Ts'ang-chou, and a little to the south of Ch'ing-hsien, also on the Grand Canal, but on its western side. YULE (Y, I, 133) approved Of PAUTHIER'S suggestion; CORDIER added that, according to PLAYFAIR, Ch'ang-lu had been the name of Ts'ang-chou during the T'ang and Chin dynasties; hence the equivalence of « Cianglu » with Ts'ang-chou also in RR, 417, and B', 441. CHARIGNON, looking absurdly for « Cianglu » in Shun-tê-fu in southern Ho-pei, has seen Ch'ang-lu in « Ciangli », which is in fact the modern Tê-chou (Tê-hsien of the Republican geography).
The equivalence of « Cianglu » and Ch'ang-lu is not open to doubt; the notation of Ch. -ng by -ng and not -n, although exceptional in Polo, has a counterpart in «*Ciangli» __ Chiang-lin. But a greater precision is here necessary. A hsien of Ch'ang-lu existed from the Northern Chou to the beginning of the Sung; its seat corresponded to the modern Ts'ang-chou (now Ts'ang-hsien), on the Grand Canal; but this is probably not Polo's « Cianglu ». The name in Polo applies to the 11 chên of Ch'ang-lu, more to the north, and 70 li south of the present Ch'ing-hsien (« 17 » li is a slip in Pa, 438). When the Commissioners of 1276 reach Ch'ang-lu-chên, they note (TP, 1915, 401) that the natives call it « Hsiao-Yen-ching », « Little Peking », as it is a prosperous place, producing salt, and the seat of a Salt Commissioner. Polo says in the same way that salt is produced in immense quantities in « Cianglu » and in the surrounding district; and he then describes the process of its manufacture. Ch'ang-lu (but not Ts'ang-chou) was in the past the residence of the Director-General of Canal Transport, and he had under his jurisdiction 24 offices of the gabelle, of which 12 were on the Ts'ang-chou territory and in Shan-tung; when, later, the Directorate of Canal Transport was transferred to Tientsin, it went on using the name of Ch'anglu, in spite of its new location (cf. Ta-Ch'ing i-t'ung chih, 17, 1 a, 4 b, 5 a; Ti-ming to tz'ù-tien,
561; and, above all, the paper by ß tin CH'ÉN Chien-ju, 4113 f4 Ch'ang-lu tu-chuan
k'ao [« Researches on the Directorate General of Ch'ang-lu »], in i Yü kung, IV, 12 [February
1936], 7-9).
So I take it for granted that Polo's « Cacanfu » is Ho-chien-fu, that his « Cianglu » is Ch'anglu-chên, and his «Ciangli» is Chiang-ling, now Tê-hsien. But there is here a serious difficulty. Ho-chien-fu is in a direct line with and on the main road between Cho-chou and Tê-hsien, but Ch'ang-lu-chên (and even Ts'ang-chou) is almost due east of Ho-chien-fu and quite out of the way. It might perhaps be supposed that Polo, with the Lady « Cocacin » and the Persian envoys, having reached Ho-chien-fu from Cho-chou, turned to the east to reach the Wei-ho at Ch'ang-lu and travelled by boat, as the Commissioners of 1276 had done in the opposite direction, from Ch'ang-lu to Tê-hsien. But that does not seem very likely. Officials, travelling by postal relays, took the one road or the other; they would not combine both. From Tê-hsien, the Commissioners of 1276 had gone up by boat to Ch'ang-lu-chên, but continued on, by boat too, until they reached Yang-ts'un (between Tientsin and Ho-hsi-wu), to arrive finally at Peking from the south-east. I propose the following explanation. Polo went more than once along the road from the Peking region to Yang-chou or east of Yang-chou on the Yang-tzû, as for instance when he was appointed to some office at Yang-chou, or when he was sent to the Indies. Once at least, he started from Cho-chou, and went on direct by Ho-chien-fu, Tê-hsien, Tung-p'ing-fu; this was very likely the case the last time, when he accompanied the Lady « Cocacin » and her escort. But on another occasion he had followed the eastern road, partly by water, which had been the one taken in 1276
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