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0113 Ser Marco Polo : vol.1
Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 113 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000270
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CHAP. LXXVI. p. 194.   KINSAY.

97

has come to the conclusion that the Atlas is no more nor less

than the Kuang yü t'u, and that it seems that Camse stands

neither for Ching-shih, as Yule thought, nor for Hang chau as

he, Moule, suggested in 1917, but simply for the province of

Kiangsi. (A Note on the Chinese Atlas in the Magliabecchian

Library, with reference to Kinsay in Marco Polo.)

Mr. P. von Tanner, Commissioner of Customs at Hang chau,

wrote in 1901 in the Decennial Reports, 1892-1901, of the

Customs, p. 4: " While Hangchow owes its fame to the lake on

the west, it certainly owes its existence towards the south-west

to the construction of the sea wall, called by the Chinese by the

appropriate name of bore wall. The erection of this sea wall

was commenced about the year A.D. 915, by Prince Ts'ien Wu-

su ; it extends from Hang Chau to Chuan sha, near the opening

of the Hwang pu. . . . The present sea wall, in its length of 180

miles, was built. The wall is a stupendous piece of work, and

should take an equal share of fame with the Grand Canal and

the Great Wall of China, as its engineering difficulties were

certainly infinitely greater. . . . The fact that Marco Polo does

not mention it shows almost conclusively that he never visited

Hang Chau, but got his account from a Native poet. He must

have taken it, besides, without the proverbial grain of salt,

and without eliminating the over-numerous ` thousands ' and

myriads ' prompted less by facts than by patriotic enthusiasm

and poetical licence."

LXXVI., p. 194 n.

BRIDGES OF KINSAY.

In the heart of Hang-chau, one of the bridges spanning the

canal which divides into two parts the walled city from north to

south is called Hwei Hwei k'iao (Bridge of the Mohamedans)

or Hwei Hwei Sin k'iao (New Bridge of the Mohamedans),

while its literary name is Tsi Shan k'iao (Bridge of Accumulated

Wealth) ; it is situated between the Tsien k'iao on the south and

the Fung lo k'iao on the north. Near the Tsi Shan k'iao was

a mosk, and near the Tsien k'iao, at the time of the Yuen, there

existed Eight Pavilions (Pa kien lew) inhabited by wealthy

Mussulmans. Mohamedans from Arabia and Turkestan were

sent by the Yuen to Hang-chau ; they had prominent noses,

did not eat pork, and were called So mu chung (Coloured-eye

race). VISSIÈRE, Rev. du Monde Musulman, March, 1913.