The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 162

"'There are two sorts of Turkistan paper, black and white, made from mulberry bark, cotton and silk refuse equally mixed, resulting in a coa.r.s.e, thick, strong, and tough material. It is cut into small rolls fully a foot long, which are burnished by means of stones, and then are fit for writing.'

"Sir Aurel Stein[9] reports that paper is still manufactured from mulberry trees in Khotan. Also J. Wiesner,[10] the meritorious investigator of ancient papers, has included the fibres of _Morus alba_ and _M. nigra_ among the material to which his researches extended.

"Mulberry-bark paper is ascribed to Bengal in the _Si yang ch'ao kung tien lu_ by Wu Kien-hw.a.n.g, published in 1520.[11]

"As the mulberry tree is eagerly cultivated in Persia in connection with the silk industry, it is possible also that the Persian paper in the banknotes of the Mongols was a product of the mulberry.[12] At any rate, good Marco Polo is cleared, and his veracity and exactness have been established again."

XXIV., p. 427.

VALUE OF GOLD.

"L'or valait quatre fois son poids d'argent au commencement de la dynastie Ming (1375), sept ou huit fois sous l'empereur Wan-li de la meme dynastie (1574), et dix fois a la fin de la dynastie (1635); plus de dix fois sous K'ang hi (1662); plus de vingt fois sous le regne de K'ien long; dix-huit fois au milieu du regne de Tao-koang (1840), quatorze fois au commencement du regne de Hien-fong (1850); dix-huit fois en moyenne dans les annees 1882-1883. En 1893, la valeur de l'or augmenta considerablement et egala 28 fois celle de l'argent; en 1894, 32 fois; au commencement de 1895, 33 fois; mais il baissa un peu et a la fin de l'annee il valait seulement 30 fois plus." (Pierre HOANG, _La Propriete en Chine_, 1897, p. 43.)

XXVI., p. 432.

_CH'ING SIANG_.

Morrison, _Dict._, Pt. II, Vol. I., p. 70, says: "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.

In the quotation from the _Masalak al Absar_ instead of _Landjun_ (Lang Chang), read _Landjun_ (_Lang Chung_).

x.x.xIII., pp. 447-8. "You must know, too, that the Tartars reckon their years by twelves; the sign of the first year being the Lion, of the second the Ox, of the third the Dragon, of the fourth the Dog, and so forth up to the twelfth; so that when one is asked the year of his birth he answers that it was in the year of the Lion (let us say), on such a day or night, at such an hour, and such a moment. And the father of a child always takes care to write these particulars down in a book. When the twelve yearly symbols have been gone through, then they come back to the first, and go through with them again in the same succession."

"Ce temoignage, writes Chavannes (_T'oung Pao_, 1906, p. 59), n'est pas d'une exact.i.tude rigoureuse, puisque les animaux n'y sont pas nommes a leur rang; en outre, le lion y est subst.i.tue au tigre de l'enumeration chinoise; mais cette derniere difference provient sans doute de ce que Marco Polo connaissait le cycle avec les noms mongols des animaux; c'est le leopard dout il a fait le lion. Quoiqu'il en soit, l'observation de Marco Polo est juste dans son ensemble et d'innombrables exemples prouvent que le cycle des douze animaux etait habituel dans les pieces officielles emanant des chancelleries imperiales a l'epoque mongole."

x.x.xIII., p. 448.

PERSIAN.

With regard to the knowledge of Persian, the only oriental language probably known by Marco Polo, Pelliot remarks (_Journ. Asiat._, Mai-Juin, 1912, p. 592 n.): "C'est l'idee de Yule (cf. exemple I., 448), et je la crois tout a fait juste. On peut la fortifier d'autres indices. On sait par exemple que Marco Polo subst.i.tue le lion au tigre dans le cycle des douze animaux. M. Chavannes (_T'oung pao_, II., VII., 59) suppose que 'cette derniere difference provient sans doute de ce que Marco Polo connaissait le cycle avec les noms mongols des animaux: c'est le leopard dont il a fait le lion.' Mais on ne voit pas pourquoi il aurait rendu par 'lion' le turco-mongol _bars_, qui signifie seulement 'tigre.' Admettons au contraire qu'il pense en persan: dans toute l'Asie centrale, le persan [Arabic] _sir_ a les deux sens de lion et de tigre. De meme, quand Marco Polo appelle la Chine du sud Manzi, il est d'accord avec les Persans, par exemple avec Rachid ed-din, pour employer l'expression usuelle dans la langue chinoise de l'epoque, c'est-a-dire Man-tseu; mais, au lieu de Manzi, les Mongols avaient adopte un autres nom, Nangias, dont il n'y a pas trace dans Marco Polo. On pourrait multiplier ces exemples."

x.x.xIII., p. 456, n. Instead of _Hui Heng_, read _Hiu Heng_.

[1] _Industries anciennes et modernes de l'Empire chinois_. Paris, 1869, pp. 145, 149.

[2] _Resume des princ.i.p.aux Traites chinois sur la culture des muriers et l'education des vers a soie_, Paris, 1837, p. 98. According to the notions of the Chinese, Julien remarks, everything made from hemp like cord and weavings is banished from the establishments where silkworms are reared, and our European paper would be very harmful to the latter. There seems to be a sympathetic relation between the silkworm feeding on the leaves of the mulberry and the mulberry paper on which the coc.o.o.ns of the females are placed.

[3] _Ko chi king yuan_, Ch. 37, p. 6.

[4] _Relations des Musulmans avec les Chinois (Centenaire de l'Ecole des Langues Orientales vivante_, Paris, 1895, p. 17).

[5] Ibid., p. 20.

[6] _Ming s.h.i.+_, Ch. 81, p. 1.--The same text is found on a bill issued in 1375 reproduced and translated by W. Vissering (_On Chinese Currency_, see plate at end of volume), the minister of finance being expressly ordered to use the fibres of the mulberry tree in the composition of these bills.

[7] _Memoires relatifs a l'Asie_, Vol. I., p. 387.

[8] A. WYLIE, _Notes on Chinese Literature_, p. 64. The copy used by me (in the John Crerar Library of Chicago) is an old ma.n.u.script clearly written in 4 vols. and chapters, ill.u.s.trated by nine ink-sketches of types of Mohammedans and a map. The volumes are not paged.

[9] _Ancient Khotan_, Vol. I., p. 134.

[10] _Mikroskopische Untersuchung alter ostturkestanischer Papiere_, p. 9 (Vienna, 1902). I cannot pa.s.s over in silence a curious error of this scholar when he says (p. 8) that it is not proved that _Cannabis sativa_ (called by him "genuine hemp") is cultivated in China, and that the so-called Chinese hemp-paper should be intended for China gra.s.s. Every tyro in things Chinese knows that hemp (_Cannabis sativa_) belongs to the oldest cultivated plants of the Chinese, and that hemp-paper is already listed among the papers invented by Ts'ai Lun in A.D. 105 (cf. CHAVANNES, _Les livres chinois avant l'invention du papier, Journal Asiatique_, 1905, p. 6 of the reprint).

[11] Ch. B., p. 10b (ed. of _Pie hia chai ts'ung shu_).

[12] The Persian word for the mulberry, _tud_, is supposed to be a loan-word from Aramaic. (HORN, _Grundriss iran. Phil._, Vol. I., pt. 2, p. 6.)

BOOK SECOND.

PART II.--JOURNEY TO THE WEST AND SOUTH-WEST OF CATHAY.

x.x.xVII, p. 13. "There grow here [Taianfu] many excellent vines, supplying great plenty of wine; and in all Cathay this is the only place where wine is produced. It is carried hence all over the country."

Dr. B. Laufer makes the following remarks to me: "Polo is quite right in ascribing vines and wine to T'ai Yuan-fu in Shan Si, and is in this respect upheld by contemporary Chinese sources. The _Yin shan cheng yao_ written in 1330 by Ho Se-hui, contains this account[1]: 'There are numerous brands of wine: that coming from Qara-Khodja[2] (Ha-la-hwo) is very strong, that coming from Tibet ranks next. Also the wines from P'ing Yang and T'a Yuan (in Shan Si) take the second rank. According to some statements, grapes, when stored for a long time, will develop into wine through a natural process. This wine is fragrant, sweet, and exceedingly strong: this is the genuine grape-wine.' _Ts'ao mu tse_, written in 1378 par Ye Tse-k'i,[3]

contains the following information: 'Under the Yuan Dynasty grape-wine was manufactured in Ki-ning and other circuits of Shan Si Province. In the eighth month they went to the T'ai hang Mountain,[4] in order to test the genuine and adulterated brands: the genuine kind when water is poured on it, will float; the adulterated sort, when thus treated, will freeze.[5]

In wine which has long been stored, there is a certain portion which even in extreme cold will never freeze, while all the remainder is frozen: this is the spirit and fluid secretion of wine.[6] If this is drunk, the essence will penetrate into a man's armpits, and he will die. Wine kept for two or three years develops great poison." For a detailed history of grape-wine in China, see Laufer's _Sino-Iranica_.

x.x.xVII., p. 16.

VINE.

Chavannes (_Chancellerie chinoise de l'epoque mongole_, II., pp. 66-68, 1908) has a long note on vine and grape wine-making in China, from Chinese sources. We know that vine, according to Sze-ma Ts'ien, was imported from Farghanah about 100 B.C. The Chinese, from texts in the _T'ai p'ing yu lan_ and the _Yuan Kien lei han_, learned the art of wine-making after they had defeated the King of Kao ch'ang (Turfan) in 640 A.D.

XLI., p. 27 seq.

CHRISTIAN MONUMENT AT SI-NGAN FU.

The slab _King kiao pei_, bearing the inscription, was found, according to Father Havret, 2nd Pt., p. 71, in the sub-prefecture of Chau Chi, a dependency of Si-ngan fu, among ancient ruins. Prof. Pelliot says that the slab was not found at Chau Chi, but in the western suburb of Si-ngan, at the very spot where it was to be seen some years ago, before it was transferred to the _Pei lin_, in fact at the place where it was erected in the seventh century inside the monastery built by Olopun. (_Chretiens de l'Asie centrale, T'oung pao_, 1914, p. 625.)

In 1907, a Danish gentleman, Mr. Frits V. Holm, took a photograph of the tablet as it stood outside the west gate of Si-ngan, south of the road to Kan Su; it was one of five slabs on the same spot; it was removed without the stone pedestal (a tortoise) into the city on the 2nd October 1907, and it is now kept in the museum known as the _Pei lin_ (Forest of Tablets).

Holm says it is ten feet high, the weight being two tons; he tried to purchase the original, and failing this he had an exact replica made by Chinese workmen; this replica was deposited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the City of New York, as a loan, on the 16th of June, 1908. Since, this replica was purchased by Mrs. George Leary, of 1053, Fifth Avenue, New York, and presented by this lady, through Frits Holm, to the Vatican.

See the November number (1916) of the _Boll, della R. Soc. Geog.

Italiana_. "The Original Nestorian Tablet of A.D. 781, as well as my replica, made in 1907," Holm writes, "are both carved from the stone quarries of Fu Ping Hien; the material is a black, sub-granular limestone with small oolithes scattered through it" (Frits V. Holm, _The Nestorian Monument_, Chicago, 1900). In this pamphlet there is a photograph of the tablet as it stands in the Pei lin.

Prof. Ed. Chavannes, who also visited Si-ngan in 1907, saw the Nestorian Monument; in the alb.u.m of his _Mission archeologique dans la Chine Septentrionale_, Paris, 1909, he has given (Plate 445) photographs of the five tablets, the tablet itself, the western gate of the western suburb of Si-ngan, and the entrance of the temple _Kin Sheng Sze_.

Cf. Notes, pp. 105-113 of Vol. I, of the second edition of _Cathay and the Way thither_.

II., p. 27.

KHUMDAN.