NOTE 1.—­Pauthier’s extracts from the Chinese Annals of the Dynasty, in illustration of this subject, are interesting.  These, as he represents them, show the Council of Ministers usually to have consisted of twelve high officials, viz.:  two Ch’ing-siang [Chinese] or (chief) ministers of state, one styled, “of the Right,” and the other “of the Left”; four called P’ing-chang ching-sse, which seems to mean something like ministers in charge of special departments; four assistant ministers; two Counsellors.

Rashiduddin, however, limits the Council to the first two classes:  “Strictly speaking, the Council of State is composed of four Ch’ing-sang (Ch’ing-siang) or great officers (Wazirs he afterwards terms them), and four Fanchan (P’ing-chang) or associated members, taken from the nations of the Tajiks, Cathayans, Ighurs, and Arkaun” (i.e.  Nestorian Christians). (Compare p. 418, supra.)

[A Samarkand man, Seyyd Tadj Eddin Hassan ben el Khallal, quoted in the Masalak al Absar, says:  “Near the Khan are two amirs who are his ministers; they are called Djing San [Arabic] (Ch’ing-siang).  After them come the two Bidjan [Arabic] (P’ing Chang), then the two Zoudjin [Arabic] (Tso Chen), then the two Yudjin [Arabic] (Yu Chen), and at last the Landjun [Arabic] (Lang Chang), head of the scribes, and secretary of the sovereign.  The Khan holds a sitting every day in the middle of a large building called Chen [Arabic] (Sheng), which is very like our Palace of Justice.” (C.  Schefer, Cent.  Ec.  Langues Or., pp. 18-19.)—­H.  C.]

In a later age we find the twelve Barons reappearing in the pages of Mendoza:  “The King hath in this city of Tabin (Peking), where he is resident, a royal council of twelve counsellors and a president, chosen men throughout all the kingdom, and such as have had experience in government many years.”  And also in the early centuries of the Christian era we hear that the Khan of the Turks had his twelve grandees, divided into those of the Right and those of the Left, probably a copy from a Chinese order then also existing.

But to return to Rashiduddin:  “As the Kaan generally resides at the capital, he has erected a place for the sittings of the Great Council, called Sing....  The dignitaries mentioned above are expected to attend daily at the Sing, and to make themselves acquainted with all that passes there.”

The Sing of Rashid is evidently the Shieng or Sheng (Scieng) of Polo.  M. Pauthier is on this point somewhat contemptuous towards Neumann, who, he says, confounds Marco Polo’s twelve Barons or Ministers of State with the chiefs of the twelve great provincial governments called Sing, who had their residence at the chief cities of those governments; whilst in fact Polo’s Scieng (he asserts) has nothing to do with the Sing, but represents the Chinese word Siang “a minister,” and “the office of a minister.” [There was no doubt a confusion between Siang [Chinese] and Sheng [Chinese].—­H.  C.]