China is a pleasant and fruitful country, having numerous extensive and well fortified cities, with a more wholesome climate and less fenny country than India, in which most of the provinces have no cities. The air in China likewise is much better than in India, and there are scarcely any blind persons, or who are subject to diseases of the eyes; and similar advantages are enjoyed by several of the provinces of India. The rivers of both countries are large, and surpass our greatest rivers, and much rain falls in both countries. In the ladies there are many desert tracks, but China is inhabited and cultivated through its whole extent. The Chinese are handsomer than the Indians, and come nearer to the Arabs in countenance and dress, in their manners, in the way of riding, and in their ceremonies, wearing long garments and girdles in the manner of belts; while the Indians wear two short vests, and both men and women wear golden bracelets, adorned with precious stones.
Beyond the kingdom of China, there is a country called Tagazgaz, taking its name from a nation of Turks by which it is inhabited, and also the country of Kakhan which borders on the Turks. The islands of Sila are inhabited by white people, who send presents to the Emperor of China, and who are persuaded that if they were to neglect this the rain of heaven would not fall upon their country. In that country there are white falcons; but none of our people have been there to give us any particular information concerning them.
Having very carefully examined the book I was desired to peruse, that I might confirm what the author relates so far as he agrees with what I have learnt concerning the affairs of navigation, the kingdoms on the coast, and the state of the countries of which he treats, and that I might add what I have elsewhere collected concerning these matters: I find that this book was composed in the year of the Hegira 237, and that the accounts given by the author are conformable with what I have heard from merchants who have sailed from Irak or Persia, through these seas. I find also all that the author has written to be agreeable to truth, except some few passages, in which he has been misinformed. Speaking of the custom, of the Chinese in setting meat before their dead, and believing that the dead had eaten, we had been told the same thing, and once believed it; but have since learnt, from a person of undoubted credit, that this notion is entirely groundless, as well as that the idolaters believe their idols speak to them. From that creditable person we have likewise been informed, that the affairs of China wear quite a different aspect since those days: and since much has been related to explain why our voyages to China have been interrupted, and how the country has been ruined, many customs abolished, and the empire divided, I shall here declare what I know of that revolution.
The great troubles which have embroiled the affairs of this empire, putting a stop to the justice and righteousness there formerly practised, and interrupting the ordinary navigation from Siraff to China, was occasioned by the revolt of an officer named Baichu, in high employment, though not of the royal family. He began by gathering together a number of vagabonds, and disorderly people, whom he won to his party by his liberalities, and formed into a considerable body of troops. With these he committed hostilities in many parts of the country, to the great loss of the inhabitants; and having greatly increased his army, and put himself into a condition to attempt greater things, he began to entertain a design of subduing the whole empire, and marched direct for Canfu, one of the most noted cities in China, and at that time the great port for our Arabian commerce. This city stands upon a great river, some days sail from the sea, so that the water there is fresh. The citizens shut their gates against him, and he was obliged to besiege it a great while; but at length he became master of the city, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. There are persons fully acquainted with the affairs of China, who assure us, that besides the Chinese who were massacred upon this occasion, there perished one hundred and twenty thousand Mahomedans, Jews, Christians, and Parsees, who were there on account of traffic; and as the Chinese are exceedingly nice in the registers they keep of foreigners dwelling among them, this number may be considered as authentic. This took place in the year of the hegira 264, or of Christ 877. He also cut down the mulberry trees, which are carefully cultivated by the Chinese for their leaves, on which the silk worms are fed; and owing to this, the trade of silk has tailed, and that manufacture, which used to be much prosecuted in all the countries under the Arabian government, is quite at a stand.
Having sacked and destroyed Canfu, he possessed himself of many other cities, which he demolished, having first slain most of the inhabitants, in the hope that he might involve all the members of the royal family in this general massacre, that no one might remain to dispute with him for the empire. He then advanced to Cumdan153, the capital city, whence the emperor was obliged to make a precipitate retreat to the city of Hamdu, on the frontiers towards Thibet. Puffed up with these great successes, Baichu made himself master of almost the whole country, there being no one able to dispute his authority. At length the emperor wrote to the king of the Tagazgaz in Turkestan, with whom he was in some degree allied by marriage, imploring his assistance to subdue the rebellion. The king of the Tagazgaz dispatched his son, at the head of a very numerous army, into China, and after a long and arduous contest, and many battles, Baichu was utterly defeated, and it was never known afterwards what became of him; some believing that he fell in the last battle, while others supposed that he ended his days in a different manner. The emperor of China now returned to his capital, much weakened and dispirited in consequence of the embezzlement of his treasures, and the loss of the best of his officers and troops, and the horrible devastations, calamities, and losses which his empire had sustained; yet he made himself master of all the provinces which had revolted from his authority. He would not, however, lay his hands upon the goods of his subjects, notwithstanding the exhausted state of his finances, but satisfied himself with what was still left in his coffers, and the small remains of the public money that was to be found, requiring nothing from his subjects, but what they were willing to give, and only demanding obedience to the laws and to his authority, considering that they had been already severely oppressed in consequence of the rebellion. Thus, China became like the empire of Alexander, after the defeat and death of Darius, when he divided the provinces among his chiefs, who became so many kings. For now, each of the Chinese princes, or viceroys, joined themselves into petty alliances, making wars among themselves without the authority of the emperor; and when the stronger had subdued the weaker, and acquired possession of his province, the subjects of the vanquished prince were unmercifully wasted and plundered, and even barbarously devoured: a cruel practice allowed by the laws of their religion, which even permit human flesh to be exposed to public sale in the markets. There arose from all these confusions many unjust dealings with the merchants; and there was no grievance so intolerable, or treatment so bad, but what was exercised upon the Arab merchants, and captains of ships, extorting from them what was altogether uncustomary, seizing upon their effects, and behaving towards them quite contrary to all the ancient usages; so that our merchants were forced to return in crowds to Siraff and Oman154.
The punishment of married persons, convicted of adultery, as well as for the crimes of homicide and theft, is as follows: The hands are bound fast together, and forced backwards over the head, till they rest on the neck. The right foot is then fastened to the right hand, and the left foot to the left hand, and all drawn tight together behind the back, so that the criminal is incapable to stir; and by this torture the neck is dislocated, the joints of the arms start from their sockets, and the thigh bones are disjointed;-in short, the tortured wretch would soon expire without any farther process; yet, in that state, he is beaten by bamboos till at the last gasp, and is then abandoned to the people, who devour the body.
153
From the description of this place afterwards, in the travels of Ebn Wahab, in this article, it appears to have been Nankin. –E.
154
The chronology of the Chinese history is attended with extreme difficulty. According to Du Halde: In the reign of the emperor