile country containing many towns and villages, and inhabited by a very immoral population, const.i.tute to this day the only description we possess of _Cain-du_, as he calls the district." Baber adds (p. 82): "Although the main valley of Kien-ch'ang is now princ.i.p.ally inhabited by Chinese, yet the Sifan or Menia people are frequently met with, and most of the villages possess two names, one Chinese, and the other indigenous. Probably in Marco Polo's time a Menia population predominated, and the valley was regarded as part of Menia. If Marco had heard that name, he would certainly have recorded it; but it is not one which is likely to reach the ears of a stranger. The Chinese people and officials never employ it, but use in its stead an alternative name, _Chan-tu_ or _Chan-tui_, of precisely the same application, which I make bold to offer as the original of Marco's Caindu, or preferably Ciandu."

--H.C.]

This valley is bounded on the east by the mountain country of the Lolos, which extends north nearly to Yachau (supra, pp. 45, 48, 60), and which, owing to the fierce intractable character of the race, forms throughout its whole length an impenetrable barrier between East and West. [The Rev.

Gray Owen, of Ch'eng-tu, wrote (_Jour. China B.R.A.S._ xxviii.

1893-1894, p. 59): "The only great trade route infested by brigands is that from Ya-chau to Ning-yuan fu, where Lo-lo brigands are numerous, especially in the autumn. Last year I heard of a convoy of 18 mules with Shen-si goods on the above-mentioned road captured by these brigands, muleteers and all taken inside the Lo-lo country. It is very seldom that captives get out of Lo-lo-dom, because the ransom asked is too high, and the Chinese officials are not gallant enough to buy out their unfortunate countrymen. The Lo-los hold thousands of Chinese in slavery; and more are added yearly to the number."--H.C.] Two routes run from Ch'eng-tu fu to Yun-nan; these fork at Ya-chau and thenceforward are entirely separated by this barrier. To the east of it is the route which descends the Min River to Siu-chau, and then pa.s.ses by Chao-tong and Tong-chuan to Yun-nan fu: to the west of the barrier is a route leading through Kien-ch'ang to Ta-li fu, but throwing off a branch from Ning-yuan southward in the direction of Yun-nan fu.

This road from Ch'eng-tu fu to Ta-li by Ya-chau and Ning-yuan appears to be that by which the greater part of the goods for Bhamo and Ava used to travel before the recent Mahomedan rebellion; it is almost certainly the road by which Kublai, in 1253, during the reign of his brother Mangku Kaan, advanced to the conquest of Ta-li, then the head of an independent kingdom in Western Yun-nan. As far as Ts'ing-k'i hien, 3 marches beyond Ya-chau, this route coincides with the great Tibet road by Ta-t'sien lu and Bathang to L'hasa, and then it diverges to the left.

We may now say without hesitation that by this road Marco travelled. His _Tibet_ commences with the mountain region near Ya-chau; his 20 days'

journey through a devastated and dispeopled tract is the journey to Ning-yuan fu. Even now, from Ts'ing-k'i onwards for several days, not a single inhabited place is seen. The official route from Ya-chau to Ning-yuan lays down 13 stages, but it generally takes from 15 to 18 days.

Polo, whose journeys seem often to have been shorter than the modern average,[2] took 20. On descending from the highlands he comes once more into a populated region, and enters the charming Valley of Kien-ch'ang.

This valley, with its capital near the upper extremity, its numerous towns and villages, its ca.s.sia, its spiced wine, and its termination southward on the River of the Golden Sands, is CAINDU. The traveller's road from Ningyuan to Yunnanfu probably lay through Hwei-li, and the Kin-sha Kiang would be crossed as already indicated, near its most southerly bend, and almost due north of Yun-nan fu. (See _Richthofen_ as quoted at pp. 45-46.)

As regards the _name_ of CAINDU or GHEINDU (as in G.T.), I think we may safely recognise in the last syllable the _do_ which is so frequent a termination of Tibetan names (Amdo, Tsiamdo, etc.); whilst the _Cain_, as Baron Richthofen has pointed out, probably survives in the first part of the name _Kien_chang.

[Baber writes (pp. 80-81): "Colonel Yule sees in the word _Caindu_ a variation of 'Chien-ch'ang,' and supposes the syllable 'du' to be the same as the termination 'du,' 'do,' or 'tu,' so frequent in Tibetan names. In such names, however, 'do' never means a district, but always a confluence, or a town near a confluence, as might almost be guessed from a map of Tibet.... Unsatisfied with Colonel Yule's identification, I cast about for another, and thought for a while that a clue had been found in the term 'Chien-t'ou' (sharp-head), applied to certain Lolo tribes. But the idea had to be abandoned, since Marco Polo's anecdote about the 'caitiff,' and the loose manners of his family, could never have referred to the Lolos, who are admitted even by their Chinese enemies to possess a very strict code indeed of domestic regulations. The Lolos being eliminated, the Si-fans remained; and before we had been many days in their neighbourhood, stories were told us of their conduct which a polite pen refuses to record.

It is enough to say that Marco's account falls rather short of the truth, and most obviously applies to the Si-fan."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Road descending from the Table-Land of Yun-nan into the Valley of the Kin-sha Kiang (the _Brius_ of Polo).

(After Garnier.)]

Deveria (_Front._ p. 146 note) says that Kien-ch'ang is the ancient territory of Kiung-tu which, under the Han Dynasty, fell into the hands of the Tibetans, and was made by the Mongols the march of Kien-ch'ang (_Che-Kong-t'u_); it is the _Caindu_ of Marco Polo; under the Han Dynasty it was the Kiun or division of Yueh-sui or Yueh-hsi. Deveria quotes from the _Yuen-s.h.i.+-lei pien_ the following pa.s.sage relating to the year 1284: "The twelve tribes of the Barbarians to the south-west of _Kien-tou_ and _Kin-Chi_ submitted; Kien-tou was administered by Mien (Burma); Kien-tou submits because the Kingdom of Mien has been vanquished." Kien-tou is the _Chien-t'ou_ of Baber, the Caindu of Marco Polo. (_Melanges de Harlez_, p.

97.) According to Mr. E.H. Parker (_China Review_, xix. p. 69), Yueh-hsi or Yueh-sui "is the modern Kien-ch'ang Valley, the Caindu of Marco Polo, between the Yalung and Yang-tzu Rivers; the only non-Chinese races found there now are the Si-fan and Lolos."--H.C.]

Turning to minor particulars, the Lake of Caindu in which the pearls were found is doubtless one lying near Ning-yuan, whose beauty Richthofen heard greatly extolled, though nothing of the pearls. [Mr. Hosie writes (_Three Years_, 112-113): "If the former tradition be true (the old city of Ning-yuan having given place to a large lake in the early years of the Ming Dynasty), the lake had no existence when Marco Polo pa.s.sed through Caindu, and yet we find him mentioning a lake in the country in which pearls were found. Curiously enough, although I had not then read the Venetian's narrative, one of the many things told me regarding the lake was that pearls are found in it, and specimens were brought to me for inspection."

The lake lies to the south-east of the present city.--H.C.] A small lake is marked by D'Anville, close to Kien-ch'ang, under the name of _Gechoui-tang_. The large quant.i.ties of gold derived from the Kin-sha Kiang, and the abundance of musk in that vicinity, are testified to by Martini. The Lake mentioned by Polo as existing in the territory of Yachi is no doubt the _Tien-chi_, the Great Lake on the sh.o.r.e of which the city of Yun-nan stands, and from which boats make their way by ca.n.a.ls along the walls and streets. Its circ.u.mference, according to Martini, is 500 _li_.

The cut (p. 68), from Garnier, shows this lake as seen from a villa on its banks. [Deveria (p. 129) quotes this pa.s.sage from the _Yuen-s.h.i.+-lei pien_: "Yachi, of which the _U-man_ or Black Barbarians made their capital, is surrounded by Lake _Tien-chi_ on three sides." Tien-chi is one of the names of Lake Kwen-ming, on the sh.o.r.e of which is built Yun-nan fu.--H.C.]

Returning now to the Karajang of the Mongols, or Carajan, as Polo writes it, we shall find that the latter distinguishes this great province, which formerly, he says, included seven kingdoms, into two Mongol Governments, the seat of one being at Yachi, which we have seen to be Yun-nan fu, and that of the other at a city to which he gives the name of the Province, and which we shall find to be the existing Ta-li fu. Great confusion has been created in most of the editions by a distinction in the form of the name as applied to these two governments. Thus Ramusio prints the province under Yachi as _Carajan_, and that under Ta-li as _Carazan_, whilst Marsden, following out his system for the conversion of Ramusio's orthography, makes the former _Karaian_ and the latter _Karazan_. Pauthier prints _Caraian_ all through, a fact so far valuable as showing that his texts make no distinction between the names of the two governments, but the form impedes the recognition of the old Mongol nomenclature. I have no doubt that the name all through should be read _Carajan_, and on this I have acted. In the Geog. Text we find the name given at the end of ch.

xlvii. _Caragian_, in ch. xlviii. as _Carajan_, in ch. xlix. as _Caraian_, thus just reversing the distinction made by Marsden. The Crusca has _Charagia(n)_ all through.

The name then was _Kara-jang_, in which the first element was the Mongol or Turki _Kara_, "Black." For we find in another pa.s.sage of Ras.h.i.+d the following information:[3]--"To the south-west of Cathay is the country called by the Chinese _Dailiu_ or 'Great Realm,' and by the Mongols _Karajang_, in the language of India and Kashmir _Kandar_, and by us _Kandahar_. This country, which is of vast extent, is bounded on one side by Tibet and Tangut, and on others by Mongolia, Cathay, and the country of the Gold-Teeth. The King of Karajang uses the t.i.tle of _Mahara_, i.e.

Great King. The capital is called Yachi, and there the Council of Administration is established. Among the inhabitants of this country some are black, and others are white; these latter are called by the Mongols _Chaghan-Jang_ ('White Jang')." _Jang_ has not been explained; but probably it may have been a Tibetan term adopted by the Mongols, and the colours may have applied to their clothing. The dominant race at the Mongol invasion seems to have been Shans;[4] and black jackets are the characteristic dress of the Shans whom one sees in Burma in modern times.

The Kara-jang and Chaghan-jang appear to correspond also to the _U-man_ and _Pe-man_, or Black Barbarians and White Barbarians, who are mentioned by Chinese authorities as conquered by the Mongols. It would seem from one of Pauthier's Chinese quotations (p. 388), that the Chaghan-jang were found in the vicinity of Li-kiang fu. (_D'Ohsson_, II. 317; _J. R. Geog.

Soc._ III. 294.) [Dr. Bretschneider (_Med. Res._ I. p. 184) says that in the description of Yun-nan, in the _Yuen-s.h.i.+_, "_Cara-jang_ and _Chagan-jang_ are rendered by _Wu-man_ and _Po-man_ (Black and White Barbarians). But in the biographies of _Djao-a-k'o-p'an_, _A-r-szelan_ (_Yuen-s.h.i.+_, ch. cxxiii.), and others, these tribes are mentioned under the names of _Ha-la-djang_ and _Ch'a-han-djang_, as the Mongols used to call them; and in the biography of _Wu-liang-ho t'ai_. [Uriang kadai], the conqueror of Yun-nan, it is stated that the capital of the Black Barbarians was called _Yach'i_. It is described there as a city surrounded by lakes from three sides."--H.C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Saracen of Carajan, being a portrait of a Mahomedan Mullah in Western Yun-nan. (From Garnier's Work.)

"Les sunt des plosors maineres, car il hi a jens qe aorent Maomet." ]

Regarding Ras.h.i.+duddin's application of the name _Kandahar_ or Gandhara to Yun-nan, and curious points connected therewith, I must refer to a paper of mine in the _J.R.A.Society_ (N.S. IV. 356). But I may mention that in the ecclesiastical translation of the cla.s.sical localities of Indian Buddhism to Indo-China, which is current in Burma, Yun-nan represents Gandhara,[5] and is still so styled in state doc.u.ments (_Gandalarit_).

What has been said of the supposed name _Caraian_ disposes, I trust, of the fancies which have connected the origin of the _Karens_ of Burma with it. More groundless still is M. Pauthier's deduction of the _Talains_ of Pegu (as the Burmese call them) from the people of Ta-li, who fled from Kublai's invasion.

NOTE 2.--The existence of Nestorians in this remote province is very notable [see _Bonin, J. As._ XV. 1900, pp. 589-590.--H.C.] and also the early prevalence of Mahomedanism, which Ras.h.i.+duddin intimates in stronger terms. "All the inhabitants of Yachi," he says, "are Mahomedans."

This was no doubt an exaggeration, but the Mahomedans seem always to have continued to be an important body in Yun-nan up to our own day. In 1855 began their revolt against the imperial authority, which for a time resulted in the establishment of their independence in Western Yun-nan under a chief whom they called Sultan Suleiman. A proclamation in remarkably good Arabic, announcing the inauguration of his reign, appears to have been circulated to Mahomedans in foreign states, and a copy of it some years ago found its way through the Nepalese agent at L'hasa, into the hands of Colonel Ramsay, the British Resident at Katmandu.[6]

NOTE 3.--Wheat grows as low as Ava, but there also it is not used by natives for bread, only for confectionery and the like. The same is the case in Eastern China. (See ch. xxvi. note 4, and _Middle Kingdom_, II. 43.)

NOTE 4.--The word _piccoli_ is supplied, doubtfully, in lieu of an unknown symbol. If correct, then we should read "24 piccoli _each_" for this was about the equivalent of a grosso. This is the first time Polo mentions cowries, which he calls _porcellani_. This might have been rendered by the corresponding vernacular name "_Pig-sh.e.l.ls_," applied to certain sh.e.l.ls of that genus (_Cypraea_) in some parts of England. It is worthy of note that as the name _porcellana_ has been transferred from these sh.e.l.ls to China-ware, so the word _pig_ has been in Scotland applied to crockery; whether the process has been a.n.a.logous, I cannot say.

Klaproth states that Yun-nan is the only country of China in which cowries had continued in use, though in ancient times they were more generally diffused. According to him 80 cowries were equivalent to 6 _cash_, or a half-penny. About 1780 in Eastern Bengal 80 cowries were worth 3/8th of a penny, and some 40 years ago, when Prinsep compiled his tables in Calcutta (where cowries were still in use a few years ago, if they are not now), 80 cowries were worth 3/10 of a penny.

At the time of the Mahomedan conquest of Bengal, early in the 13th century, they found the currency exclusively composed of cowries, aided perhaps by bullion in large transactions, but with no coined money. In remote districts this continued to modern times. When the Hon. Robert Lindsay went as Resident and Collector to Silhet about 1778, cowries const.i.tuted nearly the whole currency of the Province. The yearly revenue amounted to 250,000 rupees, and this was entirely paid in cowries at the rate of 5120 to the rupee. It required large warehouses to contain them, and when the year's collection was complete a large fleet of boats to transport them to Dacca. Before Lindsay's time it had been the custom to _count_ the whole before embarking them! Down to 1801 the Silhet revenue was entirely collected in cowries, but by 1813, the whole was realised in specie. (_Thomas_, in _J.R.A.S._ N.S. II. 147; _Lives of the Lindsays_, III. 169, 170.)

Klaproth's statement has ceased to be correct. Lieutenant Garnier found cowries nowhere in use north of Luang Prabang; and among the Kakhyens in Western Yun nan these sh.e.l.ls are used only for ornament. [However, Mr. E.

H. Parker says (_China Review_, XXVI. p. 106) that the porcelain money still circulates in the Shan States, and that he saw it there himself.--H.C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Ca.n.a.l at Yun nan fu.]

NOTE 5.--See ch. xlvii. note 4. Martini speaks of a great brine-well to the N.E. of Yaogan (W.N.W. of the city of Yun-nan), which supplied the whole country round.

NOTE 6.--Two particulars appearing in these latter paragraphs are alluded to by Ras.h.i.+duddin in giving a brief account of the overland route from India to China, which is unfortunately very obscure: "Thence you arrive at the borders of Tibet, where they _eat raw meat_ and wors.h.i.+p images, _and have no shame respecting their wives_." (Elliot, I. p. 73.)

[1] Baber writes (p. 107): "The river is never called locally by any other name than _Kin-ke_ or 'Gold River.'[A] The term _Kin-sha-Kiang_ should in strictness be confined to the Tibetan course of the stream; as applied to other parts it is a mere book name. There is no great objection to its adoption, except that it is unintelligible to the inhabitants of the banks, and is liable to mislead travellers in search of indigenous information, but at any rate it should not be supposed to asperse Marco Polo's accuracy. _Gold River_ is the local name from the junction of the Yalung to about P'ing-shan; below P'ing-shan it is known by various designations, but the Ssu-ch'uanese naturally call it 'the River,' or, by contrast with its affluents, the 'Big River' (_Ta-ho_)." I imagine that Baber here makes a slight mistake, and that they use the name _kiang_, and not _ho_, for the river.--H.C.

[Mr. Rockhill remarks (_Land of the Lamas_, p. 196 note) that "Marco Polo speaks of the Yang-tzu as the _Brius_, and Orazio della Penna calls it _Biciu_, both words representing the Tibetan _Dre ch'u_. This last name has been frequently translated 'Cow yak River,' but this is certainly not its meaning, as cow yak is _dri-mo_, never p.r.o.nounced _dre_, and unintelligible without the suffix, _mo_. _Dre_ may mean either mule, dirty, or rice, but as I have never seen the word written, I cannot decide on any of these terms, all of which have exactly the same p.r.o.nunciation. The Mongols call it _Murus osu_, and in books this is sometimes changed to _Murui osu_, 'Tortuous river.'

The Chinese call it _Tung t'ien ho_, 'River of all Heaven.' The name _Kin-sha kiang_, 'River of Golden Sand,' is used for it from Bat'ang to Sui-fu, or thereabouts." The general name for the river is _Ta-Kiang_ (Great River), or simply _Kiang_, in contradistinction to _Ho_, for _Hw.a.n.g-Ho_ (Yellow River) in Northern China.--H.C.]

[A] Marco Polo nowhere calls the river "Gold River," the name he gives it is _Brius_.--H.Y.

[2] Baron Richthofen, who has travelled hundreds of miles in his footsteps, considers his allowance of time to be generally from 1/4 to 1/9 greater than that now usual.

[3] See _Quatremere's Ras.h.i.+duddin_, pp. lx.x.xvi.-xcvi. My quotation is made up from _two_ citations by Quatremere, one from his text of Ras.h.i.+duddin, and the other from the History of Benakeli, which Quatremere shows to have been drawn from Ras.h.i.+duddin, whilst it contains some particulars not existing in his own text of that author.

[4] The t.i.tle _Chao_ in _Nan-Chao_ (infra, p. 79) is said by a Chinese author (Pauthier, p. 391) to signify _King_ in the language of those barbarians. This is evidently the _Chao_ which forms an essential part of the t.i.tle of all Siamese and Shan princes.

[Regarding the word _Nan-Chao_, Mr. Parker (_China Review_, XX. p.

339) writes "In the barbarian tongue 'prince is _Chao_," says the Chinese author; and there were six _Chao_, of which the _Nan_ or Southern was the leading power. Hence the name Nan-Chao ... it is hardly necessary for me to say that _chao_ or _kyiao_ is still the Shan-Siamese word for 'prince.' Pallegoix (_Dict._ p. 85) has _Chao_, Princeps, rex.--H.C.]

[5] _Gandhara_, Arabice _Kandahar_, is properly the country about Peshawar, _Gandaritis_ of Strabo.

[6] This is printed almost in full in the French _Voyage d'Exploration_, I. 564.