The Chinese extracts give no idea of
the temporary completeness of the conquest, nor do they mention Great Pagan
(lat. 21 deg. 13'), a city whose vast remains I have endeavoured partially
to describe.[2] Sir Arthur Phayre, from a careful perusal of the Burmese
Chronicle, assures me that there can be no doubt that this was at the
time in question the Burmese Royal Residence, and the city alluded to in
the Burmese narrative. M. Pauthier is mistaken in supposing that
Tarok-Mau, the turning-point of the Chinese Invasion, lay north of this
city: he has not unnaturally confounded it with Tarok-Myo or
"China-Town," a district not far below Ava. Moreover Male, the position of
the decisive victory of the Chinese, is itself much to the south of Tagaung
(about 22 deg. 55').
Both Pagan and Male are mentioned in a remarkable Chinese notice extracted
in Amyot's Memoires (XIV. 292): "Mien-Tien ... had five chief towns, of
which the first was Kiangtheu (supra, pp. 105, 111), the second
Taikung, the third Malai, the fourth Ngan-cheng-kwe (? perhaps the
Nga-tshaung gyan of the Burmese Annals), the fifth PUKAN MIEN-WANG
(Pagan of the Mien King?). The Yuen carried war into this country,
particularly during the reign of Shun-Ti, the last Mongol Emperor
[1333-1368], who, after subjugating it, erected at Pukan Mien-Wang a
tribunal styled Hwen-wei-she-se, the authority of which extended over
Pang-ya and all its dependencies." This is evidently founded on actual
documents, for Panya or Pengya, otherwise styled Vijayapura, was the
capital of Burma during part of the 14th century, between the decay of
Pagan and the building of Ava. But none of the translated extracts from the
Burmese Chronicle afford corroboration. From Sangermano's abstract,
however, we learn that the King of Panya from 1323 to 1343 was the son of
a daughter of the Emperor of China (p. 42). I may also refer to
Pemberton's abstract of the Chronicle of the Shan State of Pong in the
Upper Irawadi valley, which relates that about the middle of the 14th
century the Chinese invaded Pong and took Maung Maorong, the capital.[3]
The Shan King and his son fled to the King of Burma for protection, but
the Burmese surrendered them and they were carried to China. (Report on
E. Frontier of Bengal, p. 112.)
I see no sufficient evidence as to whether Marco himself visited the "city
of Mien." I think it is quite clear that his account of the conquest is
from the merest hearsay, not to say gossip. Of the absurd story of the
jugglers we find no suggestion in the Chinese extracts. We learn from them
that Nasruddin had represented the conquest of Mien as a very easy task,
and Kublai may have in jest asked his gleemen if they would undertake it.
The haziness of Polo's account of the conquest contrasts strongly with his
graphic description of the rout of the elephants at Vochan. Of the latter
he heard the particulars on the spot (I conceive) shortly after the event;
whilst the conquest took place some years later than his mission to that
frontier. His description of the gold and silver pagodas with their
canopies of tinkling bells (the Burmese Hti), certainly looks like a
sketch from the life;[4] and it is quite possible that some negotiations
between 1277 and 1281 may have given him the opportunity of visiting
Burma, though he may not have reached the capital. Indeed he would in that
case surely have given a distincter account of so important a city, the
aspect of which in its glory we have attempted to realize in the plate of
"the city of Mien."
It is worthy of note that the unfortunate King then reigning in Pagan, had
in 1274 finished a magnificent Pagoda called Mengala-dzedi (Mangala
Chaitya) respecting which ominous prophecies had been diffused. In this
pagoda were deposited, besides holy relics, golden images of the Disciples
of Buddha, golden models of the holy places, golden images of the King's
fifty-one predecessors in Pagan, and of the King and his Family. It is
easy to suspect a connection of this with Marco's story. "It is possible
that the King's ashes may have been intended to be buried near those
relics, though such is not now the custom; and Marco appears to have
confounded the custom of depositing relics of Buddha and ancient holy men
in pagodas with the supposed custom of the burial of the dead. Still,
even now, monuments are occasionally erected over the dead in Burma,
although the practice is considered a vain folly. I have known a miniature
pagoda with a hti complete, erected over the ashes of a favourite
disciple by a P'hungyi or Buddhist monk." The latter practice is common
in China. (Notes by Sir A. Phayre; J.A.S.B. IV. u.s., also V. 164,
VI. 251; Mason's Burmah, 2nd ed. p. 26; Milne's Life in China, pp.
288, 450.)
NOTE 3. - The Gaur - Bos Gaurus, or B. (Bibos) Cavifrons of
Hodgson - exists in certain forests of the Burmese territory; and, in the
south at least, a wild ox nearer the domestic species, Bos Sondaicus. Mr.
Gouger, in his book The Prisoner in Burma, describes the rare spectacle
which he once enjoyed in the Tenasserim forests of a herd of wild cows at
graze. He speaks of them as small and elegant, without hump, and of a light
reddish dun colour (pp. 326-327).
[1] This is the name now applied in Burma to the Chinese. Sir A. Phayre
supposes it to be Turk, in which case its use probably began at
this time.
[2] In the Narrative of Phayre's Mission, ch. ii.
[3] Dr. Anderson has here hastily assumed a discrepancy of sixty years
between the chronology of the Shan document and that of the Chinese
Annals. But this is merely because he arbitrarily identifies the
Chinese invasion here recorded with that of Kublai in the preceding
century.
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