Be drawn from Kiang-nan, the distress and derangement caused
by the recent rebel occupation of that province must have been enormous.
(Pauthier, p. 481-482; De Mailla, p. 439.) Polo's account of the
formation of the canal is exceedingly accurate. Compare that given by Mr.
Williamson (I. 62).
NOTE 3. - "On the Kiang, not far from the mouth, is that remarkably
beautiful little island called the 'Golden Isle,' surmounted by numerous
temples inhabited by the votaries of Buddha or Fo, and very correctly
described so many centuries since by Marco Polo." (Davis's Chinese, I.
149.) The monastery, according to Pauthier, was founded in the 3rd or 4th
century, but the name Kin-Shan, or "Golden Isle," dates only from a
visit of the Emperor K'ang-hi in 1684.
The monastery contained one of the most famous Buddhist libraries in
China. This was in the hands of our troops during the first China war,
and, as it was intended to remove the books, there was no haste made in
examining their contents. Meanwhile peace came, and the library was
restored. It is a pity now that the jus belli had not been exercised
promptly, for the whole establishment was destroyed by the T'ai-P'ings in
1860, and, with the exception of the Pagoda at the top of the hill, which
was left in a dilapidated state, not one stone of the buildings remained
upon another. The rock had also then ceased to be an island; and the site
of what not many years before had been a channel with four fathoms of
water separating it from the southern shore, was covered by flourishing
cabbage-gardens. (Guetzlaff in J.R.A.S. XII. 87; Mid. Kingd. I.
84, 86; Oliphant's Narrative, II. 301; N. and Q. Ch. and Jap. No. 5,
p. 58.)
CHAPTER LXXIII.
OF THE CITY OF CHINGHIANFU.
Chinghianfu is a city of Manzi. The people are Idolaters and subject to
the Great Kaan, and have paper-money, and live by handicrafts and trade.
They have plenty of silk, from which they make sundry kinds of stuffs of
silk and gold. There are great and wealthy merchants in the place; plenty
of game is to be had, and of all kinds of victual.
[Illustration: West Gate of Chin-kiang fu in 1842.]
There are in this city two churches of Nestorian Christians which were
established in the year of our Lord 1278; and I will tell you how that
happened. You see, in the year just named, the Great Kaan sent a Baron of
his whose name was MAR SARGHIS, a Nestorian Christian, to be governor of
this city for three years. And during the three years that he abode there
he caused these two Christian churches to be built, and since then there
they are.
