The Chinese extracts give no idea of
the temporary completeness of the conquest, nor do they mention Great Pagan
(lat. 21 deg. 13'), a city whose vast remains I have endeavoured partially
to describe.[2] Sir Arthur Phayre, from a careful perusal of the Burmese
Chronicle, assures me that there can be no doubt that this was at the
time in question the Burmese Royal Residence, and the city alluded to in
the Burmese narrative. M. Pauthier is mistaken in supposing that
Tarok-Mau, the turning-point of the Chinese Invasion, lay north of this
city: he has not unnaturally confounded it with Tarok-Myo or
"China-Town," a district not far below Ava. Moreover Male, the position of
the decisive victory of the Chinese, is itself much to the south of Tagaung
(about 22 deg. 55').
Both Pagan and Male are mentioned in a remarkable Chinese notice extracted
in Amyot's Memoires (XIV. 292): "Mien-Tien ... had five chief towns, of
which the first was Kiangtheu (supra, pp. 105, 111), the second
Taikung, the third Malai, the fourth Ngan-cheng-kwe (? perhaps the
Nga-tshaung gyan of the Burmese Annals), the fifth PUKAN MIEN-WANG
(Pagan of the Mien King?). The Yuen carried war into this country,
particularly during the reign of Shun-Ti, the last Mongol Emperor
[1333-1368], who, after subjugating it, erected at Pukan Mien-Wang a
tribunal styled Hwen-wei-she-se, the authority of which extended over
Pang-ya and all its dependencies." This is evidently founded on actual
documents, for Panya or Pengya, otherwise styled Vijayapura, was the
capital of Burma during part of the 14th century, between the decay of
Pagan and the building of Ava.
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