It Would Seem, However,
That The Term Adhered Long As A Quasi-Proper Name To Hang-Chau; For In The
Chinese Atlas, dating from 1595, which the traveller Carletti presented to
the Magliabecchian Library, that city appears to be still
Marked with this
name, transcribed by Carletti as Camse; very near the form Campsay
used by Marignolli in the 14th century.
[Illustration: The ancient Lun ho-ta Pagoda at Hang-chau.]
NOTE 2. - +The Ramusian version says: "Messer Marco Polo was frequently at
this city, and took great pains to learn everything about it, writing down
the whole in his notes." The information being originally derived from a
Chinese document, there might be some ground for supposing that 100 miles
of circuit stood for 100 li. Yet the circuit of the modern city is
stated in the official book called Hang-chau Fu-Chi or topographical
history of Hang-chau, at only 35 li. And the earliest record of the
wall, as built under the Sui by Yang-su (before A.D. 606), makes its
extent little more (36 li and 90 paces.)[1] But the wall was
reconstructed by Ts'ien Kiao, feudal prince of the region, during the
reign of Chao Tsung, one of the last emperors of the T'ang Dynasty (892),
so as to embrace the Luh-ho-ta Pagoda, on a high bluff over the Tsien-tang
River,[2] 15 li distant from the present south gate, and had then a
circuit of 70 li. Moreover, in 1159, after the city became the capital
of the Sung emperors, some further extension was given to it, so that,
even exclusive of the suburbs, the circuit of the city may have been not
far short of 100 li. When the city was in its glory under the Sung, the
Luh-ho-ta Pagoda may be taken as marking the extreme S.W. Another known
point marks approximately the chief north gate of that period, at a mile
and a half or two miles beyond the present north wall. The S.E. angle was
apparently near the river bank. But, on the other hand, the waist of the
city seems to have been a good deal narrower than it now is. Old
descriptions compare its form to that of a slender-waisted drum (dice-box
or hour-glass shape).
Under the Mongols the walls were allowed to decay; and in the disturbed
years that closed that dynasty (1341-1368) they were rebuilt by an
insurgent chief on a greatly reduced compass, probably that which they
still retain. Whatever may have been the facts, and whatever the origin of
the estimate, I imagine that the ascription of 100 miles of circuit to
Kinsay had become popular among Westerns. Odoric makes the same statement.
Wassaf calls it 24 parasangs, which will not be far short of the same
amount. Ibn Batuta calls the length of the city three days' journey.
Rashiduddin says the enceinte had a diameter of 11 parasangs, and that
there were three post stages between the two extremities of the city,
which is probably what Ibn Batuta had heard.
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