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0134 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.2
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 134 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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730   234. GAMPU

supposes a Mongol pronunciation Gändü (altered from Chiung-tu, perhaps through a Qara-Jang intermediary), and this supports the « Gaindu » of F, and the « Ghindu » of Z, against RAMusIO's « Caindu ».

Ragidu-'d-Din may have known the name, but it is not certain. In Bl, II, 365 and 376, we find a 3.1.:5' or 1.1;; which BLOCHET reads « Kandu » and says is identical with Polo's « Gaindu »; for him, Polo's « Gaindu » is the Burmese town « Genduh », and on II, 451, he says right away that « Kandu » « est la Birmanie ». But, in the first two cases, Raid says that this is the name of the Qara-Jang or Ta-li kingdom among the Hindus; and, as the Mss. give ).a:f Kandar, we have here only the name of Gandhara which had been wrongly transported by Hindus to )(tin-flan; Ragid leaves no doubt on this point when he says that this Kandar must not be confounded with Kandahar (moreover, cf. the correct forms in Y, III, 127). In the third case (II, 451-452), 3.ß.:f Gändü cannot mean Kandar = Ta-ii kingdom. This might be Polo's « Gaindu »; unfortunately, it is only a correction, as BLOCHET'S Mss., though they give various readings, give none with a final -u.

234. GAMPU

canfu L chanpu V gampu R

ganfu F, FB, 135, TM, VA gansu LT, VL gaufu FA

giafu TAI gufu VB samfu P

I have adopted RAMUSIO's « Gampu », supported by P, rather than « Ganfu » of F, because it agrees much better with the name which, since KLAPROTH, has been accepted as Polo's original, i. e. ff ( Kan-p'u (still pronounced Kam-p'u in the Mongol period). Kan-p'u, situated in the bay of Hang-chou, on the northern side, was used more or less as the advanced port of Hang-chou; the name has survived down to our day as that of a chên, or fortified place under the command of a tsung-ping.

In JA, 1824, p. 36-41, KLAPROTH has drawn from the great Chinese geographical compilations the main facts relating to the history of Kan-p'u. Already a small sea port in the beginning of the 4th cent., it became the seat of a maritime administration in the 8th cent., and was a centre of oversea trade during the Mongol dynasty. The Yang family of Kan-p'u, of which KLAPROTH speaks at second hand, is mentioned in YS, 23, 10 a, in 1310, and was concerned with the transport of grain by sea.

The supervision of oversea trade was in the hands of special offices called ship po-ss û, « offices of merchant sea-junks ». They had been officially created in 1277 at Ch'üan-chou (see « Çaitun »), Ch'ing-yüan (= Ningpo), Shanghai and Kan-p'u; three more were added later, at Hang-chou, Wên-chou and Kuang-tung (Canton; the form « Kuang-tung » for the town is of real interest). In 1293, fresh regulations were adopted, partly to obviate the difference in the duties levied, which