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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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females ; but probably the extensive suburb was not included in the enumeration. Perhaps 350,000 would be a fair total estimate." It is the seat of the Viceroy of the Sze-ch'wan province. Mr. Hosie says ( Three Years in Western China, p. 86) : " It is without exception the finest city I have seen in China ; Peking and Canton will not bear comparison with it." Captain Gill writes (River of Golden Sand, II. p. 4) : " The city of Ch'êng-Tu is still a rich and noble one, somewhat irregular in shape, and surrounded by a strong wall, in a perfect state of repair. In this there are eight bastions, four being pierced by gates."
" It is one of the largest of Chinese cities, having a circuit of about 12 miles." (Baber, p. 26.) " It is now three and a half miles long by about two and a half miles broad, the longest side lying about east-south-east, and west-north-west, so that its compass in the present day is about 12 miles." (Captain Gill, II. p. 4.)—
H. C.]
NOTE 2.—Ramusio is more particular : " Through the city flow many great rivers, which come down from distant mountains, and run winding about through many parts of the city. These rivers vary in width from half a mile to 200 paces, and are very deep. Across them are built many bridges of stone," etc. " And after passing the city these rivers unite and form one immense river called Kian," etc. Isere we have the Great River or KIANG, Kian (Quian) as in Ramusio, or KIANG-SHUI, " Waters of the Kiang," as in the text. So Pauthier explains. [Mr. Baber remarks at Ch'êng-tu (Travels, p. 28) : "When all allowance is made for the diminution of the river, one cannot help surmising that Marco Polo must have felt reluctant to call it the Chian; Sui or ` Yangtzú waterway.' He was, however, correct enough, as usual, for the Chinese consider it to be the main upper stream of the Yangtzú. "H. C. ] Though our Geographies give the specific names of Wen and Min to the great branch which flows by Ch'êng-tu fu, and treat the Tibetan branch which flows through northern Yunnan under the name of Kin Sha or " Golden Sand," as the main river, the Chinese seem always to have regarded the former as the true Kiang ; as may be seen in Ritter (IV. 65o) and Martini. The latter describes the city as quite insulated by the ramifications of the river, from which channels and canals pass all about it, adorned with many quays and bridges of stone.
The numerous channels in reuniting form two rivers, one the Min, and the other the To-Kiang, which also joins the Yangtzú at Lu-chau.
[In his introductory Essay to Captain Gill's River of Golden Sand, Colonel Yule (p. 37) writes : " Captain Gill has pointed out that, of the many branches of the river which ramify through the plain of Ch'éng-tu, no one now passes through the city at all corresponding in magnitude to that which Marco Polo describes, about 1283, as running through the midst of Sin-da-fu, ` a good half-mile wide, and very deep withal.' The largest branch adjoining the city now runs on the south side, but does not exceed a hundred yards in width ; and though it is crossed by a covered bridge with huxters' booths, more or less in the style described by Polo, it necessarily falls far short of his great bridge of half a mile in length. Captain Gill suggests that a change may have taken place in the last five (this should be six) centuries, owing to the deepening of the river-bed at its exit from the plain, and consequent draining of the latter. But I should think it more probable that the ramification of channels round Ch'êng-tu, which is so conspicuous even on a small general map of China, like that which accompanies this work, is in great part due to art ; that the mass of the river has been drawn off to irrigate the plain ; and that thus the wide river, which in the 13th century may have passed through the city, no unworthy representative of the mighty Kiang, has long since ceased, on that scale, to flow. And I have pointed out briefly that the fact, which Baron Richthofen attests, of an actual bifurcation of waters on a large scale taking place in the plain of Ch'éng-tu—one arm ` branching east to form the To ' (as in the terse indication of the Yü-Kung)—viz. the To Kiang or Chung-Kiang flowing south-east to join the great river at Lu-chau, whilst another flows south to Sii-chau or Swi-fu, does render change in the distribution of
MARCO POLO BOOK II.
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