Or Kia cheng, built after
1256, and Tacheng, the "Great City," built in 1175; in 1357, Ta cheng
was rebuilt, and in 1557 it was augmented, taking the place of the three
cities; from 553 B.C. until the 12th century, Yang-chau had no less than
five enclosures; the governor's yamen stood where a cross is marked in the
Great City. Since Yang-chau has been laid in ruins by the T'ai-P'ing
insurgents, these plans offer now a new interest. - H.C.]
[Illustration: Yang-chau: the Great City under the Sung.]
NOTE 3. - What I have rendered "Twelve Sings" is in the G.T. "douze
sajes," and in Pauthier's text "sieges." It seems to me a reasonable
conclusion that the original word was Sings (see I. 432, supra);
anyhow that was the proper term for the thing meant.
In his note on this chapter, Pauthier produces evidence that Yang-chau was
the seat of a Lu or circuit[1] from 1277, and also of a Sing or
Government-General, but only for the first year after the conquest, viz.
1276-1277, and he seems (for his argument is obscure) to make from this
the unreasonable deduction that at this period Kublai placed Marco
Polo - who could not be more than twenty-three years of age, and had been
but two years in Cathay - in charge either of the general government, or of
an important district government in the most important province of the
empire.
