Chapter LXII: Concerning the Noble City of Sinjumatu

On leaving Tadinfu you travel three days towards the south, always finding numbers of noble and populous towns and villages flourishing with trade and manufactures. There is also abundance of game in the country, and everything in profusion.

When you have travelled those three days you come to the noble city of SINJUMATU, a rich and fine place, with great trade and manufactures. The people are Idolaters and subjects of the Great Kaan, and have paper-money, and they have a river which I can assure you brings them great gain, and I will tell you about it.

You see the river in question flows from the South to this city of Sinjumatu. And the people of the city have divided this larger river in two, making one half of it flow east and the other half flow west; that is to say, the one branch flows towards Manzi and the other towards Cathay. And it is a fact that the number of vessels at this city is what no one would believe without seeing them. The quantity of merchandize also which these vessels transport to Manzi and Cathay is something marvellous; and then they return loaded with other merchandize, so that the amount of goods borne to and fro on those two rivers is quite astonishing.{1}

NOTE 1.—Friar Odoric, proceeding by water northward to Cambaluc
about 1324–1325, says: “As I travelled by that river towards the
east, and passed many towns and cities, I came to a certain city
which is called SUNZUMATU, which hath a greater plenty of silk than
perhaps any place on earth, for when silk is at the dearest you
can still have 40 lbs. for less than eight groats. There is in the
place likewise great store of merchandise,” etc. When commenting
on Odoric, I was inclined to identify this city with Lin-t’sing
chau, but its position with respect to the two last cities in
Polo’s itinerary renders this inadmissible; and Murray and Pauthier
seem to be right in identifying it with T’SI-NING CHAU. The affix
_Matu_ (_Ma-t’eu_, a jetty, a place of river trade) might easily
attach itself to the name of such a great depôt of commerce on the
canal as Marco here describes, though no Chinese authority has
been produced for its being so styled. The only objection to the
identification with T’si-ning chau is the difficulty of making 3
days’ journey of the short distance between Yen-chau and that city.

Polo, according to the route supposed, comes first upon the
artificial part of the Great Canal here. The rivers _Wen_ and
_Sse_ (from near Yen-chau) flowing from the side of Shan-tung, and
striking the canal line at right angles near T’si-ning chau, have
been thence diverted north-west and south-east, so as to form the
canal; the point of their original confluence at Nan-wang forming,
apparently, the summit level of the canal. There is a little
confusion in Polo’s account, owing to his describing the river as
coming from the _south_, which, according to his orientation, would
be the side towards Honan. In this respect his words would apply
more accurately to the _Wei_ River at Lin-t’sing (see _Biot_ in _J.
As._ sér. III. tom. xiv. 194, and _J. N. C. B. R. A. S._, 1866, p.
11; also the map with ch. lxiv.) [Father Gandar (_Canal Impérial_,
p. 22, note) says that the remark of Marco Polo: “The river flows
from the south to this city of Sinjumatu,” cannot be applied to
the _Wen-ho_ nor to the _Sse-ho_, which are rivers of little
importance and running from the east, whilst the _Wei-ho_, coming
from the south-east, waters Lin-ts’ing, and answers well to our
traveller’s text.—H. C.] Duhalde calls T’si-ning chau “one of the
most considerable cities of the empire”; and Nieuhoff speaks of its
large trade and population. [Sir John F. Davis writes that Tsi-ning
chau is a town of considerable dimensions.... “The _ma-tow_, or
platforms, before the principal boats had ornamental gateways over
them.... The canal seems to render this an opulent and flourishing
place, to judge by the gilded and carved shops, temples, and public
offices, along the eastern banks.” (_Sketches of China_, I. pp.
255–257.)—H. C.]