Volume II Part 20 (1/2)
I am greatly indebted to the kindness of an eminent Chinese scholar, Mr.
W.F. Mayers, of Her Majesty's Legation at Peking, who, in a letter, dated Peking, 18th September, 1874, sends me the following memorandum on the subject:--
”_Colonel Yule's Marco Polo_, II. 97 [First Edition], _Burning of the Dead_.
”On this subject compare the article ent.i.tled _Huo Tsang_, or 'Cremation Burials,' in Bk. XV of the _Jih Che Luh_, or 'Daily Jottings,' a great collection of miscellaneous notes on cla.s.sical, historical, and antiquarian subjects, by Ku Yen-wu, a celebrated author of the 17th century. The article is as follows:--
”'The practice of burning the dead flourished (or flourishes) most extensively in Kiang-nan, and was in vogue already in the period of the Sung Dynasty. According to the history of the Sung Dynasty, in the 27th year of the reign Shao-hing (A.D. 1157), the practice was animadverted upon by a public official.' Here follows a long extract, in which the burning of the dead is reprehended, and it is stated that cemeteries were set apart by Government on behalf of the poorer cla.s.ses.
”In A.D. 1261, Hw.a.n.g Chen, governor of the district of Wu, in a memorial praying that the erection of cremation furnaces might thenceforth be prohibited, dwelt upon the impropriety of burning the remains of the deceased, for whose obsequies a mult.i.tude of observances were prescribed by the religious rites. He further exposed the fallacy of the excuse alleged for the practice, to wit, that burning the dead was a fulfilment of the precepts of Buddha, and accused the priests of a certain monastery of converting into a source of illicit gain the practice of cremation.”
[As an ill.u.s.tration of the cremation of a Buddhist priest, I note the following pa.s.sage from an article published in the _North-China Herald_, 20th May, 1887, p. 556, on Kwei Hua Ch'eng, Mongolia: ”Several Lamas are on visiting terms with me and they are very friendly. There are seven large and eight small Lamaseries, in care of from ten to two hundred Lamas. The princ.i.p.al Lamas at death are cremated. A short time ago, a friendly Lama took me to see a cremation. The furnace was roughly made of mud bricks, with four fire-holes at the base, with an opening in which to place the body. The whole was about 6 feet high, and about 5 feet in circ.u.mference. Greased fuel was arranged within and covered with glazed foreign calico, on which were written some Tibetan characters. A tent was erected and mats arranged for the Lamas. About 11:30 A.M. a scarlet covered bier appeared in sight carried by thirty-two beggars. A box 2 feet square and 2-1/2 feet high was taken out and placed near the furnace. The Lamas arrived and attired themselves in gorgeous robes and sat cross-legged. During the preparations to chant, some b.u.t.ter was being melted in a corner of the tent. A screen of calico was drawn round the furnace in which the cremator placed the body, and filled up the opening.
Then a dozen Lamas began chanting the burial litany in Tibetan in deep ba.s.s voices. Then the head priest blessed the torches and when the fires were lit he blessed a fan to fan the flames, and lastly some melted b.u.t.ter, which was poured in at the top to make the whole blaze. This was frequently repeated. When fairly ablaze, a few pieces of Tibetan gra.s.s were thrown in at the top. After three days the whole cooled, and a priest with one gold and one silver chopstick collects the bones, which are placed in a bag for burial. If the bones are white it is a sign that his sin is purged, if black that perfection has not been attained.”--H.C.]
And it is very worthy of note that the Chinese envoy to Chinla (Kamboja) in 1295, an individual who may have personally known Marco Polo, in speaking of the custom prevalent there of exposing the dead, adds: ”There are some, however, who burn their dead. _These are all descendants of Chinese immigrants._”
[Professor J.J.M. de Groot remarks that ”being of religious origin, cremation is mostly denoted in China by clerical terms, expressive of the metamorphosis the funeral pyre is intended to effect, viz. 'transformation of man'; 'transformation of the body'; 'metamorphosis by fire.' Without the clerical sphere it bears no such high-sounding names, being simply called 'incineration of corpses.' A term of illogical composition, and nevertheless very common in the books, is 'fire burial.'” It appears that during the Sung Dynasty cremation was especially common in the provinces of Shan-si, Cheh-kiang, and Kiang-su. During the Mongol Dynasty, the instances of cremation which are mentioned in Chinese books are, relatively speaking, numerous. Professor de Groot says also that ”there exists evidence that during the Mongol domination cremation also throve in Fuhkien.” (_Religious System of China_, vol. iii. pp. 1391, 1409, 1410.) --H.C.]
(_Doolittle_, 190; _Deguignes_, I. 69; _Cathay_, pp. 247, 479; _Reinaud_, I. 56; _India in the XVth Century_, p. 23; _Semedo_, p. 95; _Rem. Mel.
Asiat._ I. 128.)
CHAPTER LXI.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF CHINANGLI, AND THAT OF TADINFU, AND THE REBELLION OF LITAN.
Chinangli is a city of Cathay as you go south, and it belongs to the Great Kaan; the people are Idolaters, and have paper-money. There runs through the city a great and wide river, on which a large traffic in silk goods and spices and other costly merchandize pa.s.ses up and down.
When you travel south from Chinangli for five days, you meet everywhere with fine towns and villages, the people of which are all Idolaters, and burn their dead, and are subject to the Great Kaan, and have paper-money, and live by trade and handicrafts, and have all the necessaries of life in great abundance. But there is nothing particular to mention on the way till you come, at the end of those five days, to TADINFU.[NOTE 1]
This, you must know, is a very great city, and in old times was the seat of a great kingdom; but the Great Kaan conquered it by force of arms.
Nevertheless it is still the n.o.blest city in all those provinces. There are very great merchants here, who trade on a great scale, and the abundance of silk is something marvellous. They have, moreover, most charming gardens abounding with fruit of large size. The city of Tadinfu hath also under its rule eleven imperial cities of great importance, all of which enjoy a large and profitable trade, owing to that immense produce of silk.[NOTE 2]
Now, you must know, that in the year of Christ, 1273, the Great Kaan had sent a certain Baron called LIYTAN SANGON,[NOTE 3] with some 80,000 horse, to this province and city, to garrison them. And after the said captain had tarried there a while, he formed a disloyal and traitorous plot, and stirred up the great men of the province to rebel against the Great Kaan. And so they did; for they broke into revolt against their sovereign lord, and refused all obedience to him, and made this Liytan, whom their sovereign had sent thither for their protection, to be the chief of their revolt.
When the Great Kaan heard thereof he straightway despatched two of his Barons, one of whom was called AGUIL and the other MONGOTAY;[NOTE 4]
giving them 100,000 horse and a great force of infantry. But the affair was a serious one, for the Barons were met by the rebel Liytan with all those whom he had collected from the province, mustering more than 100,000 horse and a large force of foot. Nevertheless in the battle Liytan and his party were utterly routed, and the two Barons whom the Emperor had sent won the victory. When the news came to the Great Kaan he was right well pleased, and ordered that all the chiefs who had rebelled, or excited others to rebel, should be put to a cruel death, but that those of lower rank should receive a pardon. And so it was done. The two Barons had all the leaders of the enterprise put to a cruel death, and all those of lower rank were pardoned. And thenceforward they conducted themselves with loyalty towards their lord.[NOTE 5]
Now having told you all about this affair, let us have done with it, and I will tell you of another place that you come to in going south, which is called SINJU-MATU.
NOTE 1.--There seems to be no solution to the difficulties attaching to the account of these two cities (Chinangli and Tadinfu) except that the two have been confounded, either by a lapse of memory on the traveller's part or by a misunderstanding on that of Rusticiano.
The position and name of CHINANGLI point, as Pauthier has shown, to T'SI-NAN FU, the chief city of Shan-tung. The second city is called in the G. Text and Pauthier's MSS. _Candinfu_, _Condinfu_, and _Cundinfu_, names which it has not been found possible to elucidate. But adopting the reading _Tadinfu_ of some of the old printed editions (supported by the _Tudinfu_ of Ramusio and the _Tandifu_ of the Riccardian MS.), Pauthier shows that the city now called _Yen-chau_ bore under the Kin the name of TAI-TING FU, which may fairly thus be recognised. [Under the Sung Dynasty Yen-chau was named T'ai-ning and Lung-k'ing. (_Playfair's Dict._ p. 388.)--H.C.]
It was not, however, Yen-chau, but _T'si-nan fu_, which was ”the n.o.blest city in all those provinces,” and had been ”in old times the seat of a kingdom,” as well as recently the scene of the episode of Litan's rebellion. T'si-nan fu lies in a direct line 86 miles south of T'sang-chau (_Changlu_), near the banks of the Ta-t'singho, a large river which communicates with the great ca.n.a.l near T'si-ning chau, and which was, no doubt, of greater importance in Polo's time than in the last six centuries. For up nearly to the origin of the Mongol power it appears to have been one of the main discharges of the Hw.a.n.g-Ho. The recent changes in that river have again brought its main stream into the same channel, and the ”New Yellow River” pa.s.ses three or four miles to the north of the city. T'si-nan fu has frequently of late been visited by European travellers, who report it as still a place of importance, with much life and bustle, numerous book-shops, several fine temples, two mosques, and all the furniture of a provincial capital. It has also a Roman Catholic Cathedral of Gothic architecture. (_Williamson_, I. 102.)