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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
I84
MARCO POLO BOOK II.
mention Su-chau, but he gives the same explanation of Kinsay as signifying the " City of Heaven," and Wassáf also in his notice of the same city has an obscure passage about Paradise and Heaven, which is not improbably a corrupted reference to the same interpretation. * I suspect therefore that it was a " Vulgar Error " of the foreign residents in China, probably arising out of a misunderstanding of the Chinese adage quoted by Duhalde and Davis :—
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" Shang yeu t'ien t'an~, Ria yeu Su HANG!"
" There's Paradise above 'tis true,
But here below we've HANG and Su !"
These two neighbouring cities, in the middle of the beautiful tea and silk districts, and with all the advantages of inland navigation and foreign trade, combined every source of wealth and prosperity, and were often thus coupled together by the Chinese. Both are, I believe, now recovering from the effects of devastation by T'ai-P'ing occupation and Imperialist recapture ; but neither probably is one-fifth of what it was.
The plan of Su-chau which we give is of high interest. It is reduced ( the scale) from a rubbing of a plan of the city incised on marble measuring 6" 7" by 4' 4", and which has been preserved in the Confucian Temple in Su-chau since A.D. 1247. Marco Polo's eyes have probably rested on this fine work, comparable to the famous Pianta Capitolina. The engraving on page 183 represents one of the gates traced from the rubbing and reduced to half the scale. It is therefore an authentic repre-
sentation of Chinese fortification in or before the 13th century.t
E" In the southern part of Su-chau is the park, surrounded by a high wall, which contains the group of buildings called the Confucian Temple. This is the Dragon's head ;—the Dragon Street, running directly North, is his body, and the Great Pagoda is his tail. In front is a grove of cedars. To one side is the hall where thousands of scholars go to worship at the Spring and Autumn Festivals—this for the gentry alone, not for the unlettered populace. There is a building used for the slaughter of animals, another containing a map of the city engraved in stone ; a third with tablets and astronomical diagrams, and a fourth containing the Provincial Library. On each side of the large courts are rooms where are placed the tablets of the 500 sages. The main temple is 5o by 7o feet, and contains the tablet of Confucius and a number of gilded boards with mottoes. It is a very imposing structure. On the stone dais in front, a mat-shed is erected for the great sacrifices at which the official magnates exercise their sacerdotal functions. As a tourist beheld the sacred grounds and the aged trees, she said : ` This is the most venerable-looking place I have seen in China.' On the gateway in front, the sage is called ` The Prince of Doctrine in times Past and Present.' " (Rev. H. C. Du Bose, Chin. Rec., xix. p. 272).—H. C.]
NOTE 5.—The Geographic Text only, at least of the principal Texts, has distinctly the three cities, Vugui, Vughin, Cians an. Pauthier identifies the first and third with HU-CHAU FU and Sung-kiang fu. In favour of Vuju's being Hu-chau is the fact mentioned by Wilson that the latter city is locally called WUCHU.$ If this be the place, the Traveller does not seem to be following a direct and consecutive route from Su-chau to Hang-chau. Nor is Hu-chau within a day's journey of Su-chau. Mr. Kingsmill observes that the only town at that distance is Wukiang-hien, once of some little importance but now much reduced. WUKIANG, however, is suggestive
* See Quatremère's Rashid., p. lxxxvii., and Hammer's Wassdf, p. 42.
t I owe these valuable illustrations, as so much else, to the unwearied kindness of Mr. A. Wylie. There were originally four maps : (1) The City, (2) The Ein2hire, (3) The (leavens, (4) no longer known. They were drawn originally by one Hwan Kin-shan, and presented by him to a high official in Sze-ch'wan. Wang Che-yuen, subsequently holding office in the same province, got possession of the maps, and had them incised at Su-chau in A.D. 1247. The inscription bearing these particulars is
partially gone, and the date of the original drawings remains uncertail. (See List of
Illustrations. )
OE,' The Ever Victorious A rmy, p. 395.
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