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 shih. 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 chên about fifty li north of Shih-mên; and for Ciangan there is a tempting place called Ch’ang-an chên just south of Shih-mên on a canal 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; Vissière, Rev. du Monde Musulman, March, 1913, p. 8.
LXXVI., [p. 193.]
KINSAY.
Chinese Atlas in the Magliabecchian Library.
The Rev. A. C. Moule has devoted a long note to this Atlas in the Journ. R. As. Soc., July, 1919, pp. 393–395. He has come to the conclusion that the Atlas is no more nor less than the Kuang yü t’u, and that it seems that Camse stands neither for Ching-shih, as Yule thought, nor for Hang chau as he, Moule, suggested in 1917, but simply for the province of Kiangsi. (A Note on the Chinese Atlas in the Magliabecchian Library, with reference to Kinsay in Marco Polo.)
Mr. P. von Tanner, Commissioner of Customs at Hang chau, wrote in 1901 in the Decennial Reports, 1892–1901, of the Customs, p. 4: “While Hangchow owes its fame to the lake on the west, it certainly owes its existence towards the south-west to the construction of the sea wall, called by the Chinese by the appropriate name of bore wall. The erection of this sea wall was commenced about the year A.D. 915, by Prince Ts’ien Wu-su; it extends from Hang Chau to Chuan sha, near the opening of the Hwang pu.... The present sea wall, in its length of 180 miles, was built. The wall is a stupendous piece of work, and should take an equal share of fame with the Grand Canal and the Great Wall of China, as its engineering difficulties were certainly infinitely greater.... The fact that Marco Polo does not mention it shows almost conclusively that he never visited Hang Chau, but got his account from a Native poet. He must have taken it, besides, without the proverbial grain of salt, and without eliminating the over-numerous ‘thousands’ and ‘myriads’ prompted less by facts than by patriotic enthusiasm and poetical licence.”
LXXVI., [p. 194 n.]