insay flows off towards Zayton, points to
a notion prevalent in the Middle Ages as to the interdivergence of rivers
in general, and especially of Chinese rivers. This notion will be found
well embodied in the Catalan Map, and something like it in the maps of the
Chinese themselves;[5] it is a ruling idea with Ibn Batuta, who, as we
have seen (in note 2), speaks of the River of Zayton as connected in the
interior with "the Great River," and who travels by this waterway
accordingly from Zayton to Kinsay, taking no notice of the mountains of
Fo-kien. So also (supra, p. 175) Rashiduddin had been led to suppose
that the Great Canal extended to Zayton. With apparently the same idea of
one Great River of China with many ramifications, Abulfeda places most of
the great cities of China upon "The River." The "Great River of China,"
with its branches to Kinsay, is alluded to in a like spirit by Wassaf
(supra, p. 213). Polo has already indicated the same idea (p. 219).

Assuming this as the notion involved in the passage from Ramusio, the
position of _Jau-chau_ might be fairly described as that of Tingui is
therein, standing as it does on the P'o-yang Lake, from which there is
such a ramification of internal navigation, e.g. to Kinsay or Hang-chau fu
directly by Kwansin, the Chang-shan portage already referred to (supra,
p. 222), and the Ts'ien T'ang (and this is the Kinsay River line to which
I imagine Polo here to refer), or circuitously by the Yang-tzu and Great
Canal; to Canton by the portage of the Meiling Pass; and to the cities of
Fo-kien either by the Kwansin River or by Kian-chan fu, further south,
with a portage in each case across the Fo-kien mountains. None of our maps
give any idea of the extent of internal navigation in China. (See
_Klaproth, Mem_. vol. iii.)

The story of the life-long period during which the porcelain clay was
exposed to temper long held its ground, and probably was only dispelled by
the publication of the details of the King-te chen manufacture by Pere
d'Entrecolles in the _Lettres Edifiantes_.

NOTE 6.--The meagre statement in the French texts shows merely that Polo
had heard of the Fo-kien dialect. The addition from Ramusio shows further
that he was aware of the unity of the written character throughout China,
but gives no indication of knowledge of its peculiar principles, nor of
the extent of difference in the spoken dialects. Even different districts
of Fo-kien, according to Martini, use dial