He Reconstructed This Bridge, Adding Strong
Embankments To Prevent Injury By Floods.
He also built the fine bridge over
the Liu Li Ho, the Cho Chou Bridge over the Chue Ma Ho.
What cannot be
explained is Polo's statement that the bridge had twenty-four arches, when
the oldest accounts give no more than thirteen, there being eleven at the
present time. The columns which supported the balustrade in Polo's time
rested upon the loins of sculptured lions. The account of the lions after
the bridge was repaired by Kia Tsing says that there are so many that it is
impossible to count them correctly, and gossip about the bridge says that
several persons have lost their minds in making the attempt. The little
walled city on the east end of the bridge, rightly called Kung Chi,
popularly called Fei Ch'eng, is a monument to Ts'ung Ch'eng, the last of
the Ming, who built it, hoping to check the advance of Li Tzu ch'eng, the
great robber chief who finally proved too strong for him." - H.C.]
The Bridge of Lu-kou is mentioned more than once in the history of the
conquest of North China by Chinghiz. It was the scene of a notable mutiny
of the troops of the Kin Dynasty in 1215, which induced Chinghiz to break
a treaty just concluded, and led to his capture of Peking.
This bridge was begun, according to Klaproth, in 1189, and was five years
a-building. On the 17th August, 1688, as Magaillans tells us, a great flood
carried away two arches of the bridge, and the remainder soon fell. [Father
Intorcetta, quoted by Bretschneider (Peking, p. 53), gives the 25th of
July, 1668, as the date of the destruction of the bridge, which agrees well
with the Chinese accounts. - H.C.] The bridge was renewed, but with only
nine arches instead of thirteen, as appears from the following note of
personal observation with which Dr. Lockhart has favoured me:
"At 27 li from Peking, by the western road leaving the gate of the
Chinese city called Kwang-'an-man, after passing the old walled town of
Feuchen, you reach the bridge of Lo-Ku-Kiao. As it now stands it is a
very long bridge of nine arches (real arches) spanning the valley of the
Hwan Ho, and surrounded by beautiful scenery. The bridge is built of green
sandstone, and has a good balustrade with short square pilasters crowned by
small lions. It is in very good repair, and has a ceaseless traffic, being
on the road to the coal-mines which supply the city. There is a pavilion at
each end of the bridge with inscriptions, the one recording that K'anghi
(1662-1723) built the bridge, and the other that Kienlung (1736-1796)
repaired it." These circumstances are strictly consistent with
Magaillans' account of the destruction of the mediaeval bridge. Williamson
describes the present bridge as about 700 feet long, and 12 feet wide in
the middle part.
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