The death of Mangu was most unexpected, and as the Mongol habit was not to name a successor until after the Khan’s death, it is hardly to be wondered at that the death of the sovereign under such circumstances in such a vast empire was a very serious matter. The custom seems to have been to call a Kuriltai as soon after the chief’s death as possible, and there to choose a successor; a custom well adapted to a small pastoral tribe, but pregnant with confusion when applied to a great heterogeneous empire. In the present case the difficulty was greater, inasmuch as Mangu’s brothers, to one of whom the succession would devolve according to the Mongol theory of succession, were scattered far asunder. Kublai was prosecuting his campaign in China, Khulagu was busy in Syria, while Arikbuka was in command of Karakorum, the Mongol capital, and probably also of the main body of troops of Mongol blood, and was in this position no doubt sorely tempted to displace his elder brother Khubilai from the succession.

Mangu had assigned to Khubilai the district of Honan chau, north of the Great Wall, for a summer residence. There in 1256 he built himself a palace, some temples, &c., on a spot chosen for him by a Chinese astrologer. This new town, situated some twenty-two leagues N.E. of the most northern gates of the Great Wall, was widely known as Shangtu or Kai ping fu. Thence he set out in the latter part of 1258 to take his part in the war against the Sung empire. He marched leisurely through Honan, and having divided his army into two bodies he captured several fortresses near Ma ching, in Hukuang, where he received news of the Khakan’s death. He determined, notwithstanding this, to advance. We are told he climbed the mountain Hianglu, whence he surveyed the course of the river Kiang. He noticed how the river was crowded with Chinese ships beautifully appointed, and was reminded by one of his generals named Tong-wen-ping that the Chinese were abundantly confident that the Kiang was an insurmountable obstacle which heaven had planted there as a barrier to himself. He volunteered to force the passage. With his brother and a body of determined men he boarded some large barges, crossed the river amidst a terrible din of drums, and pressed the troops on the other side so vigorously before their fleet could come to the rescue, that the Chinese abandoned the further bank, and Khubilai with the main army crossed over and proceeded to lay siege to Wu chang fu, the capital of Hu kuang.

The Sung Emperor now began to be frightened, and sent a large force under the general Kia-se-tao to the relief of Wu chang. The new general was no soldier but a literary character, who disgusted the army by his appointments. He made secret advances to Khubilai, and promised that his master would become the vassal of the Mongol Khakan if he would raise the siege and retire. Khubilai at first refused, but messengers arrived at his camp with news that intrigues were in progress at Kara­korum to place his brother Arikbuka on the throne. This news prevailed with him. He agreed to retire on condition that the Sung Emperor acknowledged himself his vassal, and paid him an annual tribute of 200,000 ounces of silver and 2,000 pieces of silk. It was further agreed that the river Kiang should be the boundary between the two empires. Khubilai set out with his cavalry, and left his infantry to await the arrival of Uriangkadai. The latter general had been ordered after the campaign in Tunking to march and meet Khubilai before Wu chang. He marched victoriously from one town to another until he arrived in Northern Hu kuang, when the convention concluded by Khubilai caused him to retire behind the Kiang. His rear guard was treacherously attacked by Kia-se-tao as it was crossing the river; the latter hid from his master the humiliating conditions of peace, and persuaded him his valour had caused the Mongol retreat.

Kublai pitched his camp under the walls of Peking and sent to his brother for men, provisions, and money; these he received, as also very reassuring messages. Arikbuka had summoned a Kuriltai in the great Ordu of Mangu, in the Altai, to do the last honours to the deceased Khakan, and to this he invited Khubilai, who excused himself. It is probable that he had some ulterior object. Either he had secured the votes for himself or wished to get Khubilai into his power. At all events the latter and his friends called a special Kuriltai at Shangtu. There assembled his brother Muké; Kadan, son of Ogotai; Togatshar, son of Utsuken noyan, and others. Neither Khulagu nor the descendants of Juji and Jagatai were summoned, the excuse being that they were too far off, and all agreeing that the circumstances admitted of no delay, they proceeded to elect Khubilai to the office of Khakan. He was then forty-four years old. The election was followed by eight days’ feasting, when as usual largess was distributed among his supporters. This election was the beginning of a long strife among the Mongols, which ultimately crumbled their power. It was no doubt against the whole theory of their hierarchical government, that the Khakan should be elected by only a section of the Royal house, and although Kublai both by his age and his acquirements was entitled to the position, and it would seem to have been allowed by both Khulagu and Bereke, it gave a colourable excuse to both Arikbuka and the descendants of Ogotai and Jagatai to oppose him.

When Arikbuka, who was at Karakorum, heard that Kublai had had himself proclaimed Khakan of the Mongols, he sent Alemdar to collect an army among the northern hordes, and sent him considerable sums of money and silk to distribute among the soldiers. He also collected large stores of grain in the country of Koan chong. Kuntukai, who had 60,000 men in the country of Lupinj having been placed there by Mangu, declared for him, and persuaded the Mongol commanders stationed at Ching tu, the capital of Suchuan, and at Ching kin to do the same. Arikbuka finding he was so well supported had himself proclaimed Khakan at Karakorum. Among his supporters were the chief widow and three sons of Mangu, the late Khan, and the grandsons of Jagatai. Kublai had appointed Apisga, son of Buri, to the khanship of Jagatai, and sent him home with his brother, but they were intercepted in Shensi and handed over to Arikbuka, who shortly after had them both killed.

Meanwhile Kublai was not idle, he appointed one of his best generals, called Lien hi hien, a Uighur by birth, to be governor of Shensi and Suchuan. Kadan, son of Kuyuk, asked to be allowed to serve under him. He went at once to Si ngan fu, the capital of Shensi, where he proceeded to counteract the influence of the partisans of Arik­buka. He published the decrees by which he had been named governor; took rigorous steps to put down the nascent rebellion; and seized some of the more important rebels. Kublai had published a general amnesty, but Lien hi hien was determined that the chief offenders should not escape, so he hastened to have Liau ti ping and Halukai killed in prison, and then with Turkish unction, and according to custom, he walked in front of the messengers who brought the amnesty and had it proclaimed. Kuntukai finding it was not possible to possess himself of Si ngan fu, crossed the Hoang ho, captured the town of Kan chau, and having been joined by Alemdar with a body of troops from Karakorum he marched southwards towards Suchuan, which he hoped to secure, but he was attacked to the east of Kan chau by the Prince Kadan, who had posted himself so as to cut off the enemy’s retreat to Karakorum, a cloud of dust assisted the latter, but after a fierce and long sustained struggle they were surrounded and completely beaten. Both Kuntukai and Alemdar were killed, and Shensi and Su-chuan were effectually secured for Kublai.

After several ineffectual attempts at conciliation, Kublai marched in the end of 1261 with the Princes Kadan and Togatshar into Tartary. They encountered the forces of Arikbuka at a place called Simutu. In a sanguinary battle the latter were defeated with the loss of 3,000 men. Arikbuka fled towards the Kirghises, and Kublai subdued several of the refractory tribes in the north.+ In his distress Arikbuka had appointed Algu, the son of Baidar, Khan of Jagatai, which was still governed by the widow Organa. He bade him send him arms and pro­visions, and to guard his eastern frontier so that neither Khulagu nor the Golden Horde should send assistance to Kublai. But being hard pressed in the country of the Kirghises he sent to Kublai, saying that his horses were worn out, and that he only waited until Khulagu, Bereke, and Algu came to do homage, to come himself. Kublai replied, that if sincere, he need not wait, and having left a body of troops at Karakorum to escort him if he should go, he himself returned to Kai-ping-fu.

The influence of Chinese culture upon the Mongol sovereigns begins to be very marked in the reign of Kublai. He was a great patron of learned men, and the annals contain many anecdotes of his intercourse with them. He had at his court a distinguished Chinese literate, named Changtl hoei. He one day asked him, “Is it true that the Liao dynasty fell through the Ho chang, and that it was the literates who brought down the Kin ?” “I can’t speak for the Liao,” said Changté, “ but in regard to the Kin it was not so; among their ministers they had but few literates. Most of the ministers, and these too the all powerful ones, were military men. Of thirty suggestions made by the literates, hardly one was adopted. The good or ill government of a country depends on those to whom power is intrusted. Can the fall of the Kin then be ascribed to the literates?” The Emperor acceded to this argument. On another occasion the Emperor inquired how it was that those who practised agriculture, notwithstanding their constant toil and zeal, were always so very poor. It is not surprising, was the reply. Agriculture has always been encouraged by the State; it draws its chief wealth from it; but the labourers are constantly harassed by the exactions of those under whom they work, and the best part of the crop goes to pay the taxes and the cost of collecting them.

Yesterday, Kublai once said to one of the literates, there was an earthquake. The princes do not sufficiently attend to these things; can you tell me why they are? There are five causes, was the answer. First, because the princes permit low and bad people to be about them, who sacrifice everything to their own interests; that they have too many women in their palaces; that intriguers and cheats combine against the public interest; that justice is too severe in its punishments; and, lastly, that war is made too rashly, without inquiring properly into its justice. One only of these reasons would suffice. Heaven loves a king on his throne like a father his son. It causes the earth to quake as a warning of impending punishment; but if kings put away flatterers, tolerate only sincere and truthful people, limit the number of their wives, drive away intriguers, &c., soften the rigours of justice, and only undertake war tremblingly and when compelled, and with the assent of heaven and their subjects, they will have nothing to fear from such presages. Khubilai appointed Se tien ché, a man of great repute for probity and integrity, who had a command in Honan, to be Minister of State. He also ordered the literates who had been captured by the Mongols and reduced to slavery to be released. There were several thousands of them. He was the first of the Mongol Khakans to definitely abandon Shamanism and to adopt Buddhism as the State religion, an example which was followed by many Mongols. The Buddhist priests were called Lamas by the Mongols, and in January, 1261, Kublai pro­moted a young Lama, called Mati Dhwadsha, more widely known by his title Pakba Lama, or Supreme Holy Lama. He was bom at Sazghia, in Thibet, and belonged to one of its best families, that of the Tsukoans, who had for more than six centuries furnished ministers to the kings of Thibet and other western princes, and by his wisdom, &c., won the confidence of Kublai, who not only made him Grand Lama, but also temporal sovereign of Thibet, with the title of King of the Great and Precious Law and Institutor of the Empire. Such was the origin of the dignity of Grand Lama. Kublai divided China and Liao tung into ten departments, each with its officers and mandarins. He also ordered that the head of each bureau should be a Mongol

Wang ché, the King of Corea, after a long resistance had submitted to the Khakan Mangu, and had sent him his son Wangtien as a hostage. He was now dead, and Wangtien asked Kublai for his father’s kingdom and was duly invested with it. The turbulent Coreans at first refused to receive him and were determined to break the Mongol yoke, and it was only when Wangtien agreed to assist them in this that they would accept him. When the revolt was reported to Kublai he wrote Wangtien a conciliatory letter, in which he represented to him the vast power of the Mongols, that of all the kingdoms of the earth the Coreans and the Sung alone bearded his authority, that the latter had trusted to the strong country of Hu kuang and Suchuan and their brave inhabitants to protect them, but that most of their strong places had been captured, and they were now like fish out of water and like birds in the fowler’s net He recalled how he had granted him his father’s throne, spoke of the folly of resistance, and the ingratitude he had shown him. He said he did not wish to ravage his country, and that he was willing to pardon the offenders. At the same time he released the Corean prisoners taken in the last war, and sent back those who had emigrated on account of the troubles of their country, and forbade the soldiers on the frontier to molest the Coreans. This conciliatory policy had its due effect, and for the future Wangtien sent an annual embassy to Kublai to congratulate him on the New Year.

Arikbuka having recruited his horses in the latter part of 1261, again inarched against his brother; the latter collected his forces, and the two armies met on the borders of the great desert of Gobi, in a place called Altchia Kungur, near the mountains Khudja Buka and the lake Simultai. Arikbuka was completely defeated; but Kublai forbade a pursuit, saying, that reflection would bring repentance, but misinterpreting this action, which he thought showed weakness, he returned and was again defeated; this time on the borders of that portion of the desert called Alt, near the hills Silguilk.

Arikbuka now had to face another enemy, namely, his protégé Algu, the Khan of Jagatai, who quarrelled with him and espoused the cause of Kublai. He at once marched against his new enemy, leaving instruc­tions with the spiritual chiefs of the Christian, Buddhist, and Moslem religions at Karakorum, whose courage he doubted, to surrender that city on the approach of Kublai, which they accordingly did. Khubilai confirmed the privileges granted them by Ogotai and Mangu. Arikbuka now had a considerable struggle with Algu and occupied a large part of his dominions, but his cruelties so disgusted his soldiers that they went over to Kublai, and stripped of troops and resources he determined at length in 1264 to submit to his brother. He prostrated himself, as was customary, at the door of the Imperial tent. Having entered, and being bathed in tears, he was addressed by Khubilai. “Well, my brother, which of we two have justice on our side?” “Formerly it was I, now it is you”, was the reply of Arikbuka. The next day was appointed for the trial of the latter and his chief supporters. He then confessed that he had been tempted to usurp the supreme authority by some of his generals, who represented to him the remoteness of his brothers Kublai and Khulagu from the centre of authority, and the ease with which it might be usurped. Ten of the generals were put to death, but the life of Arikbuka was spared at the solicitation of his brother, a judgment which was acquiesced in by Khulagu and Bereke. Arikbuka then did homage, but died a month after, and was buried with his father Tului and his grandfather Jingis. This was in 1266, and was followed directly afterwards by the deaths of Khulagu, Bereke, and Algu, the chiefs of the three great dependencies of the empire. Khubilai appointed Abaka to succeeded his father Khulagu in Persia; Mangu Timur, the grandson of Batu, was given the khanship of the Golden Horde; while the Horde of Jagatai was given to Mobarek Shah, the son of Kara Hulagu.

On the submission of Arikbuka, Kaidu, the representative of the house of Ogotai, still held out, as I have already described in the former chapter, and provoked a long and severe struggle in the north. Mean­while Kublai determined to subdue the portion of China still governed by the Sung dynasty. We have already mentioned the treaty by which Kia-se-tao, the Sung minister, agreed that his master should be tributary to him, a treaty which he did not disclose to his master, and managed to keep secret by having everybody put to death who was aware of it. In 1260 Kublai sent an envoy to notify his accession to the throne, and to announce that he wished the treaty fulfilling. This envoy was im­prisoned; upon which the Mongol chief issued a proclamation calling attention to the bad faith of the Chinese and bidding his troops make ready. His scheme was delayed by his war with Arikbuka and by the revolt of one of his generals named Li-tan.

Li-tan was a Chinese of considerable repute, and had been appointed viceroy of Shang tung and the conquered parts of Kiang nan, with the title of King of Thsi kiun, by the Mongol Khakan. He murdered the Mongol soldiers who were with him, recalled his son, who was a student at Kai ping fu, and having repaired the fortifications of Thsi nan and Itu (Thsing chau fu), in Shang tung, he declared for the Sung. The Mongol general Apichi was sent against him, and besieged him in Thsi nan. The siege lasted for four months, during a portion of which the garrison fed on human flesh. In despair Li-tan killed his wife and concubines, and then threw himself into a lake adjoining the city, but was taken out alive and killed.

Early in 1263 Kublai built a Tai miao, or Hall of Ceremonies, at Yenking. This was meant for the ancestor-worship prescribed by Chinese custom. He gave honorary titles to each of his ancestors, beginning with Yissugei, who was styled Liei-tsu; Genghis was styled Tai-tsu; Ogotai, Tai-tsong; then Tului was interposed, with the title of Juei-tsong. Although he had not occupied the throne, he was deemed as the legal successor. Kuyuk came next, with the title of Ting-tsong; and, lastly, Mangu, with that of Hien-tsong. Each of them had a tablet, with his name upon it, set up in a separate chamber, while the Lama priests were ordered to recite prayers before them for seven days and seven nights. This afterwards took place annually.

The Mongols hitherto had used cither the Uighur or the Chinese characters in writing their language. Kublai ordered the Lama Pakba, whom he had so much honoured, to construct a special alphabet, so that his people might be like those of the Liao and the Kin dynasties, who each had a writing of their own. The Lama acquitted himself well, and the new character was published in 1269, when Pakba received the title of Tapao fa wang. About this time Lien hi hien, a faithful officer of Khubilai, was disgraced. He had been required to submit to the precepts of the Lama religion. He objected, saying that he had always been a faithful disciple of Confucius, two of whose precepts were directly at issue with the teaching of the Lamas, namely, that which pre­scribed that subjects should be faithful to their sovereign, and another that children should be obedient to their parents. Khubilai did not gainsay this. Sometime after a Lama magician claimed to have discovered a specific for immortality. He was encouraged by Khubilai. Lien hi hien, on the other hand, raised strong objections to encouraging such impostors, who, he said, had brought much evil on the State, and injured the health of those Emperors who had been misled by them. Khubilai was displeased with his frankness, and it became easy for those who had become discontented through his integrity to intrigue against him. He was exiled from the court. The chief of his enemies was one Ahama (Ahmed), a native of the West, who had by his address raised himself to considerable authority at the Mongol court. He was at the head of the Imperial finances, and is described as a shrewd, artful, and crafty man, with a persuasive manner and address. Under his control the treasury was full, but the people were oppressed, and he became almost supreme in the empire. Khubilai was served by others, however, of greater integrity. One of them called Hiu heng, was appointed head of the Imperial college. He is praised for the tact and skill with which he filled his office, in which he treated the opinions of the young scholars with a respectful demeanour, as if they were older men, and taught the young Mongols the various duties and ceremonies prescribed by the Chinese moral classics; the behaviour incumbent upon intercourse with superiors, equals, and inferiors; the precepts of charity and humanity, &c. So famous did his system become that his scholars were picked out for the more arduous duties of the State. In 1271 Khubilai gave his dynasty the Chinese name of Yuen, that is, original or chief; he also chose a calendar name for the years of his reign. He surrounded himself with learned men, founded a central academy for the empire of the first literati, and schools for the young in all the provinces. He appointed a commission to write the history of the empire and to reclaim the Mongols; he had some of the Chinese classics and an abridgment of Chinese history and chronology translated into Mongol. This was done by Hiu heng. He encouraged the learned men of every nation and creed. Jemal ud din, a Persian astronomer, drew out a calendar and presented the Emperor with beautiful astronomical instru­ments. Gaisui, from the kingdom of Fu-lin, (the Byzantine empire), was the chief physician, while one of the chief mandarins was put at the head of the bureau of mathematics. Kublai appointed commissioners to regulate the number, rank, and pay of the mandarins and the principal offices of State, such as the Imperial censors, the ministers of rites, of justice, of public works, of war, &c.

Let us now turn once more to the Sung empire, against which, as I have said, Kublai had long meditated a campaign. The Sung Emperor Li tsong died in 1264 and was succeeded by his nephew Chaoki, who took the name of Tu tsong. It was not till 1267 that Kublai fairly began his attack. The plan of the campaign was entrusted to a very noted Chinese general called Liau-ching, who had deserted the Sung cause and been appointed governor of Kuei chau, a town on the frontier of Hu kuang and Su chuan, by Kublai. He advised that they should commence with the siege of Siang-yang, called Saianfu by Marco Polo, situated on the river Han, in Honan, and commanding the great military road from Shensi, described by Marco Polo as a very great and noble city, ruling over twelve other large and rich cities. On the opposite side of the river was the city of Fan ching. In October, 1268, an army of 60,000 men sat down before and invested it, the lines embraced a mountain three leagues from the city, while forts were built on mountains to the south and east of it; but meanwhile the river was open, and a flotilla of Chinese vessels managed to revictual the place, a good many of the ships were afterwards captured and destroyed. After a blockade of twelve months, it was found necessary to extend the blockade to Fan ching, which communicated with Siang yang by several bridges. The besieged were left to their own resources for some time by the listless Kia-sé-tao, who kept the Sung Emperor ignorant of what was going on. At length he sent an army under Fan-wen-hu to relieve it. Its advance guard was cut to pieces by the Mongols, and the rest of the army disbanded and fled. Kublai also reinforced the besiegers, and, according to Raschid, opened the prisons, and marched 20,000 criminals to assist in the siege. After an investment of four years the city still held out, but they began to need salt, straw, and silk. A brave plan of supplying these things was suggested by the Chinese governor of Ngan lo; he sent a flotilla of boats, three abreast, the centre one laden with these articles, the outside ones filled with armed men: this broke through the Mongol barriers and arrived safely. Gaubil says the Chinese took advantage of a flood, by which the Han overflowed its banks, to revictual the place, but that the relieving fleet was severely defeated on its retum.

After the siege had lasted three years, Kublai by the advice of a Uighur general called Alihaya, sent to his nephew Abaka, in Persia, for some engineers skilled in making catapults, called mangonels by Marco Polo. Two such engineers were sent to him, and they constructed machines which threw stones of 125 Chinese pounds, or 166 pounds avoirdupois. These were placed before Fan ching, and made holes of seven and eight feet deep in the walls; a practicable breach was soon effected, and the city was taken by assault after a stubborn defence, in which the Chinese generals, as on many other occasions, died heroically. The defence was carried on from street to street, and the victors captured little more than a pile of ruins. Gaubil has the quaint remark, that the long catalogue of Chinese officers who distinguished themselves, may be interesting to Chinese or Tartar genealogists, but would be dreary to a European. The catapults were now ranged before Siang yang, and the besieged were terrified at the terrible pounding they gave the towers and walls, and began to get discouraged. Kublai offered them terms and praised their gallant defence. Upon this they surrendered, and their brave commander Liu-wen-hoan was made governor of the district of Siang yang. Soon after this, in August, 1274, Tu-tsung, the Sung Emperor, died, and was succeeded by his second son Chao-hien, who was only four years old. Khubilai now issued another manifesto, in which he recalled all his endeavours to preserve peace, and the constant bad faith of the Sung authorities. He then organised two armies, one under Tolohoan, and some subordinate officers were ordered to march towards Yang chan, in Kiang nan; while the other under Bayan and some other generals was given the duty of conquering Hu kuang. The two armies probably numbered 200,000 men. Bayan was the son of Gueukju, of the Mongol tribe of the Barins; he had passed his younger days in Persia, and had accompanied some ambassadors from Abaka a few years previously. Kublai was charmed with his merits, and in 1265 named him Minister of State. Bayan advanced with a large flotilla along the river Han as far as Ngan-lo, which was capitally fortified, the river being blocked by chains and armed vessels. Seeing that he could not capture it without great loss, he landed his boats, dragged them overland to the lake Teng, and re-entered the Han below Ngan-lo, thus effectually turning it. The Chinese army which was sent to oppose him was defeated at Tsiuen tsehu, and its commander killed. The Mongols then summoned the city Cha-yaag, but their messenger was killed, and his letter, written on yellow paper, ignominiously burnt. Bayan then brought up his fire balistas, called Kintchipaos, and favoured by a high wind he set fire to the town, which was stormed and its garrison put to the sword. The heads of the decapitated soldiers were ranged in view of Sin hing chau, the sister city of Cha-yang, on the other side of the river, which was next attacked, and bravely defended. When it was at length taken, its commander stabbed and then threw himself into the flames; with him perished 3,000 of his soldiers, whose courage was admired by Bayan. He was distinguished among successful Mongol commanders by his humanity, and he ordered them to be buried. This happened in December, 12744 Bayan assembled a council at Tsai tien to deliberate on the best method of crossing the Kiang, and officers were sent to inspect the place where the Han fells into the Kiang, i.e., Hankao. Hia kué, the Sung general, bad fortified the strongholds on the river, especially Chafu keou, which seems to have been the key to the position, and had collected a considerable fleet in the river. It was determined to cross the river there, but to hide the design a feint was made against Han yang, and while the Chinese general marched quickly towards tins place, Bayan despatched one of his commanders, who by forced marches suddenly appeared before Cha fu kai, which he surprised, and thus gained a footing for his army on the banks of the Kiang. The Mongols then laid siege to Yang lo, which they attacked with great vigour. While Bayan was engaged there and keeping the Chinese general Hia kué employed in watching him, he despatched Atchu with a flotilla to make a descent on the further bank of the Kiang; he completely defeated the general Ching pong fei, and forced him to retreat into Wo-chau. When this news reached Hia kué be fled towards the East in his boats, and having burnt them, escaped to Liu chau. The Mongols were now in their usual luck; they speedily captured Yang lo and Han yang, and Bayan, having crossed the Kiang with the main army, rejoined the intrepid Atchu. Together they laid siege to Wo-chan (Wu-tchang-fu). Its garrison were dispirited by the recent defeat of their companions, and terrified by a conflagration on the river, in which 3,000 boats were fired by the Mongols, and after a short delay surrendered the town. Two of the officers who counselled resistance would have been killed by the Mongols but for Bayan, who praised their integrity. The commanders of several towns on the Kiang, who had formerly been subordinates of Liu-wen-hoan, whose defection I have already mentioned, now sur­rendered their charges. The Mongol policy was generally to reinstate them in their commands. Kia-sé-tao, the chief minister of the Sung empire, grew more and more unpopular, and it was out of contempt and hatred for him that several of the Sung officers went over to the Mongols. He now saw that a desperate effort was necessary, withdrew 100,000 tads of gold and 500,000 of silver from the treasury, and proceeded to tax everybody, even the princes, the Ho-chang and the Tao-se, to equip his army, and after a short delay he advanced against the enemy. He also prepared an immense fleet laden with sill, silver, etc., which occupied a space of 100 li. This fleet entered the Kiang by the mouth of Sin ngan chi, and was ranged in order at Wu hu hien, in Kiang nan. He now sent envoys to Bayan with oranges, the Chinese fruit lutchi, and other southern fruits, and offered to conclude peace on the terms formerly proposed. Atchu, who was present, advised his leader not to listen to the advances of the treacherous Chinese minister. Bayan sent word back that he should have sent the envoys before he crossed the Kiang, and that if he desired peace he had better come in person. This he of course did not. The surrender of the town of Chi chan, which now followed, is memorable for an act which ought to be recorded by those who would raise the repute of women for heroic conduct Its commander, Chao mao fa, was pressed to surrender by one of his subordinates; he refused. Some time after, suspecting that his subordinate was carrying on secret intrigues with the enemy, and feeling that resistance could not be prolonged, he assembled his relatives and friends at a feast, and told them that he could not survive the disgrace of surrendering the city. He hade his wife Yong chi seek a place of refuge somewhere. She replied that she felt enough of courage to show herself worthy of him. He laughed, but he laughed in vain, for having distributed his goods among her relatives, she retired with him, and they committed suicide together. Bayan was much touched by the act of heroism, and himself performed the funeral ceremonies for them on his knees, amidst the praises of the Chinese.

Kia-se-tao now ordered a general rendez vous of his boats at an island on the Kiang, situated near Chi chau. They assembled to the number of 3,500, while he and the main army were close by. Bayan advanced on both banks of the river, and when opposite the island, poured in such a volley of missiles, while at the same time a sharp attack was made by a flotilla of boats, that the Chinese were thoroughly beaten, and the river dyed with their blood. The Mongols captured an immense booty, This defeat greatly discouraged them, and was followed by the surrender of many towns of Kiang nan and Che kiang. Among other towns surren­dered was Kien kang, the modern Nan king. Its governor, who wished to die in the service of the Sung, took poison at a feast where he had collected his friends and relatives. One of the Mongol officers found in his house a memoir, addressed to Kia-se-tao, containing an elaborate plan for opposing the Mongols. When this was shown to Bay an, he was surprised, and said, “Is it possible the Sung had such a sage councillor among them. If they had followed this advice we should not have been here;” and he ordered his family to be treated with respect, as that of a faithful subject. He prohibited the pillaging of his goods, and his body was buried with those of his ancestors.

The hot season was now at hand, and Khubilai wished Bayan to stop operations till the autumn, but the latter replied that it is not prudent to allow your enemy breathing time when you have hold of his throat, a sound piece of philosophy, which was justified amply; for the successes of the Mongols had created quite a panic among the governors of the neighbouring fortresses, several of which, and among them the arsenal of Kwang ti, in Kiang nan, were surrendered.

The Empress Regent now issued a stirring proclamation, which aroused the spirit of several military chiefs, and a few towns were retaken. Hao king, the ambassador who had been sent to the Sung court to notify the accession of Khubilai, had been all the while imprisoned. He was now, at the demand of Khubilai, released with his suite, but he fell ill and died on the way. He was the author of several esteemed Chinese works. Khubilai sent another embassy, consisting of two of the digni­taries of his court; this was treacherously attacked near the fortress of Tu-song, one of the envoys being killed and the other wounded. The Sung court disavowed and promised to punish the assassins, and offered to recognise the suzerainty of the Mongols. Bayan doubted the sincerity of the proposals, and sent an officer under the pretext of treating for peace, the real object being to survey the condition of Lin ngan, the capital. He also was assassinated on the way. Bayan was naturally enraged at so much perfidy, but he was recalled at this juncture to go and make head against Kaidu.

The Chinese now made an effort to recapture Wu-chang-fu, and collected a large flotilla for the purpose, but Alihaya, the Mongol governor of the town, a general of consummate ability, whose renown was only second to that of Bayan, and who had done his duty admirably during the late campaign, attacked them sharply, defeated them, and captured their general, who had been governor of Yo chau. His head was carried on a lance under the walls of that city, which surren­dered at the first summons. Alihaya then attacked Kian ling, the chief town of a large district in Kwang si. Its governor thought he had been slighted by the Sung, surrendered the town, an example which was followed by fifteen others in his jurisdiction. According to the usual policy in such cases, the various Chinese governors retained their posts. Alihaya was much complimented upon his success by the Emperor, who wrote him an autograph letter to thank him.

The southern part of Su chuan was then subject to the Sung; its governor was attacked and defeated by the Mongols; and his capital Kia ting invested. He then surrendered, and sent to them a detailed account of the different places in his department, for which he was rewarded by being reappointed governor. The final conquest of this province was not effected, however, until 1278. Instead of profiting by the absence of Bayan, the Chinese now proceeded to try their chief minister, the notorious Kia-se-tao, to whom they owed so many misfor­tunes. He was found guilty; his goods were confiscated, and himself transported to a place in Fukien, but he was murdered on the way by one of his escort, who had an old grudge against him. He jeered him for his cowardice in surviving his disgrace, instead of putting an end to himself like a brave man. He put him to great indignity on the way, made him walk in the scorching sun, and scattered his harem, sending its members to their various homes. He pressed him hard to drown himself in a river which they passed, and as he would not he at length killed him. For this he was himself executed.

A brave Sung general named Chang chi kié having equipped an immense fleet of 10,000 vessels, proceeded with them along the Kiang, intending to attack the Mongols who were stationed near Yang chau under the com­mand of Atchu. The latter surveyed the flotilla from the summit of the mountain Ché kong, north of Chin kiang, and made up his plans. He placed 1,000 balistas on some of his heavy boats and ordered them to fire burning arrows into the enemy’s fleet. These set fire to the ships and caused a general panic. Atchu captured 700 ships, and the greater part of the Chinese force was dispersed.

Bayan now returned, after having been raised to the rank of minister of State, and arranged a fresh plan for the campaign. Atchu was to con­tinue the war in Hoai nan, Alihaya in Hu nan, three other generals were sent into Kiangsi, while he himself advanced upon Lin ngan, the Sung capital. On the way he attacked Chang chau, a famous town called Chinginju by Marco Polo. This was early in 1275. Having beaten the armies that came up to try and raise the siege, he destroyed the faubourgs and then raised a rampart as- high as the wall, and took it in that way. Marco Polo mentions that in the Mongol army was a body of Christian auxiliaries; they were Alans, and no doubt came from the Caucasus. The inhabitants were spared, but the Alans having got drunk after they had taken the city, were treacherously attacked and killed by the Chinese. Bayan sent another army which destroyed the inhabitants without pity. Bayan had in vain summoned it to surrender. He collected a large number of people from the neighbourhood, whom he compelled to build a vast rampart about it. The Chinese history makes him put a large number of these people to death, use their fat to grease the battering engines with, and bum their bodies. The defence was vigorously kept up, and Bayan encouraged his soldiers by his presence. The town was attacked on all four sides at once. It was captured, and, as I have said, its inhabitants were slaughtered. The commander showed the usual Chinese intrepidity, and refused to escape, t Colonel Yule remarks that this use of human fat may have another explanation, for Carpino says the Mongols mixed it with Greek fire, which then burnt inextinguishably.

The victorious Mongols captured one position after another, and the Chinese court began to be very frightened. At Lin ngan, the capital, a general call to arms was made for every one over fifteen, while a fresh envoy was sent to Bayan with apologies for what had occurred to the envoy, the whole being laid at the door of the perfidious Kia se tao, who had been punished, and to the inexperience of the Emperor, who was only a boy. An offer was made that the Emperor would consider himself a subject of the Khakan, and would pay an annual tribute of 250,000 ounces of silver and the same number of pieces of silk. These terms were refused, and Bayan continued his advance. Meanwhile the other armies were equally successful. Ailhaya, who was in Hunan, that part of Hu kwang south of the great lake Tong ting hu, laid siege to Tan-chau (Chang ché). Some of the garrison wished to surrender, but its governor, Lifu, answered that he had not been put in a position of trust in order to resign it at the first crisis, and that he would without fail make an end of those who spoke of surrendering. When the Mongols stormed the walls, a Chinese officer who was there, brought out his two young sons and made them undergo the ceremony of taking the bonnet, equivalent to adopting the toga or the symbol of manhood (this is done at the age of twenty). He then threw himself with them and with his servants into the flames. Lifu ordered a libation of wine to be poured out on the ground in their honour. Having made. sure of the constancy of his officers, he summoned a slave, gave him a bag of money, bade him save his, Lifu’s, family from base servitude, and ordered him to kill them and then to kill him, Lifu, himself. In vain the slave protested against the revolting deed. He insisted. He thereupon made them drunk and performed his duty. After which Lifu offered his own head, which the slave cut off. The latter then fired the palace, returned home, destroyed his own family, and ended by stabbing himself. The greater part of the garrison and inhabitants followed his example, the wells were choked with corpses, others hanged, others again poisoned themselves, and the Mongols entered an almost deserted city. There is surely something terribly faithful to a sense of duty and honour in such an example. Object as we may to the code which prescribes such a test of courage and devotion, enlarge as we may on the indifference to life that is the supposed heritage of some races, we cannot refuse a respectful admiration for the feeling which will not survive disgrace and dishonour. It would surely be a good discipline to our Western notions of duty if, instead of bowing before and licking the dust from the feet of successful villainy under whatever pretentious name it lives, if we were to preach that dishonour is not condoned by success, and can only be survived by cowards and contemptible people.

The capture of Chang ché was followed by the surrender of the other towns of Hu nan.

Meanwhile the Mongols were no less successful in Kiang si. Town after town was surrendered or captured. One of them, Hoang wan tan, was remarkable for the bravery of its commander, Mi yau. Despe­rately wounded by four arrows and three lance thrusts, he still insisted in rushing upon the enemy, but in crossing a bridge a plank broke under him and he was captured. The Mongols wished him to enter their service, and offered him one of their official seals. His son too pressed him, recalling to him the miserable condition in which he himself would be left. Appear only, said the hero, in the public square and say you are the son of Mi yau, and every one will be eager to assist you. He then disrobed and insisted upon being put to death. This Mongol army, with that of Alihaya now converged upon Lin ngan, where Bayan also arrived with his troops. The Empress Regent sent him the Imperial seal as a sign of submission. Bayan sent it on to the Khakan. Repeated embassies were sent out to treat for terms, who did not forget the reminder that the southern provinces of the empire were still unconquered, and that the issue of war was not always certain. It would seem that the city was quietly occupied. Bayan appointed a council of Mongols and Chinese to govern it, and extracted from the Empress Regent an order to the various provincial governors to submit to the Mongols. They all obeyed except Kia-hiuen-hong, whom no threats could intimidate. Four Mongol officials were ordered to collect the seals of the various departments, and the books, registers, historical memoirs, geographical, and charts, &c., found in the archives. Having placed guards in different points of the city, Bayan at the head of a splendid cortege, preceded by the great standard and drums, and followed by his generals, made an entry in state. The Emperor and Empress asked to see him, but he excused himself by saying he did not know what ceremony he ought to observe, and left the following day. We are told that while in the city he had the curiosity to go to the banks of the river Tsien-tang-kiang to watch the tide rise, which it did so violently that it was mistaken for a white wall shattered by a cannonade of artillery. Marco Polo has left us an elaborate account of the great capital. It has been most admirably noted by Colonel Yule, from it I shall extract freely.

He makes the circuit of the walls to be one hundred miles; Odoric makes the same statement, while Vassaf makes it twenty-four parasangs, which is nearly the same. Ibn Batuta makes its length to be three days’ journey. Raschid says its enceinte had a diameter of eleven parasangs, and Colonel Yule shows that the circuit of the walls has progressively diminished, and that it is probable that in the days of Polo its circuit, exclusive of the suburbs, was one hundred li. Polo says that it contained 12,000 bridges. Colonel Yule calls this number a mere popular saw. Vassaf makes the number 360. As the city was built amidst lagunes, like Venice, the number may well have been 1,200. The size of the bridges there is noted by modern travellers. Barrow, quoted by Marsden, says some have the piers of such an enormous height that the largest vessels of 200 tons sail under them without striking their masts. Polo says there were twelve guilds of different crafts; each guild had 12,000 houses in the occupation of its workmen. Each house contained twelve, twenty, and even forty men. He also reports that every man was bound to follow his father’s trade, even if he owned 100,000 bezants, a custom which Colonel Yule remarks is nowhere now found in China, where it is very rare for a son to follow his father’s trade. Inside the city was a great lake, thirty li in circumference (the celebrated Si fu, or Western Lake, described by Abulfeda, and by Barrow and others, who all describe it as a Chinese paradise). It was surrounded with palaces and grand mansions, having islands on it on which were pleasure-houses, &c., where the inhabitants held their marriage feasts; silver-plate, trenchers and dishes, napkins, &c., being supplied to order. Sometimes there would be a hundred parties there; some holding a banquet, others a wedding, &c. Most of the houses were built of timber, with stone towers to store articles of value in, and thus protect them from the frequent fires. The people dressed very gaily, most of them in silk. (The inhabitants are still celebrated for their dandyism, everybody but the lowest labourers and coolies wearing silk.) The Mongols placed a guard upon each of the bridges; each guard had a hollow stick, a metal basin, and a time-keeper. With the stick he struck the basin at every hour, one for the first hour, two for the second, &c. A section of these watchmen patrolled about, arrested those wandering at unlawful hours, and reported to the magistrates all lights and fires burning after lawful hours. They removed cripples and others to the hospitals, of which there are still many there, as Mr. Gardner reports. They also acted as firemen at fires, for no citizen except the watchmen and the owners of the property dare go out at night or approach a fire. There was also a high watchtower in the city, in which a man beat violently on a slab of wood, which resounded far and wide, when fires or other alarms broke out. All its streets were paved with stone or brick, except the sides, which were kept unpaved for the Imperial couriers to gallop along. Large covered drains ran down the centre of the streets, and emptied themselves into the canals. There were three thousand baths in the city, large enough for one hundred persons to bathe together. They were supplied with hot water. (Mr. Gardner says the natives always take hot baths, but that only the poor go to the public baths, the tradesfolk, &c., having them supplied at home.) The port was situated twenty-five miles from the city, and was called Ganpu. This was most probably the Kanfu frequented by the early Arab traders. The Emperor’s palace is described by Polo as the largest in the world. It was surrounded by a demesne of the compass of ten miles, girdled with embattled walls, inside which were beautiful gardens with fountains, and lakes full of fish. The palace itself contained twenty great halls, the largest of which was used as a State dining room, all painted in gold, with histories and representations of beasts and birds, of knights and dames, sustained by columns painted and wrought in gold, and the finest azure. Besides these great halls, the palace contained 1,000 large chambers, all painted in gold and colours. Altogether the city comprised 1,600,000 houses, among which were many palaces, and one Nestorian church. Every burgess wrote at his door the name of each person, and the number of animals inside, so that a census could be collected at once. Every hosteller was bound to register the inmates of the house, so that information could be found about all the travellers in the country. These regulations are a sarcasm on our Western progress and civilization. There were ten principal markets, besides a vast number of lesser ones, the former all half-a-mile square; along their front was a street forty paces wide, which traversed the city from end to end, having a great market at every four miles. Parallel with this street, and at the back of the market, ran a canal, whose banks were lined with the merchants' stores, from India, &c. Three days a week 40,000 or 50,000 assembled at each of these markets, supplying abundance of roebucks, red deer, fallows, hares, rabbits, partridges, pheasants, francolins, quails, fowls, capons, ducks, and geese. For a Venice groat of silver you might buy a couple of geese and two couple of ducks. There were shambles where calves, beeves, kids, and lambs were slaughtered. Among the fruits displayed were enormous pears, weighing ten pounds each, with a white and fragrant pulp, and yellow and white peaches of very delicate flavour. No grapes were produced there, but very good raisins and wine were imported. Their fish were of sundry kinds, and owing to the impurities of the city, which passed into the lake, were remarkably fat and savoury. The chief beverage drunk was made of rice and spices. Some streets were occupied by handicraftsmen, others by physicians and astrologers. In each great square were two palaces for the officers, who superintended the traffic. To give a notion of the consumption of provisions in this vast city, Polo mentions the article pepper, of which forty-three loads, each of 223 lbs., were daily introduced. The lake was covered with beautifully furnished flat bottomed boats, having nice cabins, while the streets were supplied with vehicles shaped like palanquins, each holding six. Colonel Yule says these public conveyances were generally disused in China about the time when they were introduced into Europe. Vassaf tells us that the salt excise brought in daily 700 balishs, in paper money. The number of craftsmen may be guessed from the number of dyers, which was 32,000. There were 700 temples. Polo calculates the salt dues as bringing in yearly eighty tomans of gold, each toman being worth 70,000 saggi of gold. Colonel Yule makes an elaborate calculation of this amount, and values it at £2,633,333 sterling annually, while the whole revenue of the province is put down at £147,000,000. He concludes that the account of Polo is a great exaggeration, due probably to his calculating the revenue in gold instead of paper money, which would enlarge it by one-half.

Lin ngan is the modern Hang chau fu, the capital of the province of CM kiang; it was also called King tsé, i.e., Imperial residence, because the last nine Emperors of the Sung dynasty had lived there. Having described Lin-ngan, we will now continue our history.

The Empress Regent was not allowed to continue her parade of royalty very long. Atahai, with several officers, entered the palace and stopped the ceremonies which were practised in presence of the Emperor, her grandson, who with his mother and a great company of grandees, comprising the chief persons about the court, were despatched north­wards to the court of Khubilai. Before leaving, the Emperor and his mother, facing the north, went through the prescribed and humiliating ceremony of prostating themselves seven times, and thus saluting their conqueror, the Khakan.

Some faithful adherents of the Sung dynasty raised a body of soldiers, and attacked the Mongol escort in the town of Kua chau, but were defeated. The Emperor was well received by Kublai, but was deprived of his rank, and given that of a Kong, or a prince of the third order, with the title of Hiao-kong. The title of Empress was also erased from the names of the Emperor’s mother and grandmother. We are told that Khubilai’s chief wife treated these ladies with great attention and humanity. The gold and silver and other treasures captured in the Emperor’s palace were conveyed by sea to Ta-tu or Peking. When the Empress (the wife of Khubilai) saw it all laid out, she wept, and said with some pathos she was thinking that the empire of the Mongols would one day also come to an end.

Two of the Sung Princes, brothers of the Emperor, had, on the siege of Lin ngan, been sent for safety into the South. On arriving at Wen chau they passed the ruins of a temple called Kiang sin, and in it the throne where the Emperor Kaotsong had been seated when he, like them, had been forced to find shelter in the South. The chief attendants about the young princes caused the elder to mount this, and declared him Governor General of the Empire. The chief cities of Fu-kien were at this time on the point of surrendering to the Mongol general Hoang wan tan. The arrival of the princes raised the spirits of the inhabitants. They rose and drove them out, and soon after I wang was proclaimed Emperor at Fu chau, the capital of the province, whose name was changed to Fu ngan fu. He was then nine years old. The title of Toan tsong was given to him, while that of his captive brother was changed from Kuang wang to Wei wang. A great levy of troops was made, and the chief command given to Wen tien siang, who had escaped from the Mongols.

Yang chau, one of the chief towns of Kiang nan, still held bravely out. In vain the Mongols sent their summonses to surrender, counter­signed by the Empress Regent. Its intrepid commander replied that the only order he knew was to defend the place which had been confided to him, and he put to death the successive envoys who brought him promises of pardon and offers of good terms. Having heard that I wang had been proclaimed Emperor, he quitted the city with 7,000 men for Tai chau, intending to embark there for Fu chau. No sooner was he gone than the town surrendered. He and his men were sharply pursued, lost 1,000 of their number, and were again invested in Tai chau. The commander of the latter town treacherously admitted the Mongols, and the intrepid Li-ting-tchi, who was prostrated by a tumour in his leg, was captured. As he refused to submit or to pass into the service of Kublai, he was put to death. Atchu, the Mongol commander, was now recalled to fill some post at the Mongol court, and Bayan, his superior officer, published an eulogium on him.

Kue lin fu, the capital of Kwang si, was governed by Ma-ki, a man of similar courage to Li-ting-tchi. Its walls were protected by rivers, except on one side, where the garrison concentrated its defence. The Mongols followed an old plan; they turned aside the rivers, and rushed across their dry beds upon the city. Ma-ki defended the town street by street, but it was at length captured, and its inhabitants put to the sword. The Mongols divided into various bodies, and captured the different towns of Kwang si. Meanwhile they had been equally successful in Kwang tung, where a wealthy Chinese named Hiong-fei had raised an army. The Mongol commander Alihaya sent some troops against him; he made a show of submission, and was entrusted with the command of the two towns Chao chau and Hoei chau; but he proved treacherous, rejoined the side of his old masters, was defeated, and sheltered himself in Chao chau, which having been surrendered to the enemy, he fought his way from street to street, and ended by drowning himself. Other disasters followed.

Among those who deserted the Sung at this crisis was Pu-chau-keng, who for thirty years had superintended the merchant shipping at Siuen chau, and who had amassed a considerable fortune. The Sung Emperor, with the Imperial fleet, having arrived in that port, the merchants refused to supply them with provisions, upon which a raid was made upon their ships, in which raid some of the property of Pu-chau-keng was captured. He collected a body of his followers, attacked the pillagers, and even compelled the Imperial fleet to set sail again. Fearful of being punished, he retired to Chao chau, in Kwang tung, and soon after joined the Mongols.

Bayan had been recalled by Kublai to make head against his enemies in the North. A large portion of the Mongol army now followed his steps. Those who remained behind were left in command of Li heng. The Sung employed the opportunity in recapturing several towns in the southern provinces. Kublai organised a fresh campaign, and early in 1278 several of these towns were again recaptured. Among the new successes was the capture of Canton and of Chao chau. The young Emperor, Toan tsong, had not a port where he could land. He wandered about with his fleet from one place to another, and at length died on the desert island of Kang chau, in May, 1278, at the age of eleven. His chief officers now proclaimed his younger brother Wei-wang, Emperor; under the title of Ti ping, and saluted him on their knees.

The Chinese fleet, which is said to have been manned by 200,000 combatants, was anchored at the island of Yai, in the Gulf of Canton. They built a wooden palace on the island for the Emperor, and worked assiduously at refitting their ships, receiving supplies, &c., from Canton and other cities, even from those subject to the Mongols.

Chang-hong-fan, the son of the celebrated general Chang ju, now pressed upon Kublai the necessity of a vigorous campaign in Kwang tung to terminate the war. Having been girt with a jewelled sword and made commander-in-chief, he attacked the Sung army, which had latterly recovered several positions in that province, and finally crushed it. The redoubtable Wen tien siang was among the captured. He had tried to poison himself, unsuccessfully. A subordinate general had shown even greater fortitude, and had tried to pass himself off as Wen tien siang, hoping that the Mongols would execute him, and that his friend would thus escape; but his deception was discovered, and he was broiled over a slow fire. Wen tien siang himself demanded to be put to death, but the generous Mongols spared him, and although he would not enter their service they set him free. Chang hong fan now collected a fleet and proceeded against the Chinese flotilla, which was anchored at the estuary Chao Yang. He first tried to burn it by means of fire ships, but the Chinese commander protected his ships by covering the hulls and rigging with mud and putting out beams which staved off the fire boats. The Mongols then made a night attack with their fleet. This was not successful, nor was a second venture of a similar kind; but at length a more determined effort was made. The Mongol fleet was divided into several divisions, which made a simultaneous attack to the sound of martial music, and assisted by a high tide and a storm, the crowded Chinese armament was thrown into confusion. The young Emperor was on board the largest ship, which was jammed in by the rest, and too big to swim over the shallows. Seeing no hope of escape, Lu siu fu, one of the two chief ministers, having thrown his wife and children overboard, seized hold of the Emperor, and saying that a Sung Emperor ought to prefer death to capitulation, he jumped overboard with him. Both were of course drowned. The greater part of the Chinese officers followed his example. More than 800 ships fell into the hands of the Mongols, and the sea was laden with corpses.

The Emperor’s body was eventually found and upon it the Imperial seal. Chang chi kié, the co-regent of the empire, escaped; having joined the Empress mother, he pressed her to choose some member of the family of Chao (Chao was the family name of the Sung Emperors) to put upon the throne, but she was so overcome with grief by the news she threw herself into the sea. Having buried his mistress on the shore he went towards Chen ching (Ton kin), where he got some forces together with which he set out to return to Canton. He was overtaken by a storm, refused to land, and mounting the deck, he burnt some incense, and addressing the heavens, said: “I have done my best to support the throne of the family of Chao; on the death of one of its princes I pro­claimed another; and, do I still survive, O heaven have I acted contrary to thy will in seeking to place on the throne another prince of this family?” The wind still rose, the ship foundered, and with it the faithful officer, whose body was afterwards recovered and buried on the shore. Thus ended the dynasty of the Sung which had been on the throne for alto­gether a period of 320 years, and thus the Mongols, after a struggle of half a century, became masters of all China.

After the great naval fight near the island of Yai, the Mongol admiral, Chang hong fan, gave a banquet to the various officers, to which Wen tien siang was invited, “the Sung empire is destroyed; you who have been its bravest general and most faithful minister may now employ the same zeal in the service of our sovereign.” He refused, and was respected for doing so by the Mongol, who sent him to Yen king. The Mongol minister there pressed him to join his master’s service; he replied that the oath of fealty bound a subject for ever to the cause of his sovereign. When told that he had forsaken his Emperor when imprisoned, and helped to replace him by his brothers; he replied, in effect, that necessity knows no law, that it was better to choose the lesser of two evils, and that it was necessary above all things in the crisis they were passing through to preserve the Sung dynasty, whose continuity and existence was destroyed when the young Emperor was captured; a subject ought to feel for his sovereign the affection of a son for his father; one cannot control events always; what heaven decrees must be ; and he demanded to be put to death. Chang hong fan, who was irritated by his continued constancy, asked for his death; but Khubilai intervened to save him, truly a perfect model of fidelity.

In 1280 Alihaya had captured a great number of prisoners in the southern provinces of King nan, Kiang si, Kwang si, &c. These had been sold as slaves, but Khubilai set them at liberty. He now despatched the mathematician Tuchi to trace the great river Hoang ho to its sources. He accomplished the task in four months, and on his return presented a memoir on its course, which is given by Mailla.

The Mongol Khakan now turned his arms against the Japanese. Japan is a Chinese name, derived from the position of the island towards the rising sun. Jé meaning sun, and pen origin or rising. So early as 1266, Kublai had sent the following letter to the Japanese sovereign. “The most powerful rampart between small countries and their strong neighbours is peace between their sovereigns. This political axiom, supported by long experience, becomes most certain when it refers to the weak neighbours of an empire such as I have received from my ancestors, which is especially favoured by heaven. I am now master of China. A crowd of kingdoms filled with fear and respect by the renown and virtue of my ancestors, have submitted to my laws, notwithstanding their distance. When I mounted the throne the Coreans were suffering from a disastrous war that had lasted for a long time; the cries of a crowd of innocent victims having reached me, I caused hostilities to cease, I restored the land which the Mongols had conquered from them, and returned the prisoners they had captured. The Corean King, whom we number among our subjects, touched by our generosity,' came to the foot of our throne to do homage. I in return covered him with favours, determined to treat him rather as a father than as an emperor and master. Yon and your people have surely heard of this. Corea is dose to Japan. Since the foundation of your kingdom you have constantly trafficked with China. How is it you have never sent any one to my court since I to the throne. Have you not heard of my accession. I have sent you two officers to remind you of this and to secure a mutual friendship and a regular correspondence, which will be the bond of a lasting peace. The wise men who are about me tell me that all men are brothers, the universe consists of but one family, and how can useful rules or good laws be upheld in a family where there is discord? Woe to those who love confusion and wish for war; O King, think of this, you and your people”

The envoys who bore this letter proceeded to Corea, when they reached the coast the Coreans enlarged so much upon the dangers that were before them that they determined to return to China. Two years later, in 1268, Khblai began to prepare for a descent upon Japan, he ordered the Coreans to furnish a flotilla, and made inquiries as to the best route for his troops.

In 1274 he sent a fleet of 300 ships and 15,000 men, which was defeated near the island of Tsiusima with heavy loss. He again sent envoys in 1280, but they were put to death. The Sung empire having been destroyed, the Mongols now had leisure to prepare on a larger scale to punish their refractory neighbour; 100,000 men were collected, and the command given to Alahan or Argan, Fan wen hu (the Van sain chin of Marco Polo), &c. Argan died at the port of embarkation and his place was taken by Atahai or Atagai (Abacan of Polo).

These troops were embarked at Zayton and Kinsay. Zayton is Thshian chau fu, or Chin chau in Fukien; and Kinsay (in Chinese Kin sse, or the court) is the town of Hang chau fu, in Che kiang. They first proceeded to Corea, where they were joined by a contingent of 900 ships and 10,000 men. The combined forces sailed for the island of Goriosan, where the troops landed and overran the open country. Marco Polo refers to a quarrel between the two generals in command, which much impeded the campaign. Meanwhile the fleet was driven by a fierce storm upon a small island called Ping hu. The greater part was destroyed. The Japanese account says that “the general (Fan wen hun) fled with the other generals on the vessels that had least suffered; nobody has ever heard what became of them.” By one writer, who has written a book to prove his marvellous theory, this last army is made the founder of the Peruvian monarchy of the Incas. Mongo Capac being identified with the Mongol general. The army left upon the island was attacked and defeated, and 30,000 captives were put to death.

The Venetian traveller has a story, which is doubted by his learned editor, to the effect that the Mongols surprised and captured the Japanese fleet, on which they sailed to the capital, which they also captured; and says that it was after being besieged there in turn for seven months that they at length surrendered. This story is unconfirmed, and looks much like a Chinese invention to throw a halo round the disaster.

Gaubil makes the invading force to consist of 70,000 Chinese and Coreans and 30,000 Mongols. He says the former were all put to death, while the latter were reduced to slavery. The Chinese annals in De Mailla state that only 12,000 or 13,000 Southern Chinese were spared, and they were reduced to slavery.

Kublai determined to send a second expedition to revenge this disaster. He appointed Atagai to its command. Vessels were built and sailors pressed at the different ports, and the King of Corea was ordered to furnish a contingent of 500 ships. The expedition was very unpopular. The men deserted in bodies and took to brigandage, and it had eventually to be abandoned.

Notwithstanding the overthrow of the Sung dynasty, several rebels arose, especially in Fu-kien, under pretence of sustaining its cause. These were vigorously put down.

At the end of 1280, a commission, headed by a celebrated astronomer named Kochauking, issued a grand work on astronomy. Already in the reign of Jingis, Yeliu chutsai had profited by that monarch’s expedition in the west to acquire many new notions, and had published a new astronomy, and at the beginning of Khubilai’s reign, the western astronomers (probably Persians are meant) published two astronomies, one according to the western method, the other according to the Chinese. Kochauking and his assistants, who had deeply studied western methods, reconciled the two systems. A great, number of new instruments, astrolabes, armillary spheres, gnomons, &c., were manufac­tured. Fresh observations were made at twenty-seven stations; the meridians were revised and reduced to one standard ; and other reforms were made. The results were then presented to the Emperor with a memoir.

In 1281 Kublai lost his favourite wife Honkilachi. She was of a tender disposition, and doubtless tempered considerably the weight of the Mongol arms. When the young Sung Emperor was taken in triumph to the court, she was much depressed; Khubilai was somewhat piqued, and asked the reason. From early times, she said, there has been no Imperial family which has lasted 1,000 years, and who dare say that I and my children may not have to suffer the fate of this boy. When the Imperial treasures of the Sung were spread out, she only peeped at them and then retired. The Sung, she said, have brought these together for their descendants. We have got them only because those descendants could not protect them. How dare I take the least thing. She also busied herself in nursing the Empress Regent of the Sung, whose health suffered from the severity of the Mongol climate. Later in the year, the assessor of the Emperor’s Privy Council presented a petition against the sect of Tao se. Khubilai, who was much attached to the Buddhist religion, easily granted permission to have the Tao se books burnt.

The greed of conquest with which the Chinese historians charge Khubilai was still upon him, or perhaps rather, as the Russians have found in our day, there are few boundaries in Asia, and conquest leads to further conquest^ so long as the march-lands of the empire are occupied by turbulent tribes.

In 1271 the Mongol commander in southern Yunnan had sent envoys to the King of Mien (of Burma), calling upon him to become tributary. Some negotiations ensued, his letters to the Emperor being traced, we are told, on golden leaves; they also employed paper and the leaves of trees for this purpose.

The issue of this correspondence was not pacific, for the Burmese crossed the frontier of Yunnan in 1277, in order to fortify the posts of Thengyue and Yung chang (the Vocian of Marco Polo), which probably commanded the approach to their country. The Chinese commanders in Yunnan, among whom Nasir-ud-din, mentioned by Marco Polo, was one, although he did not fill the first position, ordered an attack to be made on certain frontier tribes as yet unsubdued, namely, the Kinchi (tribes with golden teeth), the Ho chang, Fu piao, and Theng yue, whose country lay west of Yung chang. The Burmese forces under their general O’ho, were assembled in the country of Nan-tien, on the frontiers of Thibet, and west of Yung chang, and consisted of from 40,000 to 50,000 men, 800 elephants, and 10,000 horses. The army of the Mongols is said in the official annals of the Yuen dynasty to have been only 700 strong. This is clearly a mistake, and ought probably to be 7,000. Marco Polo, who describes the battle, makes the Mongols 12,000 strong, and their opponents 60,000 cavalry and infantry, with 2,000 elephants, each carrying sixteen men, so that the disparity is equally great. He calls the King of Burma King of Mien and Bangala. Colonel Yule has shown that the Burmese dynasty probably claimed to rule in Bengal after the Muhammedan invasion, and that they were descended from a Bengal stock. The Mongols were encamped in the plain of Yung chang, and the troops of Burma came to attack them, the cavalry advancing first, then the elephants, and lastly the foot soldiers. Marco Polo relates how the Mongol horses were frightened at the elephants, and could not be made to face them. “But their captain acted like a wise leader, who had considered everything beforehand. He immediately gave orders that every man should dismount, and tie his horse to the trees of the forest that stood hard by, and that they should take to their bows, a weapon that they knew how to handle better than any troops in the world. They did as he bade them, and plied their bows stoutly, shooting so many shafts at the advancing elephants, that in a short space they had wounded or slain the greater part of them, as well as of the men they carried. When the elephants felt the smart of these arrow’s that pelted them like rain they turned and fled, and nothing on earth would have induced them to turn and face the Tartars. So off they sped, with such a noise and uproar, that you would have trow’ed the world was coming to an end ; and then, too, they plunged into the wood, and rushed this way and that, dashing their castles against the trees, bursting their harness, and smashing and destroying everything that was on them.... The Tartars then got to horse at once, and charged the enemy. And then the battle began to rage furiously with sword and mace.” The Mongols at length won, and pursued the troops of Burma a long way, and captured 200 elephants. The Chinese account says the carnage was terrible, that the limbs of the elephants and men who had been slain filled three large ditches, and that seventeen forts which the Burmese had built for the defence of their territory were captured.! In this campaign, which was fought in 1277, Nasir-ud-din advanced as far as the town of Kiang thu, on the Ira wadi, which offered a stout resistance; the intense heat of the climate at length compelled him to retreat. Nasir- ud-din having reported at the court that the conquest of the kingdom of Mien would be easy, an army was fitted out in 1283, under the command of Siang taur, a prince of the blood, who, as Colonel Yule says, was doubtless the Singtur who some years later took part in the insurrection of Nayan. The army set out from Chung khing, (Yun nan fu, the capital of Yunnan of our day). They embarked in boats on the river Oho (? the Bhamo river), and arrived at Kiang thu (probably the Kaun taung of the Burmese). This they captured, and there perished there more than 10,000 men.

The Mongols then summoned the King to submit. He refused; upon which they laid siege to his capital, Tai kung, (Tagaung, traditionally the most ancient royal city of Burma). The Burmese annals, which are much given to exaggeration, say the King had pulled down 6,000 temples to furnish materials for the fortifications: “But after all he lost heart, and, embarking with his treasure and establishments on the Irawadi, fled down that river to Bassein, in the Delta.” Having captured the Burmese capital, the Mongols continued the pursuit till they reached the place now called Tarokmau, or the Chinese Point, thirty miles below Prome. Here they were forced by want of provisions to return. De Mailla says further, that the people of Kin-chi, who had hitherto been prevented by the Burmese from acknowledging the Mongols, now did so. Kin-chi, or golden teeth, is the Chinese name of the Zardandan of Marco Polo, and probably connotes the Singphos, a tribe of Yunnan and Assam. The Pegu annals also mention a raid made into their territory by the Mongols, and the capture of several towns at this time.

The old Venetian traveller has a very romantic story about the conquest of Burma; he would have us believe that it was effected by the gleemen and jugglers at Khubilai’s court, of whom he had a great number. “He said to them one day that he wanted them to go and conquer the aforesaid province of Mien, and that he would give them a good captain to lead them, and other good aid. And they replied that they would be delighted. So the Emperor caused them to be fitted out with all that an army requires, and gave them a captain and a body of men-at-arms to help them; and so they set out and marched until they came to the country and province of Mien, and they did conquer the whole of it.” This is one of the few paragraphs which would be nautically described as yams that enliven the pages of the very truthful old traveller.

At his accession Kublai had intrusted the Imperial finances to a Muhammedan, a native of Bokhara, named Seyid Edjèll. He had died in 1270, leaving a high reputation for honesty. He was replaced by Ahmed, a native of Fenaket, on the Jaxartes. He had been attached to the household of Kublai’s chief wife before she married him, and by his insinuating manners and tact had won the confidence of the Khakan. I have already mentioned his oppression of the people. As he kept the coffers full Khubilai was satisfied, and we are told that no person, however high in rank, dare cross him, nor was any woman of considerable beauty safe from his advances. If she was unmarried he forced her to be his wife, otherwise he compelled her to submit to his desires. Marco Polo quaintly describes his manner of procedure. “Whenever he knew of any one,” he says, “who had a pretty daughter, certain ruffians of his would go to the father and say, ‘What say you? Here is this pretty daughter of yours; give her in marriage to the Bailo Achmath (for they called him ‘the Bailo’ or as we should say the ‘ ice regen ’), and we will arrange for his giving you such a government, or such an office, for three years.’ And so the man would surrender his daughter. And Achmath would go to the Emperor and say; such a government is vacant, or will be vacant on such a day. So and so is a proper man for the post, and the Emperor would reply: “Do as you think best”, and the father of the girl was immediately appointed to the government. Thus either through ambition of the parents, or through fear of the minister, all the beautiful women were at his beck either as wives or mistresses.” His twenty-five sons occupied places of high trust, and he had amassed a vast fortune from the black mail he levied on place hunters. But his enemies were increasing fast, and his day was nearly over. Tsui yu, one of the mandarins who governed in Kiang nan, who was also a lieutenant of Alihaya, was brave enough to present a report to the Emperor against him. Ahmed in a rage accused him of embezzling more than two millions, and of having wrong­fully deprived mandarins of their offices. A commission was sent to inquire, which found him innocent. Ahmed sent a second, composed of his own creatures, who convicted and executed him. This judicial mur­der caused much dissatisfaction at the court, in the army, and the provinces. Among his enemies was Ching kin, Kublai’s son, who went the length of kicking him in his father’s presence. At length one Chen chu, a commander of a thousand, whose mother, daughter, and wife had been dishonoured by Ahmed, entered into a plot with Wang chu, the commander of a tuman, 10,000 men, and determined to destroy him. They chose the time when the Emperor was at Shangtu, and the Prince Ching kin absent elsewhere, and when Ahmed remained in charge of the city. They communicated their intention to their friends in various cities, stating that they had determined, on a certain day, at a signal given by a beacon, to massacre all the men with beards, and that the other cities should stand ready to do the like on seeing the signal fires. The reason being, that the Chinese had no beards, while beards were worn by the Tartars, Saracens, and Christians, “and you must know,” says Polo, “the Chinese detested the Grand Khan’s rule, because he set over them gover­nors who were Tartars, or still more frequently Saracens, and these they could not endure, for they were treated by them just like slaves... On the day appointed, the two, Chen chu and Wang chu, entered-the palace at night. Wang chu sat down and caused a number of lights to be kindled before him. He then sent a messenger to Ahmed, who lived in the old city, as if to summon him to the presence of Ching kin, who (it was pretended) had arrived unexpectedly. Ahmed obeyed the summons. As soon as he got inside the palace and saw all the illuminations, he bowed down before Wang chu, supposing him to be Ching kin, and Chen chu, who was standing ready with a sword, straightway cut his head off. The captain of the guard, who was standing at the door, shouted treason, and instantly discharged an arrow at Wang chu and shot him dead as he sat, at the same time he ordered Chen chu to be seized, and sent a pro­clamation through the city that any one found in the streets would be put to death. The Chinese saw that the plot was discovered, and having lost their leaders, remained quiet. Messengers were sent off to Khubilai, who ordered an investigation, which ended in several of the ringleaders being put to death.” I have followed the account, and partially the language of the Venetian traveller whose narrative of the event is very circumstantial. His Chen chu is doubtless the Chang-y of the Chinese annals, who name a third conspirator, a sorcerer called Kao-Hoshang. They also say Ahmed was killed by a blow from a copper mace. They do not mention any plot for the murder of foreigners, although from what we know of them in later times, this is a very probable event. Neither do they mention that Wang chu was killed on the spot. They say, on the contrary, that he died heroically; saying that he had done the State great service and would yet be rewarded. Kublai gave a large sum towards paying for Ahmed’s funeral ceremonies; but his regret was soon converted into resentment. When he returned from Shang tung he summoned Polo, the assessor of the privy council, our old friend Marco Polo, and asked him why Wang chu had committed the murder. Polo spoke bravely out, and when Kublai learnt how avaricious his servant had been, and had even appropriated for the use of one of his wives a large diamond which some merchants had brought to his court for him, he ordered the corpse to be exhumed, the head to be cut off and exposed, and the body to be left tb the dogs. Two of his sons and some of his widows were put to death; others, to the number of forty, with 400 concubines, were distributed as presents. Two hundred mandarins, who had been Ahmed’s accomplices, were deprived of their offices, and altogether 700 persons were more or less implicated and punished accordingly. Polo concludes his chapter by saying that these discoveries greatly irritated Khubilai against the Saracens, and he prohibited them doing many things which their religion required. Thus he ordered them to regulate their marriages by the Tartar law, and forbade them killing animals by cutting their throats. This partial revival of one of Genghis’s laws is also referred to by Raschid. It was revoked seven years later, when it was found the Muhammedans gave over making their visits, and trade accordingly suffered. Ahmed’s place was given to a Uighur named Sanga, whose brother had succeeded Pakba as Grand Lama.

One of Sanga’s chief advisers, who was also a favourite of Kublai’s, was a mandarin of Tai ming fu, named Luchiyong; he had obtained his post by bribery, from Ahmed. He persuaded the Emperor that he could largely increase the revenue, and those who inveigled against him and his plans were punished. His suggestions were at least curious : he proposed that a large number of copper pieces should be coined, that these should be distributed to the inhabitants of the great ports of Hang chau and Tsuen chau, to be used in traffic with the foreign merchants, and that seven-tenths of the profit should go the State, while three-tenths were retained by the people. The grandees, it would seem, had some kind of monopoly in the manufacture of arms; this he proposed to abolish, and to let the State take possession of the forges, the profit to be used in filling the granaries, so that food could be sold at a cheaper rate. He wished to abolish free trade in wine, and make the vendors take out licenses, for which they were to pay heavily. He proposed to exchange on a large scale, the silks and stuffs of China for the horses and sheep of the Mongols, and arranged that the Imperial studs and herds should be taken charge of by the Mongols, who should be paid one-fifth of the profit accruing from the sale of the hides, wool, horns, and milk, &c. These plans do not seem very extravagant, but they were very unpopular, especially so, perhaps, as their author reinstated a good many of the creatures of Ahmed in their old places. The heir to the throne took part against him; several mandarins accused him of exactions and cruelty, &c., and he also was tried, condemned to death, and tom in pieces.

Cochin China, called by the Chinese Chen ching, and by Marco Polo, Champa, comprised at this time the whole coast between Tung king and Cambodia. It was conquered by the King of Tung king in the fifteenth century; but in the time of Khubilai was an independent kingdom. In 1278, So-tu, the military governor of the Canton district, sent an envoy to demand the submission of its King. This was rendered, and for some years he sent his tribute. Marco Polo says the tribute consisted of twenty elephants. When, in 1282, So-tu sent a resident and Chinese official, to receive tribute, &c., the heir to the throne resolutely opposed the proceeding; but the Mongol officers were content with the submission of the father, until he drew a large party over to himself. It was then time to interfere. So-tu therefore sent an army, which captured the capital. The prince took refuge in the mountains, and cajoled So-tu into delay by his envoys. Meanwhile he was fortifying himself, while one of his officers fell upon a body of Mongols and killed several hundred of them. So-tu fought several engagements in which he was successful, but while he was besieging an almost impregnable fortress, the prince of Cochin China cut off his retreat. So-tu raised the siege and managed to retire, but only with severe loss.} Khubilai was much pained by this defeat, and in 1284 he ordered his son Togan, who commanded in Yunnan, to march against Cochin China; the general So-tu received orders to co-operate with him. Between Yunnan and Cochin China lay Tung king, which had for some time been tributary, and had sent every three years a tax of gold, silver, precious stones, medicinal drugs, ivory, and rhinoceros’ horns. This tribute was found very onerous, and a new king, who mounted the throne in 1277, determined to resist the passage of the Mongol army. Togan crossed the river Fu leang on rafts, and the army of Tung king dispersed, but they rallied again the summer following. The heat and heavy rains caused a pestilence among the Mongols, who were forced to retire into Yunnan. Liheng, Togan’s chief general, was killed by a poisoned arrow, and So-tu, who had gone some distance ahead with his army, shortly after lost a battle on the Kien moan, in which he was killed.

Astrology was much favoured by Chinese philosophers. A regular college of astrologers existed, in which the various conjunctions of the planets, eclipses, &c., were studied and interpreted. In the end of 1282. a bonze of the province of Fu-kien published intelligence that the planet Saturn was very near a star called Ti-tso, which was the particular star presiding over the empire. This was apparently interpreted to mean that a revolt in favour of the Sung dynasty was imminent, and at this time an impostor did appear, who collected more than 100,000 adherents, called himself Emperor of the Sung, and issued seditious placards. These things troubled the Emperor, who assembled at Chang tu the young Sung Emperor, his family, and his minister Wen-tien- siang, who had been kept so long in restraint, and who was especially suspected. He was again pressed to join the Mongol service, but he remained inflexible. He had received favours much exceeding his deserts from the Sung family, and he would not now abandon it in its distress. He was therefore condemned to death, and received the news joyfully, went laughing to the place of execution, faced the south, stooped his head several times to the ground, and offered his neck to the axe. He was only forty-seven years old, and was endowed with many graces and virtues. The remaining members of the Sung family were transported into Tartary. His first wife having died, as I have mentioned, Khubilai now raised another of his wives, who was of the stock of the Kunkurat, to be his Empress ; she, too, bore the name of Honkilachi.

In the same year Kublai sent a commissioner to the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, to report upon their products and riches. Some time after ships from ten of these states arrived at Tsiuen chau, the celebrated port of Fu kien. These were the kingdoms of (1) Mapar, Mobar or Malabar; (2) Samundra, identified by Colonel Yule with the kingdom of the Bilal Rajahs north of Malabar, and constantly coupled with it by Muhammedan writers (3) Sumenna, Sumnath; (4) Sengkili (the Shinkali of Abulfeda, the Singiugli of Jordanus, the Cynkalli of Marignolli), Cranganor, one of the old Malabar principalities; (5) Malantan, the Tana Malayu of De Barros, one of the Sumatran kingdoms; (6) Sumutu, Sumatra; (7) Lailai (Lo, or Lo hoh), Southern Siam; (8) Navang (?), Tinghor (?), and Kelanitai

In 1287 a second expedition was fitted out against Tun king, of which the command was again given to Togan, while a fleet was ordered to co-operate with the army. The Tungkingese were defeated in seventeen combats, and their capital, Chen chen, with a very rich booty, was captured. The King escaped by sea. Not satisfied with his victory, Togan rashly returned again during the hot season of 1288. The King of Tung king threatened a descent on the coast, and he there upon ordered the ports to be fortified; but the hot weather was a more difficult enemy. Once more it proved fatal to the Mongols, who were forced to retire towards Kwang si. They lost many men and two of their chief com­manders in encounters with the natives. Togan was deprived of the government of Yunnan, and forbidden to appear at court. Meanwhile the King of Tung king submitted, and sent Kublai a present of an image of solid gold.

While Kublai was stretching his hands out towards the south and east a terrible rebellion on his northern frontier was sapping the influence of the Mongol Khakans in Mongolia. It was headed by Kaidu, his nephew. I have already traced it out in the former chapter, and described its different phases, and how it was more or less controlled by the skill of Kublai’s generals, who defeated both Kaidu and his con­federates, and also put down the very serious rebellion of Nayan, in Eastern Tartary. In the end of 1287 Atchu, who had won such renown in the conquest of the Sung empire, died, and was honoured with the posthumous title of Prince of Honan. In the spring of the following year Kublai was persuaded by his minister Sanga, much to the chagrin of his Chinese subjects, to convert the various palaces of the late dynasty into Buddhist temples; and later on in the year the imprisoned Sung Emperor was sent to Putula, in Thibet, to learn the Buddhist doctrines. The Chinese literates, who cordially despised the Buddhists, were very angry with the young prince for not having put an end to himself rather than survive such an indignity. The cruel exactions of the Mongol governors gave rise this year to several rebellions in the southern provinces. A judge of Fu kien, named Wangiun, made a report to the Emperor, in which he called attention to them. His representations were well received.

Various public works were also carried on at this time with energy, the grand canal called Hoeitong, running from Tsining chau, in Shantung, to Ling tsing chau, in the same province, was opened, at least so say the narratives of De Mailla and Gaubil, but the latter’s editor, in a note, says the canal was not opened till the days of the Ming dynasty. Kublai also built two magnificent colleges at Ta tu, the Mongol part of Peking. He encouraged literary work of various kinds, and especially the literature of Buddhism, and we are told that in 1290, a copy of the Thibetan sacred books was written in large golden letters. This year a census of those liable to pay tribute was made. It showed there were 13,196,206 families, comprising 58,834,711 persons, not counting fugitives and rebels.

Meanwhile, Sanga, the Imperial treasurer, followed in the steps of his predecessor, and his exactions caused great suffering and complaint in the empire. Like Ahmed, he also gained the confidence of Khubilai so well that it was dangerous to speak against him. At length, after a career of four years, his turn arrived for punishment. An officer named Che li, who was much in the company of Khubilai, went with him on one of his hunting excursions, and there ventured to disclose to him the malpractices of Sanga. The Emperor was in a rage and ordered him to be chastised. This was done so effectually that the blood streamed from his nose and mouth. He was now asked to confess that what he had said was a calumny. “I have no special grudge against him” said Ché li. “It was only in the interest of your Majesty and of the empire that I spoke. If the fear of punishment had stopped my tongue I should have been unworthy of being in your service,” &c. The Emperor ordered an inquiry. When this was instituted quite a crowd of accusations poured upon the head of the devoted minister. Khubilai was much enraged, in that the accusers had kept back information about his ill doing, and left it to the Imperial censors to determine what punishment they deserved ; ost of them were dismissed. Ché li was sent with 300 soldiers to make an inventory of Sanga’s goods. The Khakan had one day asked for some pearls; he said he had none; but two boxes full were found in his house. These, he said, he had received as presents from the different provincial governors. The Emperor was naturally enraged at the effrontery of the minister, who retained the rich presents for himself, and passed off mere bagatelles upon him. He was condemned to death, and his goods were confiscated. With him perished a large number of his creatures. He had had the impertinence to put up a monument, with an eulogium on himself; this was now broken down. His place was given to Wan tse, who alone, among the employees of that chancellery, appeared, from the papers found in Ahmed's house, to have obtained his employment without bribery.

The tombs of the Sung Emperors were situated near the town of Chao hing, in Che kiang. A Lama of Thibet, who had an important appointment in the southern provinces, and was exceedingly avaricious, proceeded this year to rifle these tombs, and to rob them of their golden and jewelled ornaments. He took the bones out of the tombs, and mixing them with those of oxen, &c., made pyramids of them. One cannot easily find an explanation for this senseless indignity, which seems to have been, and perhaps was, done expressly to irritate the Chinese, who had an especial antipathy to the Lamas. The mandarins had him arrested and imprisoned, but the Lama influence at the court was so strong that he was afterwards released, and even retained his lugubriously acquired booty. The Chinese historians blame Khubilai very much for his conduct on this occasion, and on others, in which he allowed himself to be made the plaything of the Lama priests.

In the end of the year 1291, a fleet was fitted out for the exploration and conquest of the Luchu islands, east of Fu-kien, but the commander having been killed on the way, the ships returned. The first day of the year is a grand festival in China; the mandarins then severally do homage according to the prescribed ceremonial; this day is the first of that month, when the sun enters the constellation of the Fishes. An eclipse of the sun at anytime is held to be a bad omen. If it occur on the first day of the year, it is put down in the Chinese astrology as fore­boding some impending disaster. The calculations showed that this would happen on the first day of 1292, and the day was ordered to be solemnly observed. The judicious Chinese did not fail to remind their Emperor that he should see to his conduct, to discover if there was anything in it, or in the affairs of State that needed reform. The eclipse happened as foretold, and was observed with becoming seriousness. About this time a new code of laws was issued. Previously the country had been governed by the laws passed during the Kin dynasty, but these had been found to be too exacting.

Kublai was constantly sending envoys to the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, whose ships brought to the port of Tsuen chau, the rare products of the Spice islands. Marco Polo, in describing the island of Java, says the great Khan never could get possession of it because of its great distance. Soon after Polo wrote this he tried with but scant success. His envoy, a Chinese mandarin called Mengki, returned home with his face branded; the punishment there awarded to highwaymen. Kublai was furious, ordered a great fleet to rendezvous in the ports of Fu-kien, under the command of a general and admiral who had been in the Indian seas, and knew the language of Java. This armament consisted of 1,000 ships of all kinds, 30,000 soldiers, besides sailors, &c., and provisions for a year. It set out in January, 1293, and coasted along the shores of Cochin China. Having entered the great ocean, they came to the mountains (? islands) Kanlan, Yukia, Limata, and Keoulang. There they landed to cut timber for making transports. The King of Java (called Kuava by the Mongols) pretended to submit, and persuaded the Chinese commander to attack Kolang, a neighbouring kingdom with which he was at war. The King of Kolang was defeated in a battle which lasted from sunrise to midday, and in which his forces numbered 100,000. He submitted, but was put to death with his family.

The Javanese having thus revenged themselves on the people of Kolang wished to be rid of the Mongols, and notwithstanding that he had sent in his submission, acknowledging Khubilai as his suzerain, and sur­rendered his royal seal, the King marched against the Mongol troops, and planted a force in an ambuscade, causing them much loss in their retreat to the coast. The expedition returned to China after losing 3,000 men. It was sixty-eight days on the way. It took back with it an immense booty in gold and precious stones, but Kublai was much dissatisfied with its partial success, and also with the fact that instead of punishing ; his officers should have made terms with his enemies. The chief officer instead of being rewarded was severely bastinadoed, and a large quantity of his possessions were confiscated. Meanwhile the struggle on the northern frontier with Kaidu and his supporters continued more or less vigorously. In 1293, two hundred Juchis or Niuchis brought Kublai a tribute of fish. Fishing was their sole occupation. Kublai wished them to adopt a more settled life, and furnished them with cattle and agricultural implements, and sent officers into their country to furnish the same assistance to their countrymen.

Meanwhile Bayan, who commanded at Karakorum, and who for his wonderful successes and experiences was unrivalled among the servants of Kublai, became the object of envy to the courtiers of the Emperor, who, succumbing to their advice, recalled him, and replaced him by his own grandson and heir Timur. He was appointed commander of the Imperial guards, and of the troops in the neighbourhood of the capital.

In the latter part of 1293 there appeared a comet, a great event in Chinese astrology ; and the Emperor betook himself to the learned mandarins to consult them as to his conduct. They as usual advised him to be warned by the apparition to reform the administration of the empire. At this time, curiously, Kublai fell ill and died. This was early in 1294, in the eightieth year of his age and the thirty-fifth of his reign. In the hall of the ancestors he is styled Chi tsu. The Chinese accuse him of an excessive devotion to the Lamas, a love of women and of money, and of being very superstitious. They accuse him of having wasted his resources in ill-devised and ill-executed expeditions to Japan, Cochin China, &c., and of having employed too many strangers. This last has always been a source of great jealousy to the Chinese.

The Mongols and western writers have formed a different estimate of him. His reign is the most glorious epoch in Mongol history, and he was certainly, as Gaubil says, learned and fond of learned men, courageous, enterprising, and magnificent.

Kublai was the sovereign of the largest empire that was ever controlled by one man. China, Corea, Thibet, Tung king, Cochin China, a great portion of India beyond the Ganges, the Turkish and Siberian realms from the eastern sea to the Dnieper obeyed his commands; and although the chiefs of the Hordes of Jagatai and Ogatai refused to acknowledge him, the Ilkhans of Persia (whose empire bordered on the Mediterranean and the Greek empire) were his feudatories; in fact, as D’Ohsson says, nearly all Asia was subject to him. This was in different ways. Thus while the great Khanates of the Ilkhans and of the Golden Horde owed him allegiance, probably sent him large quantities of riches as tribute, while their chiefs received investiture at his hands, their internal govern­ment was controlled entirely by their special rulers. Their history was probably similar to that of Canada. At first an integral part of the empire, then having a substantive government of their own, and owning only a mediate allegiance to the central Imperial authority. This was no doubt immense so long as the Mongol Imperial family was united; but with the rebellions of Arikbuka and Kaidu, and with the removal of the capital from Karakorum to China it became weaker, until a few reigns later it snapped altogether. The supreme Khan had immediate authority only in Mongolia and China, and it will be interesting to inquire how he administered this vast area.

To assist him, Kublai had a council or cabinet of twelve officers, whom Marco Polo calls the twelve barons. Pauthier has found the same number mentioned in the Chinese annals. Of the first rank were two, styled Chin sang; one, minister of the right; the other, of the left. They had the appointment of the various functionaries of State, and also the control of their discipline. Pauthier adds in a note that the number of these first ministers varied. At the accession of Kublai in 1260 there was only one, who was named Mahmud, and who was a Muhammedan. From 1261 to 1265 there were two, and in 1265 and 1266 there were four, among them being Khandu and Bayan. This last statement agrees with the enumeration of Raschid, who says there were four Ching sang. Next to these were four Ping chang ching se, ministers of special departments; they had special control of military matters. They answer to the four Fan chan of Raschid, who says they acted as inspectors on behalf of the council. Thirdly, were four assessors: two of the right, Yau-ching; and two of the left, Tso ching; which corresponded to the Yer-jing, and Ur or Ujing of Raschid; they answered to our under­secretaries of State. And lastly, two reporters on public affairs, Thsan ching; the San jing of Raschid.

I shall now extract Raschid’s account of how the work of the council was done.

“As the Kaan generally resides at the capital”, he says, “he has erected a place for the sittings of the Great Council, called Sing. According to established custom a lieutenant is appointed to the inspection and charge of the doors, and examines all the drafts of memorials that are presented.

“The name of the first tribunal is In. All the proceedings are copied and sent with the memorials to the tribunal called Lusah, which is of higher rank than the other. Thence all is carried to the tribunal called Khalyun, and thence to the fourth, called Kuijun. This is the board which has charge of all that relates to the posts and despatches. The three first mentioned tribunals are under the orders of the last; and from it business is transferred to the fifth, which bears the name of Rusnè yi, and which has everything that concerns the army under its charge. Lastly, the business arrives at the sixth board, which is called Siushtah. All ambassadors and foreign merchants when arriving and departing have to present themselves at this office, which is the one which issues orders in council and passports. In our days this office is entirely under the management of the Amir Dashiman.

“When matters have passed these six boards, they are remitted to the Council of State, or Sing, where they are discussed, and the decision is issued after being verified by the Khat Angusht or ‘finger-signature’ of all who have a right to a voice in the council. This finger-signature indicates that the act, to which it is attached in attestation, has been discussed and definitively approved by those whose mark has been put upon it.

“ It is usual in Cathay, when any contract is entered into, for the outline of the fingers of the parties to be traced upon the document. For experience shows that no two individuals have fingers precisely alike. The hand of the contracting party is set upon the back of the paper containing the deed, and lines are then traced round his fingers up to the knuckles, in order that if ever one of them should deny his obligation this tracing may be compared with his fingers and he may thus be convicted.

“After the matter has thus passed through all the boards, and has been decided on by the supreme authority, it is sent back to the tribunal before which it first came.

“The dignitaries mentioned above are expected to attend daily at the Sing, and to make themselves acquainted with all that passes there. And as the business to be transacted is very extensive, the Chingsang take their part in the writing that has to be done as well as the other members of the council whose positions we have detailed. Each takes his place, according to his degree, with a kind of table and writing materials before him. Every great officer has his seal and distinctive bearings. It is the duty of certain of the clerks to write down the names of all who attend daily, in order that a deduction may be made from the allowances of those who are absent. If any one is habitually absent from the council without valid excuse, he is dismissed.

“It is the order of the Kian that the four Chingsang make all reports to him.

“The Sing of Khanbaligh is the most eminent, and the building is very large. All the acts and registers and records of proceedings of several thousands of years are there preserved. The officials employed in it amount to some two thousand.”

Such is Raschid’s account of the council and its work. In the Yuen Se, or Imperial annals, we have further details about the administration of the empire. We are told that at his accession Khubilai ordered Hiu heng and Liau kien chung to search out precedents, and to arrange the administrative machinery of the empire. This was done. There were three classes of officials of the first rank. Those who had to do with the general administration, Chung chu sing; those who looked after military matters, Chu mi yuen; and the board of Imperial censors, who had to do with promotions, &c., Yu se thai.

Below these in rank were certain officers belonging to the interior management of the Court (nei). These included the officials about the Gourt (se): the superintendents of the Palace (kian); those charged with the Imperial guard (wei); those attached to the Treasury (fu).

Secondly, those who had to do with external matters, as (the hing sing) directors of the provinces: hing thai, financial directors; siuen wei sei, those charged with the public peace (the police); and Lien fang sté, the bureau of intelligence.

In imitation of the ancient dynasties there were also created three great departments, styled san kung (the three dukes). The grand preceptor of the empire, tai sé; the grand reporter, tai chuan; and the grand conservator, tai pao. There was also a grand director of the armies, ta se thu; his lieutenant, se thu; and the grand chief of police, tai wei (the great tranquilliser). Above all these was the president of the secretariat of State, chung chu ling. He had a silver seal, and derived his orders immediately from the Emperor.

We will now turn to the administration of justice. Pauthier says the number of judges of the Supreme Court varied a good deal. In 1260 there were sixteen; below whom were thirty-one magistrates. In 1269, Seventeen and thirty-four magistrates. In 1270, eighteen and thirty-five magistrates. In 1271 they began to use seals. In 1290 they were divided into two provinces. In 1291 there were thirty-six secretaries attached to the grand court. Two more were added in 1294. These had a president and a first and second clerk over them. Attached to the grand court were also two Mongol secretaries; twelve chief historiagraphers, or keepers of the rolls, also Mongols; one keeper of the rolls, who was a Uighur, and a Mussulman, and two interpreters of the Uighur language; two officers charged with the seals, eight reporters, and a chief of police.

Such was the central administration. We will now pass on to the government of the provinces. The part of the empire immediately under the control of Kublai was divided into twelve great prefectures or governments, each controlled by a college or tribunal, styled Sing in Chinese.

1.     The central province, upon which the rest were more or less dependent, comprised the present provinces of Shan tung, Shan si, Pehcheli, Honan north of the Yellow River, and part of Mongolia. It was also known as the entrails of the empire. Its chief city was Khanbaligh or Peking. It included 29 lu (circuits) and 8 chau (arron­dissements). On it were also dependent 3 fu (departments), 91 chau, and 346 hien (cantons).

2.     The province of the Northern Mountains (of Mongolia proper). It included the lu of Honing, whose chief town was Karakorum. It was ruled by a military governor.

3.     The province of Liau yang (including Liau tung, and probably Manchuria). It consisted of 7 lu and 1 fu, and had dependent upon it 12 chau and 10 hien. Its capital was Liau yang.

4.     The province of Honan and the country north of the Kiang, including 12 lu, 7 fu, and 1 chau; on it depended 34 chau and 182 hien. Its capital was called Tung king during the Sung; Nan king under the Kin, and until 1288, when it was styled Pian lang. It was afterwards known as Kai fung fu.

5.     The province of Shensi and other districts. In 1262 Shensi and Su chuan were formed into one administrative province, with its capital at King chau (Si ngan fu), whose name in 1279 was changed to Ngan si. In 1286 Su chuan was constituted a separate province. That of Shensi then comprised the modern province, with the greater part of Kan su to the right of the Yellow River, and part of the Ortus country. Its capital was in 1312 named Fong yuen (Si ngan fu). It included 4 lu, 5 fu, and 27 chau, and had n chau and 88 hien dependent upon it.

6.     The province of Su chuan, included parts of Hu kwang and Kwei chau, and comprised 9 lu and 3 fu. On it were dependent 2 fu, 36 chau, I kiun (military camp), and 81 hien. It also contained some wild tribes named Man i, £z., barbarous strangers, the Miaotze, who still remain there. Its capital was Ching tu.

7.     The province of Kan su. It was constituted in 1281, and com­prised all the country west of the Yellow River, known as Ho-si. It included 7 lu and 2 chau. Five others were dependent on it. Its chief town was Kan chau.

8.     The province of Yun nan. It included the modem province with part of Kwei cheu and parts of Thibet and Burma, and included 37 lu and 2 fu. There were dependent on it 54 chau and 47 hien, besides several kiun or military encampments. Its capital was Chung-khing (Yunnan fu).

9.     The province of Kiang che and other places, embracing Che kiang, Kiang nan, south of the Kiang, and the eastern part of Kiang si. It com­prised 30 lu, 1 fu, and 2 chau, and on it were dependent 26 chau and 133 hien. Its capital was Hang chau, which when the Sung made it their capital in 1129, was named King se (the Quin say of Marco Polo).

10.   The province of Kiang si and other places. It comprised 18 lu and 9 chau, and on it were dependent 13 chau and 78 hien. Its capital was Lung hing, now Nan chang fu.

11.    The province of Hu kwang and other places, comprising 30 lu, 3 fu, and 13 chau, and having dependent on it 15 ngan fu se (boards of pacification), 3 kikn, 3 fu, 17 chau, and 150 hien. Its capital was Wu-chang.

12.   The province of Ching tung and other places, which comprised the kingdom of Corea. It included 2 ling fu (superior departments) and 1 se. Its capital, the residence of a viceroy, was Fan Yang.

This enumeration is taken from the Yung se or Mongols annals, and I have abstracted it from Pauthier’s Notes; and also from Yule’s Cathay and the Way Thither. The chief towns of these provinces were seats of the tribunals styled Sing, and Raschid tells us that that of Khanbaligh alone had Ching sang among its members. The others had dignitaries bearing the title of Shijangi to preside over them, aided by four Fanchan and other members of council who had titles according to their dignities.

Besides the provincial councils there were local governors in the various cities, towns, villages, &c. In regard to these Raschid says: “In this empire of Cathay there are many considerable cities, each has its appropriate title marking a particular rank in the scale. The relative precedence of governors is indicated by that of the cities which they administer, so that there is no need to specify their dignities in the diploma of appointment, or to enter into curious questions of precedence You know at once (by the rank of the cities to which they are attached) which ought to make way for another or to bow the knee before him.

These ranks or titles are as follow 1, King (fz, Imperial residence, as in Peking, Nanking, &c.);

2, Du or Tu (Court or Imperial residence, as in Tatu, Shangtu, &c.);

3, Fu (a city of the first class, or rather the depart­ment of which it is the head, as in Wu chang fu, &c.);

4, Chau (a city of the second class, or district of which it is the head);

5, …(this is a blank in Khaproth’s original);

6, Kiun, a chief military garrison;

7, Hien, a city of the third order, or sub-district of which it is the head. Chin, a small town; Tsun, a district. Colonel Yule adds that the custom of naming a dignitary by the title belonging to the class of district under him still prevails in China.

The chiefs of the different prefectures, &c., were generally Mongols, or strangers from the west; Muhammedans, Christians, and Buddhists. Many Muhammedans from Persia, Transoxiana, and Turkestan settled in China under the administration of Abd ur Rahman, Seyed Edjell, and Ahmed, and the Chinese historians who praise his reign make it a cause of complaint against him that he did not employ Chinese officials instead of these double-dealing and crafty Turks and Persians to superintend his finances. Before the invasion of the Mongols, the literates, who had passed very searching examinations, were alone employed in the public offices. This class had greatly decayed. Khubilai restored the old Imperial college at Yen king (Pekin), which had fallen into decay ; the ablest professors in China were placed there, and the children of the best families studied at the same place. He also founded a second college under the direction of the Mussulmans at Ta tu.

The communications between different parts of the empire were kept up by an elaborate post service. This post service was admirably managed. It is well described by Marco Polo. He tell us Khanbalik, or Peking, was the focus where there met many roads ; along each of these roads at intervals of from twenty-five to thirty miles were situated post houses or hostelries, splendidly furnished, called by the Mongols Yambs (a Mongol word which Colonel Yule says the Tartars carried all over Asia). To some of these hostelries were attached 400 horses, 200 in use and 200 at grass. At others there were fewer. Where the mes­sengers had to pass through roadless tracts, where neither house nor hostel existed, still there the station houses had been established, except that the intervals were greater, and the day’s journey was fixed at thirty-five to forty-five, instead of twenty-five to thirty miles. 300,000 horses were employed in this service, and there were 10,000 stations. There were two kinds of State messengers, the foot and horse couriers; both wore broad belts with bells attached, and were stationed at intervals of three miles. The bells sounded the runner’s arrival, and prepared a fresh man to take his place, and Polo says, that by this means news travelled a ten days’ journey in a day and a night, and the Khakan could eat fruit that had only been gathered twenty-four hours before at a distance of ten days’ journey. The horse couriers, by the same system of relief, did from 400 to 500 miles in a day and night. He thus describes the method of procedure. He says, “ the postmen take a horse from those at the station, which are standing ready saddled, all fresh and in wind, and mount and go at full speed, as hard as they can ride, and when those at the next post hear the bells, they get ready another horse and a man, equipped in the same way, and he takes over the letter or whatever it be, and is off full speed to the third station, where again a fresh horse is found all ready, and so the despatch speeds along from post to post, always at full gallop, with regular changes of horses, and the speed at which they go is marvellous. By night, however, they cannot go so fast as by day, because they have to be accompanied by footmen with torches, who could not keep up with them at full speed. These men are highly prized, and in order to keep up they have to bind their stomachs, chests, and heads with strong bands, and each of them carries with them a gerfalcon tablet, in sign that he is bound on an urgent express, so that if his horse breaks down on the road, or he has any other mishap, he can appropriate that of any traveller he meets, and make him dismount.”

This elaborate system of posting which the Mongols so much patronised is referred to by nearly every traveller of the period. Similar expedients were used elsewhere, thus Colonel Yule says the Burmese kings used to have the odoriferous Durian transmitted from Tenasserim to Ava by horse posts, but he adds, “ the most notable example of the rapid transmission of such dainties, and the nearest approach I know of to their despatch by telegraph, was that practised for the benefit of the Fatimite Khalif Aziz (latter part of the tenth century), who had a great desire for a dish of cherries from Balbeck. The Wazir Yakub ben Kilis caused 600 pigeons to be despatched from Balbeck to Cairo, each of which had attached to either leg a small silk bag containing a cherry.”

The capital of the Khakan, after the accession of Khubilai, was a new city he built close to the ancient metropolis of the Liao and Kin dynas­ties, which was formerly known as Yen king. Khubilai’s city was called Tatu (great court), corrupted by the Mongols into Taidu, or Daitu. It was separated from the ancient city, from which it was about half a mile distant, by a small river, and was also known as Cambaluk, Khan baligh, the city of the Khan. It is now known as Peking. It had in Polo’s time, a circuit of twenty-four miles, and was in the form of a square. Its ramparts of earth fifty feet in width and fifty feet high were whitewashed and loopholed all round. A recent French account, cited by Yule, mentions that the same walls are still forty-five and a half feet high, and forty-seven and a quarter feet thick, the top forming a paved promenade, unique of its kind, and recalling the legendary walls of Thebes and Babylon.

Raschid tells us that in order to make these ramparts they built a framework of planks, between which they placed the damp earth, which they battened down with wooden rammers until it was solid and firm, when the planks were removed. It was necessary to make them thus because of the great quantity of rain that fell there. At each corner was a great bastion, and on each side three gates over which palaces were built. Each gate was garrisoned by 1,000 men. The streets were straight and parallel with the sides, and the whole was thus divided into rectangular blocks of buildings like a modem American city. Outside each gate was a suburb inhabited by strangers and merchants. Besides the river a splendid canal communicated with the Gulf of Pehcheli and formed a great highway for produce.

In the middle of the city was a great watch tower furnished with a water dock and a bell. This latter struck three times at night, after which no one must leave the city save to attend the sick or attend women in labour. The clock tower mentioned by Polo and a very elaborate water dock of the Mongol period still exist at Peking. Kublai lived at Tatu during the winter. His palace was a square building, enclosed by two walls, and each side of the outer one was a mile long; this wall was whitewashed and loopholed. At each comer, and in the centre of each side, was a large building used as an armoury, one stored with bows, a second with saddles, &c. One gate was only opened for the passage of the Emperor. Inside this enclosure was another enclosure with eight stores corresponding to those in the outer wall; these, according to D'Ohsson, were treasure houses. The walls were painted in bright colours, with battle scenes, &c. In the centre of this second enclosure rose the palace, “this consisted of a basement of masonry with a super­structure of timber, sculptured with beasts, birds, knights, idols, etc., and gilt” The same kind of palace, as Colonel Yule says, is still found in Burma, Siam, and Java. He supposes that the palaces of ancient Asokas and Vikramadityas of India were similarly built. On each of the four sides a great marble staircase led to the top of the marble wall. In the great hall 6,000 people could easily dine. The outside of the roof was painted with vermillion, and yellow, and green, and blue, &c., and varnished until it shone like crystal. Between the two walls were parks and pleasure grounds, where fallow and white deer, gazelles and roebucks, musk deer and squirrels were kept. In one comer there was a lake stocked with fish. The earth excavated in making this lake formed a mound planted with evergreens of different kinds, and ornamented with blue or green rock work; this mound was a mile in compass and a hundred paces in height. Polo says that wherever a beautiful tree existed, and the Emperor got news of it, he sent for it, and had it transported bodily, with all its roots and the earth attached to them, and planted on that hill of his. The larger ones were moved by elephants.

The parks he tells us were covered with abundant grass, and the roads through them being all paved and raised two cubits above the surface, they never became muddy, nor did the rain lodge on them, but flowed off into the meadows, quickening the soil and producing their abundance of herbage.

Such were the winter quarters of the great Khan. We will now turn to his summer dwelling. Raschid says that “there were three routes between Peking and Kai ping fu, or Shan tung. One, forbidden to the public and reserved for the chase, probably passed by Chagan nor.t A second passed by the town of Chou chou, and followed the banks of the Sanguin; near that town were planted vines and other fruit trees, and near a neighbouring town named Semali, chiefly inhabited by people from Samarkand, were orchards like those found at Samarkand. The third route went by the defile named Si king (? the pass of Chu yung kuan), beyond which there was open country as far as Kia ping fu. Formerly the court passed the summer near the said town of Chou chou. Kublai then built a palace east of Kai ping fu, named Leng ten, but abandoned it in consequence of a dream. The architects and others who were consulted suggested that a lake surrounded with meadows, near Kai ping fu, would be a good site. There was a kind of stone there used instead of wood; they collected a quantity of this, and also of wood, and they filled up the lake and its sources with lime and pounded bricks, above which they poured melted lead and tin. These foundations rose to the height of a man. The imprisoned water broke out into various streams, and produced fountains. On this foundation was built a palace in the Chinese taste,” etc.

This palace was similarly built to the former one, painted in bright colours, and adorned with grotesque and other animals. About it was also a park stocked with game. The Mongols were always great patrons of falconry, and we are told the Khan kept there alone 200 gerfalcons, besides others. “He went every week to see his birds sitting in mew,_: says Polo, “and sometimes he rode through the park with a leopard (probably a chetah) behind him on his horse’s croup, and if he saw any animal that took his fancy he slipped the leopard at it, and the game when taken was made over to feed the hawks in mew. At a spot in the park where there was a charming wood the Khan had another palace built of cane. It was gilt all over, and most elaborately finished inside. It was stayed on gilt and lacquered columns, on each of which was a dragon all gilt, the tail of which was attached to the column, while the head supported the architecture. The roof, like the rest, was formed of canes, covered with a varnish so strong and excellent that no amount of rain would rot them. These canes (bamboos) were a good three palms in girth, and from ten to fifteen paces in length. They were all cut at each knot, and then the pieces were split so as to form from each two hollow tiles, and with these the house was roofed. Every such tile had to be nailed down to prevent the wind from lifting it.” This bamboo palace could be easily put up and taken down again. When erected it was stayed by more than 200 cords of silk. Such were the luxurious surroundings of the great Emperor, the grandson only of the simple chief of Nomad shepherd of the Gobi. It was, says Colonel Yule, whilst reading this passage of Marco’s narrative in old Purchas, that Coleridge fell asleep and dreamt the dream of Khubilai’s paradise beginning.

In Xanadu did Kublai Khan

A stately pleasure dome decree,

Where Alph, the sacred river ran,

By caverns measureless to man,

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;

And there were gardens, bright with numerous rills,

Where blossomed an incense-bearing tree ;

And here were forests, ancient as the hills.

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

The site of Shangtu has been recently visited by Dr. Bushell. On the route between Peking and Shangtu, Kublai had another palace which is called Chagan Nor by Polo. It is no doubt the Arulun Tsaghan Balghassun, which Ssanang' Setzen states that Kublai built about the same time as Shangtu.

Dr. Bushell, in his recent travels beyond the Great Wall, mentions having seen its ruins; they are known by the Chinese name of Pai cheng tzu, or white city, and are on the borders of the lake Chagan Nor. It was doubtless merely a hunting seat, and Polo remarks it was attractive to the Emperor on account of the lakes and rivers in the neighbourhood, the haunt of swans, and of a great variety of other birds. Five different kinds of cranes are specified by the old traveller as being found in the adjoining plains. Dr. Bushell thus speaks of the same country. He says “it is filled with lakes and pools of water, the haunts of innumerable waterfowl district, we found the water black with waterfowl, which rose in dense flocks, and filled the air with discordant noises. Swans, geese, and ducks predominated, and three different species of cranes were distinguished.” The court apportioned its period of residence at the various palaces with great regularity. Polo tells us that it remained at Shangtu during the months of June, July, and August, leaving there on the 28th of the last month, when the cane palace was taken to pieces.

The Khakan kept a great number of white mares. Polo says more than 10,000 of them. These were looked upon almost as sacred. Their milk was reserved for the members of the Imperial family and of the tribe of the Oirats, to whom the privilege was granted by Genghis. When the Emperor set out on his return on the 28th of August, as I have said, the milk of these mares was sprinkled on the ground, so that the earth, the air, and the false gods should have a share of it, and that everything belonging to the Khakan should be blessed. This is a widespread custom, and still found among the Yakuts, Khirgises, etc, only at a different season. Colonel Yule suggests that the season was changed to correspond with the Festival of Water Consecration by the Lamas.

Polo relates that “when these mares passed across the country, and any one fell in with them, although he may have been the greatest lord in the land, he must not presume to pass until the mares had gone by; he must either tarry where he was or go a half day’s journey round if need so be, so as not to come nigh them, for they were to be treated with the greatest respect.”

Kublai’s reign was a heyday for necromancers and medicine men of various kinds. There were weather sorcerers who claimed the power of pre­venting clouds or storms from passing over the spot on which the Khakan’s palace stood. They came chiefly from Thibet and Kashmir. These weather conjurors are found nearly everywhere in Central Asia. Their nostrum is the jade stone. Polo says that when a man was condemned to death, these people, apparently referring to the conjurors, cooked and ate his body, but not so if he died a natural death. These conjurors also performed famous tricks, one of them, well known according to Colonel Yule among Buddhists old and new, is that of moving dishes, &c., on the table. Polo thus describes it: “When the great Khan is at his capital and in his grand palace, seated at his table, which stands on a platform some eight cubits above the ground, his cups are set before him (on a great buffet) in the middle of the hall pavement, at a distance of some ten paces from his table and filled with wine or other good spiced liquor, such as they use now when the lord desires to drink; these enchanters by the power of their enchantments cause the cups to move from their place without being touched by anybody, and to present them­selves to the Emperor. This every one may witness, and there are often more than 10,000 persons then present.” This and a great deal more of the necromancy practised by the Shamans may be profitably compared with the similar exhibitions of modem spiritualism. Polo goes on to say that these conjurors would go to the Khan when the idol feasts were at hand, and tell him that the god, if he received no offerings, would send bad weather and spoil the seasons, &c. They then asked for so many black-faced sheep, such a quantity of incense, of lign-aloes, etc., to perform the sacrifices. These they obtained and then made a great feast in honour of their god, and held ceremonies with grand illuminations and incense of various odours, made from different aromatic spices, cooked the meat and set it before the idols and sprinkle the broth hither and thither, saying that in this way the idols got their belly full.

From the first of March to the middle of May the court was occupied in the great annual hunt which was organised on a gigantic scale. Polo has much to say about the hunting establishment of the Khakan. They were presided over by two chief huntsmen called Chinuchi (? Chong-It-chi), or keepers of the big dogs. Each of them had 10,000 men under him, one body dressed in red, the other in blue. Each time he went out for a hunt, one of these bodies with 5,000 dogs went towards the right, the other to the left, forming a great circle to enclose the game as in the earlier Mongol fashion. The two chief huntsmen were bound to supply the court with 1,000 head of game each day, from October to the end of March. Chetahs, lynxes, and also tigers were used in hunting wild boars, wild cattle, bears, wild asses, stags, etc, and like the modern Khirgises, the Mongols succeeded in training even the golden eagle, and used it in their Imperial falconry to catch wolves, foxes, deer, and wild goats.

The great hunt generally set out on the first of March. The Khakan took with him 10,000 falconers, with 500 gerfalcons, besides peregrines, sakers, and other small hawks and goshawks, to fly at the waterfowl. These were distributed over a great space of country, 100 or 200 at the most in a place. Each of the Emperor’s and the grandees’ hawks had a label attached to its leg, with the name of its owner and keeper upon it. All lost hawks, dogs, etc, were taken to a high official styled Bularguchi, or the keeper of lost property.

The Khakan travelled in a palanquin carried by four elephants. It was lined inside with gold plates, and outside with lions’ skins; from this vantage he made his casts at the cranes, Ac., that came by him. So that gouty and decrepit as he was, he could enjoy his sport without much exertion. At last he arrived at the camp, consisting of 10,000 tents.

The Khakan’s tent is thus described by Polo. “The tent in which he holds his courts is large enough to give cover easily to a thousand souls. It is pitched with its door to the south, and the barons and knights remain in waiting in it, whilst the lord abides in another close to it, on the west side. When he wishes to speak with any one, he causes the person to be summoned to the other tent. Immediately behind the great tent there is a fine large chamber where the lord sleeps, and there are also many other tents and chambers, but they are not in contact with the Great Tent as these are. The two audience tents and the sleeping chamber are constructed in this way. Each of the audience tents has three poles, which are of spice wood, and are most artfully covered with lions’ skins, striped with black, and white, and red, so that they do not suffer from any weather. All three apartments are also covered outside with similar skins of striped lions, a substance that lasts for ever; and inside they are all lined with ermine and sable, these two being the finest and most costly furs in existence. For a robe of sable large enough to line a mantle, is worth 2,000 bezants of gold, or 1,000 at least; and this kind of skin is called by the Tartars, ‘the king of furs’. The beast itself is about the size of a martin. These two furs of which I speak are applied and inlaid so exquisitely that it is really something] worth seeing. All the tent ropes are of silk”.

The hunt continued till May. All the time, as Polo says, the Khakan did nothing but hunt about the cane breaks, and along the lakes and rivers. The country was strictly preserved for twenty days’ journey round. From March to October was a close season for hares, stags, bucks, and roes, while from October to March anybody might hunt. In the middle of May the court returned to Khanbaligh, and after spending three days there in feasting, went on to the summer palace at Shangtu.

The luxury and pomp that were prevalent at the Mongol court after the accession of Kublai were most remarkable. I will now give some examples.

At his great feasts Kublai’s table was elevated above the others. These were probably rows of small tables, each accommodating two persons, as in modern Chinese fashion. He faced the south, with his chief wife on his left; on his right the different princes of the Imperial stock, but lower, so that their heads were on a level with the Emperor’s feet. Lower still, according to their ranks, sat the chief officers. The princesses and grand ladies were similarly ranged, on his left. The great body of the soldiers and humbler guests seated themselves on the carpet. Near the Khakan’s table was a great buffet or coffer, several feet each way, exquisitely wrought with figures of animals, carved and gilt In it was inserted a great gold vessel of the capacity of a butt, filled with wine flavoured with spices; and at each corner a similar but smaller vessel. Besides these were many vessels of gold, each containing enough for nine or ten persons. Similar cups were scattered about the tables, one for every two persons, besides smaller ones with handles attached, with which the liquor was drunk. Various chamberlains walked about to see that the servants did their duty. Two very big men stood at the entrance, to punish those who trod on the threshold of the door, a practice carefully guarded by the Mongols, as I have previously stated. Those who offended were stripped of their clothes or beaten severely. Those who waited on the Khakan had their mouths and noses covered with fine napkins of silk and gold, that their breath might not offend him, and whenever he drank the music played, and the grandees went down on one knee. Colonel Yule says these were probably formalities copied from the old Chinese ceremonial. After the repast jugglers and other performers were introduced to amuse the company.

The 28th of September was Khubilai’s birthday, and was celebrated with great festivity. The Khakan was dressed in his best robes, embroidered with strips of beaten gold, and was attended by 12,000 grandees in silk and gold, similarly but not quite so richly dressed, each one wearing a golden girdle. Some of these suits were so covered with jewels that they were valued, says Marco Polo, at 10,000 golden bezants. A present of one of these suits, together with a pair of boots made of Borgal, Bulgarian or Russian leather, embroidered with silver threads, was made to each of his grandees three times a year, when all the courtiers wore dresses of the same colour as the Khakan’s. On his birthday the Khakan held a grand reception, when the representatives of different countries made him presents, and the priests of the different religions offered up special prayers for him. The other great feasts were on New Year’s Day and the Feast of Herds. At the former the Khakan and all his subjects were dressed in white, and the Mongols still call the first month of the year Chagan, or Chagan Sara, white, or the white month. (This was purely a Mongol custom. White was the mourning colour of the Chinese, and forbidden to be worn.) Rich presents were on this day presented to the[Khakan. If possible, a multiple of nine, the sacred number, was chosen for the number of articles; and Polo tells us Kublai received more than 100,000 white horses richly caparisoned on one of these feast days. On the feast of the New Year his 5,000 elephants were also exhibited, covered with their housings of inlaid cloth, representing birds, beasts, etc. (Similar housings of cut cloth are still used in India.) The elephants bore coffers containing the Imperial plate and furniture. These were followed by camels, also richly housed, and laden with things needful for the feast The grandees assembled in the hall, and the other people outside in view of the Emperor. When all were seated, a great prelate arose and cried out, “Bow and adore.” Then all stooped down with their foreheads to the ground and worshipped the Khakan like a god. This prostration was repeated four times, and then the obeisance was repeated before a highly decorated altar, on which was placed a vermillion tablet with the Khakan’s ceremonies was to shout in a loud voice, “Bow.” “Rise.” “Go to the Vermillion pavilion to salute the throne.” The first orderly having announced that all was in order and well done, the chief tipstaff and his assistants were then to repeat the various orders they had given to the preceding section, as I have related. A master of the ceremonies was then to offer the ministers a glass of wine. They were then to be conducted two and two into the hall, before the throne room, where was a large company of musicians playing and singing, while young boys and girls were dancing. They were then to mount the staircase to the grand hall of the throne, where the most celebrated songs were to be Sung, the airs being appropriate to the particular season. Having listened to these, the ministers were to go over an open gangway, to a place where they might recline on cushions; the orderlies were to stand there with their faces turned towards the north, awaiting orders. Merry music, &c., was to be performed before them. The under tipstaffs were then to shout that the music was to cease. A chamberlain was then to conduct the ministers by the south-east gate of the palace ; the first chamberlain receiving them, and conducting them close to the Imperial couch, before which the ministers were to bow the knee. The music having ceased, the ministers were to recite the following prayer in a loud voice:

“Vast heaven which extends so for; earth which follows its will; we invoke thee, and we supplicate thee to cover the Emperor and Empress with blessings; grant that they may live ten thousand times a hundred thousand years.”

The first chamberlain was to reply that it should be as prayed for. The ministers were then to prostrate themselves, rise, and resume their seats, and to take some wine. They were to replace their tablets in their girdles, take the cup offered them in both hands, and stand facing the north. Music was to be again resumed. The ministers were to drink to one another, the Emperor also taking the cup and holding it up. The chief tipstaff was once more to bid all present salute profoundly, the order was to be given in detail by the other tipstaffs nearly as before. The ministers were to take three draughts from the cup, which they were then to put down again. They were then to retire, conducted by the proper officials, and the music was once more to stop.

The tipstaffs were then to cry out, “Get yourselves in order again.” Upon this the functionaries of the minister of rites were to carry the formula of prayer (li pu kuan), as also the two tables having on them the things used in the celebration of the rites, and to go below “the transverse steps,” where a formula of prayer was to be read. Certain mandarins were then to go to a special projecting wing of the palace, Where everything was to be ready, and bow. The formula of prayer was then to be distributed, read, and checqued. All were then to return and listen to a lecture on the ceremony of the rites. Mounting the steps, they were to go through a process of genuflexion, and of reading the formula and retiring, etc., which is most tedious to read, and which ended by the series of salutations already described. After which the older Buddhist priests thé tao sé, and the foreign guests were to be ranged in order to present their compliments. After the ceremony all were to join at the banquet, which is described graphically enough in Polo’s narrative already quoted. This punctilious ceremonial was no doubt taken from the old regulations of the Chinese court. Some of its details may be better learnt from the plates attached to the travels of Ysbrand, Ides, and other old travellers, than from a mere description. Other detailed instructions were drawn up for other court ceremonies, as those practised on the Emperor’s birthday, the annual reception of the great dignitaries of State, and the various sacrifices to the sky, the earth, etc.; but we must proceed with our narrative.

The Khakan had a body guard of 12,000 horsemen, called Keshichan, “knights devoted to their lord.” Kishik was the term used for the palace guards of the great Mogul in India, and also for the matchlocks and sabres, which were changed weekly from Akbar’s armoury for the royal use. The royal guards in Persia who watch the King’s person at night are called Keshikchi. They are doubtless the same as the Kalakchi or Kalchi of Timur’s Institutes. The name has probably a Mongol etymology. This body guard was divided into four corps of 3,000 each, who watched the palace in turn for spaces of three days and three nights. The captains of these sections were no doubt the descendants of the four champions of Jingis Khan, referred to by Gaubil and De Mailla, and by them called Kue sie or Kiesie. I have referred to the suits of clothes presented to his body guards three times a year by the Emperor. I will now extract the following account of the Imperial official wardrobe (taken from the Mongol annals) from Pauthier.

“The head-dress and robes of the son of heaven. These were made of fine silk and dyed black. The State cap was covered with a fiat piece surrounded with the same stuff (this piece was oblong and stiff and placed on the round cap which fitted the head like the top of a college cap, see Mailla’s plate quoted below), from which hung strings. The upper robe was of sky blue. It was lined with flesh-coloured silk. Four bands with dragons and clouds surrounded it. The cap was surrounded with a border of fine pearls. Before and behind were twelve pendants, each formed of twelve pearls. Right and left were two bows of yellow silk, to which were hung fringes, with ear-rings in jade and other precious stones hung from them. Threads of raw yellow silk threaded with pearls were fixed round this cap of ceremony, while dragons and clouds were embroidered upon it in pearls. Here and there also were semée swallows, little willow trees, and bands of pearls meandering like a river, done in pearls. Either end of the girdle reached to the ground. This also was embroidered in pearls with flowers, swallows, willow trees, etc. To two silken bands were fastened pins, to which were attached the fringes that fell from the crown. Jade pins were also used to fasten the coiffure,

“The blue upper robe was decorated in bright colours, heightened by gilding, with the following ornaments One Imperial constellation, one sun, one moon, four ascending dragons, four dragons with double bodies, thirty-eight mountains, forty-eight fires, forty-eight wild birds, forty-eight tigers, and monkeys with long tails.

“The under robe was made of scarlet. Its shape that of an apron. It was ornamented with sixteen rows of embroidery. In each row were two water plants, one rice plant, two hatchets, and two of the characters called fu.

“The ordinary robe was made of a light white silk, with a border made of straps of yellow leather and silk. The garment that covers the knees (a kind of kilt) was made of red silk, that which went round the legs being an elastic web. Its form was that of a short petticoat. On its upper part was embroidered a double-bodied dragon. From this garment hung an ornament in jade, another in precious stone named hing, another in jade resembling a precious stone, an ivory brooch, two pieces of the precious stone called hoang, ivory brooches from which were hung pieces of the hoang and hing stones. Below were animals’ heads in silver, mixed with spangles in gold. Other precious stones were hung on each side in a second row, and on each side, attached to ivory brooches, were pieces of jade that made a noise in walking.

“The grand girdle was made of a piece of red silk and two of white. Its jade rings were set in gold, chiselled and burnished. Above were three jade rings; below a species of purses in sky blue silk. The stockings were made of red silk in their upper part, while the shoes were also made of silk and decorated with various raised ornaments in gold.” These State robes, again, were no doubt adopted from the old Chinese court dress. The cap of State just described was a very old institution, and has survived apparently to our own day. One of the same kind is figured by De Mailla. He also describes how the Emperor Tao Tsao had one made as early as the year A.D. 218, and adds the following note ;—

“Navarette describes having seen the Imperial State cap several times. He says its shape had a mysterious meaning. It was slightly oval in shape. Of twelve strings of pearls attached to it four hung over the eyes, to signify that the Emperor ought to have his eyes closed over those who brought any business before him, i.e., that he should view what they had to say impartially. The four strings that fell over the ears meant that he should be deaf to the wiles of the rich or the entreaties of the poor, and be only open to law and justice. The four strings that fell behind signified with what a combination of judgment, insight, reflection, and care princes ought to rule their conduct, and how well informed they ought to be of the affairs of government. This cap was worn on State ceremonies. The grandees of the court wore similar ones, differing only in the number of strings or bands. The judges of ancient Egypt also had a gold chain with a precious stone attached hanging behind them, which they called the truth.”

The size and shape of the Imperial garments were subject to prescribed rules, which are set out in the Yuen se, which also specifies the particular costumes proper to the various State ceremonies. It also describes the various Imperial equipages—the chariot of jade, of gold, of ivory, of leather, and of wood, so called from the material that predominated in its construction.

These luxurious surroundings were no doubt borrowed, as similar things have been borrowed by the Manchus of our day, from the Chinese. Like them, nevertheless, the Mongols kept up a special organisation, that of their army, which proves better than ought else that their position in China was that of a huge encampment; that they were strangers there, and failed to assimilate with the indigenes. At the head of each province was placed a commander of a tuman, or 10,000 men, who collected the taxes, and accounted for the same to the exchequer. The army, consisting of Mongols and Chinese, was divided between the town and country. The soldiers enlisted for six years. The Mongol portion were all cavalry, and retained their nomad habits, bartering their cattle for the provisions they needed. As a symbol of his authority, each officer of rank had a silver or gold plate given to him. These plates were called Paizahs, probably from the Chinese Pai-tseu, a tablet. A captain of 100 men, Polo tells us, had a tablet of silver ; the captain of 1,000, a tablet of gold or silver gilt; while the commander of a tuman, or 10,000 men, had a golden tablet with a lion’s head. Several silver paizahs have been found in the Russian dominions, one of which is figured by Colonel Yule. One found in the government of Yenisei is 12’2 inches long and 3’65 inches broad. Schmidt has read its inscription thus:—“By the strength of the eternal heaven may the name of the Khakan be holy. Who pays him not reverence is to be slain and must die.” Most of these inscriptions are in the Mongol language and the Baspa character. One has been found in the Uighur character. A general who commanded 100,000 men was entitled to a gold paizah, weighing 300 saggi (D’Ohsson says fifty ounces), marked with the figure of a lion below the sun and moon. This entitled him to a golden umbrella, carried on a spear above him, and to sit on a silver chair or throne. Polo adds, “that to certain very great lords there was also given a tablet with gerfalcons on it; this being only to the very greatest of the Khakan’s barons, and it conferred on them his own full power and authority, so that if one of these chiefs wished to send a messenger any whither, he could seize the horses of any man, be he even a king, and any other chattels at his pleasure.” Colonel Yule says that the shonkar or gerfalcon occurs on certain coins of the Golden Horde struck at Serai, otherwise he has not found other reference to its use as a State symbol. Pauthier compares very aptly these official tablets with the bullae used by the Byzantine Emperors and other mediaeval sovereigns. These also were made of gold, silver, and lead, the golden bullae being only used on important occasions.

There was little coin used for currency, except paper money; this was made from the inner white bark of the mulberry tree. The notes of different sizes represented different values. Colonel Yule says that Kublai made an issue of such notes in the first year of his reign, 1260, and continued to issue notes copiously till the end. In 1287 he put out a complete new currency, one note of which was to exchange against five of the previous series of equal nominal value. In both issues, the paper money was in official valuation only equivalent to half its nominal value in silver. The paper money was called tchao. Of his first issue there were, 1st, notes of 10, 20, 30, and 50 tsien or cash; 2nd, notes of 100, 200, and 500 tsien; and 3rd, notes of strings or thousands of cash, in other words, of liangs, taels, or ounces of silver. The Chinese liang is valued roughly at 8od. in silver, or 12od. or 10 shillings in gold; the latter metal being then of greater nominal value. The nominal value of the whole of the notes issued in the thirty-four years of Khubilai’s reign was 124,827,144. The credit of these notes constantly diminished, so that in 1448, in the reign of the Ming dynasty, a note of 1,000 cash was only worth three.

Each note was signed and sealed by several officials, and finally stamped with an official seal in vermillion. A note which has survived from the days of the Ming is figured by Colonel Yule. All foreign merchants who had gold, or silver, or gems for sale, had to dispose of them to the Imperial mint, which paid liberally for them. Any one needing these commodities to make into plate girdles, etc., had to buy them from the mint. Old notes could be exchanged for new ones by paying a discount of three per cent. These notes were for awhile intro­duced into Persia by the Ilkhan Kaikhatu. Colonel Yule has the shrewd commentary that block printing was practised at least for this one purpose, at Tabriz, in 1294. This was very far on its way to Europe. With Khubilai, as with his predecessors, religion was treated as a political matter. The Khakan must be obeyed; how man shall worship God is indifferent. He however professed himself a Lamaist, to which faith he was converted by the Empress Jambui Khatun. This was very distasteful to the Chinese grandees, who were for the most part followers of Confucius, a philosophical sect, which has always contemned Buddhism as a system of idolatry. The Khakan was, however, very catholic; he counted Christ, Muhammed, Moses, and Sakyamuni or Buddha, as the four great prophets of the world, and addressed prayers to them all. He also took a part in the great festivals of the various religions. The only sect which was persecuted was the curious sect of Ascetics, known as Tao-sé, whose books were ordered to be burnt throughout the empire in 1281. The Nestorian Christians had a resident bishop in China. In 1278, Nicholas III sent some Franciscan missionaries to the court of Kublai. In 1289, John of Monte Corvino, with some other monks, set out on a similar errand; he afterwards became Archbishop of Peking. There were also many Muhammedans at the court. I have already mentioned that they for awhile lost the favour of Khubilai. D’Ohsson says that the Christians had aroused Khubilai’s hatred of the Muhammedans by quoting to him the celebrated passage from the Koran. “ Kill those who adore many gods. Having assembled the Mussulman doctors at the court, he asked them if their sacred book contained the passage. They could not deny it. “And you believe,” said Kublai, “that the Koran came from God?” “We don’t doubt it,” was the answer. “If God then has ordered you to kill the infidels, why don’t you obey him?” “Because the time has not come; we are not yet able,” was their reply. “But I am able to destroy you” and he ordered them to be executed. The Mussulman employees about the court begged for a reprieve, and that he would summon some one better instructed in the law. They went for the Kadhi. “It is true,’’ he said, “ that God has ordered us to kill those who worship many gods, but by this is meant those who don’t accept a deity supreme over all, and as you put the name of God at the head of your enactments, you cannot be placed in this class.” Kublai was satisfied, and set the other doctors at liberty. Some time after some Muhammedan merchants having taken some white eagles and falcons from the Khirgises as a present to the Khakan, the latter sent them a present of some food from his own table. They refused to eat because the animals of which they were composed had not been killed in the orthodox fashion. Annoyed at this, and instigated by the Buddhists and Christians, he revived the ordinance of Genghis, forbidding the killing of animals in the Moslem fashion, and offering rewards to informers. For seven years there was a sharp persecution, and many poor people grew rich by the discreditable art of accusing the unlucky Muhammedans. The edict was withdrawn at the representation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sanga, who assured the Khakan that Muhammedan merchants would no longer visit his court. Marco Polo mentions that Kublai employed as many as 5,000 astrolo­gers at the court, Christians, Muhammedans, and Chinese; and that he had an astrolabe, on which the planetary signs, and the hours, and critical points of the year were marked. By means of this, the different aspects of the moon and planets were examined by the Christian, Muhammedan, and Chinese astrologers, and disease, murrain, thunder­storms, or tempests were predicted ; the results being qualified by the expression that “It lies with God to do less or more according to his pleasure.” The results were written down by different observers, and those whose predictions were the most correct, naturally gained great credit. Printed almanacks have long been a marked feature among the Chinese. In 1328, as many as 3,123,185 copies Were printed, of three different sizes, besides a special one for the Muhammedans. In these calendars, lucky and unlucky days were marked; also good days for marrying, or undertaking a journey, making dresses, buying or building, etc.

Among the public works carried out by Kublai none was more magnificent, and none has proved more lasting and valuable than the Grand Canal which joined the capital with the more fertile districts of China, and which to this day supports on its waters an almost incredible population. Its origin and construction have been described by Raschid, and I shall take the liberty of extracting Colonel Yule’s translation of the passage.

“Two important rivers pass by Khanbaligh and Daidu. After coming from the direction of the Khakan’s summer residence in the north, and flowing near Jamjál, they unite to form another river. (The two rivers are the Sha-ho and Peho, which unite below Peking, afterwards bearing the latter name. The lake is that called Thai-i-tchi or Si-hai-tsu, to the east (west) of the Imperial palace). A very large basin, like a lake in fact, has been dug near the city and furnished with a slip for launching pleasure boats. The river had formerly another channel, and discharged itself into the gulf of the ocean, which penetrated within a short distance of Khanbaligh. But in the course of time this channel had become so shallow as not to admit the entrance of shipping, so that they had to discharge their cargoes and send them up to Khanbaligh on pack-cattle. And the Chinese engineers and men of science having reported that the vessels from the provinces of Cathay, from the capital of Machin, and from the cities of Khingsai and Zaitun no longer could reach the metropolis, the Khan gave them orders to dig a great canal, into which the waters of the said river and of several others should be introduced. This canal extends for a distance of forty days’ navigation from Khanbaligh to Khingsai and Zaitun, the ports frequented by the ships that come from India and from the capital of Machin. The canal is provided with many sluices intended to distribute the water over the country; and when vessels arrive at these sluices they are hoisted up by means of machinery, whatever be their size, and let down on the other side into the water. The canal has a width of more than thirty ells. Khubilai caused the sides of the embankments to be rivetted with stone in order to prevent the earth giving way. Along the side of the canal runs the high road to Machin, extending for a space of forty days’ journey, and this has been paved throughout, so that travellers and their animals may get along during the rainy season without sticking in the mud. The two sides of the road are planted with willows and other shady trees, and no one is allowed, whether soldier or otherwise, to break branches of those trees or to let cattle feed on the leaves. Shops, taverns, and villages line the road on both sides, so that dwelling succeeds dwelling without intermission throughout the whole space of forty days’ journey.’’

I have mentioned the enterprising expeditions Khubilai sent to the islands of the Eastern Archipelago in search of rarities, etc. Marco Polo expressly says he sent to Ceylon to try and buy the celebrated ruby, for which he offered the ransom of a city, but the King would not surrender it-5 He also sent there for much more precious objects, namely, for some relics of Buddha. This was in 1284.

“The ambassadors,” says Marco Polo, “with a great company, travelled on by sea and land until they arrived at the island of Seilan, and presented themselves before the King. And they were so urgent with him that they succeeded in getting two of the grinder teeth, which were passing great and thick, and they also got some of the hair, and the dish from which that personage used to eat, which is of a beautiful green porphyry.” This story of the embassy in search of the sacred alms dish and the teeth is confirmed by the narrative of Ssanang Setzen, and by a Chinese narrative furnished by Mr. Wylie to Sir Emerson Tennant, and quoted by Colonel Yule but the Mongol Khan’s mes­sengers went even further. They got as far as Madagascar, whence they brought him a feather of the famous roc, which was stated to measure ninety spans, while the quill part was two palms in circumference. They also brought two boars’ tusks which weighed more than fourteen pounds apiece. Colonel Yule identifies with great probability the roc with the aepyomis, and the great boar with the hippopotamus.

Gaubil says that Khubilai had five principal wives; Von Hammer that he had seven; Marco Polo that he had four. Of these, the chief one, who seems to have had a markedly higher position, was Jambui Khatun. Polo says that each of the chief wives had a special court, very grand and ample, none of them having fewer than 300 damsels, besides many pages, eunuchs, &c., so that each of them was attended by not less than 10,000 persons. Among the Mongols, the Kunkurats were celebrated for the beauty of their women, and supplied most of the wives to the Khakan. Commissioners were regularly sent into the north, who selected several hundreds of young girls, whose points of beauty they discriminated, estimating some at sixteen, others at seventeen, eighteen, or twenty carats; and whatever standard the Khakan may have fixed, whether twenty or twenty-one carats, these were selected, a price paid to their parents, and they were sent to the court, where a fresh selection took place by a council of matrons; “and these old ladies,” says Polo, “make the girls sleep with them in order to ascertain if they have sweet breath (and do not snore), and are sound in all their limbs.” The few who passed these competitive examinations attended upon the Khakan, relieving each other by sixes. The rejected were employed in the palace, in the kitchen, about the wardrobes, etc. They generally married the officers about the court, and received a dot from the Khakan.

Khubilai is described by the Venetian traveller whom I have so often quoted, as of good stature, neither tall nor short, but of a middle height, with a becoming amount of flesh, and shapely in all his limbs. His complexion white and red, his eyes black and fine, the nose well formed and well set on. He was of a benevolent and kindly disposition. Polo says he sent messengers about the empire to relieve those who had suffered from bad seasons, who had lost their cattle by murrain, &c. So punctilious was he that, we are told, if a chance shot from his bow struck any flock or herd, whether belonging to one person or to many, and however big the flock might be, he took no tithe of it for three years. If an arrow struck a boat full of goods, that boat-load paid no duty, for it was thought unlucky that an arrow should strike anyone’s property, and the great Khan said it would be an abomination before God were property that had been struck by the divine wrath to enter into his treasury. He had the highway planted with rows of trees, a few paces apart, so that people might not lose their way, and he was encou­raged in this by his astrologers, etc., who told him that he who plants trees lives long. Where trees would not grow, he had pillars or stones set up. Public granaries were established, in which grain was stored in abundant harvests, where it would keep for three or four years, and was sold cheap in times of dearth. Polo also describes the Khan's munificent alms and generosity. A large number of poor pensioners were in receipt of wheat, &c.; while at the public almshouses any one might daily get a loaf hot from the baking. He says 30,000 people availed themselves of this. He also supplied the poor with clothes, levying a tithe upon all wool, hemp, &c., for the purpose; and as the artizans were bound to give a day's work weekly, these were easily made. In a similar manner the army was clothed. This benevolence was no doubt due to the influence of Buddhism. Polo says, before they were converted the Tartars never practised almsgiving. Indeed, he says, when any poor man begged of them, they would tell him, “ Go, with God’s curse, for if he loved you as he loves me, he would have provided for you.”

In reviewing the life of Khubilai, we can hardly avoid the conclusion which has been drawn by a learned authority on his reign, that we have before us rather a great Chinese Emperor than a Mongol Khan. A Chinese Emperor, it is true, wielding resources such as no other Emperor in Chinese history ever did, yet sophisticated and altered by contact with that peculiar culture which has vanquished eventually all the stubborn conquerors of China. Great as he was in his power, and in the luxury and magnificence of his court, he is yet by no means the figure in the world’s history that Jingis and Ogotai were. Stretching out their hands with fearful effect over a third of the human race, their history is entwined with our western history much more than his. Big as the heart of the vast empire was, it was too feeble to send life into its extremities for very long, and in viewing the great Khakan at the acme of his power, we feel that we shall not have long to wait before it will pass away. The king­doms that had been conquered so recently in the West were already growing cold towards him, and were more in form than in substance his own. This was no doubt inevitable, the whole was too unwieldy, its races too heterogenous, its interests too various. Yet we cannot avoid thinking that the process was hastened by that migration from the desert to the luxurious south, from Karakorum to Tatu and Shangtung which Khubilai effected, and which speedily converted a royal race of warriors into a race of decrepit sensualists.

In the next chapter we shall trace out this process. Meanwhile it must not be forgotten how very much the West was indebted for the revival of culture to the Mongol conquests. Many of the ideas and notions which we have learnt to believe were intuitively discovered in Europe in the fourteenth century, were brought there by those travellers whose voyages to Cathay were made possible by the firm hand with which the desert robbers were controlled by the Mongols. Block printing, bank notes, gunpowder, the mariner’s compass, good roads, posting arrange­ments, wheeled carriages, and a number of other discoveries that mark a revolution in the arts of life, were, I believe, made known in the West entirely by the Mongol conquest. Those notions of religious toleration, of orderly government, of equality of justice, and of political sagacity that began to infilter into Europe through the Italian universities came thither, I believe, from the far East, where they were both known and practised. And if we have learnt to be hypercritical of that most ancient civilization whose rules and methods have become crystallized and formal, we must allow that in the thirteenth century at least there was life and vigour enough in it, and that if we would point the student of the history of the thirteenth century to the area where he may best gather political, social, and artistic lessons, we must point to the realms of the Mongol Khakans, and in doing so shall bid him occupy himself very largely with him whom Marco Polo styles “the Great Khan,” the generous patron of the wise and the good of all creeds and tongues, Kublai Khan.

 

Note 1.—Shangtu. The ruins of Kublai’s summer residence have been lately visited by Dr. Bushell, and I shall extract his account of them. He says they are situated 80 li to the north-west of Dolonnor, and are now known by the Mongol name of Chao naiman sume hotun, the city of 108 temples. The city has been deserted for centuries, and the site is overgrown with rank weeds and grass, the abode of foxes and owls, which prey on the numerous prairie-rats and partridges. The ground is but slightly raised above the bed of the river, which flows past the south-east at a distance of four or five li from the city wall, while it is over­shadowed on the opposite side by the Hingan range of mountains, trend­ing south-west, north-east, and rising into lofty peaks farther north. The walls of the city, built of earth, faced with unhewn stone and brick, are still standing, but are more or less dilapidated. They form a double enceinte, the outer a square of about sixteen li with six gates—a central, northern, and southern, and two in each of the side walls; while the inner wall is about eight li in circuit, with only three gates—in the northern, eastern, and western faces. The south gate of the inner city is still intact, a perfect arch 20 feet high, 12 feet wide. There is no gate in the opposite northern wall, its place being occupied by a large square earthen fort, faced with brick; this is crowned with an obo or cairn, covered with the usual ragged streamers of silk and cotton tied to sticks, an emblem of the superstitious regard which the Mongols of the present day have for the place, as evidenced also by the modern legendary name— “the city of 108 temples.” The ground in the interior of both inclosures is strewn with blocks of marble and other remains of large temples and palaces, the outline of the foundations of some of which can yet be traced; while broken lions, dragons, and the remains of other carved monuments, lie about in every direction, half hidden by the thick and tangled over­growth. Scarcely one stone remains above another, and a more com­plete state of ruin and desolation could hardly be imagined, but at the same time everything testifies to the former existence of a populous and flourishing city. A broken memorial tablet was found, lying within the north-east angle of the outer city amid many other relics, on a raised piece of ground, the site evidently of a large temple. The upper portion, projecting above the surface of the ground, contained an inscription of the Yuan dynasty, in an ancient form of the Chinese character, surrounded by a border of dragons boldly carved in deep relief. This tablet was erected by the Emperor Shih-tsu (Kublai Khan), the founder of the Yuan dynasty, in memory of a Buddhist chief priest of high rank, head of the monastery. The lower half of the massive marble slab lies doubtless buried beneath the grass, but we were unable to get at it for want of proper tools. Outside the city proper, as described above, there is yet a third wall, smaller than either of the others, but continuous with the south and east sides of the outer city wall. This is now a mere grassy mound, enclosing an area estimated at five square miles, to the north and west of the city. This must be the park described by Marco Polo.”

 

Note 2.—The Ho chang and Tao se. I have used these terms two or three times without explanation. The former is the Chinese name for the Lama Buddhists. The latter has been shown to connote the curious sect otherwise called Bonpo, and which seems to be a kind of reformed Shamanism. Its great apostle and saint was Lao tse or Lao kiun, who was born in the reign of Ting wang of the Chen dynasty. It is a curious mixture of asceticism and fetishism. I shall have more to say about both sects in a future chapter.

 

Note 3.—The Balish. This term occurs frequently in Mongol history, and a few words ought to be said about it. The balish was the Mongol money of account, its value is not very well ascertained. The author of the Tarikh Jihankushai (Ala ud din Atta Mulk Juveni) says that the balish of gold and the balish of silver represented a weight in gold or silver equivalent to 110 miskals. He adds that the silver balish was worth in Persia, in his day, 75 rokni dinars. Each dinar of the weight of four danks. Vassaf says the gold balish was worth 2,000 dinars, the silver balish 200 dinars, and the paper balish 10 dinars; while the author of the Rauzat ul Jennat says the gold balish was worth 500 dinars. Lastly, Odoric, the Franciscan traveller in China, says that in 1320 the paper balish was worth one and a-half Venetian florins. As D’Ohsson says, it is impossible to reconcile these statements, except by the conclusion that the value of the balish suffered great variations. The Arabic mislcal, according to Mr. Maskelyne, was a weight equivalent to seventy-four grains troy, the dinar and bezant were coins of about the value of half a sovereign.

 

Note —Kublai, according to Von Hammer, left twelve sons, of whom seven bore the title of Wang, or King. Their names were. 1, Juiji or Doije. 2, Ching kin (in the Chinese authorities Yutsung, Wang of Yen, old Peking). 3, Mankola, Wang of the Pacified West; Polo says he was King of Kenjanfu or Shensi. 4, Numukan (Pacifying Wang of the North). 5, Kuridai. 6, Hukochi, Wang of Yunnan; Polo calls him King of Carajan. 7, Aghrukji Ukuruji or Gaoluchi, Wang of Siping or Thibet. 8, Abaji (? Gaiyachi). 9, Khokhochu or Gukju, Wang of Ning or Tangut. 10, Kutuk-timur. 11, Togan (Wang of Chinnan) ; he commanded on the frontier of Tung king, and having failed in his campaign there in 1288 was disgraced. 12, Temkan.

 

Note 5.—Since writing the account of Khulagu’s campaign I have met with an account of his march by one of his companions, the Chinese commissary Liau Yan. This account, which I had overlooked, is given at length in the introduction to Pauthier’s Marco Polo, and as it describes in some detail the route that must have been followed by most travellers from the West, I have abstracted it and made some observations. The latter are contained within brackets. From Holin (Karakorum) we travelled through a country watered by rivers towards the north-west for about 200 li (twenty leagues). Our way was sensibly uphill. We then halted; afterwards we crossed the Han hai (the mountains of Khanggai). These were very high and cold, and although the sun was sometimes very hot there, yet there was always snow. These mountains, full of rocks, were partially covered with pines, which formed their only ornament. Turning to the south-west for some seven days, they crossed the frozen desert of Khanggai. After a distance of 300 li the level of the country sensibly lowered. There was a river several li in width, called the Hoen mu lien, Hoen muran (doubtless the Jabkan). This swells considerably in winter. They traversed it in boats. After several days they reached the river Lung ko. (The Chinese editor says this is the Ulung ku, which flows 500 li south-west of Ko putu. It is doubtless the Arungu, the feeder of the Kizilbash lake, along whose banks the road still passes.) Marching again towards the north-west, they joined the southern route to Pi chi pa li (Bishbalig). This is, in fact, the present route from Tarbogatai to Kar karasu and Bishbalig. In this neighbour­hood they grew com and millet. The river splits into several channels, which fell into a lake with the circumference of 1,000 li, which was called Khi tse li pa se (Kizilbash). In this were many fishes good to eat, and also good natural weirs of stone which assisted the fishermen.

In travelling a little to the west there was a town called Nieman. A river Nam is mentioned in the map before me as situated in this very place, a little north of the Ayar noor, and separated from lake Kizilbash by the Olkhotshor mountains only. More again to the south-west was the town of Polo or Boro (this in the text of the above chapter has been written Pfuhle, as erroneously given by Von Hammer), where only millet and rice were sown. The mountains were covered with larch trees. Other trees could not take root there. Stones which had rolled down bestrewed the land. In the town were many houses and great markets. There were gardens, in which were houses built of earth, in these metal washing and the polishing of precious stones was carried on. The doors and windows were all furnished with glass. North of the town was the mountain Haithie (the iron mountain on the sea). The wind there blew so violently that travellers were blown into the sea. This sea and the boisterous wind are mentioned by Carpino and William of Ruysbrok. A recent Russian traveller, Putimsteff, who mentions the same phe­nomenon, and describes the place almost in the terms of Carpino, has identified the lake with lake Alakul, and Colonel Yule, whose opinion is almost decisive on such a point, agrees with him. The Chinese narrative says the wind came from the mountain Haithie, which is undoubtedly the Ala-tag range that forms the watershed between lake Alakul and lake Sairam. It says further, that Hiathie lay north of his town of Boro. Now I find on the map before me, immediately south of the Ala-tag mountain, and close by lake Sairam, a place still called Borotala, the plain of Boro, which exactly coincides with its position in our narrative. It would seem that while Ruysbrok and Carpino went north of the Ala-tag mountains that Khulagu’s march lay south of them. But to continue our narrative.) Having marched twenty li to the south-west they came to the defile Thie-mu-rh chan-cha, which defile was guarded by Chinese. The road was very steep and difficult, and they had to pass over a wooden bridge suspended on the mountain side. (This defile is undoubtedly the well-known passage in the Kabyrghan mountains.) The road, on leaving the defile, went to the town of A li ma li., Almaligh, now called Ili or Kuldja). The wells of the markets of this town were all fed with running water. They had all kinds of fruits, but the gourds, grapes, and pomegranates were especially remarkable for their beauty. The Hoei he (Turks), mixed with Chinese, inhabited it. The manners and customs of the latter had insensibly altered, but they still resembled somewhat those of the inhabitants of China. To the south was the city of Chi mu rh, whose population was very mixed. (I can make nothing of this town.) In this country there was a savage animal like a tiger, whose fur was. thick and of a golden colour, but without stripes. It was very dangerous to man. There was also an insect resembling a spider. If it bit a man it caused him much pain and to have a great thirst. If he drank to quench this he instantly died. On the other hand, if he got drunk with wine and was then sick he recovered.

West of Polo, all the mountains were of gold, silver, or copper; bearing written characters, but not pierced with square holes, like those in China (query, the meaning of this). Then you came to the Ma o, where carriages were used drawn by horses, in which the people rode. There also were men who carried great loads on their backs, and who notwith­standing travelled very quickly. They were called Khi li khi se (Khirghises or Buruts, who are still found in this country.) They used dogs and not horses. (This paragraph seems to be a digression, and the narrative then continues.)

On the 24th of the second moon they passed through Itu, a land between two mountains, with a peaceable population engaged in trade. Canals meandered about the plain and were pleasant to the eye. There were many ruins, old walls and ramparts, and fortified places in this place. It was anciently “the home of the Khitans.” (This is no doubt the valley of the Chu, still noted for its ruins. The Khitans are the well known Kara Khitai. On the map before me I find a place on the Chu marked Sari Kurgan, t.e._f ? White Mounds, with the alternative name of It Kiyu, which is surely the parent form of the I-tu above named.) The narrative goes on to say that the place was about 5,000 li from Karakorum, near it was a large river named I yun ; the noise produced by whose rapids in flowing eastwards was very marked. The inhabitants said it was the source of the Hoang ho. (Notwithstanding the confusion here as to its direction, we cannot well be mistaken in identifying this river with the Chu. There is, in fact, in this neighbourhood, no great river flowing eastwards, north of the Thian Shan range.)

On the 28th of the second month, our travellers passed the Thala se (fx, the Talas). The 1st of the third month they reached the town Sai lan (Sairam), where the Hoei he, who professed Buddhism, went to worship. The 3rd day they went by Pie chi lan (? Tashkend), where the Hoei he had a considerable trade, and also practised their ceremonies as just mentioned. On the 4th day they crossed the river Hu khien. They crossed it in boats shaped like quivers. According to report, the source of this river was among great mountains, where much jade was found. (The river is no doubt the Jaxates or Sihun.) We need not follow our traveller any further. It would seem that with small deviations the route he travelled was that travelled by most of the pilgrims to the Mongol court, until that court was moved from Karakorum, when a different route was chosen. The city called Itu (which name in its other form of It ki yu is surely the Equius of Rubruquis, whose site seems to have baffled Colonel Yule’s researches) seems to have been a meeting-place of the routes from Persia and Kipchak. Thence travellers might either go through the old country of the Karluk Turks, along the northern slopes of the Alatag mountains, and thus by lake Alakul; or, keeping to the south, pass through Almaligh, the ancient capital of the Lion Khans of Kashgar. On the subject matter of this note, see Pauthier’s Marco Polo, CXXXIII-CXXXVII, and Yule’s Cathay and the Way Thither, CCXI-CCXIV.

 

Note 6.—The following table epitomizes the relationship of the chief members of the Mongol Imperial family mentioned in this chapter.