term _King-sze_,
"capital," which was then applied to the great city, the proper name of
which was at that time Lin-ngan and is now HANG-CHAU, as being since 1127
the capital of the Sung Dynasty. The same term _King-sze_ is now on
Chinese maps generally used to designate Peking. It would seem, however,
that the term adhered long as a quasi-proper name to Hang-chau; for in the
Chinese Atlas, dating from 1595, which the traveller Carletti presented to
the Magliabecchian Library, that city appears to be still marked with this
name, transcribed by Carletti as _Camse_; very near the form _Campsay_
used by Marignolli in the 14th century.

[Illustration: The ancient Lun ho-ta Pagoda at Hang-chau.]

NOTE 2.--+The Ramusian version says: "Messer Marco Polo was frequently at
this city, and took great pains to learn everything about it, writing down
the whole in his notes." The information being originally derived from a
Chinese document, there might be some ground for supposing that 100 miles
of circuit stood for 100 _li_. Yet the circuit of the modern city is
stated in the official book called _Hang-chau Fu-Chi_ or topographical
history of Hang-chau, at only 35 _li_. And the earliest record of the
wall, as built under the Sui by Yang-su (before A.D. 606), makes its
extent little more (36 _li_ and 90 paces.)[1] But the wall was
reconstructed by Ts'ien Kiao, feudal prince of the region, during the
reign of Chao Tsung, one of the last emperors of the T'ang Dynasty (892),
so as to embrace the Luh-ho-ta Pagoda, on a high bluff over the Tsien-tang
River,[2] 15 _li_ distant from the present south gate, and had then a
circuit of 70 _li_. Moreover, in 1159, after the city became the capital
of the Sung emperors, some further extension was given to it, so that,
even exclusive of the suburbs, the circuit of the city may have been not
far short of 100 _li_. When the city was in its glory under the Sung, the
Luh-ho-ta Pagoda may be taken as marking the extreme S.W. Another known
point marks approximately the chief north gate of that period, at a mile
and a half or two miles beyond the present north wall. The S.E. angle was
apparently near the river bank. But, on the other hand, the _waist_ of the
city seems to have been a good deal narrower than it now is. Old
descriptions compare its form to that of a slender-waisted drum (dice-box
or hour-glass shape).

Under the Mongols the walls were allowed to decay; and in the disturbed
years that cl