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CHAPTER XLIII.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF ACBALEC MANZI.
After you have travelled those 20 days through the mountains of CUNCUN
that I have mentioned, then you come to a province called ACBALEC MANZI,
which is all level country, with plenty of towns and villages, and belongs
to the Great Kaan. The people are Idolaters, and live by trade and
industry. I may tell you that in this province, there grows such a great
quantity of ginger, that it is carried all over the region of Cathay, and
it affords a maintenance to all the people of the province, who get great
gain thereby. They have also wheat and rice, and other kinds of corn, in
great plenty and cheapness; in fact the country abounds in all useful
products. The capital city is called ACBALEC MANZI [which signifies "the
White City of the Manzi Frontier"].[NOTE 1]
This plain extends for two days' journey, throughout which it is as fine
as I have told you, with towns and villages as numerous. After those two
days, you again come to great mountains and valleys, and extensive
forests, and you continue to travel westward through this kind of country
for 20 days, finding however numerous towns and villages. The people are
Idolaters, and live by agriculture, by cattle-keeping, and by the chase,
for there is much game. And among other kinds, there are the animals that
produce the musk, in great numbers.[NOTE 2]
NOTE 1.--Though the termini of the route, described in these two chapters,
are undoubtedly Si-ngan fu and Ch'êng-tu fu, there are serious
difficulties attending the determination of the line actually followed.
The time according to all the MSS., so far as I know, except those of one
type, is as follows:
| In the plain of Kenjanfu . |
. |
. |
. |
. 3 |
days. |
| In the mountains of Cuncun |
. |
. |
. |
. 20 |
" |
| In the plain of Acbalec . |
. |
. |
. |
. 2 |
" |
| In mountains again . . |
. |
. |
. |
. 20
-- |
" |
| |
|
|
|
45
-- |
days. |
[From Si-ngan fu to Ch'êng-tu (Sze-ch'wan), the Chinese reckon 2300 li
(766 miles). (Cf. Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, p. 23.) Mr. G.F. Eaton,
writing from Han-chung (Jour. China Br.R.A.S. xxviii. p. 29) reckons:
"From Si-ngan Fu S.W. to Ch'êng-tu, via K'i-shan, Fung-sien, Mien,
Kwang-yuan and Chao-hwa, about 30 days, in chairs." He says (p. 24): "From
Ch'êng-tu via Si-ngan to Peking the road does not touch Han-chung, but
20 li west of the city strikes north to Pao-ch'eng. The road from
Han-chung to Ch'êng-tu made by Ts'in Shi Hwang-ti to secure his conquest of
Sze-ch'wan, crosses the Ta-pa-shan."--H.C.]
It seems to me almost impossible to doubt that the Plain of Acbalec
represents some part of the river-valley of the Han, interposed between
the two ranges of mountains called by Richthofen T'sing-Ling-Shan and
Ta-pa-Shan. But the time, as just stated, is extravagant for anything
like a direct journey between the two termini.
The distance from Si-ngan fu to Pao-ki is 450 li, which could be done in
3 days, but at Polo's rate would probably require 5. The distance by the
mountain road from Pao-ki to the Plain of Han-chung, could never have
occupied 20 days. It is really a 6 or 7 days' march.
But Pauthier's MS. C (and its double, the Bern MS.) has viii. marches
instead of xx., through the mountains of Cuncun. This reduces the time
between Kenjanfu and the Plain to 11 days, which is just about a proper
allowance for the whole journey, though not accurately distributed. Two
days, though ample, would not be excessive for the journey across the
Plain of Han-chung, especially if the traveller visited that city. And "20
days from Han-chung, to Ch'êng-tu fu would correspond with Marco Polo's
rate of travel." (Richthofen).
So far then, provided we admit the reading of the MS. C, there is no ground
for hesitating to adopt the usual route between the two cities,
via Han-chung.
But the key to the exact route is evidently the position of Acbalec Manzi,
and on this there is no satisfactory light.
For the name of the province, Pauthier's text has Acbalec Manzi, for the
name of the city Acmalec simply. The G.T. has in the former case
Acbalec Mangi, in the latter "Acmelic Mangi qe vaut dire le une de
le
confine dou Mangi." This is followed literally by the Geographic Latin,
which has "Acbalec Mangi et est dictum in lingua nostra unus ex
confinibus Mangi." So also the Crusca; whilst Ramusio has "_Achbaluch
Mangi, che vuol dire Città Bianca de' confini di Mangi." It is clear that
Ramusio alone has here preserved the genuine reading.
Klaproth identified Acbalec conjecturally with the town of Pe-ma-ching,
or "White-Horse-Town," a place now extinct, but which stood like Mien and
Han-chung on the extensive and populous Plain that here borders the Han.
It seems so likely that the latter part of the name Pe-MACHING
("White
Maching") might have been confounded by foreigners with Máchín and
Manzi (which in Persian parlance were identical), that I should be
disposed to overlook the difficulty that we have no evidence produced to
show that Pemaching was a place of any consequence.
It is possible, however, that the name Acbalec may have been given by the
Tartars without any reference to Chinese etymologies. We have already twice
met with the name or its equivalent (Acbaluc in ch. xxxvii. of this Book,
and Chaghan Balghasun in note 3 to Book I. ch. lx.), whilst Strahlenberg
tells us that the Tartars call all great residences of princes by this name
(Amst. ed. 1757, I. p. 7). It may be that Han-chung itself was so named by
the Tartars; though its only claim that I can find is, that it was the
first residence of the Han Dynasty. Han-chung fu stands in a beautiful
plain, which forms a very striking object to the traveller who is leaving
the T'sing-ling mountains. Just before entering the plains, the Helung
Kiang passes through one of its wildest gorges, a mere crevice between
vertical walls several hundred feet high. The road winds to the top of one
of the cliffs in zigzags cut in the solid rock. From the temple of Kitau
Kwan, which stands at the top of the cliff, there is a magnificent view of
the Plain, and no traveller would omit this, the most notable feature
between the valley of the Wei and Ch'êng-tu-fu. It is, moreover, the only
piece of level ground, of any extent, that is passed through between those
two regions, whichever road or track be taken. (Richthofen, MS. Notes.)
[In the China Review (xiv. p. 358) Mr. E.H. Parker, has an article on
Acbalec Manzi, but does not throw any new light on the subject.--H.C.]
NOTE 2.--Polo's journey now continues through the lofty mountainous region
in the north of Sze-ch'wan.
The dividing range Ta-pa-shan is less in height than the T'sing-ling range,
but with gorges still more abrupt and deep; and it would be an entire
barrier to communication but for the care with which the road, here also,
has been formed. But this road, from Han-chung to Ch'êng-tu fu, is still
older than that to the north, having been constructed, it is said, in the
3rd century B.C. [See supra.] Before that time Sze-ch'wan was a closed
country, the only access from the north being the circuitous route down the
Han and up the Yang-tz'u. (Ibid.)
[Mr. G.G. Brown writes (Jour. China Br. R. As. Soc. xxviii. p. 53):
"Crossing the Ta-pa-shan from the valley of the Upper Han in Shen-si we
enter the province of Sze-ch'wan, and are now in a country as distinct as
possible from that that has been left. The climate which in the north was
at times almost Arctic, is now pluvial, and except on the summits of the
mountains no snow is to be seen. The people are ethnologically
different.... More even than the change of climate the geological aspect is
markedly different. The loess, which in Shen-si has settled like a pall
over the country, is here absent, and red sandstone rocks, filling the
valleys between the high-bounding and intermediate ridges of palaeozoic
formation, take its place. Sze-ch'wan is evidently a region of rivers
flowing in deeply eroded valleys, and as these find but one exit, the deep
gorges of Kwei-fu, their disposition takes the form of the innervations of
a leaf springing from a solitary stalk. The country between the branching
valleys is eminently hilly; the rivers flow with rapid currents in
well-defined valleys, and are for the most part navigable for boats, or in
their upper reaches for lumber-rafts.... The horse-cart, which in the
north and north-west of China is the principal means of conveyance, has
never succeeded in gaining an entrance into Sze-ch'wan with its steep
ascents and rapid unfordable streams; and is here represented for
passenger traffic by the sedan-chair, and for the carriage of goods,
with the exception of a limited number of wheel-barrows, by the backs of
men or animals, unless where the friendly water-courses afford the
cheapest and readiest means of intercourse."--H.C.]
Martini notes the musk-deer in northern Sze-ch'wan.
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