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: "This
empire hath been divided by the Lord thereof into twelve parts, each one
thereof is termed a Singo."
Polo, it seems evident to me, knew nothing of Chinese. His Shieng is no
direct attempt to represent any Chinese word, but simply the term that
he had been used to employ in talking Persian or Turki, in the way that
Rashiduddin and Wassaf employ it.
I find no light as to the thirty-four provinces into which Polo represents
the empire as divided, unless it be an enumeration of the provinces and
districts which he describes in the second and third parts of Bk. II., of
which it is not difficult to reckon thirty-three or thirty-four, but not
worth while to repeat the calculation.
[China was then divided into twelve Sheng or provinces: Cheng-Tung,
Liao-Yang, Chung-Shu, Shen-Si, Ling-Pe (Karakorum), Kan-Suh, Sze-ch'wan,
Ho-Nan Kiang-Pe, Kiang-Che, Kiang-Si, Hu-Kwang and Yun-Nan. Rashiduddin
(J. As., XI. 1883, p. 447) says that of the twelve Sing, Khanbaligh was
the only one with Chin-siang. We read in Morrison's Dict. (Pt. II.
vol. i. p. 70): "Chin-seang, a Minister of State, was so called under the
Ming Dynasty." According to Mr. E. H. Parker (China Review, xxiv.
