Again, leaving Tiju, you ride another day towards the south-east, and at
the end of your journey you arrive at the very great and noble city of
YANJU, which has seven-and-twenty other wealthy cities under its
administration; so that this Yanju is, you see, a city of great
importance.[NOTE 2] It is the seat of one of the Great Kaan's Twelve
Barons, for it has been chosen to be one of the Twelve Sings. The
people are Idolaters and use paper-money, and are subject to the Great
Kaan. And Messer Marco Polo himself, of whom this book speaks, did govern
this city for three full years, by the order of the Great Kaan.[NOTE 3]
The people live by trade and manufactures, for a great amount of harness
for knights and men-at-arms is made there. And in this city and its
neighbourhood a large number of troops are stationed by the Kaan's orders.
There is no more to say about it. So now I will tell you about two great
provinces of Manzi which lie towards the west. And first of that called
Nanghin.
NOTE 1. - Though the text would lead us to look for Tiju on the direct
line between Kao-yu and Yang-chau, and like them on the canal bank (indeed
one MS., C. of Pauthier, specifies its standing on the same river as the
cities already passed, i.e. on the canal), we seem constrained to admit
the general opinion that this is TAI-CHAU, a town lying some 25 miles at
least to the eastward of the canal, but apparently connected with it by a
navigable channel.
Tinju or Chinju (for both the G.T. and Ramusio read Cingui) cannot
be identified with certainty. But I should think it likely, from Polo's
"geographical style," that when he spoke of the sea as three days distant
he had this city in view, and that it is probably TUNG-CHAU, near the
northern shore of the estuary of the Yang-tzu, which might be fairly
described as three days from Tai-chau. Mr. Kingsmill identifies it with
I-chin hien, the great port on the Kiang for the export of the Yang-chau
salt. This is possible; but I-chin lies west of the canal, and though the
form Chinju would really represent I-chin as then named, such a position
seems scarcely compatible with the way, vague as it is, in which Tinju or
Chinju is introduced. Moreover, we shall see that I-chin is spoken of
hereafter. (Kingsmill in N. and Q. Ch. and Japan, I. 53.)
NOTE 2. - Happily, there is no doubt that this is YANG-CHAU, one of the
oldest and most famous great cities of China. [Abulfeda (Guyard, II. ii.
122) says that Yang-chau is the capital of the Faghfur of China, and that
he is called Tamghadj-khan. - H.C.] Some five-and-thirty years after
Polo's departure from China, Friar Odoric found at this city a House of
his own Order (Franciscans), and three Nestorian churches. The city also
appears in the Catalan Map as Iangio. Yang-chau suffered greatly in the
T'ai-P'ing rebellion, but its position is an "obligatory point" for
commerce, and it appears to be rapidly recovering its prosperity. It is
the headquarters of the salt manufacture, and it is also now noted for a
great manufacture of sweetmeats (See Alabaster's Report, as above, p 6)
[Illustration: Yang chau: the three Cities Under the Sung]
[Through the kindness of the late Father H. Havret, S J, of Zi ka wei, I
am enabled to give two plans from the Chronicles of Yang chau, Yang chau
fu che (ed. 1733); one bears the title "The Three Cities under the Sung,"
and the other. "The Great City under the Sung" The three cities are Pao
yew cheng, built in 1256, Sin Pao cheng 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.
In a later note M. Pauthier speaks of 1284 as the date at which the Sing
of the province of Kiang-che was transferred from Yang-chau to Hang-chau;
this is probably to be taken as a correction of the former citations, and
it better justifies Polo's statement. (Pauthier, pp. 467, 492.)
I do not think that we are to regard Marco as having held at any time the
important post of Governor-General of Kiang-che. The expressions in the G.
T. are:
