CHAPTER LXXV.

OF THE NOBLE CITY OF SUJU.

Suju is a very great and noble city.  The people are Idolaters, subjects of the Great Kaan, and have paper-money.  They possess silk in great quantities, from which they make gold brocade and other stuffs, and they live by their manufactures and trade.[NOTE 1]

The city is passing great, and has a circuit of some 60 miles; it hath merchants of great wealth and an incalculable number of people.  Indeed, if the men of this city and of the rest of Manzi had but the spirit of soldiers they would conquer the world; but they are no soldiers at all, only accomplished traders and most skilful craftsmen.  There are also in this city many philosophers and leeches, diligent students of nature.

And you must know that in this city there are 6,000 bridges, all of stone, and so lofty that a galley, or even two galleys at once, could pass underneath one of them.[NOTE 2]

In the mountains belonging to this city, rhubarb and ginger grow in great abundance; insomuch that you may get some 40 pounds of excellent fresh ginger for a Venice groat.[NOTE 3] And the city has sixteen other great trading cities under its rule.  The name of the city, Suju, signifies in our tongue, “Earth,” and that of another near it, of which we shall speak presently, called Kinsay, signifies “Heaven;” and these names are given because of the great splendour of the two cities.[NOTE 4]

Now let us quit Suju, and go on to another which is called VUJU, one day’s journey distant; it is a great and fine city, rife with trade and manufactures.  But as there is nothing more to say of it we shall go on and I will tell you of another great and noble city called VUGHIN.  The people are Idolaters, &c., and possess much silk and other merchandize, and they are expert traders and craftsmen.  Let us now quit Vughin and tell you of another city called CHANGAN, a great and rich place.  The people are Idolaters, &c., and they live by trade and manufactures.  They make great quantities of sendal of different kinds, and they have much game in the neighbourhood.  There is however nothing more to say about the place, so we shall now proceed.[NOTE 5]

NOTE 1.—­SUJU is of course the celebrated city of SU-CHAU in Kiang-nan—­ before the rebellion brought ruin on it, the Paris of China.  “Everything remarkable was alleged to come from it; fine pictures, fine carved-work, fine silks, and fine ladies!” (Fortune, I. 186.) When the Emperor K’ang-hi visited Su-chau, the citizens laid the streets with carpets and silk stuffs, but the Emperor dismounted and made his train do the like. (Davis, I. 186.)