ces
of Shan-si, Cheh-kiang, and Kiang-su. During the Mongol Dynasty, the
instances of cremation which are mentioned in Chinese books are,
relatively speaking, numerous. Professor de Groot says also that "there
exists evidence that during the Mongol domination cremation also throve in
Fuhkien." (_Religious System of China_, vol. iii. pp. 1391, 1409, 1410.)
--H.C.]
(_Doolittle_, 190; _Deguignes_, I. 69; _Cathay_, pp. 247, 479; _Reinaud_,
I. 56; _India in the XVth Century_, p. 23; _Semedo_, p. 95; _Rem. Mel.
Asiat._ I. 128.)
CHAPTER LXI.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF CHINANGLI, AND THAT OF TADINFU, AND THE REBELLION
OF LITAN.
Chinangli is a city of Cathay as you go south, and it belongs to the Great
Kaan; the people are Idolaters, and have paper-money. There runs through
the city a great and wide river, on which a large traffic in silk goods
and spices and other costly merchandize passes up and down.
When you travel south from Chinangli for five days, you meet everywhere
with fine towns and villages, the people of which are all Idolaters, and
burn their dead, and are subject to the Great Kaan, and have paper-money,
and live by trade and handicrafts, and have all the necessaries of life in
great abundance. But there is nothing particular to mention on the way
till you come, at the end of those five days, to TADINFU.[NOTE 1]
This, you must know, is a very great city, and in old times was the seat
of a great kingdom; but the Great Kaan conquered it by force of arms.
Nevertheless it is still the noblest city in all those provinces. There
are very great merchants here, who trade on a great scale, and the
abundance of silk is something marvellous. They have, moreover, most
charming gardens abounding with fruit of large size. The city of Tadinfu
hath also under its rule eleven imperial cities of great importance, all
of which enjoy a large and profitable trade, owing to that immense produce
of silk.[NOTE 2]
Now, you must know, that in the year of Christ, 1273, the Great Kaan had
sent a certain Baron called LIYTAN SANGON,[NOTE 3] with some 80,000
horse, to this province and city, to garrison them. And after the said
captain had tarried there a while, he formed a disloyal and traitorous
plot, and stirred up the great men of the province to rebel against the
Great Kaan. And so they did; for they broke into revolt against their
sovereign lord, and refused all obedience to him, and made this Liytan,
whom their soverei
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