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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
4
THE CITY OF SINJUMATU
CHAP. LXII.
139
money, and they have a river which I can assure you
brings them great gain, and I will tell you about it. You see the river in question flows from the South
to this city of Sinjumatu. And the people of the city
have divided this larger river in two, making one half
of it flow east and the other half flow west ; that is to
say, the one branch flows towards Manzi and the other
towards Cathay. And it is a fact that the number of
vessels at this city is what no one would believe without
seeing them. The quantity of merchandize also which
these vessels transport to Manzi and Cathay is some-
thing marvellous ; and then they return loaded with
other merchandize, so that the amount of goods borne
to and fro on those two rivers is quite astonishing.'
NOTE 1.--Friar Odoric, proceeding by water northward to Cambaluc about 1324-1325, says : " As I travelled by that river towards the east, and passed many towns and cities, I carne to a certain city which is called SUNZUMMATU, which bath a greater plenty of silk than perhaps any place on earth, for when silk is at the dearest you can still have 4o lbs. for less than eight groats. There is in the place likewise great store of merchandise," etc. When commenting on Odoric, I was inclined to identify this city with Lin-t'sing chau, but its position with respect to the two last cities in Polo's itinerary renders this inadmissible ; and Murray and Pauthier seem to be right in identifying it with T'SI-KING CHAU. The affix Matu (Ma-t'ezc, a jetty, a place of river trade) might easily attach itself to the name of such a great depôt of commerce on the canal as Marco here describes, though no Chinese authority has been produced for its being so styled. The only objection to the identification with T'si-ning chau is the difficulty of making 3 days' journey of the short distance between Yen-chau and that city.
Polo, according to the route supposed, comes first upon the artificial part of the Great Canal here. The rivers Wen and Sse (from near Yen-chau) flowing from the side of Shan-tung, and striking the canal line at right angles near T'si-ning chau, have been thence diverted north-west and south-east, so as to form the canal ; the point of their original confluence at Nan-wang forming, apparently, the summit level of the canal. There is a little confusion in Polo's account, owing to his describing the river as coming from the south, which, according to his orientation, would be the side towards Honan. In this respect Hs words would apply more accurately to the Wei River at Lin-t'sing (see Biot in/ As. sér. III. tom. xiv. 194, and/. N. C. B. R. A. S., 1866, p. II ; also the map with eh. lxiv.) [Father Gandar (Canal Impérial, p. 22, note) says that the remark of Marco Polo : " The river flows from the south to this city of Sinjumatu," cannot he applied to the Wen-ho nor to the Sse-ho, which are rivers of little importance and running from the east, whilst the Wei-ho, coming from the south-east, waters Lin-ts'ing, and answers well to our traveller's text.II. C.] Duhalde calls T'si-ning chau " one of the most considerable cities of the empire " ; and Nieuhoff speaks of its large trade and population. [Sir John F. Davis writes that Tsi-ning chau is a town of considerable dimensions. . . . " The via-tow,
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