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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

THE CANTON " MARCO POLO."   9

in the manufacture of these figures, made of fine clay thickly

covered with burnished gilding, is said to be most artistic, and

the variety of types is especially noticeable. In this group we

meet a statue credited with a European influence. Two opinions

are current regarding this statue : one refers to it as represent-

ing the image of a Portuguese sailor, the other sees in it a portrait

of Marco Polo.

The former view is expressed, as far as I see, for the first

time, by MAYERS and DENNYS (The Treaty Ports of China and

Japan, London and Hong Kong, 1867, p. 162). " One effigy,"

these authors remark, " whose features are strongly European in

type, will be pointed out as the image of a Portuguese seaman who

was wrecked, centuries ago, on the coast, and whose virtues

during a long {residence gained him canonization after death.

This is probably a pure myth, growing from an accidental

resemblance of the features." This interpretation of a homage

rendered to a Portuguese is repeated by C. A. MONTALTO DE

JESUS, Historic Macao (Hong Kong, 1902, p. 28). A still more

positive judgment on this matter is passed by MADROLLE (Chine

du Sud et de l'Est, Paris, 1904, p. 17). " The attitudes of the

Venerable Ones," he says, " are remarkable for their life-like

expression, or sometimes, singularly grotesque. One of these

personalities placed on the right side of a great altar wears the

costume of the 16th century, and we might be inclined to regard

it as a Chinese representation of Marco Polo. It is probable,

however, that the artist, who had to execute the statue of a

Hindu, that is, of a man of the West, adopted as the model of

his costume that of the Portuguese who visited Canton since the

commencement of the i6th century." It seems to be rather

doubtful whether the 500 Lo-han of Canton are really traceable

to that time. There is hardly any huge clay statue in China a

hundred or two hundred years old, and all the older ones are in

a state of decay, owing to the brittleness of the material and the

carelessness of the monks. Besides, as stated by Mayers and

Dennys (l.c., p. 163), the Lo-han Hall of Canton, with its glittering

contents, is a purely modern structure, having been added to the

Fa-lum Temple in 1846, by means of a subscription mainly sup-

ported by the Hong Merchants. Although this statue is not

old, yet it may have been made after an ancient model. Arch-

deacon Gray, in his remarkable and interesting book, Walks in

the City of Canton (Hong Kong, 1875, p. 207), justly criticized

the Marco Polo theory, and simultaneously gave a correct

identification of the Lo-han in question. His statement is as