Chapter LXVIII: Of the Cities of Tiju, Tinju, and Yanju

When you leave Cayu, you ride another day to the south-east through a constant succession of villages and fields and fine farms until you come to TIJU, which is a city of no great size but abounding in everything. The people are Idolaters (and so forth). There is a great amount of trade, and they have many vessels. And you must know that on your left hand, that is towards the east, and three days’ journey distant, is the Ocean Sea. At every place between the sea and the city salt is made in great quantities. And there is a rich and noble city called TINJU, at which there is produced salt enough to supply the whole province, and I can tell you it brings the Great Kaan an incredible revenue. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Kaan. Let us quit this, however, and go back to Tiju.{1}

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.{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.{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-tzŭ, 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
Faghfûr of China, and that he is called Tamghâdj-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’aï-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.)

[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 ché_ (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’aï-P’ing insurgents, these plans offer now a new interest.—H. C.]

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 Kúblái 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-ché 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-ché. The
expressions in the G. T. are: “_Meser Marc Pol meisme, celui de
cui trate ceste livre, seingneurie ceste cité por trois anz._”
Pauthier’s MS. A. appears to read: “_Et ot seigneurie, Marc Pol, en
ceste cité, trois ans._” These expressions probably point to the
government of the _Lu_ or circuit of Yang-chau, just as we find in
ch. lxxiii. another Christian, Mar Sarghis, mentioned as Governor
of Chin-kiang fu for the same term of years, that city being also
the head of a _Lu_. It is remarkable that in Pauthier’s MS. C.,
which often contains readings of peculiar value, the passage runs
(and also in the Bern MS.): “_Et si vous dy que ledit Messire Marc
Pol, cellui meisme de qui nostre livre parle_, sejourna, _en ceste
cité de Janguy_ .iii. _ans accompliz, par le commandement du Grant
Kaan_,” in which the nature of his employment is not indicated
at all (though _séjourna_ may be an error for _seigneura_). The
impression of his having been Governor-General is mainly due to the
Ramusian version, which says distinctly indeed that “_M. Marco Polo
di commissione del Gran Can n’ebbe il governo tre anni continui_
in luogo di un dei detti Baroni,” but it is very probable that
this is a gloss of the translator. I should conjecture his rule at
Yang-chau to have been between 1282, when we know he was at the
capital (vol. i. p. 422), and 1287–1288, when he must have gone on
his first expedition to the Indian Seas.

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[1] The _Lu_ or Circuit was an administrative division under the
Mongols, intermediate between the _Sing_ and the _Fu_, or
department. There were 185 _lu_ in all China under Kúblái.
(_Pauth._ 333). [_Mr. E. L. Oxenham, Hist. Atlas Chin. Emp._,
reckons 10 provinces or _sheng_, 39 _fu_ cities, 316 _chau_, 188
_lu_, 12 military governorships.—H. C.]