'The city of "Zen gi an",' says Ramusio, 'is built upon
a hill that stands isolated in the river, which latter, by dividing itself
into two branches, appears to embrace it. These streams take opposite
directions: one of them pursuing its course to the south-east and the
other to the north-west.' Fortune, in his Wanderings in China (vol. li.
p. 139), calls Lan-Khi, Nan-Che-hien, and says: 'It is built on the banks
of the river, and has a picturesque hill behind it.' Milne, who also
visited it, mentions it in his Life in China (p. 258), and says: 'At the
southern end of the suburbs of Lan-Ki the river divides into two branches,
the one to the left on south-east leading direct to Kinhua.' Milne's
description of the place is almost identical with Polo's, when speaking of
the division of the river. There are in Fuchau several Lan-Khi
shopkeepers, who deal in hams, dates, etc., and these men tell me the city
from the river has the appearance of being built on a hill, but the houses
on the hill are chiefly temples. I would divide the name as follows, Zen
gi an; the last syllable an most probably represents the modern Hien,
meaning District city, which in ancient Chinese was pronounced Han,
softened by the Italians into an. Lan-Khi was a Hien in Polo's day."
- H.C.]
Kin-hwa fu, as Pauthier has observed, bore at this time the name of
WU-CHAU, which Polo would certainly write Vugiu. And between Shao-hing
and Kin-hwa there exists, as Baron Richthofen has pointed out, a line of
depression which affords an easy connection between Shao-hing and Lan-ki
hien or Kin-hwa fu. This line is much used by travellers, and forms just 3
short stages. Hence Kin-hwa, a fine city destroyed by the T'ai-P'ings, is
satisfactorily identified with Vugiu.
The journey from Vugui to Ghiuju is said to be through a succession of
towns and villages, looking like a continuous city. Fortune, whose journey
occurred before the T'ai-P'ing devastations, speaks of the approach to
Kiu-chau as a vast and beautiful garden. And Mr. Milne's map of this route
shows an incomparable density of towns in the Ts'ien T'ang valley from
Yen-chau up to Kiu-chau. Ghiuju then will be KIU-CHAU. But between
Kiu-chau and Chang-shan it is impossible to make four days: barely possible
to make two. My map (Itineraries, No. VI.), based on D'Anville and
Fortune, makes the direct distance 24 miles; Milne's map barely 18;
whilst from his book we deduce the distance travelled by water to be about
30. On the whole, it seems probable that there is a mistake in the figure
here.
[Illustration: Marco Polo's route from Kinsai to ZAITUN, illustrating Mr.
G. Phillips' theory.]
From the head of the great Che-kiang valley I find two roads across the
mountains into Fo-kien described.
One leads from Kiang-shan (not Chang-shan) by a town called Ching-hu,
and then, nearly due south, across the mountains to Pu-ch'eng in Upper
Fo-kien. This is specified by Martini (p. 113): it seems to have been
followed by the Dutch Envoy, Van Hoorn, in 1665 (see Astley, III. 463),
and it was travelled by Fortune on his return from the Bohea country to
Ningpo. (II. 247, 271.)
The other route follows the portage spoken of above from Chang-shan to
Yuh-shan, and descends the river on that side to Hokeu, whence it
strikes south-east across the mountains to Tsung-ngan-hien in Fo-kien.
This route was followed by Fortune on his way to the Bohea country.
Both from Pu-ch'eng on the former route, and from near Tsung-ngan on the
latter, the waters are navigable down to Kien-ning fu and so to Fu-chau.
Mr. Fortune judges the first to have been Polo's route. There does not,
however, seem to be on this route any place that can be identified with
his Cuju or Chuju. Ching-hu seems to be insignificant, and the name has no
resemblance. On the other route followed by Mr. Fortune himself from that
side we have Kwansin fu, Hokeu, Yen-shan, and (last town passed on that
side) Chuchu. The latter, as to both name and position, is quite
satisfactory, but it is described as a small poor town. Hokeu would be
represented in Polo's spelling as Caghiu or Cughiu. It is now a place of
great population and importance as the entrepot of the Black Tea Trade,
but, like many important commercial cities in the interior, not being even
a hien it has no place either in Duhalde or in Biot, and I cannot learn
its age.
It is no objection to this line that Polo speaks of Cuju or Chuju as the
last city of the government of Kinsay, whilst the towns just named are in
Kiang-si. For Kiang-Che, the province of Kinsay, then included the
eastern part of Kiang-si. (See Cathay, p. 270.)
[Mr. Phillips writes (T. Pao, I. 223-224): "Eighty-five li beyond
Lan-ki hien is Lung-yin, a place not mentioned by Polo, and another
ninety-five li still further on is Chuechau or Keuchau, which is, I
think, the Gie-za of Ramusio, and the Cuju of Yule's version. Polo
describes it as the last city of the government of Kinsai (Che-kiang) in
this direction. It is the last Prefectural city, but ninety li beyond
Chue-chau, on the road to Pu-cheng, is Kiang-shan, a district city which
is the last one in this direction. Twenty li from Kiang-shan is Ching-hu,
the head of the navigation of the T'sien-T'ang river. Here one hires chairs
and coolies for the journey over the Sien-hia Pass to Pu-cheng, a distance
of 215 li.
