H.C. Du Bose, Chin.
Rec., xix. p. 205.) It has greatly recovered since the T'ai-P'ing
rebellion, and its recapture by General (then Major) Gordon on the 27th
November 1863; Su-chau has been declared open to foreign trade on the 26th
September 1896, under the provisions of the Japanese Treaty of 1895.
"The great trade of Soochow is silk. In the silk stores are found about
100 varieties of satin, and 200 kinds of silks and gauzes.... The weavers
are divided into two guilds, the Nankin and Suchau, and have together
about 7000 looms. Thousands of men and women are engaged in reeling the
thread." (Rev. H.C. Du Bose, Chin. Rec., xix. pp. 275-276.) - H.C.]
[Illustration: CITY OF SUCHAU
Reduced to 1/10 the scale from a Rubbing of a PLAN incised on MARBLE
AD MCCXLVII, & preserved in the GREAT TEMPLE of CONFUCIUS at SUCHAU]
NOTE 2. - I believe we must not bring Marco to book for the literal
accuracy of his statements as to the bridges; but all travellers have
noticed the number and elegance of the bridges of cut stone in this part
of China; see, for instance, Van Braam, II. 107, 119-120, 124, 126;
and Deguignes I. 47, who gives a particular account of the arches.
These are said to be often 50 or 60 feet in span.
["Within the city there are, generally speaking, six canals from North to
South, and six canals from East to West, intersecting one another at from
a quarter to half a mile. There are a hundred and fifty or two hundred
bridges at intervals of two or three hundred yards; some of these with
arches, others with stone slabs thrown across, many of which are twenty
feet in length. The canals are from ten to fifteen feet wide and faced with
stone." (Rev. H.C. Du Bose, Chin. Rec., xix., 1888, p. 207). - H.C.]
[Illustration: South-West Gate and Water-Gate of Su-chau; facsimile on half
the scale from a mediaeval Map, incised on Marble, A.D. 1247.]
NOTE 3. - This statement about the abundance of rhubarb in the hills near
Su-chau is believed by the most competent authorities to be quite
erroneous. Rhubarb is exported from Shang-hai, but it is brought
thither from Hankau on the Upper Kiang, and Hankau receives it from the
further west. Indeed Mr. Hanbury, in a note on the subject, adds his
disbelief also that ginger is produced in Kiang-nan. And I see in
the Shang-hai trade-returns of 1865, that there is no ginger among
the exports. [Green ginger is mentioned in the Shang-hai Trade Reports for
1900 among the exports (p. 309) to the amount of 18,756 piculs; none is
mentioned at Su-chau.
