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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

876   384. YARCAN

son succeeded him in Yang-chou (cf. T'u Chi, 76, 17 a). So there can no longer be any doubt about Rasid's fifth province being Yang-chou.

In another passage (Bl, ii, 370-372), Raid says that Toqan, Qubilai's eleventh son, had been granted, in « Manzi otherwise called Maéin », a very great town called ,C.,.. Tingju (?). It is practically certain that, in this case also, Yang-chou is meant; but the double transcription « Yangju » and « Jingju » is disconcerting. BLOCHET, who thinks of Yang-chou in the second case only, says (Bl, II, 372; App. 39) that « Jingju » finds a parallel in Polo's form « Janguy (= Djandgéou) »; but Polo's form is « Yangiu », with initial y- and not }-. Even admitting that Rasid, borrowing from two different sources, may have used two spellings for Yang-chou, I doubt the accuracy of the reading « Jingju ».

Yang-chou appears in Odoric under spellings which seem to represent « Iançai », but Odoric's proper names are often corrupt. Odoric lays stress upon the revenue which the lord of the city derived from salt. That lord was probably Toq-buqa (Toyan's second son), who died in the beginning of 1326.

As to Polo's tenure of office at Yang-chou, cf. TP, 1928, 164-168, and see « Singiu », where I suggest that it was very likely an office of the salt administration. The lists of officials in the Yang-chou fu-chip contain no name or nationality which may at all suggest that Polo is meant. MOULE (Vol. I, 316) has called attention to the curious absence of all mention of Polo's office at Yang-chou from the group Z, V, L.

The place meant is of course .,.;f jl, Yarkand. Fra Mauro gives « Ierchà » ( = « Ierchan »), and « Ierchan » (duplicated), erroneously understood as Cäréän (see « Ciarcian ») in HALLBERG, 473. After Polo, the first European mention of Yarkand occurs at the beginning of the 17th cent. in Bento de GoES's notes as « edited » by Ricci, in the form « Hiarcàn » (cf. TACCHI-VENTURI, Opere storiche del P. Matteo Ricci, i, 536); the initial h- is confirmed by the independent summary of a letter written by GOES from Yarkand on February 2, 1604 (« Hircande », in Du JARRIC's, Histoire des choses les plus mémorables, III, 148). At the beginning of the 18th cent., RENAT gives « Erken »; UNKOVSKIÏ, « Erkan »; STRAHLENBERG, « Ierken »; the Kalmuk form, as shown by the Kalmuk map brought home by RENAT, was « Yärkän » or perhaps « Yärkin » (cf. BADDELEY, Russia, Mongolia, China, CLxxI, cLxxxiv, cxcviii; Sven HEDIN, Southern Tibet, i, 160; vii, 74). More recent