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The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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with stone, in order to prevent the earth giving way. Along the side of the canal
runs the high road to Machin, extending for a space of 40 days' journey, and this
has been paved throughout, so that travellers and their animals may get along during
the rainy season without sinking in the mud. . . . Shops, taverns, and villages line
the road on both sides, so that dwelling succeeds dwelling without intermission
throughout the whole space of 40 days' journey." (Cathay, 259-260.)
The canal appears to have been [begun in 1289 and to have been completed in
1292.—H. C.] though large portions were in use earlier. Its chief object was to
provide the capital with food. Pauthier gives the statistics of the transport of rice
by this canal from 1283 to the end of Kúblái's reign, and for some subsequent years
up to 1329. In the latter year the quantity reached 3,522,163 shí or 1,247,633
quarters. As the supplies of rice for the capital and for the troops in the Northern
Provinces always continued to be drawn from Kiang-nan, the distress and derange-
ment caused by the recent rebel occupation of that province must have been enormous.
(Pauthier, p. 481-482; De Mailla, p. 439.) Polo's account of the formation of the
canal is exceedingly accurate. Compare that given by Mr. Williamson (I. 62).
Note 3.—"On the Kiang, not far from the mouth, is that remarkably beautiful
little island called the 'Golden Isle,' surmounted by numerous temples inhabited by
the votaries of Buddha or Fo, and very correctly described so many centuries since
by Marco Polo." (Davis's Chinese, I. 149.) The monastery, according to Pauthier,
was founded in the 3rd or 4th century, but the name Kin-Shan, or "Golden Isle,"
dates only from a visit of the Emperor K'ang-hi in 1684.
The monastery contained one of the most famous Buddhist libraries in China.
This was in the hands of our troops during the first China war, and, as it was intended
to remove the books, there was no haste made in examining their contents. Mean-
while peace came, and the library was restored. It is a pity now that the jus belii
had not been exercised promptly, for the whole establishment was destroyed by the
T'ai-P'ings in 1860, and, with the exception of the Pagoda at the top of the hill, which
was left in a dilapidated state, not one stone of the buildings remained upon another.
The rock had also then ceased to be an island; and the site of what not many years
before had been a channel with some fathoms of water separating it from the southern
shore, was covered by flourishing cabbage-gardens. (Gützlaff in J. R. A. S. XII.
87; Mid. Kingd. I. 84, 86; Oliphant's Narrative, II. 301; N. and Q. Ch. and Jap.
No. 5, p. 58.)
CHAPTER LXXIII.
Of the City of Chinghianfu.
Chinghianfu is a city of Manzi. The people are
Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan, and have
paper-money, and live by handicrafts and trade. They
have plenty of silk, from which they make sundry kinds
of stuffs of silk and gold. There are great and wealthy
merchants in the place; plenty of game is to be had, and
of all kinds of victual.
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731
732
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