IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
| 20 | 13. ALAINS |
dynasty. Marignolli (Wy, 526) gives an estimate of 30,000 Mans in China. The « Right Asut Guard » had been created in 1272; the « Left Asut Guard », in 1310 (YS, 86, 6 b-7 a;
99, 3 a). Towards the end of the Mongol dynasty, the itt Kêng-shên wai-shih,
or « Unofficial history of Shun-ti » (ed. Hai-shan-hsien-kuan ts'ung-shu, I, 22; ed. Pao-yent'ang pi-chi, I, 30-31), speaks of the revolt of the « Red Army » in 1367 and of 6,000 Asut who were sent to quell it; the author adds : « The Asut are Green-eyed Moslems (a 04 l [u] lü-cuing Hui-hui). »
Polo speaks of a massacre of Alan troops when Bayan took Ch'ang-chou in 1275, and T'u Chi (160, 17a) has said that Polo's information was a valuable addition to the Chinese texts on the history of Ch'ang-chou; PAUTHIER (Pa, 486) has explained, as a retaliation for that massacre, the savage treatment the inhabitants of Ch'ang-chou suffered at the hands of Bayan when the city was stormed. But I have already remarked in TP, 1914, 641-642, that Polo's memory must here have failed him. The massacre of the Alans took place not at Ch'ang-chou, south of the
Yang-tzû, but north of the river, at tin.. Chên-ch'ao, the modern hsien of € ` Ch'ao (formerly
of Lü-chou-fu, and now of the tao of An-ch'ing, Anhui). My view has been accepted in Y, III,
96; Y', iv, 271; Mo, 140-141; Ch, III, 69; RR, 415; B', 441. But, in my paper of 1914,
I simply stated the bare facts, without mentioning the sources, and my theory would seem to receive a fatal blow from a passage of the pên-chi of Qubilai in T'u Chi, 7, 31 a-b, where we read : « [In 1275,] ... the fifth moon, ... on the day jen-ch'ên (June 17, 1275), the military governor of P'ing-chiang, Liu Shih-yung, the tien-shuai Chang Yen, the military governor Wang An-chieh, [all officials] of the Sung, assailed and put to death the Asut (A-su) garrison of Ch'angchou and chose Yao Yin to conduct the affairs of [Ch'ang-]chou, which came again under the rule of the Sung. » But T'u Chi's text is a combination of YS, 8, 10 a (pên-chi of Qubilai) and of YS, 127, 4 b (biography of Bayan), with one important exception : the two texts do not name the Asut. We have seen that T'u Chi considered Polo's text as providing new material for the history of Ch'ang-chou; it is perfectly clear that he has added the Asut in the present passage of the pên-chi on the sole authority of Marco Polo; in fact, he says so himself in a note to his biography of Bayan (90, 6 b).
Bayan's biography (YS, 127, 4 b) and the P'ing Sung lu (ed. Shou-shan-ko ts'ung-shu 2, 2, 2 b-3 b; there are here minor discrepancies of dates and names between the YS and the Sung shih; cf. T'u Chi, 90, 6 b) confirm that Ch'ang-chou had first submitted (on April 8, 1275, according to Sung shih, 47, 4 a), then revolted again (on June 17, according to YS, but on June 2, in Sung shih, 47, 5 a); the Sung officers held the city again for half a year. On the day jen-wu of the 11th moon (December 4, 1275), Bayan arrived himself outside Ch'ang-chou, which the Mongols had surrounded with a wooden palisade (the eeipär of QUATREMERE, Hist. des Mongols, 336-337) and a large and deep moat. Twice Bayan tried to prevail upon the inhabitants of the city to surrender, pledging himself to spare the inhabitants, and then threatening them with wholesale
slaughter if they disregarded his offer. No answer came. Finally, on the day chia-shên
(December 6, 1275; the date of December 6, 1275, is also given in Sung shih, 47, 7 b), the infuriated general ordered the assault, and was the first to plant his red flag on top of the city wall; the city was sacked and the inhabitants butchered.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.