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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
4
MARCO POLO
Boot U.
4
8
east end of the bridge, rightly called Kung Chi, popularly called Fei Ch'eng, is a monument to Ts'ung Chéng, the last of the Ming, who built it, hoping to check the advance of Li Tzu ch'eng, the great robber chief who finally proved too strong for
him."—H. C.]
The Bridge of Lu-kou is mentioned more than once in the history of the conquest
of North China by Chinghiz. It was the scene of a notable mutiny of the troops of the Kin Dynasty in 1215, which induced Chinghiz to break a treaty just concluded,
and led to his capture of Peking.
Tl-is bridge was begun, according to Klaproth, in i 189, and was five years a-building.
On the 17th August, 1688, as Magaillans tells us, a great flood carried away two arches of the bridge, and the remainder soon fell. [Father Intorcetta, quoted by Bretschneider (Peking, p. 53), gives the 25th of July, 1668, as the date of the destruction of the bridge, which agrees well with the Chinese accounts.—H. C.] The bridge was renewed, but with only nine arches instead of thirteen, as appears from the following note of personal observation with which Dr. Lockhart has favoured me :
"At 27 li from Peking, by the western road leaving the gate of the Chinese city called Kwang-'an-mán, after passing the old walled town of Feuchen, you reach the bridge of Lo-Ku-Kiao. As it now stands it is a very long bridge of nine arches (real arches) spanning the valley of the Hwan Ho, and surrounded by beautiful scenery. The bridge is built of green sandstone, and has a good balustrade with short square pilasters crowned by small lions. It is in very good repair, and has a ceaseless traffic, being on the road to the . coal-mines which supply the city. There is a pavilion at each end of the bridge with inscriptions, the one recording that K'anghi (1662-1723) built the bridge, and the other that Kienlung (1736-1796) repaired it." These circumstances are strictly consistent with Nagaillans' account of the destruction of the mediævaI bridge. Williamson describes the present bridge as about 700 feet long, and 12 feet wide in the middle part.
[Dr. Bretschneider saw the bridge, and gives the following description of it : " The bridge is 350 ordinary paces long and 18 broad. It is built of sandstone, and has on either side a stone balustrade of square columns, about 4 feet high, 140 on each side, each crowned by a sculptured lion over a foot high. Beside these there are a number of smaller lions placed irregularly on the necks, behind the legs, under the feet, or on the back of the larger ones. The space between the columns is closed by stone slabs. Four sculptured stone elephants lean with their foreheads against the edge of the balustrades. The bridge is supported by eleven arches. At each end of the bridge two pavilions with yellow roofs have been built, all with large marble tablets in them ; two with inscriptions made by order of the Emperor K'ang-hi (1662-1723) ; and two with inscriptions of the time of K'ien-lung (1736-1796). On these tablets the history of the bridge is recorded." Dr. Bretschneider adds that Dr. Lockhart is also right in counting nine arches, for he counts only the water-
ways, not the arches resting upon the banks of the river. Dr. Forke (p. 5) counts I I arches and 28o stone lions.—H. C.]
(P. de la Croix, I I. I I, etc. ; Erskine's Baber, p. xxxiii. ; Timour's Institutes, 70 ; J. As. IX. 205 ; Cathay, 260 ; Magaillans, 14-18, J5 ; Lecomte in Astley, Ill. 529 ; J. As. sér. II. tom. i. 97-98 ; .D' Ohsson, L 144.)
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