To The High Council Of State, And To The
Provincial Governments.
It also looks as if Marco Polo himself had made
that very confusion with which Pauthier charges Neumann.
For whilst here
he represents the twelve Barons as forming a Council of State at the
capital, we find further on, when speaking of the city of Yangchau, he
says: "Et si siet en ceste cite uns des xii Barons du Grant Kaan; car
elle est esleue pour un des xii sieges," where the last word is probably
a mistranscription of Sciengs, or Sings, and in any case the reference
is to a distribution of the empire into twelve governments.
To be convinced that Sing was used by foreigners in the double sense
that I have said, we have only to proceed with Rashiduddin's account of
the administration. After what we have already quoted, he goes on: "The
Sing of Khanbaligh is the most eminent, and the building is very
large.... Sings do not exist in all the cities, but only in the capitals
of great provinces.... In the whole empire of the Kaan there are twelve of
these Sings; but that of Khanbaligh is the only one which has Ching-sangs
amongst its members." Wassaf again, after describing the greatness of
Khanzai (Kinsay of Polo) says: "These circumstances characterize the
capital itself, but four hundred cities of note, and embracing ample
territories, are dependent on its jurisdiction, insomuch that the most
inconsiderable of those cities surpasses Baghdad and Shiraz. In the number
of these cities are Lankinfu and Zaitun, and Chinkalan; for they call
Khanzai a Shing, i.e. a great city in which the high and mighty Council
of Administration holds its meetings." Friar Odoric again says:
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