M. Pauthier, From Certain Indications In A Chinese Work, Fixes On
Chiangmai Or Kiang-Mai, The Zimme Of The Burmese (In About Latitude 18 Deg.
48' And Long.
99 deg.
30') as the capital of the Papesifu and of the
Caugigu of our text. It can scarcely however be the latter, unless we
throw over entirely all the intervals stated in Polo's itinerary; and M.
Garnier informs me that he has evidence that the capital of the Papesifu at
this time was Muang-Yong, a little to the south-east of Kiang-Tung, where
he has seen its ruins.[1] That the people called by the Chinese Papesifu
were of the great race of Laotians, Shans, or Thai, is very certain, from
the vocabulary of their language published by Klaproth.
[Illustration: Script Pa-pe.]
Pauthier's Chinese authority gives a puerile interpretation of Papesifu
as signifying "the kingdom of the 800 wives," and says it was called so
because the Prince maintained that establishment. This may be an
indication that there were popular stories about the numerous wives of the
King of Laos, such as Polo had heard; but the interpretation is doubtless
rubbish, like most of the so-called etymologies of proper names applied by
the Chinese to foreign regions. At best these seem to be merely a kind of
Memoria Technica, and often probably bear no more relation to the name
in its real meaning than Swift's All-eggs-under-the-grate bears to
Alexander Magnus. How such "etymologies" arise is obvious from the nature
of the Chinese system of writing.
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