These customs should never
be forgotten.' After such instruction, we are prepared to find fifty-eight
temples of
Every variety in this little city of about 20,000 inhabitants.
There is a temple to the spirits of Wind, Clouds, Thunder, and Rain, to the
god of silk-workers, to the Horse-god, to the god of locusts, and the eight
destructive insects, to the Five Dragons, to the King who quiets the waves.
Besides these, there are all the orthodox temples to the ancient worthies,
and some modern heroes. Liu Pei and Chang Fei, two of the three great
heroes of the San Kuo Chih, being natives of Cho Chou, are each honoured
with two temples, one in the native village, and one in the city. It is not
often that one locality can give to a great empire two of its three most
popular heroes: Liu Pei, Chang Fei, Kuan Yu."
"Judging from the condition of the country," writes the Rev. W.S. Ament
(p. 120), "one could hardly believe that this general region was the
original home of the silk-worm, and doubtless the people who once lived
here are the only people who ever saw the silk-worm in his wild state. The
historian of Cho-Chou honestly remarks that he knows of no reason why the
production of silk should have ceased there, except the fact that the worms
refused to live there.... The palmy days of the silk industry were in the
T'ang dynasty." - H.C.]
NOTE 3. - "About a li from the southern suburbs of this town, the great
road to Shantung and the south-east diverged, causing an immediate
diminution in the number of carts and travellers" (Oxenham). [From Peking
"to Cheng-ting fu, says Colonel Bell (Proc.R.G.S., XII. 1890, p. 58), the
route followed is the Great Southern highway; here the Great Central Asian
highway leaves it." The Rev. W.S. Ament says (l.c., 121) about the
bifurcation of the road, one branch going on south-west to Pao-Ting fu and
Shan-si, and one branch to Shantung and Ho-nan: "The union of the two roads
at this point, bringing the travel and traffic of ten provinces, makes Cho
Chou one of the most important cities in the Empire. The magistrate of this
district is the only one, so far as we know, in the Empire who is relieved
of the duty of welcoming and escorting transient officers. It was the
multiplicity of such duties, so harassing, that persuaded Fang Kuan-ch'eng
to write the couplet on one of the city gateways: Jih pien ch'ung yao, wu
shuang ti: T'ien hsia fan nan, ti yi Chou. 'In all the world, there is no
place so public as this: for multiplied cares and trials, this is the first
Chou.' The people of Cho-Chou, of old celebrated for their religious
spirit, are now well known for their literary enterprise." - H.C.] This
bifurcation of the roads is a notable point in Polo's book.
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