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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

82   MARCO POLO.   VOL. II. BK. II.

Tiao-mén and Li-Chou [Ts'ing-k'i Hien in Ya-chou Fu] for the

purposes of Tu-fan trade. In I280 more Mongol troops were

sent to the Li Chou region, and a special officer was appointed

for T'u-fan [Tibetan] affairs at the capital. In 1283 a high

official was ordered to print the official documents connected with

the süan-wei-sz [governorship] of T'u-fan. In 1288 six provinces,

including those of Sz Chw'an and An-si, were ordered to con-

tribute financial assistance to the süan-wei-shï [governor] of U-sz-

tsang [the indigenous name of Tibet proper]. Every year or

two after this, right up to 1352, there are entries in the Mongol

Annals amply proving that the conquest of Tibet under the

Mongols was not only complete, but fully narrated ; however,

there is no particular object in carrying the subject here beyond

the date of Marco's departure from China. There are many

mentions of Kien-tu (which name dates from the Sung Dynasty)

in the Yüan-sliï ; it is the Kien-ch'ang Valley of to-day, with

capital at Ning-yüan, as clearly marked on Bretschneider's Map.

Baber's suggestion of the Chan-tui tribe of Tibetans is quite

obsolete, although Baber was one of the first to explore the

region in person. A petty tribe like the Chan-tui could never

have given name to Caindu ; besides, both initials and finals are

impossible, and the Chan-tui have never lived there. I have

myself met Si-fan chiefs at Peking ; they may be described

roughly as Tibetans not under the Tibetan Government. The

T'u-fan, T'u-po, or Tubot, were the Tibetans under Tibetan rule,

and they are now usually styled ` Si-tsang ' by the Chinese.

Yaci [Ya-ch'ih, Ya-ch'ï] is frequently mentioned in the Yüan-shi,

and the whole of Devéria's quotation given by Cordier on p. 72

appears there [chap. 121, p. 5], besides a great deal more to the

point, without any necessity ifor consulting the Lei pien. Cowries,

under the name of pa-tsz, are mentioned in both Mongol and

Ming history as being in use for money in Siam and Yung-

ch'ang [Vociam]. The porcelain coins which, as M. Cordier

quotes from me on p. 74, I myself saw current in the Shan States

or Siam about ten years ago, were of white China, with a blue

figure, and about the size of a Keating's cough lozenge, but

thicker. As neither form of the character pa appears in any

dictionary, it is probably a foreign word only locally understood.

Regarding the origin of the name Yung-ch'ang, the discussions

upon p. 105 are no longer necessary ; in the eleventh moon of

1272 [say about January 1, 1273] Kúblái ` presented the name

Yung-ch'ang to the new city built by Prince Chi-pi T'ie-mu-r."