After you have travelled those 20 days through the mountains of CUNCUN
that I have mentioned, then you come to a province called ACBALEC MANZI,
which is all level country, with plenty of towns and villages, and belongs
to the Great Kaan. The people are Idolaters, and live by trade and
industry. I may tell you that in this province, there grows such a great
quantity of ginger, that it is carried all over the region of Cathay, and
it affords a maintenance to all the people of the province, who get great
gain thereby. They have also wheat and rice, and other kinds of corn, in
great plenty and cheapness; in fact the country abounds in all useful
products. The capital city is called ACBALEC MANZI [which signifies "the
White City of the Manzi Frontier"].[NOTE 1]
This plain extends for two days' journey, throughout which it is as fine
as I have told you, with towns and villages as numerous. After those two
days, you again come to great mountains and valleys, and extensive
forests, and you continue to travel westward through this kind of country
for 20 days, finding however numerous towns and villages. The people are
Idolaters, and live by agriculture, by cattle-keeping, and by the chase,
for there is much game. And among other kinds, there are the animals that
produce the musk, in great numbers.[NOTE 2]
NOTE 1. - Though the termini of the route, described in these two chapters,
are undoubtedly Si-ngan fu and Ch'eng-tu fu, there are serious
difficulties attending the determination of the line actually followed.
The time according to all the MSS., so far as I know, except those of one
type, is as follows:
In the plain of Kenjanfu . . . . . 3 days.
In the mountains of Cuncun . . . . 20 "
In the plain of Acbalec . . . . . 2 "
In mountains again . . . . . . 20 "
-
45 days.
-
[From Si-ngan fu to Ch'eng-tu (Sze-ch'wan), the Chinese reckon 2300 li
(766 miles). (Cf. Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, p. 23.) Mr. G.F. Eaton,
writing from Han-chung (Jour. China Br.R.A.S. xxviii. p. 29) reckons:
"From Si-ngan Fu S.W. to Ch'eng-tu, via K'i-shan, Fung-sien, Mien,
Kwang-yuan and Chao-hwa, about 30 days, in chairs." He says (p. 24): "From
Ch'eng-tu via Si-ngan to Peking the road does not touch Han-chung, but
20 li west of the city strikes north to Pao-ch'eng. The road from
Han-chung to Ch'eng-tu made by Ts'in Shi Hwang-ti to secure his conquest of
Sze-ch'wan, crosses the Ta-pa-shan." - H.C.]
It seems to me almost impossible to doubt that the Plain of Acbalec
represents some part of the river-valley of the Han, interposed between
the two ranges of mountains called by Richthofen T'sing-Ling-Shan and
Ta-pa-Shan. But the time, as just stated, is extravagant for anything
like a direct journey between the two termini.
