The Ch'ue keng lu, translated by Bretschneider, 25, contains long
articles devoted to the description of the palace of the Mongols and the
adjacent palace grounds.
They are too long to be reproduced here. - H. C.]
NOTE 9. - "As all that one sees of these palaces is varnished in those
colours, when you catch a distant view of them at sunrise, as I have done
many a time, you would think them all made of, or at least covered with,
pure gold enamelled in azure and green, so that the spectacle is at once
majestic and charming." (Magaillans, p. 353.)
NOTE 10. - [This is the Ling yu or "Divine Park," to the east of the
Wan-sui shan, "in which rare birds and beasts are kept. Before the
Emperor goes to Shang-tu, the officers are accustomed to be entertained at
this place." (Ch'ue keng lu, quoted by Bretschneider, 36.) - H. C.]
NOTE 11. - "On the west side, where the space is amplest, there is a lake
very full of fish. It is in the form of a fiddle, and is an Italian mile
and a quarter in length. It is crossed at the narrowest part, which
corresponds to gates in the walls, by a handsome bridge, the extremities
of which are adorned by two triumphal arches of three openings each....
The lake is surrounded by palaces and pleasure houses, built partly in the
water and partly on shore, and charming boats are provided on it for the
use of the Emperor when he chooses to go a-fishing or to take an airing."
(Ibid. 282-283.) The marble bridge, as it now exists, consists of nine
arches, and is 600 feet long. (Rennie's Peking, II. 57.)
Ramusio specifies another lake in the city, fed by the same stream
before it enters the palace, and used by the public for watering cattle.
["The lake which Marco Polo saw is the same as the T'ai-yi ch'i of our
days. It has, however, changed a little in its form. This lake and also
its name T'ai-yi ch'i date from the twelfth century, at which time an
Emperor of the Kin first gave orders to collect together the water of some
springs in the hills, where now the summer palaces stand, and to conduct
it to a place north of his capital, where pleasure gardens were laid out.
The river which enters the lake and issues from it exists still, under its
ancient name Kin-shui." (Bretschneider, Peking, 34.) - H. C.]
NOTE 12. - The expression here is in the Geog. Text, "Roze de l'acur,"
and in Pauthier's "de rose et de l'asur." Rose Minerale, in the
terminology of the alchemists, was a red powder produced in the
sublimation of gold and mercury, but I can find no elucidation of the term
Rose of Azure. The Crusca Italian has in the same place Terra dello
Azzurro. Having ventured to refer the question to the high authority of
Mr. C. W. King, he expresses the opinion that Roze here stands for
Roche, and that probably the term Roche de l'azur may have been used
loosely for blue-stone, i.e. carbonate of copper, which would assume a
green colour through moisture. He adds: "Nero, according to Pliny,
actually used chrysocolla, the siliceous carbonate of copper, in powder,
for strewing the circus, to give the course the colour of his favourite
faction, the prasine (or green). There may be some analogy between this
device and that of Kublai Khan." This parallel is a very happy one.
[Illustration: Mei Shan]
NOTE 13. - Friar Odoric gives a description, short, but closely agreeing in
substance with that in the Text, of the Palace, the Park, the Lake, and
the Green Mount.
A green mount, answering to the description, and about 160 feet in height,
stands immediately in rear of the palace buildings. It is called by the
Chinese King-Shan, "Court Mountain," Wan-su-Shan, "Ten Thousand Year
Mount," and Mei-Shan, "Coal Mount," the last from the material of which
it is traditionally said to be composed (as a provision of fuel in case of
siege).[1] Whether this is Kublai's Green Mount does not seem to be quite
certain. Dr. Lockhart tells me that, according to the information he
collected when living at Peking, it is not so, but was formed by the Ming
Emperors from the excavation of the existing lake on the site which the
Mongol Palace had occupied. There is another mount, he adds, adjoining the
east shore of the lake, which must be of older date even than Kublai, for
a Dagoba standing on it is ascribed to the Kin.
[The "Green Mount" was an island called K'iung-hua at the time of the
Kin; in 1271 it received the name of Wan-sui shan; it is about 100 feet
in height, and is the only hill mentioned by Chinese writers of the Mongol
time who refer to the palace grounds. It is not the present King-shan,
north of the palace, called also Wan-sui-shan under the Ming, and now
the Mei-shan, of more recent formation. "I have no doubt," says
Bretschneider (Peking, l.c. 35), "that Marco Polo's handsome palace on
the top of the Green Mount is the same as the Kuang-han tien" of the
Ch'ue keng lu. It was a hall in which there was a jar of black jade, big
enough to hold more than 30 piculs of wine; this jade had white veins, and
in accordance with these veins, fish and animals have been carved on the
jar. (Ibid. 35.) "The Ku kung i lu, in describing the Wan-sui-shan,
praises the beautiful shady green of the vegetation there." (Ibid. 37.)
- H. C.]
["Near the eastern end of the bridge (Kin-ao yue-tung which crosses the
lake) the visitor sees a circular wall, which is called yuean ch'eng
(round wall). It is about 350 paces in circuit.
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