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

Ling-chou is quite near Ning-hsia, and was reached by the very road Polo followed; moreover, it
was then known in Central Asia under its native name of Dörmägäi. B¹, 447, thinks that « Silingiu »
may be « Hsi-Liang-chou », but as Polo speaks of the road to « Silingiu » when he is at « Ergiuul »,
and as « Ergiuul » is « Hsi-Liang-chou » itself, that suggestion too has to be dropped.

The name of Hsi-ning goes back only to the Sung, but the region of Hsi-ning, which, in the
10th and 11th cents., was on one of the highways of Central Asia, seems to have been formerly
known abroad under another name. In 1076, Kāšyarī mentions a place شانجو Šānjū which was
towards North China (BROCKELMANN, 249) and marks it on his map after Ḫotan and Čärčän.
HERRMANN (Imago Mundi, 1935, 28) says that this is Sha-chou (Tun-huang; see « Saciou », and
TP, 1936, 363); but the -n- is not thus accounted for. It is much more likely that Šānjū represents
鄯 州 Shan-chou (to-day the Nien-po of our maps, Lo-tu of the new nomenclature), on the Hsi-
ning river, east of Hsi-ning. Shan-chou was the main centre of the Hsi-ning region under the T'ang,
until it was conquered by the Tibetans (PARKER is mistaken when he dates the creation of Shan-chou
only from 1099).

It may have been because of some use of the trade-road via Hsi-ning that Polo mentions the
place. On the other hand, Šānjū survived perhaps only as a name, in later Arabic geography,
along with Ḫanfu. And just as Ḫanfu, originally Canton, was wrongly taken for Hang-chou (see
« Quinsai »), perhaps it is our Šānjū = Shan-chou = region of Hsi-ning, which was mistaken by
Abū'l-Fida to be an ancient name of Zaitun (see « Çaitun »).

338. SINGIU (c. 147)

ginguy Pr singu TA² sui VL
segui, sigui TA¹ singui LT, VA, VB, VLr; syngin P^b
seguin V G, R syngui P
sinçu Z singuy FAt, FB synguy FB
singiu F, Fr, t, L

CHARIGNON (Ch, III, 57-60) sees here Wu-ch'ang, but, long before him, YULE had given the
true solution. « Singiu » is the present I-chêng, to the south-west of Yang-chou, and its name in
Yüan times was 眞 州 Chên-chou (Y, II, 173); perhaps « Singiu » stands for « Cingiu ». It is true
that I-chêng is not to the south-east of Yang-chou, as Polo's « yseloc » would seem to imply, but to
the south-west; but we have here once more a digression from the main road, the reason of which is
Polo's desire to bring in what he has to say about I-chêng. The case is the same as for « Tigiu »
(T'ai-chou), from which the road to Yang-chou would be to the south-west, while the text says to
the south-east. The truth is that Polo's general direction from Cho-chou (south of Peking) to
Hang-chou is south-east. The digressions which have been inserted and arbitrarily arranged into
a continuous itinerary bring confusion into the main course which Polo followed and which was
in a south-eastern direction; we must, in fact, start again in every case from the point of the main