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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
198
MARCO POLO BOOK II.
remarkable among the Chinese for their dandyism. All, except the lowest labourers and coolies, strutted about in dresses composed of silk, satin, and crape. . . . ` Indeed ' (said the Chinese servants) ` one can never tell a rich man in Hang-chow, for it is just possible that all he possesses in the world is on his back.' " (Fortune, II. 20.) " The silk manufactures of Hang-chau are said to give employment to 6o,000 persons within the city walls, and Hu-chau, Kia-hing, and the surrounding villages, are reputed to employ 100,000 more." (Ningpo Trade Report, January 1869, comm. by Mr. N. B. Dennys.) The store-towers, as a precaution in case of fire, are still common both in China and Japan.
NOTE 6.—Mr. Gardner found in this very city, in 1868, a large collection of cottages covering several acres, which were " erected, after the taking of the city from the rebels, by a Chinese charitable society for the refuge of the blind, sick, and infirm." This asylum sheltered 200 blind men with their families, amounting to Boo souls ; basket-making and such work was provided for them ; there were also 1200 other inmates, aged and infirm ; and doctors were maintained to look after them. " None are allowed to be absolutely idle, but all help towards their own sustenance." (Proc. R. G. Soc. XIII. 176-177.) Mr. Moule, whilst abating somewhat from the colouring of this description, admits the establishment to be a considerable charitable effort. It existed before the rebellion, as I see in the book of Mr. Milne, litho gives interesting details on such Chinese charities. (Life in China, pp. 46 seqq.)
NOTE 7.—The paved roads of Manzi are by no means extinct yet. Thus, Mr. Fortune, starting from Chang-shan (see below, ch. lxxix.) in the direction of the Black-Tea mountains, says : " The road on which we were travelling was well paved with granite, about 12 feet in width, and perfectly free from weeds." (II. 148). Garnier, Sladen, and Richthofen speak of well-paved roads in Yun-Nan and Szech'wan.
The Topography quoted by Mr. Moule says that in the year 1272 the Governor renewed the pavement of the Imperial road (or Main Street), " after which nine cars might move abreast over a way perfectly smooth, and straight as an arrow." In the Mongol time the people were allowed to encroach on this grand street.
NOTE 8.—There is a curious discrepancy in the account of these baths. Pauthier's text does not say whether they are hot baths or cold. The latter sentence, beginning, " They are hot baths " (estuves), is from the G. Text. And Ramusio's account is quite different : " There are numerous baths of cold water, provided with plenty of attendants, male and female, to assist the visitors of the two sexes in the bath. For the people are used from their childhood to bathe in cold water at all seasons, and they reckon it a very wholesome custom. But in the bath-houses they have also certain chambers furnished with hot water, for foreigners who are unaccustomed to cold bathing, and cannot bear it. The people are used to bathe daily, and do not eat without having done so." This is in contradiction with the notorious Chinese horror of cold water for any purpose.
A note from Mr. C. Gardner says : " There are numerous public baths at Hang-chau, as at every Chinese city I have ever been in. In my experience natives always take hot baths. But only the poorer classes go to the public baths ; the tradespeople and middle classes are generally supplied by the bath-houses with hot water at a moderate charge."
NOTE 9. —The estuary of the Ts'ien T'ang, or river of Hang-chau, has undergone great changes since Polo's day. The sea now comes up much nearer the city ; and the upper part of the Bay of Hang-chau is believed to cover what was once the site of the port and town of KANP'u, the Ganpu of the text. A modern representative of the name still subsists, a walled town, and one of the depôts for the salt which is so extensively manufactured on this coast ; but the present port of Hang-chau, and till
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