The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano
CHAPTER XI.
2527 words | Chapter 339
CONCERNING THE CITY OF CAMBALUC.
Now there was on that spot in old times a great and noble city called
CAMBALUC, which is as much as to say in our tongue “The city of the
Emperor.”{1} But the Great Kaan was informed by his Astrologers that
this city would prove rebellious, and raise great disorders against his
imperial authority. So he caused the present city to be built close
beside the old one, with only a river between them.{2} And he caused
the people of the old city to be removed to the new town that he had
founded; and this is called TAIDU. [However, he allowed a portion of
the people which he did not suspect to remain in the old city, because
the new one could not hold the whole of them, big as it is.]
As regards the size of this (new) city you must know that it has a
compass of 24 miles, for each side of it hath a length of 6 miles, and
it is four-square. And it is all walled round with walls of earth which
have a thickness of full ten paces at bottom, and a height of more
than 10 paces;{3} but they are not so thick at top, for they diminish
in thickness as they rise, so that at top they are only about 3 paces
thick. And they are provided throughout with loop-holed battlements,
which are all whitewashed.
There are 12 gates, and over each gate there is a great and handsome
palace, so that there are on each side of the square three gates and
five palaces; for (I ought to mention) there is at each angle also a
great and handsome palace. In those palaces are vast halls in which are
kept the arms of the city garrison.{4}
The streets are so straight and wide that you can see right along them
from end to end and from one gate to the other. And up and down the
city there are beautiful palaces, and many great and fine hostelries,
and fine houses in great numbers. [All the plots of ground on which
the houses of the city are built are four-square, and laid out with
straight lines; all the plots being occupied by great and spacious
palaces, with courts and gardens of proportionate size. All these plots
were assigned to different heads of families. Each square plot is
encompassed by handsome streets for traffic; and thus the whole city is
arranged in squares just like a chess-board, and disposed in a manner
so perfect and masterly that it is impossible to give a description
that should do it justice.]{5}
Moreover, in the middle of the city there is a great clock—that is to
say, a bell—which is struck at night. And after it has struck three
times no one must go out in the city, unless it be for the needs
of a woman in labour, or of the sick.{6} And those who go about on
such errands are bound to carry lanterns with them. Moreover, the
established guard at each gate of the city is 1000 armed men; not that
you are to imagine this guard is kept up for fear of any attack, but
only as a guard of honour for the Sovereign, who resides there, and to
prevent thieves from doing mischief in the town.{7}
NOTE 1.—✛ The history of the city on the site of Peking goes back
to very old times, for it had been [under the name of _Ki_] the
capital of the kingdom of Yen, previous to B.C. 222, when it was
captured by the Prince of the T’sin Dynasty. [Under the T’ang
dynasty (618–907) it was known under the name of Yu-chau.] It
became one of the capitals of the Khitans in A.D. 936, and of the
Kin sovereigns, who took it in 1125, in 1151 under the name of
Chung-tu. Under the name of Yenking, [given to this city in 1013]
it has a conspicuous place in the wars of Chinghiz against the
latter dynasty. He captured it in 1215. In 1264, Kúblái adopted it
as his chief residence, and founded in 1267, the new city of TATU
(“Great Court”), called by the Mongols TAIDU or DAITU since 1271
(see Bk. I. ch. lxi. note 1), at a little distance—Odoric says half
a mile—to the north-east of the old Yenking. Tatu was completed in
the summer of 1267.
Old Yenking had, when occupied by the Kin, a circuit of 27 _li_
(commonly estimated at 9 miles, but in early works the _li_ is not
more than ⅕ of a mile), afterwards increased to 30 _li_. But there
was some kind of outer wall about the city and its suburbs, the
circuit of which is called 75 _li_. [“At the time of the Yuen the
walls still existed, and the ancient city of the Kin was commonly
called Nan-ch’eng (Southern city), whilst the Mongol capital was
termed the northern city.” _Bretschneider, Peking_, 10.—H. C.]
(_Lockhart_; and see _Amyot_, II. 553, and note 6 to last chapter.)
Polo correctly explains the name _Cambaluc_, _i.e._ _Kaan-baligh_,
“The City of the Kaan.”
NOTE 2.—The river that ran between the old and new city must have
been the little river _Yu_, which still runs through the modern
Tartar city, and fills the city ditches.
[Dr. Bretschneider (_Peking_, 49) thinks that there is a strong
probability that Polo speaks of the _Wen-ming ho_, a river which,
according to the ancient descriptions, ran near the southern wall
of the Mongol capital.—H. C.]
[Illustration: South Gate of Imperial City at Peking.
“=Elle a douze portes, et sor chascune porte a une grandisme palais
et biaus.=”]
NOTE 3.—This height is from Pauthier’s Text; the G. Text has,
“_twenty_ paces,” _i.e._ 100 feet. A recent French paper states the
dimensions of the existing walls as 14 mètres (45½ feet) high,
and 14·50 (47¼ feet) thick, “the top forming a paved promenade,
unique of its kind, and recalling the legendary walls of Thebes and
Babylon.” (_Ann. d’Hygiène Publique_, 2nd s. tom. xxxii. for 1869,
p. 21.)
[According to the French astronomers (Fleuriais and Lapied) sent
to Peking for the Transit of Venus in December, 1875, the present
Tartar city is 23 kil. 55 in circuit, viz. if 1 _li_ = 575 m., 41
_li_; from the north to the south 5400 mètres; from east to west
6700 mètres; the wall is 13 mètres in height and 12 mètres in
width.—H. C.]
NOTE 4.—Our attempted plan of Cambaluc, as in 1290, differs
somewhat from this description, but there is no getting over
certain existing facts.
[Illustration: PEKING As it is and As it was, about 1290]
[Illustration: A.D. 1290.]
The existing Tartar city of Peking (technically _Neï-ch’ing_, “The
Interior City,” or _King-ch’ing_, “City of the Court”) stands on
the site of Taidu, and represents it. After the expulsion of the
Mongols (1368) the new native Dynasty of Ming established their
capital at Nanking. But this was found so inconvenient that the
third sovereign of the Dynasty re-occupied Taidu or Cambaluc, the
repairs of which began in 1409. He reduced it in size by cutting
off nearly a third part of the city at the north end. The remains
of this abandoned portion of wall are, however, still in existence,
approaching 30 feet in height all round. This old wall is called
by the Chinese _The Wall of the Yuen_ (_i.e._ the Mongol Dynasty),
and it is laid down in the Russian Survey. [The capital of the Ming
was 40 _li_ in circuit, according to the _Ch’ang an k’o hua_.]
The existing walls were built, or restored rather (the north wall
being in any case, of course, entirely new), in 1437. There seems
to be no doubt that the present south front of the Tartar city was
the south front of Taidu. The whole outline of Taidu is therefore
still extant, and easily measurable. If the scale on the War Office
edition of the Russian Survey be correct, the long sides measure
close upon 5 miles and 500 yards; the short sides, 3 miles and 1200
yards. Hence the whole perimeter was just about 18 English miles,
or less than 16 Italian miles. If, however, a pair of compasses
be run round Taidu and Yenking (as we have laid the latter down
from such data as could be had) _together_, the circuit will be
something like 24 Italian miles, and this may have to do with
Polo’s error.
[“The _Yuen shi_ states that _Ta-tu_ was 60 _li_ in circumference.
The _Ch’ue keng lu_, a work published at the close of the Yuen
Dynasty, gives the same number of _li_ for the circuit of the
capital, but explains that _li_ of 240 _pu_ each are meant. If this
statement be correct, it would give only 40 common or geographical
_li_ for the circuit of the Mongol town.” (_Bretschneider_,
_Peking_, 13.) Dr. Bretschneider writes (p. 20): “The outlines
of Khanbaligh, partly in contradiction with the ancient Chinese
records, if my view be correct, would have measured about 50 common
_li_ in circuit (13 _li_ and more from north to south, 11·64 from
east to west.”)—H. C.]
Polo [and Odoric] again says that there were 12 gates—3 to every
side. Both Gaubil and Martini also say that there were 12 gates.
But I believe that both are trusting to Marco. There are 9 gates
in the present Tartar city—viz. 3 on the south side and 2 on each
of the other sides. The old Chinese accounts say there were 11
gates in Taidu. (See _Amyot_, _Mém._ II. 553.) I have in my plan,
therefore, assumed that one gate on the east and one on the west
were obliterated in the reduction of the _enceinte_ by the Ming.
But I must observe that Mr. Lockhart tells me he did not find the
traces of gates in those positions, whilst the 2 gates on the
_north_ side of the old Mongol rampart are quite distinct, with the
barbicans in front, and the old Mongol bridge over the ditch still
serving for the public thoroughfare.[1]
[“The _Yuen shi_ as well as the _Ch’ue keng lu_, and other works
of the Yuen, agree in stating that the capital had eleven gates.
They are enumerated in the following order: Southern wall—(1) The
gate direct south (mid.) was called _Li-cheng men_; (2) the gate
to the left (east), _Wen-ming men_; (3) the gate to the right
(west), _Shun-ch’eng men_. Eastern wall—(4) The gate direct east
(mid.), _Ch’ung-jen men_; (5) the gate to the south-east, _Ts’i-hua
men_; (6) the gate to the north-east, _Kuang-hi men_. Western
wall—(7) The gate direct west (mid.), _Ho-i men_; (8) the gate to
the south-west, _P’ing-tse men_; (9) the gate to the north-west,
_Su-ts’ing men_. Northern Wall—(10) The gate to the north-west,
_K’ien-te men_; (11) the gate to the north-east, _An-chen men_.”
(_Bretschneider_, _Peking_, 13–14.)—H. C.]
When the Ming established themselves on the old Mongol site,
population seems to have gathered close about the southern
wall, probably using material from the remains of Yenking. This
excrescence was inclosed by a new wall in 1554, and was called
the “Outer Town.” It is what is called by Europeans the _Chinese
City_. Its western wall exhibits in the base sculptured stones,
which seem to have belonged to the old palace of Yenking. Some
traces of Yenking still existed in Gaubil’s time; the only relic
of it now pointed out is a pagoda outside of the Kwang-An-Măn, or
western gate of the Outer City, marked in the War Office edition of
the Russian Map as “Tower.” (Information from _Dr. Lockhart._)
The “Great Palaces” over the gates and at the corner bastions are
no doubt well illustrated by the buildings which still occupy those
positions. There are two such lofty buildings at each of the gates
of the modern city, the outer one (shown on p. 376) forming an
elevated redoubt.
NOTE 5.—The French writer cited under note 3 says of the city as it
stands: “La ville est de la sorte coupée en échiquier à peu près
régulier dont les quadres circonscrits par des larges avenues sont
percés eux-mêmes d’une multitude de rues et ruelles ... qui toutes
à peu près sont orientées N. et S., E. et O. Une seule volonté a
évidemment présidé à ce plan, et jamais édilité n’a eu à exécuter
d’un seul coup aussi vaste entreprise.”
NOTE 6.—Martini speaks of the public clock-towers in the Chinese
cities, which in his time were furnished with water-clocks.
A watchman struck the hour on a great gong, at the same time
exhibiting the hour in large characters. The same person watched
for fires, and summoned the public with his gong to aid in
extinguishing them.
[The Rev. G. B. Farthing mentions (_North-China Herald_, 7th
September, 1884) at T’ai-yuen fu the remains of an object in
the bell-tower, which was, and is still known, as one of the
eight wonders of this city; it is a vessel of brass, a part of a
water-clock from which water formerly used to flow down upon a drum
beneath and mark off time into equal divisions.—H. C.]
The tower indicated by Marco appears still to exist. It occupies
the place which I have marked as Alarm Tower in the plan of Taidu.
It was erected in 1272, but probably rebuilt on the Ming occupation
of the city. [“The _Yuen yi t’ung chi_, or ‘Geography of the
Mongol Empire’ records: ‘In the year 1272, the bell-tower and the
drum-tower were built in the _middle_ of the capital.’ A bell-tower
(_chung-lou_) and a drum-tower (_ku-lou_) exist still in Peking,
in the northern part of the Tartar City. The _ku-lou_ is the same
as that built in the thirteenth century, but the bell-tower dates
only from the last century. The bell-tower of the Yuen was a little
to the east of the drum-tower, where now the temple _Wan-ning sse_
stands. This temple is nearly in the middle of the position I
(Bretschneider) assign to Khanbaligh.” (_Bretschneider, Peking_,
20.)—H. C.] In the Court of the Old Observatory at Peking there
is preserved, with a few other ancient instruments, which date
from the Mongol era, a very elaborate water-clock, provided with
four copper basins embedded in brickwork, and rising in steps one
above the other. A cut of this courtyard, with its instruments and
aged trees, also ascribed to the Mongol time, will be found in ch.
xxxiii. (_Atlas Sinensis_, p. 10; _Magaillans_, 149–151; _Chine
Moderne_, p. 26; _Tour du Monde_ for 1864, vol. ii. p. 34.)
NOTE 7.—“Nevertheless,” adds the Ramusian, “there does exist I know
not what uneasiness about the people of Cathay.”
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[1] Mr. Wylie confirms my assumption: “Whilst in Peking I traced the
old mud wall, ... and found it quite in accordance with the outline
in your map. Mr. Gilmour (a missionary to the Mongols) and I rode
round it, he taking the outside and I the inside.... Neither of
us observed the arch that Dr. Lockhart speaks of.... _There_ are
_gate-openings about the middle of the east and west sides_, but no
barbicans.” (4th December 1873.)
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