by Robin Brown
All of this region houses cities with flourishing commerce and manufacturing, and another journey to the south brings one to Singui-matu, a truly large, noble and handsome city. On its southern side a deep river has been divided by the inhabitants into two, one runs through Cathay, the other, taking a westerly course, flows towards the province of Manji. The river traffic is incredible and is the conduit for every kind of consumable. It actually takes the breath away when you see the multitude of huge vessels, continually plying back and forth, laden to the gunwales with the richest merchandise.
If you leave Singui-matu and travel six days to the south through a ceaseless procession of commercial towns and castles you will reach Lingui where the people are idolaters, burn their dead, are subjects of the Grand Khan and use his paper money. This is a city of noble traditions whose menfolk are famously warlike. The city of Pingui follows three days later where they have all the necessities of life. The city pays Kublai a great amount of revenue from its commerce and manufacturing. On again, for two days, to Cingui which is huge, prosperous in commerce and manufacturing. This is wheat-growing country and they also have very handsome and useful dogs.
And so you come eventually to the mighty River Kara-moran (the Yellow River) which has its source in the countries belonging to Prester John. It is a mile wide. Its great depth allows large ships to navigate it fully laden. Large fish are caught in considerable quantities. About a day’s distance from the sea there is a port on the river that provides anchorage for fifteen thousand vessels, each capable of carrying fifteen horses and twenty men besides the crew, stores and provisions. They are kept in a constant state of readiness allowing Kublai to carry an army to any of the islands in the neighbouring ocean that might be in revolt. The port is close to a large city called Koi-gan-zu.
Cross the river and you enter the noble province of Manji. I must confess that I have only given you a cursory account of Cathay, indeed I have only described about one-twentieth of it, dealing simply with cities that were on my route. To have described all the cities would have made this book far too long and boring.
Manji is the richest and most magnificent province of the Eastern world. In about 1269 it was the kingdom of a prince called Facfur who, for at least a century, was the wealthiest and most powerful monarch that had every reigned. He was of a peaceable and benevolent disposition, so beloved of his people and so protected by huge rivers and the power of his kingdom that invasion from outside, indeed by anyone on earth, was considered impossible. As a result he and his people were very complacent about the military threat, declining, for example, to keep up any cavalry. That said, his cities were remarkably well fortified, being surrounded by deep moats a bow-shot wide.
His main pursuit was that of erotic pleasure, keeping at the court, very close to his person and whose company he greatly enjoyed, about a thousand beautiful women. He was famous for his strict enforcement of the law, indeed it was said that shopkeepers could leave their premises open and no one dared rob them. Travellers passed through the country without fear of molestation. He looked after the poor and needy and famously took care of twenty thousand foundlings a year. The boys were instructed in some trade when they grew up and married the young women the King had had raised in like fashion. He could not have been more different to Kublai Khan! As I have told you this grand emperor of the Tartars delighted in war, the conquest of countries and extending his power, and now he turned his attention to Manji.
Under the command of General Chin-san-bay-an (which means the Hundred-Eyed) Kublai assembled a vast army of horse and foot soldiers. The invasion was launched from ships. The inhabitants of the city of Koi-gan-zu were the first to be ordered to surrender and, when they refused, instead of launching a siege Hundred-Eyes moved on to the next town. They too refused to surrender so the army moved on again until four towns had called his bluff. But it was not bluff. Aware that reinforcements were on the way he skilfully turned one of these cities and put every one of its inhabitants to the sword. The news spread to the other recalcitrant cities and they promptly surrendered!
Hundred-Eyes waited for Kublai’s second army to arrive then moved on to King Facfur’s royal city of Kin-sai. The King, who had essentially never been involved in any kind of warfare, reacted as you might expect. He made his escape to a fleet of vessels which had been readied for that purpose and, with most of his treasure and valuable effects, left the city in the charge of his Queen, with orders to defend it to the last man, believing that as a woman she would be safe if the city fell to the enemy. For his part, the King made out to sea and reached some well-fortified island and there he remained until his death.
In the meantime, the Queen heard from some astrologers that the King had been told that he would never be deposed other than by ‘a chief who would have a hundred eyes’. At first this persuaded her that Kin-sai, although by now gravely weakened, would never fall because it seemed impossible that any mortal could have that number of eyes. But enquiring as to the name of the general commanding the siege and being told he was Chin-san-bay-an she grew convinced that this must be the person to drive her husband from his throne. She no longer attempted to resist but immediately surrendered. Once they had captured the capital, the Tartars soon brought the rest of Manji under their domination. The Queen was brought in person before Kublai Khan, who received her with due honours and arranged for her to receive an allowance that enabled her to retain the honour and dignity of her rank.
Moving on south and east you reach a very wealthy and handsome city, Kolgan-zu, which lies at the entrance to Manji 5 miles from the river of Kara-moran to which it is connected by a grand canal. This waterway runs through an area of marshy lakes and, as I have said, is deep and carries a prodigious amount of traffic. It is effectively the only road into Manji. Salt is produced here in great quantities for local consumption and for export; a trade from which Kublai derives ample tax revenues.
A handsome stone causeway through other marshy lakes provides the only road on into Manji. These lakes are deep and can be navigated and it was by this method that the Grand Khan’s generals invaded, using ships to land an entire army. A day’s journey down this causeway, which also forms the bank of the canal, you reach the large town of Pau-ghin where everyone worships idols and gains their living in manufacture and trade, particularly silk and woven gold tissues. Everyone lives pretty well here. In nearby Kain, just a day away, a great variety of fish is available; also game. Pheasants in particular are so plentiful that for a piece of silver equivalent to a Venetian groat you get three of these birds the size of a pea fowl. Four days on, through the city of Tin-gui, you reach the sea. All the fields around here are much tilled and again there is a flourishing salt industry. From the town of Chin-gui the salt is exported to supply all the provinces around and from this trade the Grand Khan derives so much revenue it can hardly be credited, all of it in paper money.
We come now to Yan-gui, an important city with twenty-four towns under its jurisdiction and where I was to be the governor. This is a place of considerable consequence where they specialise in the manufacture of arms and all sorts of military ordnance to meet the needs of the great number of troops who are stationed around here. I took up my post in a room in a palace of one of Kublai’s nobles and was to preside here for three years.
Nan-gin, situated to the west, is renowned for its hunting, especially tigers. The people produce much corn and cattle.
Nearby is the considerable city of Sa-yan-fu, having under its jurisdiction twelve large and wealthy towns. My father, my uncle and I played no small part in the conquest of this city by the forces of the Grand Khan in the following manner.
San-yan-fu is amply appointed with everything you would expect of a great city and had withstood a siege of three years even though by then Kublai had already conquered the rest of Manji. The army was having difficulties largely because the city was surrounded by water on three sides. Only the northern side was approachable.
Kublai
was furious that San-yan-fu was still holding out and my father and uncle, who were then living at the royal court, went to him and proposed that they should build siege engines like those used in the West which could hurl stones weighing 300lb and destroy the city and its inhabitants. The Grand Khan warmly welcomed the scheme and gave orders that the finest smiths and carpenters should be placed at my father and uncle’s service, among whom were some Nestorian Christians who proved to be the most able engineers.
As a result these mangonels were completed in a matter of days and Kublai and his whole court came to watch their trials. They were then sent by ship to the army outside San-yan-fu. The very first stone hurled by them hit a building with such force that the greater part of it was smashed and collapsed. The terrified inhabitants of the city thought they were suffering thunderbolts from heaven and they met to consider a surrender. Emissaries were sent to court to sue for peace and San-yan-fu made its submission on the same terms and conditions as had been granted to the rest of the province. Needless to say, a surrender brought about by such ingenuity greatly increased my father and uncle’s reputation at court.
Fifteen days to the south-east is the city of Sin-gui which although not that large a place is a tremendous commercial hub. It is close to the River Kiang, the largest river in the world, and its traders own a prodigious number of ships. The Kiang at this point is about 8 to 10 miles wide as a result of a vast number of rivers, which rise in other countries, emptying into it. It is upwards of a hundred days’ journey to travel the whole length of the Kiang until it discharges into the sea. Numerous large cities and towns are situated on its banks and more than two hundred, in sixteen provinces, take advantage of the shipping that plies up and down it. The transport of merchandise is frankly incredible.
The length of the river, travelling as it does through so many places, also means that the quantity and value of the trade are virtually incalculable. The principal commodity is, however, salt and the river is used to transport it to the far corners of the country.
On one occasion when I was in Sin-gui I saw at least fifteen thousand vessels and there are other towns along the river where they have even more! All these vessels are decked, have one sail and a carrying capacity of between 200 and 600 tons. The mast and sail are supported by hemp ropes, but they also commonly use canes, split lengthwise into very thin pieces and then twisted together. The canes employed can be 90 feet long and can be made up into ‘ropes’ 900 feet in length. These cane ropes, harnessed to ten or twelve horses, are used to tow barges down the river. They can even handle the up-river pull against the current. On many hills and rocky bluffs you see a lot of temples and other religious buildings, and the progression of towns and villages along the riverbanks is virtually continuous.
Most of the wheat and rice for Kublai’s court comes by water from Kayn-gui, a small town on the southern bank of the river. It is shipped down via rivers and lakes and then along a deep, wide canal which the Grand Khan has had dug. Vessels can go all the way to Kanbula without having to go to sea. I admire this magnificent piece of engineering not so much for its vast length or the way it winds cleverly through the country as for the great benefits and convenience it has brought to the cities lying along its course.
The river’s sides comprise a strong embankment and a terrace that make for easy passage on land. In the middle of the river, opposite the city of Kayn-gui, there is a rocky island with a grand temple where two hundred monks live and perform services to their idols. This place is the spiritual centre for many other temples and monasteries.
Tin-gui-gui is another large and handsome town occupied entirely by idolaters living by the arts and commerce, who all use Kublai’s paper money. It is a centre of raw silk production from which beautiful tissues in many patterns are woven. All the good things of life are to be found here including a variety of game providing excellent sport.
Sadly, the inhabitants are vile. You will remember my describing how Chin-san-bay-an (‘Hundred Eyes’) conquered all these provinces of Manji. Well, in the case of this city he sent a group of Albanian Christians accompanied by some of his army to receive the surrender of Tin-gui-gui. They were allowed to enter the city without resistance.
Tin-gui-gui has a double protective wall and Kublai’s emissaries set up their camp inside the outer wall. Tired and thirsty they quenched their thirst with a large quantity of wine which they found there; drinking far too much of it in fact and, intoxicated, they eventually fell deeply asleep. However, inside the second enclosure the people of Tin-gui-gui waited until they were all asleep, then sprang on the visitors and murdered them to a man.
You can imagine Hundred Eyes’s reaction when he heard what had happened. His fury knew no bounds. He sent his whole army to attack the city and gave orders that everyone, girls and boys, young and old, should be put to the sword.
Sin-gui is another magnificent city to the south-east with an astonishingly vast population sharing both the same idolatrous religious practices and the use of paper money. They produce vast quantities of raw silk, clothe themselves in silk and export it to other markets. There are some very rich merchants but generally they are a mean bunch devoted entirely to manufacturing and trade. I have to say that there are so many of them that if you consider their prodigious output, manliness and warlike temperament they could, should they so desire, take over the whole of Manji, indeed beyond.
They have excellent physicians who can establish the nature of a disorder and know how to apply the proper remedies. There are distinguished professors of learning, or more accurately philosophers and others who should be termed magicians or sorcerers.
On the mountains near the city superb rhubarb is grown and distributed throughout the province. Ginger is also produced in large quantities and sold very cheaply, 40lb of fresh root for one Venetian silver groat. Sixteen wealthy and respectable cities come under the jurisdiction of Sin-gui and trade from the arts flourishes in these cities as well. ‘Sin-gui’ in fact translates as ‘city of the earth’.
The principal city of Manji, Kin-sai lies three days away via a town called Va-gui (one day) where they trade a vast amount of raw silk. Kin-sai means ‘celestial city’ and its grandeur and beauty well deserve that name, indeed it is the greatest city in the world. The abundant delights it has to offer the traveller lead one to think one might be in Paradise. I went there regularly and took copious notes of which the following are a small selection.
Including the suburbs the city is 100 miles in circumference, with perfectly proportioned streets, squares, marketplaces and canals serving the needs of a prodigious population. It lies between a freshwater lake of very clear water on the one side and a huge river on the other. The city is criss-crossed by canals large and small. Water from the river flows through this canal system into the lake taking all the filth of the city with it, then on into the sea.
The system purifies the air and provides an ideal method of communication to all parts of the town. I was told that there are twelve thousand bridges. Those bridging the principal canals are so high and skilfully constructed that a full-masted vessel can pass beneath. Carts and horses, of course, pass overhead. Actually you need this many bridges to get from one part of the city to the other.
Beyond the city, enclosing it on one side, is a dam erected many years ago by the old kings, both as a line of defence and to take the overflow from the river when it floods. The excavated earth forms a series of hillocks around one side of the dam.
Within the city limits there are ten principal squares or marketplaces housing innumerable shops. Each side of these squares is half a mile in length and in front of them is the main street more than 100 feet wide, passing right through the city from end to end. Each square (each 2 miles across) is 4 miles from the next and constructed in a line parallel to the square.
Capacious warehouses have been built of stone for the merchants from India and elsewhere who come here with goods to trade in the many squares. Something in the order
of forty to fifty thousand people come, three days a week, to markets. Everything one might desire may be purchased: a vast quantity of game, such as roebuck, stags, fallow deer, hares and rabbits, together with partridge, pheasant, francolin, quail, chickens, capons and many ducks for just one Venetian silver groat. Butchers slaughter fresh oxen, calves, kids and lambs for the table of the rich and the great magistrates. The ordinary people eat everything that is left over, however unclean.
All year round the markets offer a great variety of herbs and fruit, pears of an extraordinary size weighing 10lb each that have a white, paste-like inside and are very fragrant with a delicious flavour. Dried grapes which are also very good are brought from elsewhere and wine, which admittedly the locals do not rate, preferring their fortified rice wines.
The sea is only 15 miles away so there is a daily supply of fish in vast quantities. The lake also supplies local fishermen with steady employment. These lake fish actually grow very fat and tasty from the offal carried down the canals. It is surprising to think that so much fish can be sold, but in fact it is all gone in a few hours.
Each of the ten market squares is surrounded by dwellings several storeys high. Shops take up the ground floor manufacturing and selling among other things trinkets, pearls, herbs and spices. Wine shops brew all the time and the wine is moderately priced. The side streets offer bathhouses where cold baths may be obtained. The people here are used from childhood to bathe in cold water, believing it to be very good for them. They wash every day, particularly before meals.
Other streets house brothels frankly too numerous to list. The girls prefer to live near the great squares where they find most of their trade, but are also to be found in every part of the city. Their houses are well furnished and the girls themselves, highly perfumed, are decked out in the most exquisite finery and attended by many female servants. These girls are masters of the art of love but they also posture charmingly and once you have tasted these fruits the fascination stays with you for ever. I have known men so intoxicated by the courtesans of Kin-sai that they return to their homes telling stories of the ‘celestial city’ and literally pant to get back to this paradise.