The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / 230 ページ（カラー画像）

0230	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2
マルコ=ポーロ卿の記録 : vol.2

mention Su-chau, but he gives the same explanation of Kinsay as signifying the
"City of Heaven," and Wassáf also in his notice of the same city has an obscure
passage about Paradise and Heaven, which is not improbably a corrupted reference
to the same interpretation.* I suspect therefore that it was a "Vulgar Error" of the
foreign residents in China, probably arising out of a misunderstanding of the Chinese
adage quoted by Duhalde and Davis :—

" Shang yeu t'ien t'ang, Hia yeu Su Hang !"

"There's Paradise above 'tis true,
But here below we've Hang and Su !"

These two neighbouring cities, in the middle of the beautiful tea and silk districts,
and with all the advantages of inland navigation and foreign trade, combined every
source of wealth and prosperity, and were often thus coupled together by the
Chinese. Both are, I believe, now recovering from the effects of devastation by
T'ai-P'ing occupation and Imperialist recapture ; but neither probably is one-fifth of
what it was.

The plan of Su-chau which we give is of high interest. It is reduced (⅓ the scale)
from a rubbing of a plan of the city incised on marble measuring 6′ 7″ by 4′ 4″, and
which has been preserved in the Confucian Temple in Su-chau since A.D. 1247.
Marco Polo's eyes have probably rested on this fine work, comparable to the famous
Pianta Capitolina. The engraving on page 183 represents one of the gates traced
from the rubbing and reduced to half the scale. It is therefore an authentic repre-
sentation of Chinese fortification in or before the 13th century.†

["In the southern part of Su-chau is the park, surrounded by a high wall, which
contains the group of buildings called the Confucian Temple. This is the Dragon's
head ;—the Dragon Street, running directly North, is his body, and the Great
Pagoda is his tail. In front is a grove of cedars. To one side is the hall where
thousands of scholars go to worship at the Spring and Autumn Festivals—this for the
gentry alone, not for the unlettered populace. There is a building used for the
slaughter of animals, another containing a map of the city engraved in stone ; a third
with tablets and astronomical diagrams, and a fourth containing the Provincial
Library. On each side of the large courts are rooms where are placed the tablets of
the 500 sages. The main temple is 50 by 70 feet, and contains the tablet of
Confucius and a number of gilded boards with mottoes. It is a very imposing
structure. On the stone dais in front, a mat-shed is erected for the great sacrifices
at which the official magnates exercise their sacerdotal functions. As a tourist beheld
the sacred grounds and the aged trees, she said : 'This is the most venerable-
looking place I have seen in China.' On the gateway in front, the sage is called
'The Prince of Doctrine in times Past and Present.'" (Rev. H. C. Du Bose, Chin.
Rec., xix. p. 272).—H. C.]

Note 5.—The Geographic Text only, at least of the principal Texts, has dis-
tinctly the three cities, Vugui, Vughin, Ciangan. Pauthier identifies the first and
third with Hu-chau fu and Sung-kiang fu. In favour of Vuju's being Hu-chau is the
fact mentioned by Wilson that the latter city is locally called Wuchu.‡ If this be
the place, the Traveller does not seem to be following a direct and consecutive
route from Su-chau to Hang-chau. Nor is Hu-chau within a day's journey of Su-chau.
Mr. Kingsmill observes that the only town at that distance is Wukiang-hien, once of
some little importance but now much reduced. Wukiang, however, is suggestive

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