Des Relat.

De la Chine, III.

Ch. x. Audience Imperiale.]

["It seems Polo took the three gateways in the middle gate (Ta-ming men) for three gates, and thus speaks of five gates instead of three in the southern wall." (Bretschneider, Peking, 27, note.) - H. C.]

NOTE 6. - Ramusio's version here diverges from the old MSS. It makes the inner enclosure a mile square; and the second (the city of Taidu) six miles square, as here, but adds, at a mile interval, a third of eight miles square. Now it is remarkable that Mr. A. Wylie, in a letter dated 4th December 1873, speaking of a recent visit to Peking, says: "I found from various inquiries that there are several remains of a very much larger city wall, inclosing the present city; but time would not allow me to follow up the traces."

Pauthier's text (which I have corrected by the G. T.), after describing the outer inclosure to be a mile every way, says that the inner inclosure lay at an interval of a mile within it!

[Dr. Bretschneider observes "that in the ancient Chinese works, three concentric inclosures are mentioned in connection with the palace. The innermost inclosed the Ta-nei, the middle inclosure, called Kung-ch'eng or Huang-ch'eng, answering to the wall surrounding the present prohibited city, and was about 6 li in circuit. Besides this there was an outer wall (a rampart apparently) 20 li in circuit, answering to the wall of the present imperial city (which now has 18 li in circuit)." The Huang-ch'eng of the Yuen was measured by imperial order, and found to be 7 li in circuit; the wall of the Mongol palace was 6 li in circuit, according to the Ch'ue keng lu.

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