In
These Chambers Were Quartered One Thousand Young Ladies In The Service Of
The King.
The King would sometimes go with the Queen and some of these
maidens to take his diversion on the Lake, or to visit the Idol-temples,
in boats all canopied with silk.
The other two parts of the enclosure were distributed in groves, and
lakes, and charming gardens planted with fruit-trees, and preserves for
all sorts of animals, such as roe, red-deer, fallow-deer, hares, and
rabbits. Here the King used to take his pleasure in company with those
damsels of his; some in carriages, some on horseback, whilst no man was
permitted to enter. Sometimes the King would set the girls a-coursing
after the game with dogs, and when they were tired they would hie to the
groves that overhung the lakes, and leaving their clothes there they would
come forth naked and enter the water and swim about hither and thither,
whilst it was the King's delight to watch them; and then all would return
home. Sometimes the King would have his dinner carried to those groves,
which were dense with lofty trees, and there would be waited on by those
young ladies. And thus he passed his life in this constant dalliance with
women, without so much as knowing what arms meant! And the result
of all this cowardice and effeminacy was that he lost his dominion to the
Great Kaan in that base and shameful way that you have heard.[NOTE 11]
All this account was given me by a very rich merchant of Kinsay when I was
in that city. He was a very old man, and had been in familiar intimacy
with the King Facfur, and knew the whole history of his life; and having
seen the Palace in its glory was pleased to be my guide over it. As it is
occupied by the King appointed by the Great Kaan, the first pavilions are
still maintained as they used to be, but the apartments of the ladies are
all gone to ruin and can only just be traced. So also the wall that
enclosed the groves and gardens is fallen down, and neither trees nor
animals are there any longer.[NOTE 12]]
NOTE 1. - I have, after some consideration, followed the example of Mr. H.
Murray, in his edition of Marco Polo, in collecting together in a
separate chapter a number of additional particulars concerning the Great
City, which are only found in Ramusio. Such of these as could be
interpolated in the text of the older form of the narrative have been
introduced between brackets in the last chapter. Here I bring together
those particulars which could not be so interpolated without taking
liberties with one or both texts.
The picture in Ramusio, taken as a whole, is so much more brilliant,
interesting, and complete than in the older texts, that I thought of
substituting it entirely for the other. But so much doubt and difficulty
hangs over some passages of the Ramusian version that I could not
satisfy myself of the propriety of this, though I feel that the
dismemberment inflicted on that version is also objectionable.
NOTE 2. - The tides in the Hang-chau estuary are now so furious, entering
in the form of a bore, and running sometimes, by Admiral Collinson's
measurement, 11-1/2 knots, that it has been necessary to close by weirs
the communication which formerly existed between the River Tsien-tang on
the one side and the Lake Si-hu and internal waters of the district on the
other. Thus all cargoes are passed through the small city canal in barges,
and are subject to transhipment at the river-bank, and at the great canal
terminus outside the north gate, respectively. Mr. Kingsmill, to whose
notices I am indebted for part of this information, is, however, mistaken
in supposing that in Polo's time the tide stopped some 20 miles below the
city. We have seen (note 6, ch. lxv. supra) that the tide in the river
before Kinsay was the object which first attracted the attention of Bayan,
after his triumphant entrance into the city. The tides reach Fuyang, 20
miles higher. (N. and Q., China and Japan, vol. I. p. 53; Mid. Kingd.
I. 95, 106; J.N.Ch.Br.R.A.S., December, 1865, p. 6; Milne, p. 295;
Note by Mr. Moule).
[Miss E. Scidmore writes (China, p. 294): "There are only three wonders
of the world in China - The Demons at Tungchow, the Thunder at Lungchow,
and the Great Tide at Hangchow, the last, the greatest of all, and a
living wonder to this day of 'the open door,' while its rivals are lost in
myth and oblivion.... The Great Bore charges up the narrowing river at a
speed of ten and thirteen miles an hour, with a roar that can be heard for
an hour before it arrives." - H.C.]
NOTE 3. - For satisfactory elucidation as to what is or may have been
authentic in these statements, we shall have to wait for a correct survey
of Hang-chau and its neighbourhood. We have already seen strong reason to
suppose that miles have been substituted for li in the circuits
assigned both to the city and to the lake, and we are yet more strongly
impressed with the conviction that the same substitution has been made
here in regard to the canal on the east of the city, as well as the
streets and market-places spoken of in the next paragraph.
Chinese plans of Hang-chau do show a large canal encircling the city on
the east and north, i.e., on the sides away from the lake. In some of
them this is represented like a ditch to the rampart, but in others it is
more detached. And the position of the main street, with its parallel
canal, does answer fairly to the account in the next paragraph, setting
aside the extravagant dimensions.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 104 of 360
Words from 105172 to 106175
of 370046
