Iii. pp. 1391, 1409, 1410.)
- H.C.]
(Doolittle, 190; Deguignes, I. 69; Cathay, pp. 247, 479; Reinaud,
I. 56; India in the XVth Century, p. 23; Semedo, p. 95; Rem. Mel.
Asiat. I. 128.)
CHAPTER LXI.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF CHINANGLI, AND THAT OF TADINFU, AND THE REBELLION
OF LITAN.
Chinangli is a city of Cathay as you go south, and it belongs to the Great
Kaan; the people are Idolaters, and have paper-money. There runs through
the city a great and wide river, on which a large traffic in silk goods
and spices and other costly merchandize passes up and down.
When you travel south from Chinangli for five days, you meet everywhere
with fine towns and villages, the people of which are all Idolaters, and
burn their dead, and are subject to the Great Kaan, and have paper-money,
and live by trade and handicrafts, and have all the necessaries of life in
great abundance. But there is nothing particular to mention on the way
till you come, at the end of those five days, to TADINFU.[NOTE 1]
This, you must know, is a very great city, and in old times was the seat
of a great kingdom; but the Great Kaan conquered it by force of arms.
Nevertheless it is still the noblest city in all those provinces. There
are very great merchants here, who trade on a great scale, and the
abundance of silk is something marvellous. They have, moreover, most
charming gardens abounding with fruit of large size. The city of Tadinfu
hath also under its rule eleven imperial cities of great importance, all
of which enjoy a large and profitable trade, owing to that immense produce
of silk.[NOTE 2]
Now, you must know, that in the year of Christ, 1273, the Great Kaan had
sent a certain Baron called LIYTAN SANGON,[NOTE 3] with some 80,000
horse, to this province and city, to garrison them. And after the said
captain had tarried there a while, he formed a disloyal and traitorous
plot, and stirred up the great men of the province to rebel against the
Great Kaan. And so they did; for they broke into revolt against their
sovereign lord, and refused all obedience to him, and made this Liytan,
whom their sovereign had sent thither for their protection, to be the
chief of their revolt.
When the Great Kaan heard thereof he straightway despatched two of his
Barons, one of whom was called AGUIL and the other MONGOTAY;[NOTE 4]
giving them 100,000 horse and a great force of infantry. But the affair
was a serious one, for the Barons were met by the rebel Liytan with all
those whom he had collected from the province, mustering more than 100,000
horse and a large force of foot. Nevertheless in the battle Liytan and his
party were utterly routed, and the two Barons whom the Emperor had sent
won the victory. When the news came to the Great Kaan he was right well
pleased, and ordered that all the chiefs who had rebelled, or excited
others to rebel, should be put to a cruel death, but that those of lower
rank should receive a pardon. And so it was done. The two Barons had all
the leaders of the enterprise put to a cruel death, and all those of lower
rank were pardoned. And thenceforward they conducted themselves with
loyalty towards their lord.[NOTE 5]
Now having told you all about this affair, let us have done with it, and I
will tell you of another place that you come to in going south, which is
called SINJU-MATU.
NOTE 1. - There seems to be no solution to the difficulties attaching to
the account of these two cities (Chinangli and Tadinfu) except that the
two have been confounded, either by a lapse of memory on the traveller's
part or by a misunderstanding on that of Rusticiano.
The position and name of CHINANGLI point, as Pauthier has shown, to
T'SI-NAN FU, the chief city of Shan-tung. The second city is called in the
G. Text and Pauthier's MSS. Candinfu, Condinfu, and Cundinfu, names
which it has not been found possible to elucidate. But adopting the reading
Tadinfu of some of the old printed editions (supported by the Tudinfu
of Ramusio and the Tandifu of the Riccardian MS.), Pauthier shows that
the city now called Yen-chau bore under the Kin the name of TAI-TING FU,
which may fairly thus be recognised. [Under the Sung Dynasty Yen-chau was
named T'ai-ning and Lung-k'ing. (Playfair's Dict. p. 388.) - H.C.]
It was not, however, Yen-chau, but T'si-nan fu, which was "the noblest
city in all those provinces," and had been "in old times the seat of a
kingdom," as well as recently the scene of the episode of Litan's
rebellion. T'si-nan fu lies in a direct line 86 miles south of T'sang-chau
(Changlu), near the banks of the Ta-t'singho, a large river which
communicates with the great canal near T'si-ning chau, and which was, no
doubt, of greater importance in Polo's time than in the last six
centuries. For up nearly to the origin of the Mongol power it appears to
have been one of the main discharges of the Hwang-Ho. The recent changes
in that river have again brought its main stream into the same channel,
and the "New Yellow River" passes three or four miles to the north of the
city. T'si-nan fu has frequently of late been visited by European
travellers, who report it as still a place of importance, with much life
and bustle, numerous book-shops, several fine temples, two mosques, and
all the furniture of a provincial capital.
