The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 106

[1] Even now there are at least eight different _taels_ (or liangs) in extensive use over the Empire, and varying as much as from 96 to 106; and besides these are many local _taels_, with about the same limits of variation.--(_Williamson's Journeys_, I. 60.)

[2] [The Archimandrite Palladius (l.c., p. 50, note) says that "the _ting_ of the Mongol time, as well as during the reign of the Kin, was a unit of weight equivalent to fifty _liang_, but not to ten _liang_. Cf.

_Ch'u keng lu_, and _Yuen-s.h.i.+_, ch. xcv. The _Yuen pao_, which as everybody in China knows, is equivalent to fifty _liang_ (taels) of silver, is the same as the ancient _ting_, and the character _Yuen_ indicates that it dates from the _Yuen_ Dynasty."--H. C.]

[3] This is also, as regards Customs payments, the system of the Government of modern Italy.

[4] The first edition of this work gave a facsimile of one of this unlucky minister's notes.

[5] On both sides, however, was the Mahomedan formula, and beneath that the words _Yiranjin Turji_, a t.i.tle conferred on the kings of Persia by the Kaan. There was also an inscription to the following effect: that the Emperor in the year 693 (A.H.) had issued these auspicious _chao_, that all who forged or uttered false notes should be summarily punished, with their wives and children, and their property confiscated; and that when these auspicious notes were once in circulation, poverty would vanish, provisions become cheap, and rich and poor be equal (_Cowell_). The use of the term _chao_ at Tabriz may be compared with that of _Banklot_, current in modern India.

CHAPTER XXV.

CONCERNING THE TWELVE BARONS WHO ARE SET OVER ALL THE AFFAIRS OF THE GREAT KAAN.

You must know that the Great Kaan hath chosen twelve great Barons to whom he hath committed all the necessary affairs of thirty-four great provinces; and now I will tell you particulars about them and their establishments.

You must know that these twelve Barons reside all together in a very rich and handsome palace, which is inside the city of Cambaluc, and consists of a variety of edifices, with many suites of apartments. To every province is a.s.signed a judge and several clerks, and all reside in this palace, where each has his separate quarters. These judges and clerks administer all the affairs of the provinces to which they are attached, under the direction of the twelve Barons. Howbeit, when an affair is of very great importance, the twelve Barons lay in before the Emperor, and he decides as he thinks best. But the power of those twelve Barons is so great that they choose the governors for all those thirty-four great provinces that I have mentioned, and only after they have chosen do they inform the Emperor of their choice. This he confirms, and grants to the person nominated a tablet of gold such as is appropriate to the rank of his government.

Those twelve Barons also have such authority that they can dispose of the movements of the forces, and send them whither, and in such strength, as they please. This is done indeed with the Emperor's cognizance, but still the orders are issued on their authority. They are styled s.h.i.+ENG, which is as much as to say "The Supreme Court," and the palace where they abide is also called _s.h.i.+eng_. This body forms the highest authority at the Court of the Great Kaan; and indeed they can favour and advance whom they will.

I will not now name the thirty-four provinces to you, because they will be spoken of in detail in the course of this Book.[NOTE 1]

NOTE 1.--Pauthier's extracts from the Chinese Annals of the Dynasty, in ill.u.s.tration of this subject, are interesting. These, as he represents them, show the Council of Ministers usually to have consisted of twelve high officials, viz.: two _Ch'ing-siang_ [Chinese] or (chief) ministers of state, one styled, "of the Right," and the other "of the Left"; four called _P'ing-chang ching-sse_, which seems to mean something like ministers in charge of special departments; four a.s.sistant ministers; two Counsellors.

Ras.h.i.+duddin, however, limits the Council to the first two cla.s.ses: "Strictly speaking, the Council of State is composed of four Ch'ing-sang (_Ch'ing-siang_) or great officers (_Wazirs_ he afterwards terms them), and four Fanchan (_P'ing-chang_) or a.s.sociated members, taken from the nations of the Tajiks, Cathayans, Ighurs, and Arkaun" (i.e. Nestorian Christians). (Compare p. 418, supra.)

[A Samarkand man, Seyyd Tadj Eddin Ha.s.san ben el Khallal, quoted in the _Masalak al Absar_, says: "Near the Khan are two amirs who are his ministers; they are called _Djing San_ [Arabic] (Ch'ing-siang). After them come the two _Bidjan_ [Arabic] (P'ing Chang), then the two _Zoudjin_ [Arabic] (Tso Chen), then the two _Yudjin_ [Arabic] (Yu Chen), and at last the _Landjun_ [Arabic] (Lang Chang), head of the scribes, and secretary of the sovereign. The Khan holds a sitting every day in the middle of a large building called _Chen_ [Arabic] (Sheng), which is very like our Palace of Justice." (_C. Schefer, Cent. Ec. Langues Or._, pp. 18-19.)--H. C.]

In a later age we find the twelve Barons reappearing in the pages of Mendoza: "The King hath in this city of Tabin (Peking), where he is resident, a royal council of twelve counsellors and a president, chosen men throughout all the kingdom, and such as have had experience in government many years." And also in the early centuries of the Christian era we hear that the Khan of the Turks had his twelve grandees, divided into those of the Right and those of the Left, probably a copy from a Chinese order then also existing.

But to return to Ras.h.i.+duddin: "As the Kaan generally resides at the capital, he has erected a place for the sittings of the Great Council, called _Sing_.... The dignitaries mentioned above are expected to attend daily at the Sing, and to make themselves acquainted with all that pa.s.ses there."

The _Sing_ of Ras.h.i.+d is evidently the s.h.i.+eng or Sheng (_Scieng_) of Polo.

M. Pauthier is on this point somewhat contemptuous towards Neumann, who, he says, confounds Marco Polo's twelve Barons or Ministers of State with the chiefs of the twelve great provincial governments called _Sing_, who had their residence at the chief cities of those governments; whilst in fact Polo's _Scieng_ (he a.s.serts) has nothing to do with the _Sing_, but represents the Chinese word _Siang_ "a minister," and "the office of a minister." [There was no doubt a confusion between _Siang_ [Chinese] and _Sheng_ [Chinese].--H. C.]

It is very probable that two different words, _Siang_ and _Sing_, got confounded by the non-Chinese attaches of the Imperial Court; but it seems to me quite certain that they applied the same word, Sing or Sheng, to both inst.i.tutions, viz. to the High Council of State, and to the provincial governments. It also looks as if Marco Polo himself had made that very confusion with which Pauthier charges Neumann. For whilst here he represents the twelve Barons as forming a Council of State at the capital, we find further on, when speaking of the city of Yangchau, he says: "_Et si siet en ceste cite uns des xii Barons du Grant Kaan; car elle est esleue pour un des xii sieges_," where the last word is probably a mistranscription of _Sciengs_, or _Sings_, and in any case the reference is to a distribution of the empire into twelve governments.

To be convinced that _Sing_ was used by foreigners in the double sense that I have said, we have only to proceed with Ras.h.i.+duddin's account of the administration. After what we have already quoted, he goes on: "The _Sing_ of Khanbaligh is the most eminent, and the building is very large.... _Sings_ do not exist in all the cities, but only in the capitals of great provinces.... In the whole empire of the Kaan there are twelve of these Sings; but that of Khanbaligh is the only one which has Ching-sangs amongst its members." Wa.s.saf again, after describing the greatness of Khanzai (Kinsay of Polo) says: "These circ.u.mstances characterize the capital itself, but four hundred cities of note, and embracing ample territories, are dependent on its jurisdiction, insomuch that the most inconsiderable of those cities surpa.s.ses Baghdad and s.h.i.+raz. In the number of these cities are Lankinfu and Zaitun, and c.h.i.n.kalan; for they call Khanzai a _s.h.i.+ng_, i.e. a great city in which the high and mighty Council of Administration holds its meetings." Friar Odoric again says: "This empire hath been divided by the Lord thereof into twelve parts, each one thereof is termed a Singo."

Polo, it seems evident to me, knew nothing of Chinese. His _s.h.i.+eng_ is no direct attempt to represent _any_ Chinese word, but simply the term that he had been used to employ in talking Persian or Turki, in the way that Ras.h.i.+duddin and Wa.s.saf employ it.

I find no light as to the thirty-four provinces into which Polo represents the empire as divided, unless it be an enumeration of the provinces and districts which he describes in the second and third parts of Bk. II., of which it is not difficult to reckon thirty-three or thirty-four, but not worth while to repeat the calculation.

[China was then divided into twelve _Sheng_ or provinces: Cheng-Tung, Liao-Yang, Chung-Shu, Shen-Si, Ling-Pe (Karakorum), Kan-Suh, Sze-ch'wan, Ho-Nan Kiang-Pe, Kiang-Che, Kiang-Si, Hu-Kw.a.n.g and Yun-Nan. Ras.h.i.+duddin (_J. As._, XI. 1883, p. 447) says that of the twelve Sing, Khanbaligh was the only one with _Chin-siang_. We read in _Morrison's Dict._ (Pt. II.

vol. i. p. 70): "Chin-seang, a Minister of State, was so called under the Ming Dynasty." According to Mr. E. H. Parker (_China Review_, xxiv. p.

101), _Ching Siang_ were abolished in 1395. I imagine that the thirty-four provinces refer to the _Fu_ cities, which numbered however _thirty-nine_, according to _Oxenham's Historical Atlas_.--H. C.]

(_Cathay_, 263 seqq. and 137; _Mendoza_, I. 96; _Erdmann_, 142; _Hammer's Wa.s.saf_, p. 42, but corrected.)

CHAPTER XXVI.

HOW THE KAAN'S POSTS AND RUNNERS ARE SPED THROUGH MANY LANDS AND PROVINCES.

Now you must know that from this city of Cambaluc proceed many roads and highways leading to a variety of provinces, one to one province, another to another; and each road receives the name of the province to which it leads; and it is a very sensible plan.[NOTE 1] And the messengers of the Emperor in travelling from Cambaluc, be the road whichsoever they will, find at every twenty-five miles of the journey a station which they call _Yamb_,[NOTE 2] or, as we should say, the "Horse-Post-House." And at each of those stations used by the messengers, there is a large and handsome building for them to put up at, in which they find all the rooms furnished with fine beds and all other necessary articles in rich silk, and where they are provided with everything they can want. If even a king were to arrive at one of these, he would find himself well lodged.

At some of these stations, moreover, there shall be posted some four hundred horses standing ready for the use of the messengers; at others there shall be two hundred, according to the requirements, and to what the Emperor has established in each case. At every twenty-five miles, as I said, or anyhow at every thirty miles, you find one of these stations, on all the princ.i.p.al highways leading to the different provincial governments; and the same is the case throughout all the chief provinces subject to the Great Kaan.[NOTE 3] Even when the messengers have to pa.s.s through a roadless tract where neither house nor hostel exists, still there the station-houses have been established just the same, excepting that the intervals are somewhat greater, and the day's journey is fixed at thirty-five to forty-five miles, instead of twenty-five to thirty. But they are provided with horses and all the other necessaries just like those we have described, so that the Emperor's messengers, come they from what region they may, find everything ready for them.

And in sooth this is a thing done on the greatest scale of magnificence that ever was seen. Never had emperor, king, or lord, such wealth as this manifests! For it is a fact that on all these posts taken together there are more than 300,000 horses kept up, specially for the use of the messengers. And the great buildings that I have mentioned are more than 10,000 in number, all richly furnished, as I told you. The thing is on a scale so wonderful and costly that it is hard to bring oneself to describe it.[NOTE 4]

But now I will tell you another thing that I had forgotten, but which ought to be told whilst I am on this subject. You must know that by the Great Kaan's orders there has been established between those post-houses, at every interval of three miles, a little fort with some forty houses round about it, in which dwell the people who act as the Emperor's foot-runners. Every one of those runners wears a great wide belt, set all over with bells, so that as they run the three miles from post to post their bells are heard jingling a long way off. And thus on reaching the post the runner finds another man similarly equipt, and all ready to take his place, who instantly takes over whatsoever he has in charge, and with it receives a slip of paper from the clerk, who is always at hand for the purpose; and so the new man sets off and runs his three miles. At the next station he finds his relief ready in like manner; and so the post proceeds, with a change at every three miles. And in this way the Emperor, who has an immense number of these runners, receives despatches with news from places ten days' journey off in one day and night; or, if need be, news from a hundred days off in ten days and nights; and that is no small matter! (In fact in the fruit season many a time fruit shall be gathered one morning in Cambaluc, and the evening of the next day it shall reach the Great Kaan at Chandu, a distance of ten days' journey.[NOTE 5] The clerk at each of the posts notes the time of each courier's arrival and departure; and there are often other officers whose business it is to make monthly visitations of all the posts, and to punish those runners who have been slack in their work.[NOTE 6]) The Emperor exempts these men from all tribute, and pays them besides.

Moreover, there are also at those stations other men equipt similarly with girdles hung with bells, who are employed for expresses when there is a call for great haste in sending despatches to any governor of a province, or to give news when any Baron has revolted, or in other such emergencies; and these men travel a good two hundred or two hundred and fifty miles in the day, and as much in the night. I'll tell you how it stands. They take a horse from those at the station which are standing ready saddled, all fresh and in wind, and mount and go at full speed, as hard as they can ride in fact. And when those at the next post hear the bells they get ready another horse and a man equipt in the same way, and he takes over the letter or whatever it be, and is off full-speed to the third station, where again a fresh horse is found all ready, and so the despatch speeds along from post to post, always at full gallop, with regular change of horses. And the speed at which they go is marvellous. (By night, however, they cannot go so fast as by day, because they have to be accompanied by footmen with torches, who could not keep up with them at full speed.)

Those men are highly prized; and they could never do it, did they not bind hard the stomach, chest and head with strong bands. And each of them carries with him a gerfalcon tablet, in sign that he is bound on an urgent express; so that if perchance his horse break down, or he meet with other mishap, whomsoever he may fall in with on the road, he is empowered to make him dismount and give up his horse. n.o.body dares refuse in such a case; so that the courier hath always a good fresh nag to carry him.[NOTE 7]

Now all these numbers of post-horses cost the Emperor nothing at all; and I will tell you the how and the why. Every city, or village, or hamlet, that stands near one of those post-stations, has a fixed demand made on it for as many horses as it can supply, and these it must furnish to the post. And in this way are provided all the posts of the cities, as well as the towns and villages round about them; only in uninhabited tracts the horses are furnished at the expense of the Emperor himself.

(Nor do the cities maintain the full number, say of 400 horses, always at their station, but month by month 200 shall be kept at the station, and the other 200 at gra.s.s, coming in their turn to relieve the first 200. And if there chance to be some river or lake to be pa.s.sed by the runners and horse-posts, the neighbouring cities are bound to keep three or four boats in constant readiness for the purpose.)

And now I will tell you of the great bounty exercised by the Emperor towards his people twice a year.

NOTE 1.--The G. Text has "_et ce est mout scue chouse_"; Pauthier's Text, "_mais il est moult cele_" The latter seems absurd. I have no doubt that _scue_ is correct, and is an Italianism, _saputo_ having sometimes the sense of prudent or judicious. Thus P. della Valle (II. 26), speaking of Shah Abbas: "_Ma noti V.S. i tiri di questo re_, saputo insieme e bizzarro," "acute with all his eccentricity."

NOTE 2.--Both Neumann and Pauthier seek Chinese etymologies of this Mongol word, which the Tartars carried with them all over Asia. It survives in Persian and Turki in the senses both of a post-house and a post-horse, and in Russia, in the former sense, is a relic of the Mongol dominion. The amba.s.sadors of Shah Rukh, on arriving at Sukchu, were lodged in the _Yam-Khana_, or post-house, by the city gate; and they found ninety-nine such Yams between Sukchu and Khanbaligh, at each of which they were supplied with provisions, servants, beds, night-clothes, etc. Odoric likewise speaks of the hostelries called _Yam_, and Rubruquis applies the same term to quarters in the imperial camp, which were a.s.signed for the lodgment of amba.s.sadors. (_Cathay_, ccii. 137; _Rubr._ 310.)

[Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, 101, note) says that these post-stations were established by Okkodai in 1234 throughout the Mongol empire. (_D'Ohsson_, ii. 63.) Dr. G. Schlegel (_T'oung Pao_, II. 1891, 265, note) observes that _iam_ is not, as Pauthier supposed, a contraction of _yi-ma_, horse post-house (_yi-ma_ means post-horse, and Pauthier makes a mistake), but represents the Chinese character [Chinese], p.r.o.nounced at present _chan_, which means in fact a road station, a post. In Annamite, this character [Chinese] is p.r.o.nounced _tram_, and it means, according to _Bonet's Dict.

Annamite-Francais_: "Relais de poste, station de repos." (See _Bretschneider, Med. Res._ I. p. 187 note.)--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--Martini and Magaillans, in the 17th century, give nearly the same account of the government hostelries.

NOTE 4.--Here Ramusio has this digression: "Should any one find it difficult to understand how there should be such a population as all this implies, and how they can subsist, the answer is that all the Idolaters, and Saracens as well, take six, eight, or ten wives apiece when they can afford it, and beget an infinity of children. In fact, you shall find many men who have each more than thirty sons who form an armed retinue to their father, and this through the fact of his having so many wives. With us, on the other hand, a man hath but one wife; and if she be barren, still he must abide by her for life, and have no progeny; thus we have not such a population as they have.

"And as regards food, they have abundance; for they generally consume rice, panic, and millet (especially the Tartars, Cathayans, and people of Manzi); and these three crops in those countries render an hundred-fold.

Those nations use no bread, but only boil those kinds of grain with milk or meat for their victual. Their wheat, indeed, does not render so much, but this they use only to make vermicelli, and pastes of that description.

No spot of arable land is left untilled; and their cattle are infinitely prolific, so that when they take the field every man is followed by six, eight, or more horses for his own use. Thus you may clearly perceive how the population of those parts is so great, and how they have such an abundance of food."

NOTE 5.--The Burmese kings used to have the odoriferous _Durian_ transmitted by horse-posts from Tena.s.serim to Ava. But the most notable example of the rapid transmission of such dainties, and the nearest approach I know of to their despatch by telegraph, was that practised for the benefit of the Fatimite Khalif Aziz (latter part of 10th century), who had a great desire for a dish of cherries of Balbek. The Wazir Yakub ben-Kilis caused six hundred pigeons to be despatched from Balbek to Cairo, each of which carried attached to either leg a small silk bag containing a cherry! (_Quat. Makrizi_, IV. 118.)

NOTE 6.--"Note is taken at every post," says Amyot, in speaking of the Chinese practice of last century, "of the time of the courier's arrival, in order that it may be known at what point delays have occurred."