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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
1
V
378
MARCO POLO BOOK II.
called the " Outer Town." It is what is called by Europeans the Chinese City. Its western wall exhibits in the base sculptured stones, which seem to have belonged to the old palace of Yenking. Some traces of Yenking still existed in Gaubil's time ; the only relic of it now pointed out is a pagoda outside of the Kwang-An-Man, or western gate of the Outer City, marked in the War Office edition of the Russian Map as " Tower." (Information from Dr. Lockhart.)
The " Great Palaces over the gates and at the corner bastions are no doubt well illustrated by the buildings which still occupy those positions. There are two such lofty buildings at each of the gates of the modern city, the outer one (shown on p. 376) forming an elevated redoubt.
NOTE 5.—The French writer cited under note 3 says of the city as it stands : " La ville est de la sorte coupée en échiquier á peu prés régulier dont les quadres circonscrits par des larges avenues sont percés eux-mêmes d'une multitude de rues et ruelles . . . qui toutes à peu prés sont orientées N. et S., E. et O. Une seule volonté a évidemment présidé á ce plan, et jamais édilité n'a eu á exécuter d'un seul coup aussi vaste entreprise."
NOTE 6.—Martini speaks of the public clock-towers in the Chinese cities, which in his time were furnished with water-clocks. A watchman struck the hour on a great gong, at the same time exhibiting the hour in large characters. The same person watched for fires, and summoned the public with his gong to aid in extinguishing them.
[The Rev. G. B. Farthing mentions (North-China Herald, 7th September, 1884) at T'ai-yuen fu the remains of an object in the bell-tower, which was, and is still known, as one of the eight wonders of this city ; it is a vessel of brass, a part of a water-clock from which water formerly used to flow down upon a drum beneath and mark off time into equal divisions.—H. C.]
The tower indicated by Marco appears still to exist. It occupies the place which I have marked as Alarm Tower in the plan of Taidu. It was erected in 1272, but probably rebuilt on the Ming occupation of the city. [" The Yuen yi t'ung chi, or ` Geography of the Mongol Empire ' records : ` In the year 1272, the bell-tower and the drum-tower were built in the middle of the capital.' A bell-tower (chunJ lou) and a drum-tower (ku-lou) exist still in Peking, in the northern part of the Tartar City. The ku-lou is the same as that built in the thirteenth century, but the bell-tower dates only from the last century. The bell-tower of the Yuen was a little to the east of the drum-tower, where now the temple Wan-ning sse stands. This temple is nearly in the middle of the position I (Bretschneider) assign to Khanbaligh." (Bretschneider, Peking, 20.)—H. C.] In the Court of the Old Observatory at Peking there is preserved, with a few other ancient instruments, which date from the Mongol era, a very elaborate water-clock, provided with four copper basins embédded in brickwork, and rising in steps one above the other. A cut of this courtyard, with its instruments and aged trees, also ascribed to the Mongol time, will be found in ch. xxxiii. (Atlas Sinensis, p. to; 11laçaillans, 149-151 ; Chine Moderne, p. 26 Tour du Monde for 1864, vol. ii. p. 34.)
NOTE 7.—" Nevertheless," adds the Ramusian, " there does exist I know not what uneasiness about the people of Cathay."
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