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

368. TUNDINFU

*candinfu* Fr, *t* *condisu* LT *tindifu* Z
*candysi* G *cundinfu* FA *tondafu*, *tondifu* VB
*chandifu* V, VA *godifu* TA³ *tondinfu* F, L, L¹
*chandrafa*, *chandrapha* VL *gundinfu* FAt *tudinfu* R
*codifu* TA¹ *tadinfu* P *tundinfu* F, Z
*condifu* FB, VB *thandifu* V(cor.)

Although we have « Tundinfu » in F and Z, I have no doubt that the true form is « Tunpinfu ».
From Polo's itinerary, it has been thought that the modern Yen-chou-fu in Shan-tung was meant.
BENEDETTO (B¹, 447), labouring under that idea, has written « Tandinfu », and proposed a correc-
tion « Taidinfu », because the Mongols had given to the place the name of T'ai-ting-fu. But this
is a mistake; a T'ai-ting-fu never existed. There was a military area (*chün*) of T'ai-ting under the
Chin, and its centre was at Yen-chou; but when the Mongols, after calling it again Yen-chou, raised
it in 1279 to the status of a *tsung-kuan-fu*, they renamed it Chi-ning (*YS*, 58, 11 *b*). Moreover,
the distance between Yen-chou-fu and the modern Chi-ning (Polo's Singiu matu, *q. v.*) is too short
for the three days' journey of the traveller. My theory is that Polo proceeded straight along the
main road from Cho-chou to Ho-chien-fu (« Cacanfu »), Tundinfu, Singiu matu (= modern Chi-
ning); he did not have to pass through either Chi-nan-fu or later Yen-chou-fu. Tundinfu is 東
平 府 Tung-p'ing-fu, now the *hsien* of Tung-p'ing, which is on the main road from Ho-chien-fu
to modern Chi-ning, and is precisely one of the places mentioned north of Singiu matu in the iti-
nerary from Hang-chou to Shang-tu, dated 1276, which has been translated by MOULE in *TP*, 1915,
399 and 409.

The name of Tung-p'ing-fu goes back to the Northern Sung; it was maintained throughout
the whole of the Chin and Yüan dynasties (cf. *YS*, 58, 10 *a-b*). It occurs twice in Rašīdu-'d-Dīn,
as is confirmed by parallel Chinese texts, under the forms تنك بنك فو Täng-bing-fu (abnormal
for °تنغ Tung°) and تونكبن فو Tungbin-fu (*Ber*, III, text, 34, 47), but has been misread (*Ber*,
III, transl. 21, 29) « Dan-byan-fu » and « Tun-kin-fu »; cf. PELLIOT, *Sur un passage du Cheng-wou
ts'in-tcheng lou*, in *Ts'ai Yüan P'ei Annivers. Volume*, Peiping, 1934, 921, 922.

Polo attaches to Tung-p'ing-fu the story of Li T'an, but the fall of Li T'an really occurred in
Chi-nan-fu (see « Liitan sangon »). It may be because Tung-p'ing-fu was the place nearest to Chi-
nan-fu which Polo had to mention (his itinerary did not pass through Chi-nan-fu). On the other
hand, it may have been a mere lapse of memory, as when he places the massacre of the Alans
at Ch'ang-chou, south of the Yang-tzŭ, while it really occurred at Chên-ch'ao, north of that river
(see « Ciangiu »).

Tung-p'ing-fu was much more important at the beginning of the Mongol period than it is now.