The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 89 : The deserted site, overgrown with rank weeds and gra.s.s, stands but little above the m

The deserted site, overgrown with rank weeds and gra.s.s, stands but little above the marshy bed of the river, which here preserves the name of Shang- tu, and about a mile from its north or left bank. The walls, of earth faced with brick and unhewn stone, still stand, forming, as in the Tartar city of Peking, a double _enceinte_, of which the inner line no doubt represents the area of the "Marble Palace" of which Polo speaks. This forms a square of about 2 _li_ (2/3 of a mile) to the side, and has three gates--south, east, and west, of which the southern one still stands intact, a perfect arch, 20 ft. high and 12 ft. wide. The outer wall forms a square of 4 _li_ (1-1/3 mile) to the side, and has six gates. The foundations of temples and palace-buildings can be traced, and both enclosures are abundantly strewn with blocks of marble and fragments of lions, dragons, and other sculptures, testifying to the former existence of a flouris.h.i.+ng city, but exhibiting now scarcely one stone upon another.

A broken memorial tablet was found, half buried in the ground, within the north-east angle of the outer rampart, bearing an inscription in an antique form of the Chinese character, which proves it to have been erected by Kublai, in honour of a Buddhist ecclesiastic called Yun-Hien.

Yun-Hien was the abbot of one of those great minsters and abbeys of _Bacsis_, of which Marco speaks, and the exact date (no longer visible) of the monument was equivalent to A.D. 1288.[2]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Heading In the Old Chinese Seal-Character, of an INSCRIPTION on a Memorial raised by KuBLaI-KAAN to a Buddhist Ecclesiastic in the vicinity of his SUMMER-PALACE at SHANG-TU in Mongolia. Reduced from a facsimile obtained on the spot by Dr. _S. W. Bush.e.l.l_, 1872. (About one- Forth the Length and Breadth of Original.)]

This city occupies the south-east angle of a more extensive enclosure, bounded by what is now a gra.s.sy mound, and embracing, on Dr. Bush.e.l.l's estimate, about 5 square miles. Further knowledge may explain the discrepancy from Marco's dimension, but this must be the park of which he speaks.[3] The woods and fountains have disappeared, like the temples and palaces; all is dreary and desolate, though still abounding in the game which was one of Kublai's attractions to the spot. A small monastery, occupied by six or seven wretched Lamas, is the only building that remains in the vicinity. The river Shangtu, which lower down becomes the Lan [or Loan]-Ho, was formerly navigated from the sea up to this place by flat grain-boats.

[Mgr. de Harlez gave in the _T'oung Pao_ (x. p. 73) an inscription in _Chuen_ character on a _stele_ found in the ruins of Shangtu, and built by an officer with the permission of the Emperor; it is probably a token of imperial favour; the inscription means: _Great Longevity_.--H. C.]

In the wail which Sanang Setzen, the poetical historian of the Mongols, puts, perhaps with some traditional basis, into the mouth of Toghon Temur, the last of the Chinghizide Dynasty in China, when driven from his throne, the changes are rung on the lost glories of his capital _Datu_ (see infra, Book II. ch. xi.) and his summer palace _Shangtu_; thus (I translate from Schott's amended German rendering of the Mongol):

"My vast and n.o.ble Capital, My Datu, My splendidly adorned!

And Thou my cool and delicious Summer-seat, my Shangtu-Keibung!

Ye, also, yellow plains of Shangtu, Delight of my G.o.dlike Sires!

I suffered myself to drop into dreams,--and lo! my Empire was gone!

Ah Thou my Datu, built of the nine precious substances!

Ah my Shangtu-Keibung, Union of all perfections!

Ah my Fame! Ah my Glory, as Khagan and Lord of the Earth!

When I used to awake betimes and look forth, how the breezes blew loaded with fragrance!

And turn which way I would all was glorious perfection of beauty!

Alas for my ill.u.s.trious name as the Sovereign of the World!

Alas for my Datu, seat of Sanct.i.ty, Glorious work of the Immortal KuBLaI!

All, all is rent from me!"

It was, in 1797, whilst reading this pa.s.sage of Marco's narrative in old Purchas that Coleridge fell asleep, and dreamt the dream of Kublai's Paradise, beginning:

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred River, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery."

It would be a singular coincidence in relation to this poem were Klaproth's reading correct of a pa.s.sage in Ras.h.i.+duddin which he renders as saying that the palace at Kaiminfu was "called Langtin, and was built after a plan that Kublai had seen in a dream, and had retained in his memory." But I suspect D'Ohsson's reading is more accurate, which runs: "Kublai caused a Palace to be built for him east of Kaipingfu, called Lengten; _but he abandoned it in consequence of a dream._" For we see from Sanang Setzen that the Palaces of Lengten and Kaiming or Shangtu were distinct; "Between the year of the Rat (1264), when Kublai was fifty years old, and the year of the Sheep (1271), in the s.p.a.ce of eight years, he built four great cities, viz. for Summer Residence SHANGTU KEIBUNG Kurdu Balgasun, for Winter Residence Yeke DATU Khotan, and on the shady side of the Altai (see ch. li. note 3, supra) Arulun TSAGHAN BALGASUN, and Erchugin LANGTING Balgasun." A valuable letter from Dr. Bush.e.l.l enables me now to indicate the position of Langtin: "The district through which the river flows eastward from Shangtu is known to the Mongolians of the present day by the name of _Lang-tirh_ (_Lang-ting'rh_).... The ruins of the city are marked on a Chinese map in my possession Pai-dseng-tzu, i.e.

'White City,' implying that it was formerly an Imperial residence. The remains of the wall are 7 or 8 _li_ in diameter, of stone, and situated about 40 _li_ north-north-west from Dolon-nor."

(_Gerbillon_ in _Astley_, IV. 701-716; Klaproth, in _J. As._ ser. II. tom.

xi. 345-350; _Schott, Die letzten Jahre der Mongolenherrschaft in China_ (Berl. Acad. d. Wissensch. 1850, pp. 502-503); _Huc's Tartary_, etc., p.

seqq.; _Cathay_, 134, 261; _S. Setzen_, p. 115; _Dr. S. W. Bush.e.l.l, Journey outside the Great Wall_, in _J. R. G. S._ for 1874, and MS.

notes.)

One of the pavilions of the celebrated Yuen-ming-Yuen may give some idea of the probable style, though not of the scale, of Kublai's Summer Palace.

Hiuen Tsang's account of the elaborate and fantastic ornamentation of the famous Indian monasteries at Nalanda in Bahar, where Mr. Broadley has lately made such remarkable discoveries, seems to indicate that these fantasies of Burmese and Chinese architecture may have had a direct origin in India, at a time when timber was still a princ.i.p.al material of construction there: "The pavilions had pillars adorned with dragons, and posts that glowed with all the colours of the rainbow, sculptured frets, columns set with jade, richly chiselled and lackered, with bal.u.s.trades of vermilion, and carved open work. The lintels of the doors were tastefully ornamented, and the roofs covered with s.h.i.+ning tiles, the splendours of which were multiplied by mutual reflection and from moment to moment took a thousand forms." (_Vie et Voyages_, 157.)

NOTE 3.--[Rubruck says, (_Rockhill_, p. 248): "I saw also the envoy of a certain Soldan of India, who had brought eight leopards and ten _greyhounds_, taught to sit on horses' backs, as leopards sit."--H. C.]

NOTE 4.--Ramusio's is here so much more lucid than the other texts, that I have adhered mainly to his account of the building. The roof described is of a kind in use in the Indian Archipelago, and in some other parts of Transgangetic India, in which the semi-cylinders of bamboo are laid just like Roman tiles.

Ras.h.i.+duddin gives a curious account of the way in which the foundations of the terrace on which this palace stood were erected in a lake. He says, too, in accord with Polo: "Inside the city itself a second palace was built, about a bowshot from the first: but the Kaan generally takes up his residence in the palace outside the town," i.e., as I imagine, in Marco's Cane Palace. (_Cathay_, pp. 261-262.)

["_The Palace of canes_ is probably the Palm Hall, _Tsung tien_, alias _Tsung mao tien_, of the Chinese authors, which was situated in the western palace garden of Shangtu. Mention is made also in the _Altan Tobchi_ of a cane tent in Shangtu." (_Palladius_, p. 27.)--H. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pavilion at Yuen-ming-Yuen.]

Marco might well say of the bamboo that "it serves also a great variety of other purposes." An intelligent native of Arakan who accompanied me in wanderings on duty in the forests of the Burmese frontier in the beginning of 1853, and who used to ask many questions about Europe, seemed able to apprehend almost everything except the possibility of existence in a country without bamboos! "When I speak of bamboo huts, I mean to say that posts and walls, wall-plates and rafters, floor and thatch, and the withes that bind them, are all of bamboo. In fact, it might almost be said that among the Indo-Chinese nations the staff of life is _a bamboo!_ Scaffolding and ladders, landing-jetties, fis.h.i.+ng apparatus, irrigation wheels and scoops, oars, masts, and yards [and in China, sails, cables, and caulking, asparagus, medicine, and works of fantastic art], spears and arrows, hats and helmets, bow, bowstring and quiver, oil-cans, water-stoups and cooking-pots, pipe-sticks [tinder and means of producing fire], conduits, clothes-boxes, p.a.w.n-boxes, dinner-trays, pickles, preserves, and melodious musical instruments, torches, footb.a.l.l.s, cordage, bellows, mats, paper; these are but a few of the articles that are made from the bamboo;" and in China, to sum up the whole, as Barrow observes, it maintains order throughout the Empire! (_Ava Mission_, p. 153; and see also _Wallace, Ind. Arch._ I. 120 seqq.)

NOTE 5.--"The Emperor ... began this year (1264) to depart from Yenking (Peking) in the second or third month for Shangtu, not returning until the eighth month. Every year he made this pa.s.sage, and all the Mongol emperors who succeeded him followed his example." (_Gaubil_, p. 144.)

["The Khans usually resorted to Shangtu in the 4th moon and returned to Peking in the 9th. On the 7th day of the 7th moon there were libations performed in honour of the ancestors; a shaman, his face to the north, uttered in a loud voice the names of Chingiz Khan and of other deceased Khans, and poured mare's milk on the ground. The propitious day for the return journey to Peking was also appointed then." (_Palladius_, p. 26.)--H. C.]

NOTE 6.--White horses were presented in homage to the Kaan on New Year's Day (_the White Feast_), as we shall see below. (Bk. II. ch. xv.) Odoric also mentions this practice; and, according to Huc, the Mongol chiefs continued it at least to the time of the Emperor K'ang-hi. Indeed Timkowski speaks of annual tributes of white camels and white horses from the Khans of the Kalkas and other Mongol dignitaries, in the present century. (_Huc's Tartary_, etc.; _Tim._ II. 33.)

By the HORIAD are no doubt intended the UIRAD or OIRAD, a name usually interpreted as signifying the "Closely Allied," or Confederates; but Vambery explains it as (Turki) _Oyurat_, "Grey horse," to which the statement in our text appears to lend colour. They were not of the tribes properly called Mongol, but after their submission to Chinghiz they remained closely attached to him. In Chinghiz's victory over Aung-Khan, as related by S. Setzen, we find Turulji Tais.h.i.+, the son of the chief of the Oirad, one of Chinghiz's three chief captains; perhaps that is the victory alluded to. The seats of the Oirad appear to have been about the head waters of the Kem, or Upper Yenisei.

In A.D. 1295 there took place a curious desertion from the service of Ghazan Khan of Persia of a vast corps of the Oirad, said to amount to 18,000 _tents_. They made their way to Damascus, where they were well received by the Mameluke Sultan. But their heathenish practices gave dire offence to the Faithful. They were settled in the _Sahil_, or coast districts of Palestine. Many died speedily; the rest embraced Islam, spread over the country, and gradually became absorbed in the general population. Their sons and daughters were greatly admired for their beauty. (_S. Setz._ p. 87; _Erdmann_, 187; _Pallas, Samml._ I. 5 seqq.; _Makrizi_, III. 29; _Bretschneider, Med. Res._ II. p. 159 seqq.)

[With reference to Yule's conjecture, I may quote Palladius (l.c. p. 27): "It is, however, strange that the Oirats alone enjoyed the privilege described by Marco Polo; for the highest position at the Mongol Khan's court belonged to the Kunkrat tribe, out of which the Khans used to choose their first wives, who were called Empresses of the first _ordo_."--H. C.]

NOTE 7.--Rubruquis a.s.signs such a festival to the month of May: "On the 9th day of the May Moon they collect all the white mares of their herds and consecrate them. The Christian priests also must then a.s.semble with their thuribles. They then sprinkle new cosmos (_k.u.miz_) on the ground, and make a great feast that day, for according to their calendar, it is their time of first drinking new cosmos, just as we reckon of our new wine at the feast of St. Bartholomew (24th August), or that of St. Sixtus (6th August), or of our fruit on the feast of St. James and St. Christopher"

(25th July). [With reference to this feast, Mr. Rockhill gives (_Rubruck_, p. 241, note) extracts from _Pallas, Voyages_, IV. 579, and _Professor Radloff, Aus Siberien_, I. 378.--H. C.] The Yakuts also hold such a festival in June or July, when the mares foal, and immense wooden goblets of k.u.miz are emptied on that occasion. They also pour out k.u.miz for the Spirits to the four quarters of heaven.

The following pa.s.sage occurs in the narrative of the Journey of Chang Te-hui, a Chinese teacher, who was summoned to visit the camp of Kublai in Mongolia, some twelve years before that Prince ascended the throne of the Kaans:[4]

"On the 9th day of the 9th Moon (October), the Prince, having called his subjects before his chief tent, performed the libation of the milk of a white mare. This was the customary sacrifice at that time. The vessels used were made of birch-bark, not ornamented with either silver or gold.

Such here is the respect for simplicity....

"At the last day of the year the Mongols suddenly changed their camping-ground to another place, for the mutual congratulation on the 1st Moon. Then there was every day feasting before the tents for the lower ranks. Beginning with the Prince, all dressed themselves in white fur clothing....[5]

"On the 9th day of the 4th Moon (May) the Prince again collected his va.s.sals before the chief tent for the libation of the milk of a white mare. This sacrifice is performed twice a year."

It has been seen (p. 308) that Rubruquis also names the 9th day of the May moon as that of the consecration of the white mares. The autumn libation is described by Polo as performed on the 28th day of the August moon, probably because it was unsuited to the circ.u.mstances of the Court at Cambaluc, where the Kaan was during October, and the day named was the last of his annual stay in the Mongolian uplands.

Baber tells that among the ceremonies of a Mongol Review the Khan and his staff took k.u.miz and sprinkled it towards the standards. An Armenian author of the Mongol era says that it was the custom of the Tartars, before drinking, to sprinkle drink towards heaven, and towards the four quarters. Mr. Atkinson notices the same practice among the Kirghiz: and I found the like in old days among the Kasias of the eastern frontier of Bengal.

The time of year a.s.signed by Polo for the ceremony implies some change.

Perhaps it had been made to coincide with the Festival of Water Consecration of the Lamas, with which the time named in the text seems to correspond. On that occasion the Lamas go in procession to the rivers and lakes and consecrate them by benediction and by casting in offerings, attended by much popular festivity.

Rubruquis seems to intimate that the Nestorian priests were employed to consecrate the white mares by incensing them. In the rear of Lord Canning's camp in India I once came upon the party of his _Shutr Suwars_, or dromedary-express riders, busily engaged in incensing with frankincense the whole of the dromedaries, which were kneeling in a circle. I could get no light on the practice, but it was very probably a relic of the old Mongol custom. (_Rubr._ 363; _Erman_, II. 397; _Billings' Journey_, Fr.

Tr. I. 217; _Baber_, 103; _J. As._ ser. V. tom. xi. p. 249; _Atk. Amoor_, p. 47; _J. A. S. B._ XIII. 628; _Koeppen_, II. 313.)

NOTE 8.--The practice of weather-conjuring was in great vogue among the Mongols, and is often alluded to in their history.

The operation was performed by means of a stone of magical virtues, called _Yadah_ or _Jadah-Tash_, which was placed in or hung over a basin of water with sundry ceremonies. The possession of such a stone is ascribed by the early Arab traveller Ibn Mohalhal to the _Kimak_, a great tribe of the Turks. In the war raised against Chinghiz and Aung Khan, when still allies, by a great confederation of the Naiman and other tribes in 1202, we are told that Sengun, the son of Aung Khan, when sent to meet the enemy, caused them to be enchanted, so that all their attempted movements against him were defeated by snow and mist. The fog and darkness were indeed so dense that many men and horses fell over precipices, and many also perished with cold. In another account of (apparently) the same matter, given by Mir-Khond, the conjuring is set on foot by the _Yadachi_ of Buyruk Khan, Prince of the Naiman, but the mischief all rebounds on the conjurer's own side.

In Tului's invasion of Honan in 1231-1232, Ras.h.i.+duddin describes him, when in difficulty, as using the _Jadah_ stone with success.

Timur, in his Memoirs, speaks of the Jets using incantations to produce heavy rains which hindered his cavalry from acting against them. A _Yadachi_ was captured, and when his head had been taken off the storm ceased.

Baber speaks of one of his early friends, Khwaja Ka Mulai, as excelling in falconry and acquainted with _Yadagari_ or the art of bringing on rain and snow by means of enchantment. When the Russians besieged Kazan in 1552 they suffered much from the constant heavy rains, and this annoyance was universally ascribed to the arts of the Tartar Queen, who was celebrated as an enchantress. Shah Abbas believed he had learned the Tartar secret, and put much confidence in it. (_P. Delia V._ I. 869.)