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on the sole support of « Zinguj » and « Cinguj » of VB ; moreover, the 1 is confirmed by Odoric, if his « Lenzin » is really the same as Polo's « Lingiu ». CHARIGNON (Ch, III, 22-23) has said that « Lingiu », for which he adopts « Ligiu », was an ancient name of the region, tj [ Li-kuo, or « Kingdom of Li ». But that kingdom never existed. There is to the north of Hsü-chou an iron mine, worked since Han times; the Sung established there a mining administration which they named Li-kuochien [1], « Direction of Li-kuo », because the mine had been named Li-kuo-yeh [ fp ], « Mine which profits the State »; under the Ch'ing, a postal relay was established there which was named Li-kuo-i [], « Postal relay of [the] Li-kuo[-mine] »; and there is now at the same place the railway-station of Li-kuo (cf. Ta-Ch'ing i-t'ung chih, 69, 7 b; Ti-ming to-tz'û tien, 358). But all this can have nothing to do with the name of « Lingiu » given to Hsü-chou by Polo.

Hsü-chou, as a name, was officially created in the 4th cent., but the district existed before

under the name of the hsien of   P'êng-ch'êng; the seat of the hsien had been transferred to
Hsü-chou already in the 3rd cent. The old name of P'êng-ch'êng reappears occasionally in official designations under the T'ang and the Sung, and it remained the name of the hsien established at the seat of the chou of Hsü (Hsü-chou), until the hsien was suppressed in 1265, and was merged into the administration of the chou itself. Hsü-chou became a lu for a few years from 1348 to 1352, but it was only in 1733 that it was raised to the status of a regular fu, which it kept until the fall of the Ch'ing ( YS, 59, 6 b; Ta-Ch'ing i-t'ung chih, 69, 1 a). The diary of the commissioners of 1276 calls the place Hsü-chou. All this still gives us no clue to Polo's name.

When the commissioners of 1276 left Hsü-chou by boat towards Chi-ning, they passed at

noon a place called   Liu-ch'êng, which MOULE, while holding it improbable, has mentioned
as a possible original of Polo's « Lingiu » (TP, 1915, 397, 416). The diarist of 1276 states that the title of «marquis of Liu» borne by Tel-fang was said to have been derived from that place. Tzû-fang is a name of Chang Liang (-f- B. C. 187 or 189), and it is under the name of « marquis of Liu» that his biography is given in ch. 55 of the Shih chi (cf. GILES, Biogr. Dict., No. 87). If such was the origin of the name used by Polo, we ought to read it « Liugin », and to adopt « Leuzin », « Leuçin », in Odoric. But I doubt very much that the name of this small place could have ever been used as a designation of Hsü-chou itself. There were evidently, in the Middle Ages, popular names which the official texts did not register. It is only from a note of the diarist of 1276 that we know the popular name « Hsin-chou » then given to Chi-ning, thus accounting for Polo's « Singiu matu » and for Odoric's « Suçumato ». The case of « Lingiu » may be analogous, and we may have here to do with a popular designation, which has not as yet been found in any text. The final element seems to be chou, and this would incline us to read « Lenziu » (or simply « Lenzi » ?), instead of « Lenzin », in Odoric. As to the first element, there are so many possibilities with ling, lin and lien, that in the absence of any collateral clue, I must abstain from theorizing.

The form « Linçifu » of Z, which does not occur in any other Polian Mss., is surprising; neither Lin-ch'ing (which I exclude) nor Hsü-chou was a fu in Polo's time or before. But that form in -fu must have been in the prototype of Z, since we can hardly fail to recognize it in the «Linzinfu» of Fra Mauro's map (cf. Zu, 36; HALLBERG, 314).

BENEDETTO has adopted « Lingin » in his edition of F (B, 132, 133), so that we find also « Linjin » in RR, 216, and « Lingin » in BI, 223. But the real reading of F, according to MOULE, is « Lingiu ».