IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
MARCO POLO BOOK II.
~72
•
does not seem to be quite certain. Dr. Lockhart tells me that, according to the information he collected when living at Peking, it is not so, but was formed by the-Ming Emperors from the excavation of the existing lake on the site which the Mongol Palace had occupied. There is another mount, he adds, adjoining the east shore of the lake, which must be of older date even than Kúblái, for a Dagoba standing on it
is ascribed to the Kizz.
[The " Green Mount " was an island called X'izin-lzua at the time of the Kin ; I271 it received the name of Wan-sui span; it is about loo feet in height, and is the only hill mentioned by Chinese writers of the Mongol time who refer to the palace grounds. It is not the present King-span, north of the palace, called also Wán-sztishan under the Ming, and now the lllei-shay, of more recent formation. " I have no doubt," says Bretschneider (l'erizt;r, 1. c. J5), "that Marco Polo's handsome palace on the top of the Green Mount is the same as the Kziang-Izan lien" of the Ch'zie rezzg lit. It was a hall in which there was a jar of black jade, big enough to hold more than 30. piculs of wine ; this jade had white veins, and in accordance with these veins, fish and animals have been carved on the jar. (Ibid. 35.) " The Ku rung- i lu, in describing the Wan-sui-shay, praises the beautiful shady green of the vegetation there." (ibid.
37.)—H.
[" Near the eastern end of the bridge (Kin-ao yii-tzizzg which crosses the lake) the visitor secs a circular wall, which is called yüan ch'eizg (round wall). It is about 350 paces in circuit. Within it is an imperial building Cz'eng-I,'ztan, Lien, dating from the Mongol time. From this circular enclosure, another long and beautifully executed marble bridge leads northwards, to a charming hill, covered with shady trees, and capped by a magnificent white suburga." (Bretschneid'er, p. 22.)—H. C.]
In a plate attached to next chapter, I have drawn, on a small scale, the existing cities of Peking, as compared with the Mongol and Chinese cities in the time of Kúblái. The plan of the latter has been constructed (i) from existing traces, as exhibited in the Russian Survey republished by our War Office ; (2) from information kindly afforded by Dr. Lockhart ; and (3) from Polo's description and a few slight notices by Gaubil and others. It will be seen, even on the small scale of these plans, that the general arrangement of the palace, the park, the lakes (including that in the city, which appears in Ramusio's version), the bridge, the mount, etc., in the existing Peking, very closely correspond with Polo's indications ; and I think the strong probability is that the Ming really built on the old traces, and that the lake, mount, etc., as they now stand, are substantially those of the Great Mongol, though Chinese policy or patriotism may have spread the belief that the foreign traces were obliterated. Indeed, if that belief were true, the Mongol Palace must have been very much out of the axis of the City of Kúblái, which is in the highest degree improbable. The Bulletin de la Soc. de Géo,; raphie for September 1873, contains a paper on Peking by the physician to the French Embassy there. Whatever may be the worth of the meteorological and hygienic details in that paper, I am bound to say that the historical and topographical part is so inaccurate as to be of no value.
•
;
1~
NOTE 14.—For son, read grandson. But the G. T. actually names the Emperor's. son Chingkim, whose death our traveller has himself already mentioned.
NOTE 15.—[" Marco Polo's bridge, crossing the lake from onN side to the other, must be identified with the wooden bridge mentioned in the Ch'zte keng lu. The present marble bridge spanning the lake was only built in 1392." " A marble bridge connects this island (an islet with the hall I-t'ien lien) with the Wan-sui shay. Another bridge, made of wood, 120 ch'i long and 22 broad, leads eastward to the wall of the Imperial Palace. A third bridge, a wooden draw-bridge 47o ch'i long, stretches to the west over the lake to its western border, where the palace Hing--shen; kung- [built in 1308] stands." (Bretsclzz, eider, Peking-, 36.)—H. C.]
~•
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.