It is really a 6 or 7 days' march.
But Pauthier's MS. C (and its double, the Bern MS.) has viii. marches
instead of xx., through the mountains of Cuncun. This reduces the time
between Kenjanfu and the Plain to 11 days, which is just about a proper
allowance for the whole journey, though not accurately distributed. Two
days, though ample, would not be excessive for the journey across the
Plain of Han-chung, especially if the traveller visited that city. And "20
days from Han-chung, to Ch'eng-tu fu would correspond with Marco Polo's
rate of travel." (Richthofen).
So far then, provided we admit the reading of the MS. C, there is no ground
for hesitating to adopt the usual route between the two cities,
via Han-chung.
But the key to the exact route is evidently the position of Acbalec Manzi,
and on this there is no satisfactory light.
For the name of the province, Pauthier's text has Acbalec Manzi, for the
name of the city Acmalec simply. The G.T. has in the former case
Acbalec Mangi, in the latter "Acmelic Mangi qe vaut dire le une de le
confine dou Mangi." This is followed literally by the Geographic Latin,
which has "Acbalec Mangi et est dictum in lingua nostra unus ex
confinibus Mangi." So also the Crusca; whilst Ramusio has "Achbaluch
Mangi, che vuol dire Citta Bianca de' confini di Mangi." It is clear that
Ramusio alone has here preserved the genuine reading.
Klaproth identified Acbalec conjecturally with the town of Pe-ma-ching,
or "White-Horse-Town," a place now extinct, but which stood like Mien and
Han-chung on the extensive and populous Plain that here borders the Han.
It seems so likely that the latter part of the name Pe-MACHING ("White
Maching") might have been confounded by foreigners with Machin and
Manzi (which in Persian parlance were identical), that I should be
disposed to overlook the difficulty that we have no evidence produced to
show that Pemaching was a place of any consequence.
It is possible, however, that the name Acbalec may have been given by the
Tartars without any reference to Chinese etymologies. We have already twice
met with the name or its equivalent (Acbaluc in ch. xxxvii. of this Book,
and Chaghan Balghasun in note 3 to Book I. ch. lx.), whilst Strahlenberg
tells us that the Tartars call all great residences of princes by this name
(Amst. ed. 1757, I. p. 7). It may be that Han-chung itself was so named by
the Tartars; though its only claim that I can find is, that it was the
first residence of the Han Dynasty. Han-chung fu stands in a beautiful
plain, which forms a very striking object to the traveller who is leaving
the T'sing-ling mountains.
