National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

238

BOOK II,

MARCO POLO

Cayton (Cayton) ; and in this city a rich Armenian lady did build a large and fine enough church, which was erected into a cathedral by the Archbishop,” and so on. He speaks incidentally of the Genoese merchants frequenting it. John Marignolli, who was there about 1347, calls it " a wondrous fine sea-port, and a city of incredible size, where our Minor Friars have three very fine churches ; . . . and they have a bath also, and a fondaco which serves as a depôt for all the merchants." Ihn Batuta about the same time says : " The first city that I reached after crossing the sea was ZAITÚN. . . . It is a great city, superb indeed ; and in it they make damasks of velvet as well as those of satin (I(imkhá and Atlás), which are called from the name of the city Zaitúníah ; they are superior to the stuffs of Khansá and Khánbálik. The harbour of Zaitún is one of the greatest in the world —I am wrong ; it is the greatest ! I have seen there about an hundred first-class junks together ; as for small ones, they were past counting. The harbour is formed by an estuary which runs inland from the sea until it joins the Great River."

[Mr. Geo. Phillips finds a strong argument in favour of Changchau being Zayton in this passage of Ibn Batuta. He says (Jour. China Br. R. A. Soc. 1888, 28-29) : " Changchow in the Middle Ages was the seat of a great silk manufacture, and the production of its looms, such as gauzes, satins and velvets, were said to exceed in beauty those of Soochow and Ilangchow. According to the Fuhkien Gazetteer, silk goods under the name of Kinki, and porcelain were, at the end of the Sung Dynasty, ordered to be taken abroad and to be bartered against foreign wares, treasure having been prohibited to leave the country. In this Kinki I think we may recognise the Kimkha of IBN BATUTA. I incline to this fact, as the characters Kinki are pronounced in the Amoy and Changchow dialects Khimkhi and Kimkhia. Anxious to learn if the manufacture of these silk goods still existed in Changchow, I communicated with the Rev. Dr. TALMAGE of Amoy, who, through the Rev. Mr. Ross of the London Mission, gave me the information that Kinki was formerly somewhat extensively manufactured at Changchow, although at present it was only made by one shop in that city. IBN BATUTA tells us that the King of China had sent to the Sultan, five hundred pieces of Kamkha, of which one hundred were made in the city of Zaitun. This form of present appears to have been continued by the Emperors of the Ming Dynasty, for we learn that the Emperor Yunglo gave to the Envoy of the Sultan of Quilon, presents of Kinki and Shalo, that is to say, brocaded silks and gauzes. Since writing the above, I found that Dr. HIRTH suggests that the characters Kinhua, meaning literally gold flower in the sense of silk embroidery, possibly represent the medieval Khimka. I incline rather to my own suggestion. In the Pei-wen yun fu these characters Kien-ki are frequently met in combination, meaning a silk texture, such as brocade or tapestry. Curtains made of this texture are mentioned in Chinese books, as early as the commencement of the Christian era."—H. C.]

Rashiduddin, in enumerating the Sings or great provincial governments of the empire, has the following : " 7th FucHÚ.—This is a city of Manzi. The Sing was formerly located at ZAITÚN, but afterwards established here, where it still remains. Zaitún is a great shipping-port, and the commandant there is Boháuddin Kandári." Pauthier's Chinese extracts show us that the seat of the Sing was, in •1281, at T'swan-chau, but was then transferred to Fu-chau. In 1282 it was removed back to T'swan-chau, and in 1283 recalled to Fu-chau. That is to say, what the Persian writer tells us of Fújú and Zayton, the Chinese Annalists tell us of Fu-chau and T'swan-chau. Therefore Fuju and Layton were respectively Fu-chau and T'swan-chau.

[In the Yuen-shi (eh. 94), Ski po, Maritime trade regulations, it " is stated, among other things, that in 1277, a superintendency of foreign trade was established in Ts'uän-chou. Another superintendency was established for the three ports of K'ing-ytian (the present Ning-po), Shang-hai, and Gan-p'u. These three ports depended on the province of Fu-kien, the capital of which was Ts'iian-chou. Farther on, the ports of Bang-chow and Fu-chou are also mentioned in connection with foreign trade. Chang-chou (in Fu-lien, near Amoy) is only once spoken of

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