This is done indeed with the Emperor's cognizance, but still
the orders are issued on their authority. They are styled SHIENG, which is
as much as to say "The Supreme Court," and the palace where they abide is
also called Shieng. This body forms the highest authority at the Court
of the Great Kaan; and indeed they can favour and advance whom they will.
I will not now name the thirty-four provinces to you, because they will be
spoken of in detail in the course of this Book.[NOTE 1]
NOTE 1. - Pauthier's extracts from the Chinese Annals of the Dynasty, in
illustration of this subject, are interesting. These, as he represents
them, show the Council of Ministers usually to have consisted of twelve
high officials, viz.: two Ch'ing-siang [Chinese] or (chief) ministers of
state, one styled, "of the Right," and the other "of the Left"; four
called P'ing-chang ching-sse, which seems to mean something like
ministers in charge of special departments; four assistant ministers; two
Counsellors.
Rashiduddin, however, limits the Council to the first two classes:
"Strictly speaking, the Council of State is composed of four Ch'ing-sang
(Ch'ing-siang) or great officers (Wazirs he afterwards terms them),
and four Fanchan (P'ing-chang) or associated members, taken from the
nations of the Tajiks, Cathayans, Ighurs, and Arkaun" (i.e. Nestorian
Christians). (Compare p. 418, supra.)
[A Samarkand man, Seyyd Tadj Eddin Hassan ben el Khallal, quoted in the
Masalak al Absar, says: "Near the Khan are two amirs who are his
ministers; they are called Djing San [Arabic] (Ch'ing-siang). After them
come the two Bidjan [Arabic] (P'ing Chang), then the two Zoudjin
[Arabic] (Tso Chen), then the two Yudjin [Arabic] (Yu Chen), and at last
the Landjun [Arabic] (Lang Chang), head of the scribes, and secretary of
the sovereign. The Khan holds a sitting every day in the middle of a large
building called Chen [Arabic] (Sheng), which is very like our Palace of
Justice." (C. Schefer, Cent. Ec. Langues Or., pp. 18-19.) - H. C.]
In a later age we find the twelve Barons reappearing in the pages of
Mendoza: "The King hath in this city of Tabin (Peking), where he is
resident, a royal council of twelve counsellors and a president, chosen
men throughout all the kingdom, and such as have had experience in
government many years." And also in the early centuries of the Christian
era we hear that the Khan of the Turks had his twelve grandees, divided
into those of the Right and those of the Left, probably a copy from a
Chinese order then also existing.
But to return to Rashiduddin: "As the Kaan generally resides at the
capital, he has erected a place for the sittings of the Great Council,
called Sing.... The dignitaries mentioned above are expected to attend
daily at the Sing, and to make themselves acquainted with all that passes
there."
The Sing of Rashid is evidently the Shieng or Sheng (Scieng) of Polo.
M. Pauthier is on this point somewhat contemptuous towards Neumann, who,
he says, confounds Marco Polo's twelve Barons or Ministers of State with
the chiefs of the twelve great provincial governments called Sing, who
had their residence at the chief cities of those governments; whilst in
fact Polo's Scieng (he asserts) has nothing to do with the Sing, but
represents the Chinese word Siang "a minister," and "the office of a
minister." [There was no doubt a confusion between Siang [Chinese] and
Sheng [Chinese]. - H. C.]
It is very probable that two different words, Siang and Sing, got
confounded by the non-Chinese attaches of the Imperial Court; but it seems
to me quite certain that they applied the same word, Sing or Sheng, to
both institutions, viz.
