(About one-
Forth the Length and Breadth of Original.)]
This city occupies the south-east angle of a more extensive enclosure,
bounded by what is now a grassy mound, and embracing, on Dr. Bushell's
estimate, about 5 square miles. Further knowledge may explain the
discrepancy from Marco's dimension, but this must be the park of which he
speaks.[3] The woods and fountains have disappeared, like the temples and
palaces; all is dreary and desolate, though still abounding in the game
which was one of Kublai's attractions to the spot. A small monastery,
occupied by six or seven wretched Lamas, is the only building that remains
in the vicinity. The river Shangtu, which lower down becomes the Lan [or
Loan]-Ho, was formerly navigated from the sea up to this place by flat
grain-boats.
[Mgr. de Harlez gave in the T'oung Pao (x. p. 73) an inscription in
Chuen character on a stele found in the ruins of Shangtu, and built by
an officer with the permission of the Emperor; it is probably a token of
imperial favour; the inscription means: Great Longevity. - H. C.]
In the wail which Sanang Setzen, the poetical historian of the Mongols,
puts, perhaps with some traditional basis, into the mouth of Toghon Temur,
the last of the Chinghizide Dynasty in China, when driven from his throne,
the changes are rung on the lost glories of his capital Daitu (see
infra, Book II. ch. xi.) and his summer palace Shangtu; thus (I
translate from Schott's amended German rendering of the Mongol):
"My vast and noble Capital, My Daitu, My splendidly adorned!
And Thou my cool and delicious Summer-seat, my Shangtu-Keibung!
Ye, also, yellow plains of Shangtu, Delight of my godlike Sires!
I suffered myself to drop into dreams, - and lo! my Empire was gone!
Ah Thou my Daitu, built of the nine precious substances!
Ah my Shangtu-Keibung, Union of all perfections!
Ah my Fame! Ah my Glory, as Khagan and Lord of the Earth!
When I used to awake betimes and look forth, how the breezes blew
loaded with fragrance!
And turn which way I would all was glorious perfection of beauty!
* * * * *
Alas for my illustrious name as the Sovereign of the World!
Alas for my Daitu, seat of Sanctity, Glorious work of the Immortal
KUBLAI!
All, all is rent from me!"
It was, in 1797, whilst reading this passage of Marco's narrative in old
Purchas that Coleridge fell asleep, and dreamt the dream of Kublai's
Paradise, beginning:
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred River, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery."
It would be a singular coincidence in relation to this poem were
Klaproth's reading correct of a passage in Rashiduddin which he renders as
saying that the palace at Kaiminfu was "called Langtin, and was built
after a plan that Kublai had seen in a dream, and had retained in his
memory." But I suspect D'Ohsson's reading is more accurate, which runs:
"Kublai caused a Palace to be built for him east of Kaipingfu, called
Lengten; but he abandoned it in consequence of a dream." For we see from
Sanang Setzen that the Palaces of Lengten and Kaiming or Shangtu were
distinct; "Between the year of the Rat (1264), when Kublai was fifty years
old, and the year of the Sheep (1271), in the space of eight years, he
built four great cities, viz. for Summer Residence SHANGTU KEIBUNG Kuerdu
Balgasun, for Winter Residence Yeke DAITU Khotan, and on the shady side of
the Altai (see ch. li. note 3, supra) Arulun TSAGHAN BALGASUN, and
Erchuegin LANGTING Balgasun." A valuable letter from Dr. Bushell enables me
now to indicate the position of Langtin: "The district through which the
river flows eastward from Shangtu is known to the Mongolians of the
present day by the name of Lang-tirh (Lang-ting'rh).... The ruins of
the city are marked on a Chinese map in my possession Pai-dseng-tzu, i.e.
'White City,' implying that it was formerly an Imperial residence. The
remains of the wall are 7 or 8 li in diameter, of stone, and situated
about 40 li north-north-west from Dolon-nor."
(Gerbillon in Astley, IV. 701-716; Klaproth, in J. As. ser. II. tom.
xi. 345-350; Schott, Die letzten Jahre der Mongolenherrschaft in China
(Berl. Acad. d. Wissensch. 1850, pp. 502-503); Huc's Tartary, etc., p.
seqq.; Cathay, 134, 261; S. Setzen, p. 115; Dr. S. W. Bushell,
Journey outside the Great Wall, in J. R. G. S. for 1874, and MS.
notes.)
One of the pavilions of the celebrated Yuen-ming-Yuen may give some idea
of the probable style, though not of the scale, of Kublai's Summer Palace.
Hiuen Tsang's account of the elaborate and fantastic ornamentation of the
famous Indian monasteries at Nalanda in Bahar, where Mr. Broadley has
lately made such remarkable discoveries, seems to indicate that these
fantasies of Burmese and Chinese architecture may have had a direct origin
in India, at a time when timber was still a principal material of
construction there: "The pavilions had pillars adorned with dragons, and
posts that glowed with all the colours of the rainbow, sculptured frets,
columns set with jade, richly chiselled and lackered, with balustrades of
vermilion, and carved open work. The lintels of the doors were tastefully
ornamented, and the roofs covered with shining tiles, the splendours of
which were multiplied by mutual reflection and from moment to moment took
a thousand forms." (Vie et Voyages, 157.)
NOTE 3.
