["In the southern part of Su-chau is the park, surrounded by a high wall, which contains the group of buildings called the Confucian Temple.  This is the Dragon’s head;—­the Dragon Street, running directly North, is his body, and the Great Pagoda is his tail.  In front is a grove of cedars.  To one side is the hall where thousands of scholars go to worship at the Spring and Autumn Festivals—­this for the gentry alone, not for the unlettered populace.  There is a building used for the slaughter of animals, another containing a map of the city engraved in stone; a third with tablets and astronomical diagrams, and a fourth containing the Provincial Library.  On each side of the large courts are rooms where are placed the tablets of the 500 sages.  The main temple is 50 by 70 feet, and contains the tablet of Confucius and a number of gilded boards with mottoes.  It is a very imposing structure.  On the stone dais in front, a mat-shed is erected for the great sacrifices at which the official magnates exercise their sacerdotal functions.  As a tourist beheld the sacred grounds and the aged trees, she said:  ’This is the most venerable-looking place I have seen in China.’  On the gateway in front, the sage is called ‘The Prince of Doctrine in times Past and Present.’” (Rev. H.C.  Du Bose, Chin.  Rec., xix. p. 272).—­H.C.]

NOTE 5.—­The Geographic Text only, at least of the principal Texts, has distinctly the three cities, Vugui, Vughin, Ciangan.  Pauthier identifies the first and third with HU-CHAU FU and Sung-kiang fu.  In favour of Vuju’s being Hu-chau is the fact mentioned by Wilson that the latter city is locally called WUCHU.[3] If this be the place, the Traveller does not seem to be following a direct and consecutive route from Su-chau to Hang-chau.  Nor is Hu-chau within a day’s journey of Su-chau.  Mr. Kingsmill observes that the only town at that distance is Wukiang-hien, once of some little importance but now much reduced.  WUKIANG, however, is suggestive of VUGHIN; and, in that supposition, Hu-chau must be considered the object of a digression from which the Traveller returns and takes up his route to Hang-chau via Wukiang. Kiahing would then best answer to Ciangan, or Caingan, as it is written in the following chapter of the G.T.

[1] See Quatremere’s Rashid., p. lxxxvii., and Hammer’s Wassaf, p. 42.

[2] I owe these valuable illustrations, as so much else, to the unwearied
    kindness of Mr. A. Wylie.  There were originally four maps:  (1) The
    City, (2) The Empire, (3) The Heavens, (4) no longer known.  They
    were drawn originally by one Hwan Kin-shan, and presented by him to a
    high official in Sze-ch’wan.  Wang Che-yuen, subsequently holding office
    in the same province, got possession of the maps, and had them incised
    at Su-chau in A.D. 1247.  The inscription bearing these particulars is
    partially gone, and the date of the original drawings remains
    uncertain. (See List of Illustrations.)