Many
of them bear to my mind clear evidence of being his own, and I do not see
that the present one may not be his. The picture conveyed of the ruined
walls and half-obliterated buildings does, it is true, give the impression
of a long interval between their abandonment and the traveller's visit,
whilst the whole interval between the capture of the city and Polo's
departure from China was not more than fifteen or sixteen years. But this
is too vague a basis for theorising.
Mr. Moule has ascertained by maps of the Sung period, and by a variety of
notices in the Topographies, that the palace lay to the south and
south-east of the present city, and included a large part of the fine hills
called Fung-hwang Shan or Phoenix Mount,[5] and other names, whilst its
southern gate opened near the Ts'ien-T'ang River. Its north gate is
supposed to have been the Fung Shan Gate of the present city, and the chief
street thus formed the avenue to the palace.
By the kindness of Messrs. Moule and Wylie, I am able to give a copy of
the Sung Map of the Palace (for origin of which see list of
illustrations). I should note that the orientation is different from that
of the map of the city already given. This map elucidates Polo's account
of the palace in a highly interesting manner.
[Father H. Havret has given in p. 21 of Varietes Sinologiques, No. 19, a
complete study of the inscription of a chwang, nearly similar to the one
given here, which is erected near Ch'eng-tu. - H.C.]
Before quitting KINSAY, the description of which forms the most striking
feature in Polo's account of China, it is worth while to quote other
notices from authors of nearly the same age. However exaggerated some of
these may be, there can be little doubt that it was the greatest city then
existing in the world.
[Illustration: Stone Chwang, or Umbrella Column, on site of "Brahma's
Temple," Hang-chau.]
[Illustration: South Part of KING-SZE, with the SUNG PALACE, from a
Chinese reprint of a Plan dated circa A.D. 1270]
Friar Odoric (in China about 1324-1327): - "Departing thence I came unto
the city of CANSAY, a name which signifieth the 'City of Heaven.' And
'tis the greatest city in the whole world, so great indeed that I should
scarcely venture to tell of it, but that I have met at Venice people in
plenty who have been there. It is a good hundred miles in compass, and
there is not in it a span of ground which is not well peopled. And many a
tenement is there which shall have 10 or 12 households comprised in it.
And there be also great suburbs which contain a greater population than
even the city itself.... This city is situated upon lagoons of standing
water, with canals like the city of Venice.
