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.

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