Height of the Mongol Power In China – 4

Today’s installment concludes Height of the Mongol Power In China,
our selection by Marco Polo.

If you have journeyed through all of the installments of this series, just one more to go and you will have completed a selection from the great works of four thousand words. Congratulations!

Previously in Height of the Mongol Power In China.

Time: 1271
Place: China

Kublai is of the middle stature, that is, neither tall nor short; his limbs are well formed and in his whole figure there is a just proportion. His complexion is fair and occasionally suffused with red, like the bright tint of the rose, which adds much grace to his countenance. His eyes are black and handsome, his nose is well shaped and prominent. He has four wives of the first rank, who are esteemed legitimate and the eldest born son of any one of these succeeds to the empire upon the decease of the grand khan. They bear equally the title of “empress,” and have their separate courts. None of them has fewer than three hundred young female attendants of great beauty, together with a multitude of youths as pages and other eunuchs, as well as ladies of the bedchamber; so that the number of persons belonging to each of their respective courts amounts to ten thousand.

The Grand Khan usually resides during three months of the year — December, January and February — in the great city of Kanbalu, * situated toward the northeastern extremity of Cathay; and here, on the southern side of the new city, is the site of his vast palace, in a square enclosed with a wall and deep ditch; each side of the square being eight miles in length and having at an equal distance from each extremity an entrance gate. Within this enclosure there is, on the four sides, an open space one mile in breadth, where the troops are stationed and this is bounded by a second wall, enclosing a square of six miles. The palace contains a number of separate chambers, all highly beautiful and so admirably disposed that it seems impossible to suggest any improvement to the system of their arrangement. The exterior of the roof is adorned with a variety of colors — red, green, azure and violet — and the sort of covering is so strong as to last for many years.

[* This is Polo’s name for Kublai’s capital–Khan-Balig (“the Khan’s city”) — the Chinese Peking, captured by the Mongols in 1215. In 1264 Kublai made it his chief residence, and in 1267 he built a new city — Marco Polo’s Tai-du, more properly Ta-tu – a little to the northeast of the old one.]

The glazing of the windows is so well wrought and so delicate as to have the transparency of crystal. In the rear of the body of the palace there are large buildings containing several apartments, where is deposited the private property of the monarch or his treasure in gold and silver bullion, precious stones and pearls and also his vessels of gold and silver plate. Here are likewise the apartments of his wives and concubines; and in this retired situation he dispatches business with convenience, being free from every kind of interruption.

His majesty, having imbibed an opinion from the astrologers that the city of Kanbalu was destined to become rebellious to his authority, resolved upon building another capital, upon the opposite side of the river, where stand the palaces just described, so that the new and the old cities are separated from each other only by the stream that runs between them. The new-built city received the name of Tai-du and all those of the inhabitants who were natives of Cathay were compelled to evacuate the ancient city and to take up their abode in the new. Some of the inhabitants, however, of whose loyalty he did not entertain suspicion, were suffered to remain, especially because the latter, although of the dimensions that shall presently be described, was not capable of containing the same number as the former, which was of vast extent.

This new city is of a form perfectly square and twenty-four miles in extent, each of its sides being neither more nor less than six miles. It is enclosed with walls of earth that at the base are about ten paces thick but gradually diminish to the top, where the thickness is not more than three paces. In all parts the battlements are white. The whole plan of the city was regularly laid out by line and the streets in general are consequently so straight that when a person ascends the wall over one of the gates and looks right forward, he can see the gate opposite to him on the other side of the city. In the public streets there are, on each side, booths and shops of every description. All the allotments of ground upon which the habitations throughout the city were constructed are square and exactly on a line with each other; each allotment being sufficiently spacious for handsome buildings, with corresponding courts and gardens. One of these was assigned to each head of a family; that is to say, such a person of such a tribe had one square allotted to him and so of the rest. Afterward the property passed from hand to hand. In this manner the whole interior of the city is disposed in squares, so as to resemble a chess-board and planned out with a degree of precision and beauty impossible to describe.

The wall of the city has twelve gates, three on each side of the square and over each gate and compartment of the wall there is a handsome building; so that on each side of the square there are five such buildings, containing large rooms, in which are disposed the arms of those who form the garrison of the city, every gate being guarded by a thousand men. It is not to be understood that such a force is stationed there in consequence of the apprehension of danger from any hostile power whatever but as a guard suitable to the honor and dignity of the sovereign.

This ends our series of passages on Height of the Mongol Power In China by Marco Polo. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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