It Is Supposed By Klaproth That KANP'U Was The Port Frequented By The
Early Arab Voyagers, And Of Which They Speak Under The Name Of Khanfu,
Confounding In Their Details Hang-Chau Itself With The Port.
Neumann
dissents from this, maintaining that the Khanfu of the Arabs was certainly
Canton.
Abulfeda, however, states expressly that Khanfu was known in his
day as Khansa (i.e. Kinsay), and he speaks of its lake of fresh water
called Sikhu (Si-hu). [Abulfeda has in fact two Khanqu (Khanfu): Khansa
with the lake which is Kinsay, and one Khanfu which is probably Canton.
(See Guyard's transl., II., ii., 122-124.) - H.C.] There seems to be an
indication in Chinese records that a southern branch of the Great Kiang
once entered the sea at Kanp'u; the closing of it is assigned to the 7th
century, or a little later.
[Dr. F. Hirth writes (Jour. Roy. As. Soc., 1896, pp. 68-69): "For
centuries Canton must have been the only channel through which foreign
trade was permitted; for it is not before the year 999 that we read of the
appointment of Inspectors of Trade at Hang-chou and Ming-chou. The latter
name is identified with Ning-po." Dr. Hirth adds in a note: "This is in my
opinion the principal reason why the port of Khanfu, mentioned by the
earliest Muhammadan travellers, or authors (Soleiman, Abu Zeid, and
Macoudi), cannot be identified with Hang-chou. The report of Soleiman, who
first speaks of Khanfu, was written in 851, and in those days Canton was
apparently the only port open to foreign trade. Marco Polo's Ganfu is a
different port altogether, viz. Kan-fu, or Kan-pu, near Hang-chou, and
should not be confounded with Khanfu." - H.C.]
The changes of the Great Kiang do not seem to have attracted so much
attention among the Chinese as those of the dangerous Hwang-Ho, nor does
their history seem to have been so carefully recorded. But a paper of
great interest on the subject was published by Mr. Edkins, in the Journal
of the North China Branch of the R.A.S. for September 1860 [pp. 77-84],
which I know only by an abstract given by the late Comte d'Escayrac de
Lauture. From this it would seem that about the time of our era the
Yang-tzu Kiang had three great mouths. The most southerly of these was the
Che-Kiang, which is said to have given its name to the Province still so
called, of which Hang-chau is the capital. This branch quitted the present
channel at Chi-chau, passed by Ning-Kwe and Kwang-te, communicating with
the southern end of a great group of lakes which occupied the position of
the T'ai-Hu, and so by Shih-men and T'ang-si into the sea not far from
Shao-hing. The second branch quitted the main channel at Wu-hu, passed by
I-hing (or I-shin) communicating with the northern end of the T'ai-Hu
(passed apparently by Su-chau), and then bifurcated, one arm entering the
sea at Wu-sung, and the other at Kanp'u. The third, or northerly branch is
that which forms the present channel of the Great Kiang.
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