国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

> > > >
カラー New!IIIFカラー高解像度 白黒高解像度 PDF   日本語 English
0438 Across Asia : vol.1
アジア横断 : vol.1
Across Asia : vol.1 / 438 ページ(カラー画像)

New!引用情報

doi: 10.20676/00000221
引用形式選択: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR読み取り結果

 

C. G. MANNERHEI M

in the E suburb, where there are 7. — In addition to ordinary crafts there are several places in the town where a cheap stone, something between jade and marble, is made into bracelets, cups, tall straight goblets and other objects of very simple shape. The number of pawnshops is very large, as in all Chinese towns. For »large» loans 18 % a month is charged, on small ones as much as i % a day. Anything can be pawned. Cases are known of men pawning their wives. If the wife is not redeemed at the appointed time, she is sold to the first buyer who applies and her former marriage is considered

annulled.

The local growing of grain is sufficient to satisfy the local demand, including passing arbahs and caravans. No grain appears to be exported. Only wool, a little rhubarb root from the mountains, a small quantity of worked stone and a little gold are exported to the east. On exported wool there is a tax of i lan per ioo djin. — Minerals are represented by coal and gold. Coal is present in the Vun shu Kou, Pin-Kou Hsiao, Ta Hunkou and Lutsoukou gorges SW of the town. There are 5 shafts for mining it and it is sold in the town. Gold is washed at a place called Hung-shui-pa, S of Tinfusy at the outflow of the Pei-ta-ho from the mountains, about 4 days' journey from the town of Suchow. A tax of I tchen (in gold?) is paid for each workman, which yields about 7-800 lan a year. 500-600, at times up to 1,000 workmen are said to be employed there during the summer. They usually work under the supervision of a contractor who keeps an eagle eye upon them and chains them to each other at night.

With regard to the population of the town I obtained such contradictory information as 4-5,000 and 40,000, adults and children. In order to form an idea I got my men to count the houses, the result being about 1,000 houses, excluding the official quarters of the mandarins, churches and other public buildings. In the E suburb there are 164, in the N about 5o and in the S 10-15 houses. If we reckon 3 »tja» or families to a house and 3 adults per family, the population should amount to about 10,000.

December 7th.   In comparison with the districts I had already visited, especially in Chinese Turkestan,

Suchow. the water supply in this district appeared to be fairly abundant. However, the fact that most of the quarrels and fights, sometimes ending in murder, arise out of disputes regarding the distribution of the water, indicates that there is no superabundance of it. The division of the tilled land into small areas and taxation are based on the distribution of the water. It is conducted from the river in 6 large canals or arms called »pa». These »pa», from which the water is distributed to the various fields, constitute small independent units both in an administrative sense and in regard to taxation. A »lungguan» from among the local population is appointed annually by the mandarin and it is his duty to supervise the correct distribution of the water and to levy the taxes on fixed dates. He does not collect them himself, the population having to deliver them direct to the grain stores in the town. If the taxes are not forthcoming or disorders occur in connection with the distribution of the water, it is the »lungguan» who, in accordance with the Chinese idea that an official is personally responsible for the maintenance of order in his district, receives a painful reminder — on his legs or the palms of his hands — of the fact that a position of power

) 432 (