The people are
Idolaters, &c., and they live by trade and manufactures. They make great
quantities of sendal of different kinds, and they have much game in the
neighbourhood. There is however nothing more to say about the place, so we
shall now proceed.[NOTE 5]
NOTE 1. - SUJU is of course the celebrated city of SU-CHAU in Kiang-nan -
before the rebellion brought ruin on it, the Paris of China. "Everything
remarkable was alleged to come from it; fine pictures, fine carved-work,
fine silks, and fine ladies!" (Fortune, I. 186.) When the Emperor
K'ang-hi visited Su-chau, the citizens laid the streets with carpets and
silk stuffs, but the Emperor dismounted and made his train do the like.
(Davis, I. 186.)
[Su-chau is situated 80 miles west of Shang-hai, 12 miles east of the
Great Lake, and 40 miles south of the Kiang, in the plain between this
river and Hang-chau Bay. It was the capital of the old kingdom of Wu which
was independent from the 12th to the 4th centuries (B.C.) inclusive; it
was founded by Wu Tzu-su, prime minister of King Hoh Lue (514-496 B.C.),
who removed the capital of Wu from Mei-li (near the modern Ch'ang-chau) to
the new site now occupied by the city of Su-chau.
