Dr. Lockhart Tells Me That, According To The Information He
Collected When Living At Peking, It Is Not So, But Was Formed By The Ming
Emperors From The Excavation Of The Existing Lake On The Site Which The
Mongol Palace Had Occupied.
There is another mount, he adds, adjoining the
east shore of the lake, which must be of older date even than Kublai, for
a Dagoba standing on it is ascribed to the Kin.
[The "Green Mount" was an island called K'iung-hua at the time of the
Kin; in 1271 it received the name of Wan-sui shan; it is about 100 feet
in height, and is the only hill mentioned by Chinese writers of the Mongol
time who refer to the palace grounds. It is not the present King-shan,
north of the palace, called also Wan-sui-shan under the Ming, and now
the Mei-shan, of more recent formation. "I have no doubt," says
Bretschneider (Peking, l.c. 35), "that Marco Polo's handsome palace on
the top of the Green Mount is the same as the Kuang-han tien" of the
Ch'ue keng lu. It was a hall in which there was a jar of black jade, big
enough to hold more than 30 piculs of wine; this jade had white veins, and
in accordance with these veins, fish and animals have been carved on the
jar. (Ibid. 35.) "The Ku kung i lu, in describing the Wan-sui-shan,
praises the beautiful shady green of the vegetation there." (Ibid.
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