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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
364 159. CINGIU
159. CINGIU (c. 143)
| cinçu Z cingiu F cingui R cyngiu L | siguy FA | tyguy FB zingoi VB zingui VA, VB |
Polo, when describing the route from Pao-ying and Kao-yu to Yang-chou, goes out of his way to speak of a place « Tigiu », in which PAUTHIER, YULE, CHARIGNON, BENEDETTO, etc., have agreed to see T'ai-chou (« Tigiu » is probably altered from *Taigiu). His purpose is to speak of the sea which is, as he says, three days to the east of « Tigiu », and from which much salt is extracted; there he mentions a city « Cingiu », from which he comes back expressly to « Tigiu » and goes on to Yang-chou. Evidently, « Cingiu » is east of « Tigiu», that is to say of T'ai-chou; CHARIGNON'S argument (Ch, III, 44-45), following KINGSMILL in spite of YULE ( Y, II, 154), and according to which « Cingiu » would be I-chêng on the Yang-tzti west of Yang-chou, is a priori false. It is a pity it should have been accepted by BENEDETTO (B', 441). Nor do I think that MOULE has hit the mark in TP, 1915, 413.
T'ai-chou, being out of the way, is not mentioned of course in the diary of 1276. But we
can establish where the road to T'ai-chou branched off the main road. In Yung-lo ta-tien, 19426, 5 b, we have the list of postal relays south of Huai-an. i. e. Pao-ying, Kao-yu, and then {;ß f i Shao-po. The text adds : « Arrived here, there are two ways; one is a water-route which, going straight to the east, leads through T'ai-chou to Hai-chou; the other goes straight to the south, and passing through Yang-chou, arrives at Kua-pu [see « Caigiu »J and the Yang-tztichiang ... ». On that eastern water-route the text gives, without indication of distances, the following relays : T'ai-chou, Ju-kao, A 44.1 T'ung-chou, jib Hai[-chou].
The place called Shao-po, south of Kao-yu, was a chên, and is duly mentioned in the itinerary of 1276. Even to-day, it is from Shao-po that the canal starts and later joins the « salt-canal » north of Ju-kao (cf. Ch, III, 44); Polo is quite justified in speaking of the junks at T'ai-chou. Moreover, the text of the Yung-lo ta-tien says expressly that from Shao-po to Hai-chou, the postal relays were river relays, that is to say were covered by boat.
YULE, with his common sense, had already seen that the city where salt was manufactured was to the east of T'ai-chou; he thought very naturally of (Southern) T'ung-chou, and adopted the reading « Tingiu » instead of « Cingiu ». He may be right, but I think that another solution is preferable.
Polo speaks of three days' journey from T'ai-chou to « Cingiu », and the Yung-lo ta-tien names also three stages, the last of which is Hai-chou. Ch. h is always c (= k) in Polo, and we should expect *Caigiu; now, « Cingiu » is to *Caigiu in exactly the same state of alteration as the numerous « Tingiu » readings of « Tigiu » are to *Taigiu (= T'ai-chou). So I think that the place meant by Polo is not T'ung-chou, but another place one days' journey farther on, the
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