Volume II Part 166 (1/2)

Regarding Kingsmill's note, Mr. John C. Ferguson writes in the _Journal North China Branch Roy. As. Soc._, x.x.xVII., 1906, p. 190: ”It is evident that Tiju and Yanju have been correctly identified as Taichow and Yangchow. I cannot agree with Mr. Kingsmill, however, in identifying Tinju as Ichin-hien on the Great River. It is not probable that Polo would mention Ichin twice, once before reaching Yangchow and once after describing Yangchow. I am inclined to believe that Tinju is Hsien-nu-miao [Chinese], a large market-place which has close connection both with Taichow and Yangchow. It is also an important place for the collection of the revenue on salt, as Polo notices. This identification of Tinju with Hsien-nu-miao would clear up any uncertainty as to Polo's journey, and would make a natural route for Polo to take from Kao yu to Yangchow if he wished to see an important place between these two cities.”

LXVIII., p. 154.

YANG CHAU.

In a text of the _Yuen tien chang_, dated 1317, found by Prof. Pelliot, mention is made of a certain Ngao-la-han [Abraham?] still alive at Yang chau, who was, according to the text, the son of the founder of the Church of the Cross of the rkagun (_Ye-li-k'o-wen she-tze-sze_), one of the three Nestorian churches of Yang-chau mentioned by Odoric and omitted by Marco Polo. Cf. _Cathay_, II., p. 210, and PELLIOT, _T'oung Pao_, 1914, p. 638.

LXX., p. 167.

SIEGE OF SAIANFU.

Prof. E.H. PARKER writes in the _Journ. of the North China Branch of the Roy. As. Soc._, x.x.xVII., 1906, p. 195: ”Colonel Yule's note requires some amendment, and he has evidently been misled by the French translations.

The two Mussulmans who a.s.sisted Kublai with guns were not 'A-la-wa-ting of Mu-fa-li and Ysemain of Huli or Hiulie,' but A-la-pu-tan of Mao-sa-li and Y-sz-ma-yin of s.h.i.+h-la. s.h.i.+h-la is s.h.i.+raz, the Serazy of Marco Polo, and Mao-sa-li is Mosul. Bretschneider cites the facts in his _Mediaeval Notes_, and seems to have used another edition, giving the names as A-lao-wa-ting of Mu-fa-li and Y-sz-ma-yin of Hu-lieh; but even he points out that Hulagu is meant, i.e. 'a man from Hulagu's country.'”

LXX., p. 169.

”P'AO.”

”Captain Gill's testimony as to the ancient 'guns' used by the Chinese is, of course (as, in fact, he himself states), second-hand and hearsay. In Vol. XXIV. of the _China Review_ I have given the name and date of a General who used _p'ao_ so far back as the seventh century.” (E.H. PARKER, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, pp. 146-7.)

LXXIV., p. 179 n.

THE ALANS.

According to the _Yuen s.h.i.+_ and Deveria, _Journ. Asiat._, Nov.-Dec., 1896, 432, in 1229 and 1241, when Okkodai's army reached the country of the Aas (Alans), their chief submitted at once and a body of one thousand Alans were kept for the private guard of the Great Khan; Mangu enlisted in his bodyguard half the troops of the Alan Prince, Arslan, whose younger son Nicholas took a part in the expedition of the Mongols against Karajang (Yun Nan). This Alan imperial guard was still in existence in 1272, 1286, and 1309, and it was divided into two corps with headquarters in the Ling pei province (Karakorum). See also Bretschneider, _Mediaeval Researches_, II., pp. 84-90.

The ma.s.sacre of a body of Christian Alans related by Marco Polo (II., p.

178) is confirmed by Chinese sources.

LXXIV., p. 180, n. 3.

ALANS.

See Notes in new edition of _Cathay and the Way thither_, III., pp. 179 seq., 248.

The ma.s.sacre of the Alans took place, according to Chinese sources, at Chen-ch'ao, not at Ch'ang chau. The Sung general who was in charge of the city, Hung Fu, after making a faint submission, got the Alans drunk at night and had them slaughtered. Cf. PELLIOT, _Chretiens d'Asie centrale et d'Extreme-Orient, T'oung Pao_, Dec., 1914, p. 641.

LXXVI., pp. 184-5.

VUJU, VUGHIN, CHANGAN.

The Rev. A.C. Moule has given in the _T'oung Pao_, July, 1915, pp. 393 seq., the Itinerary between Lin Ngan (Hang Chau) and Shang Tu, followed by the Sung Dynasty officials who accompanied their Empress Dowager to the Court of Kublai after the fall of Hang Chau in 1276; the diary was written by Yen Kw.a.n.g-ta, a native of Shao King, who was attached to the party.

The Rev. A.C. Moule in his notes writes, p. 411: ”The connexion between Hu-chou and Hang-chou is very intimate, and the north suburb of the latter, the Hu-shu, was known in Marco Polo's day as the Hu-chou s.h.i.+h. The identification of Vughin with Wu-chiang is fairly satisfactory, but it is perhaps worth while to point out that there is a place called Wu chen about fifty _li_ north of s.h.i.+h-men; and for Ciangan there is a tempting place called Ch'ang-an chen just south of s.h.i.+h-men on a ca.n.a.l which was often preferred to the T'ang-hsi route until the introduction of steam boats.”

LXXVI., p. 192. ”There is one church only [at Kinsay], belonging to the Nestorian Christians.”

It was one of the seven churches built in China by Mar Sarghis, called _Ta p'u hing sze_ (Great Temple of Universal Success), or _Yang yi Hu-mu-la_, near the _Tsien k'iao men_. Cf. _Marco Polo_, II., p. 177; VISSIeRE, _Rev.

du Monde Musulman_, March, 1913, p. 8.

LXXVI., p. 193.

KINSAY.