IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
264 CONTEMPORARY NOTICES OF CATHAY
posed of four Chingsang or great officers, and of four Fanchân, taken from the nations of the Tajiks, Cathayans, Ighûrs, and Ark6un.2 These latter act as inspectors on
behalf of the council.
The whole gradation of dignitaries and officers of state is
as follows :-
The Chings6ng or Wazirs.
The great officers of the army, who make their reports to the Chings6ng, however exalted their rank may be.
The Fanchân or associated members of the Council of State, taken from the different nations specified.
Yer Jing or first class Ting.
Ur Jing or second class Jing.
Sam Jing or third class Jing .3
Semi (?)
Sisan Baljûn. These are book-keepers and of inferior consideration.
9
In the time of Kublai Kaan the Chings6ng chosen from among the princes were Haitun Noyân, Uchaar, 1jai Tar-khan, and Dâshiman. Haitun Noyan is now no more, but the others remain in office as the Chings6ng of Timur Kaân.
the Chinese original Ping-chang. But this is arbitrary, and we find in D'Ohsson the real form of the word as used by Rashid, viz. Fanchccn, which differs only by dots from Klaproth's Kabjan. It is also written Panch,n by Wassaf, and by Ssanang Setzen the Mongol historian, not Minjân but Bingjing. (See D' Ohsson, ii, 530, 636-7.)
According to Pauthier's statement the normal composition of the Council of State was of two Chingsiang or chief ministers ; four Pingchang, ministers of the second degree ; four minister assessors, called Yeu-ching and Tso-thing; and two reporting councilors, called Thsangching, the whole number making up the twelve barons of Marco Polo.
1 This is a word by which the Mongols designated the Nestorian Christ tians with whom they had relations. Its origin is very obscure, but from what Marco Polo says of the term (Argon) as elucidated in a learned and interesting note by Pauthier, it would seem to have meant properly a
half-breed.
2
These three ranks correspond to the Yeu-Ching, Tso-ching, and
Thsang-ching of the Chinese records (Pauthier).
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