Marco Polo

by Robin Brown

  Other streets, usually close to the squares, house the premises of physicians and astrologers, who also teach reading and writing and many other, darker, arts.

  On opposite sides of each of the squares there are two large ‘courts’ where Kublai’s officers are stationed to deal with any trouble that might arise, mostly between the locals and the foreign merchants. It is their job also to see that the huge number of bridges are guarded; they punish any delinquents at their discretion.

  Grand houses of great size, all with gardens, are to be found from one end of the city to the other. Nearby are the dwellings of the artisan class who work in their shops at their several trades. Day and night a multitude of people pass by, so numerous you would think it impossible to feed so many hungry mouths. In truth there are so many provisions on sale on the market days, brought in by carts and boats, that there is an abundance of food for everyone.

  Let us take pepper as an example. I was told by one of Kublai’s customs officials that almost 1,000lb of it was sold every day and this was probably only the amount on which tax was being paid.

  Paper money is used exclusively hereabouts and all the people worship idols. The men and women are light-skinned and handsome. Usually they wear silk which is produced here in huge quantities. There is also a lot of silk imported.

  There are twelve handicrafts practised here, so superior in their execution as to be worthy of mention. For each of them there are at least a thousand workshops with each shop employing between ten and fifteen craftsmen. Some places have as many as forty. The owners of these premises do not, of course, get their own hands dirty but, on the contrary, parade about in opulent dress affecting an air of gentility. Their wives do not work either. As I have already said, these women are very beautiful and they display a languid air of refinement. You would not believe how much they spend on jewels and clothes.

  Under an ancient royal edict each citizen is required to follow in his father’s profession but the way this works in practice is that once you have made your money you can give up manual labour provided you continue to keep the family business staffed.

  Their houses are very well built and richly ornamented with carved wood. They spend an enormous amount on interior decorations; carvings, paintings and fancy buildings.

  The famously gentle demeanour of Kin-sai’s kings has dictated the nature and behaviour of the people. They are pacifist and tranquil. They do not carry arms nor do they keep them in their houses. You rarely hear rows and they conduct their mercantile and manufacturing businesses in an atmosphere of perfect equanimity and probity. They are very friendly towards each other and you see people who live in the same street, men and women alike, acting like one family. In their domestic life they are seemingly free of jealousy or suspicion of their wives to whom great respect is shown. Indeed, any man who used indecent language to these women would be very seriously frowned upon. Traders visiting the city are invited freely into their houses and given much hospitality and advice on how best to go about their business.

  That said, these people really resent the presence of Kublai’s soldiers because it reminds them of the time when their own kings and rulers were deposed.

  All around the lake are many fine spacious homes belonging to the highest in the land. Likewise there are many monasteries whose monks do obeisance to their idols. In the middle of the lake are two islands on which stand some superb buildings; an incredible number of apartments and separate pavilions. When the inhabitants of Kin-sai stage a wedding or some other sumptuous event they retire to one of these islands. Everything they need is provided: vessels, napkins, table linen and the like. Moreover, these are all paid for by a charge upon the people for whom the buildings were erected. You can get as many as a hundred parties going on at the same time, weddings or other festivals all so judiciously arranged in the rooms and pavilions that they do not interfere with each other.

  On the lake itself a large number of pleasure boats, 15 to 25 feet long and capable of accommodating between ten and twenty people, ply their trade. These vessels are very wide and do not keel over as they move through the water. You hire one of them for pure enjoyment; men with women or just with their male companions. The boats are always kept in pristine condition with proper seats and tables and all the furniture you might need for entertaining. They have cabins with a flat-roofed upper deck where the boatmen, with long poles (the lake is nowhere more than 2 metres deep), thrust the barges along to various designated destinations. The cabins are decorated inside in a variety of colours and with figures, as indeed are other parts of the vessel.

  On either side of the boat, the windows open wide to allow the guests to feast their eyes on the lovely views on all sides while they sit at table. There is nothing on land to compare with the feeling of gratification you get out here on the water.

  The lake extends along one whole side of the city so, standing in a boat, you get a real feeling for its grandeur and beauty, its palaces, temples, convents and gardens with large trees growing to the water’s edge. All around are other boats full of people enjoying themselves.

  In fact, the people here think nothing of devoting themselves to pleasure once their day’s work is done. With their wives and their mistresses they go out in the boats, or in marvellous carriages (which deserve a special note). Remember that the streets of Kinsai are all paved with either stone or brick as indeed are all the principal roads the length and breadth of Manji. So passengers can travel everywhere without even soiling their feet. One side of the road is left unpaved just so the royal couriers can travel along them on horseback at great speed.

  In the city itself the main road is paved for 30 yards either side of a trench filled with gravel that, with a number of arched drains, ensures the bad water from the adjoining canals is carried off and the road remains dry. Carriages use this gravel lane, continually passing and repassing, and these are very fine vehicles indeed, trimmed with curtains and cushions of silk. They hold six people. So you get men (and women) seeking a pleasurable outing hiring one of these splendid carriages as a result of which, at any hour, you will see vast numbers of them travelling up and down the middle part of the street. They visit various gardens where attendants introduce them to shady spots created by the gardeners for that purpose and here the men – how shall I put it – ‘indulge’ themselves with the ladies, returning home by a similar method when the day is done.

  There is an intriguing custom practised by the people of Kinsai when a baby is born. They make an immediate note of the day, hour and minute of the delivery and take the information to an astrologer. He gives them the child’s star sign and this is also carefully noted down. When the child grows up and is about to go into business, or upon a journey or a voyage, this document is again presented to an astrologer for his appraisal. He then weighs up all the circumstances and makes certain forecasts in which the people place great trust. Great numbers of these astrologers or, if you like, magicians, can be found in the marketplaces every day. They also make pronouncements about marriages and no nuptials are ever celebrated without them.

  When a rich person dies here the relatives dress themselves in coarse clothing and accompany the body to where it is to be burnt. Various musical instruments are played as the procession moves along while prayers to the idol are chanted. On to the pyre they throw many pieces of cotton paper upon which are painted representations of the deceased’s male and female servants, their horses, camels and also silk wrought in gold, also gold and silver coins. They believe that this will allow the deceased to enjoy their servants, silks and money in the next world. When the body has been consumed all the instruments are played at once, producing a loud and continuous noise. It is believed that this cacophony induces the idols to receive the soul of the person whose body has been reduced to ashes and results in his reincarnation.

  In every street of the city there are stone fire watchtowers, a necessary precaution because most of the houses are made of wood and serious fires are
very common. By order of the Grand Khan there are teams of ten watchmen stationed under the principal bridges, five of whom watch by day and the other five by night. They also sound the hours, based on readings from a water clock (known as a clepsydra), using loud instruments of wood and iron. The first hour of the night is sounded by a watchman, first with a stroke on the wooden instrument, then with one on a metal gong. Then on the second hour, two sets of strokes sound and so on through the night. The guards are not allowed to sleep and are always on the alert. As soon as the sun rises in the morning they go back to a single stroke and then progress throughout the day.

  There is a curfew on open fires and the guards patrol the streets to ensure that it is kept. If someone is delinquent they mark his front door and in the morning he is taken before a magistrate for punishment. Similarly, if they find anyone wandering about late at night they arrest and confine them and take them before the magistrates in the morning. These patrolmen are also responsible for taking to hospital anyone they find who is infirm. There are several of these hospices founded by the old kings in various parts of the city and they are richly endowed. When a patient gets better he is obliged to return to work.

  When a fire is spotted, the watchmen raise the alarm by beating on a sort of wooden gong. These sounding boards comprise a wooden frame raised on mounds of earth a mile apart. On hearing the gong the watchmen from the other bridges converge on the conflagration to extinguish it and to save the goods of merchants by taking them to store towers. Sometimes they put the goods on boats and take them to the safety of the lake. And the night curfew even applies when a fire is in progress. Only those whose property or possessions are threatened are allowed out. But this, together with the watchmen, usually adds up to one or two thousand men.

  Kublai’s militia comes into its own in the event of a riot or an insurrection, but he also keeps a large force of infantry and cavalry commanded by his ablest officers on call in the city. This is only to be expected when you consider the importance of this province and especially its great capital which is in grandeur and wealth undoubtedly the greatest city in the world.

  When Kublai conquered the province of Manji and commanded its obedience, he divided the old single kingdom into nine parts, each under a king or viceroy who were charged with dispensing good government and justice. They, in turn, make an annual report to a commissioner on all matters within their jurisdiction, particularly revenue. All these public officers are changed every three years.

  The Viceroy of Kin-sai has authority over more than 140 cities and towns, all very large and rich. This is not a number to be wondered at because, remember, in the whole of Manji there are no fewer than one thousand two hundred, each housing large populations of industrious and wealthy people. In each of these centres Kublai maintains garrisons of at least one thousand, sometimes ten thousand or twenty thousand according to its importance. Not all of these are Tartars, most of them are Chinese. The Tartars are traditionally horsemen forming units of cavalry and many of these cities are on low marshy ground where it would be difficult for them to operate. So in such places, Kublai stations his Chinese troops and people from the south who are of a military bent. Every year Kublai selects from his subjects those best able to bear arms and enrols them into the various garrisons. In fact they make up several large armies.

  Very astutely, Kublai does not allow recruits from Cathay and Manji to be garrisoned in their native cities. They are stationed at least twenty days’ march away and there they stay for four to five years. The greater part of the revenues raised in the cities is used to pay for these garrisons.

  Rebellions are not uncommon in the cities. Governors are often murdered, usually as a result of anger or drunkenness. Retribution is immediate. Garrison troops from neighbouring cities are moved in to destroy the rebels, rendering unnecessary the despatch of the main army from another province. For this purpose, the city of Kin-sai supports a permanent garrison of thirty thousand soldiers.

  The former King, Facfur, built a marvellous palace enclosing between high walls some 10 miles of land which he divided into three parts. The centre part is entered through a lofty portal, on each side of which, on a flat terrace, are magnificent colonnades supporting a roof highly ornamented with the most beautiful azure and gold. On the other side of the entrance the colonnades are even bigger, supporting a richly ornamented roof and gilt columns. Inside, the walls are hung with exquisite paintings depicting the history of the old kings.

  Here, on feast days, King Facfur held court and staged a feast for his principal nobles, the chief magistrates and rich citizens, a gathering of some ten thousand people. The festival went on for ten to twelve days and the magnificence of the spectacle, the silks, gold and precious stones, was beyond imagining as every guest sought to outdo the others in the opulence of their dress.

  Inside the colonnaded grand portico there is a kind of pillared cloister separating the inner court from the outer, from which the royal apartments lead off. The pillars and walls are very richly ornamented. A covered passage six paces wide leads from here all the way to the lake. On each side there are entrances to ten courts again surrounded by porticoed cloisters, with each court having fifty apartments with gardens. These are the apartments of one thousand young women who were kept by the King. Accompanied sometimes by his Queen and often by a party of these females, it was the King’s custom to take his amusement on the lake in barges ornate with silk and to visit the temples and idols.

  The royal seraglio also enclosed two other sections laid out to groves of trees, stretches of water, beautiful gardens with fruit trees and enclosures for all sorts of animals (such as antelope, deer, stag, hare and rabbits) kept for hunting.

  Here the King sported himself, often with a bevy of his concubines, some in carriages, some on horseback. No other men were allowed at these gatherings but the girls were practised in the art of coursing with dogs and hunting animals. When they grew weary of these activities they retired into the groves of trees beside the lake, shed their clothes and rushed naked into the water where they would swim energetically about while the King watched.

  Sometimes he took a meal in these groves where the foliage of lofty trees afforded thick shade, waited upon by his girls. He was in fact so worn out by their devotions he had little thought for the defence of his kingdom and was no match for Kublai Khan who deprived him of all these splendid possessions and expelled him with ignominy.

  I was told about all this by a rich merchant of Kin-sai, when I personally visited the city. Then very old, he had been a confidential servant of King Facfur and knew everything about the King’s life. He had known the palace in all its former glory and was anxious to show me around. The palace is now occupied by the Grand Khan’s viceroy and while the colonnades have been preserved, the courtyards where the women lived have been left to go to ruin, indeed only the foundations are still visible. The great wall enclosing the park and gardens has also fallen into decay and the groves of trees and the animals have all gone.

  Let us now leave Kin-sai and head towards the north-east where, at a distance of 25 miles, you come to the sea and a fine port called Gan-pu used by ships trading with India. The port is at the mouth of the river that flows past Kin-sai and a huge fleet of boats plies up and down this waterway with the downstream traffic carrying exports for Cathay and India.

  I was in Kin-sai when his majesty’s commissioners were making an annual tally of revenues and a census, and had the chance to see some of the results. In the latter were registered one hundred and sixty ‘tomans’ of fireplaces (families dwelling under the same roof). As a toman represents a thousand souls, it follows that the population of the city is one hundred and sixty thousand families! Every head of a family, or the housekeeper, is required to put a notice on his front door giving the names of each member of the family, whether male or female, and the number of houses they have. When someone dies their name is struck off and when a child is born its name is added. The great officers of
a province and the governors of the cities are thus able to keep an exact check on the inhabitants. This same system applies in Cathay as well as Manji. All the keepers of inns and hostelries are likewise required to keep a register of their guests, noting the day and hour of their arrival, and this is posted daily with the city magistrates. There is just one church for Nestorian Christians here.

  In Manji I also found it a custom among the ordinary people to sell their children to the rich in order that they might be brought up in a better manner.

  Here is an indication of the kind of revenues Kublai can expect from Kin-sai, and the places within its jurisdiction, which constitutes the ninth division (or kingdom) of Manji. From salt (the most productive item) he levies a yearly duty of 80 tomans of gold, each toman being 80,000 saggi. Each saggi is equal to a gold florin, so the total adds up to 6,400,000 ducats.

  This vast output of salt may be accounted for by the huge number of salty lakes and marshes near the sea where, in the heat of the summer, the salt forms crystals sufficient to meet the needs of five other divisions of the country.

  They also cultivate large quantities of sugar from which Kublai takes duty, as he does on the production of rice wine. Artisans, merchants, importers and exporters pay a duty of 3.5 per cent. On goods coming by sea from distant lands like India, you pay 10 per cent. Cattle, agricultural produce and silk all attract a tithe for the Grand Khan and I personally saw an annual account (excluding the revenues from salt) of royal duty amounting to 210 tomans or 16,800,000 ducats.