CHAPTER XV.
OF THE GREAT FESTIVAL WHICH THE KAAN HOLDS ON NEW
YEAR’S DAY.
The beginning of their New Year is the month of February, and on that
occasion the Great Kaan and all his subjects made such a Feast as I now
shall describe.
It is the custom that on this occasion the Kaan and all his subjects
should be clothed entirely in white; so, that day, everybody is in
white, men and women, great and small. And this is done in order that
they may thrive all through the year, for they deem that white clothing
is lucky.{1} On that day also all the people of all the provinces
and governments and kingdoms and countries that own allegiance to
the Kaan bring him great presents of gold and silver, and pearls
and gems, and rich textures of divers kinds. And this they do that
the Emperor throughout the year may have abundance of treasure and
enjoyment without care. And the people also make presents to each other
of white things, and embrace and kiss and make merry, and wish each
other happiness and good luck for the coming year. On that day, I can
assure you, among the customary presents there shall be offered to the
Kaan from various quarters more than 100,000 white horses, beautiful
animals, and richly caparisoned. [And you must know ’tis their custom
in offering presents to the Great Kaan (at least when the province
making the present is able to do so), to present nine times nine
articles. For instance, if a province sends horses, it sends nine times
nine or 81 horses; of gold, nine times nine pieces of gold, and so
with stuffs or whatever else the present may consist of.]{2}
On that day also, the whole of the Kaan’s elephants, amounting fully to
5000 in number, are exhibited, all covered with rich and gay housings
of inlaid cloth representing beasts and birds, whilst each of them
carries on his back two splendid coffers; all of these being filled
with the Emperor’s plate and other costly furniture required for the
Court on the occasion of the White Feast.{3} And these are followed by
a vast number of camels which are likewise covered with rich housings
and laden with things needful for the Feast. All these are paraded
before the Emperor, and it makes the finest sight in the world.
Moreover, on the morning of the Feast, before the tables are set, all
the Kings, and all the Dukes, Marquesses, Counts, Barons, Knights, and
Astrologers, and Philosophers, and Leeches, and Falconers, and other
officials of sundry kinds from all the places round about, present
themselves in the Great Hall before the Emperor; whilst those who can
find no room to enter stand outside in such a position that the Emperor
can see them all well. And the whole company is marshalled in this
wise. First are the Kaan’s sons, and his nephews, and the other Princes
of the Blood Imperial; next to them all Kings; then Dukes, and then all
others in succession according to the degree of each. And when they are
all seated, each in his proper place, then a great prelate rises and
says with a loud voice: “Bow and adore!” And as soon as he has said
this, the company bow down until their foreheads touch the earth in
adoration towards the Emperor as if he were a god. And this adoration
they repeat four times, and then go to a highly decorated altar, on
which is a vermilion tablet with the name of the Grand Kaan inscribed
thereon, and a beautiful censer of gold. So they incense the tablet
and the altar with great reverence, and then return each man to his
seat.{4}
When all have performed this, then the presents are offered, of which
I have spoken as being so rich and costly. And after all have been
offered and been seen by the Emperor, the tables are set, and all take
their places at them with perfect order as I have already told you. And
after dinner the jugglers come in and amuse the Court as you have heard
before; and when that is over, every man goes to his quarters.
NOTE 1.—The first month of the year is still called by the Mongols
_Chaghan_ or _Chaghan Sara_, “the White” or the “White Month”; and
the wearing of white clothing on this festive occasion must have
been purely a Mongol custom. For when Shah Rukh’s ambassadors were
present at the New Year’s Feast at the Court of the succeeding
_Chinese_ Dynasty (2nd February, 1421) they were warned that _no
one_ must wear white, as that among the Chinese was the colour of
mourning. (_Koeppen_, I. 574, II. 309; _Cathay_, p. ccvii.)
NOTE 2.—On the mystic importance attached to the number 9 on all
such occasions among the Mongols, see _Hammer’s Golden Horde_, p.
208; _Hayton_, ch. iii. in Ramusio II.; _Not. et Ext._ XIV. Pt. I.
32; and _Strahlenberg_ (II. 210 of Amsterd. ed. 1757). Vámbéry,
speaking of the _Ḳálín_ or marriage price among the Uzbegs, says:
“The question is always how many times _nine_ sheep, cows, camels,
or horses, or how many times nine ducats (as is the custom in
a town), the father is to receive for giving up his daughter.”
(_Sketches of Cent. Asia_, p. 103.) Sheikh Ibrahim of Darband,
making offerings to Timur, presented _nines_ of everything else,
but of slaves _eight_ only. “Where is the ninth?” enquired the
court official. “Who but I myself?” said the Sheikh, and so won the
heart of Timur. (_A. Arabsiadis ... Timuri Hist._ p. 357.)
NOTE 3.—The elephant stud of the Son of Heaven had dwindled till
in 1862 Dr. Rennie found but one animal; now none remain. [Dr. S.
W. Williams writes (_Middle Kingdom_, I. pp. 323–324): “Elephants
are kept at Peking for show, and are used to draw the state chariot
when the Emperor goes to worship at the Altars of Heaven and Earth,
but the sixty animals seen in the days of Kienlung, by Bell, have
since dwindled to one or two. Van Braam met six going into Peking,
sent thither from Yun-Nan.” These were no doubt carrying tribute
from Burmah.—H. C.] It is worth noticing that the housings of cut
cloth or _appliqué_ work (“_draps entaillez_”) are still in fashion
in India for the caparison of elephants.
NOTE 4.—In 1263 Kúblái adopted the Chinese fashion of worshipping
the tablets of his own ancestors, and probably at the same time the
adoration of his own tablet by his subjects was introduced. Van
Braam ingenuously relates how he and the rest of the Dutch Legation
of 1794 performed the adoration of the Emperor’s Tablet on first
entering China, much in the way described in the text.
There is a remarkable amplification in the last paragraph of the
chapter as given by Ramusio: “When all are in their proper places,
a certain great personage, or high prelate as it were, gets up
and says with a loud voice: ‘Bow yourselves and adore!’ On this
immediately all bend and bow the forehead to the ground. Then the
prelate says again: ‘God save and keep our Lord the Emperor, with
length of years and with mirth and happiness.’ And all answer: ‘So
may it be!’ And then again the prelate says: ‘May God increase and
augment his Empire and its prosperity more and more, and keep all
his subjects in peace and goodwill, and may all things go well
throughout his Dominion!’ And all again respond: ‘So may it be!’
And this adoration is repeated four times.”
One of Pauthier’s most interesting notes is a long extract from the
official Directory of Ceremonial under the Mongol Dynasty, which
admirably illustrates the chapters we have last read. I borrow
a passage regarding this adoration: “The Musician’s Song having
ceased, the Ministers shall recite with a loud voice the following
Prayer: ‘Great Heaven, that extendest over all! Earth which art
under the guidance of Heaven! We invoke You and beseech You to heap
blessings upon the Emperor and the Empress! Grant that they may
live ten thousand, a hundred thousand years!’
“Then the first Chamberlain shall respond: ‘May it be as the prayer
hath said!’ The Ministers shall then prostrate themselves, and when
they rise return to their places, and take a cup or two of wine.”
The K’o-tow (_Khéu-théu_) which appears repeatedly in this
ceremonial and which in our text is indicated by the four
prostrations, was, Pauthier alleges, not properly a Chinese form,
but only introduced by the Mongols. Baber indeed speaks of it as
the _Ḳornish_, a Moghul ceremony, in which originally “the person
who performed it kneeled nine times and touched the earth with his
brow each time.” He describes it as performed very elaborately
(nine times _twice_) by his younger uncle in visiting the elder.
But in its essentials the ceremony must have been of old date
at the Chinese Court; for the Annals of the Thang Dynasty, in a
passage cited by M. Pauthier himself,[1] mention that ambassadors
from the famous Hárún ar Rashíd in 798 had to perform the “ceremony
of kneeling and striking the forehead against the ground.” And M.
Pauthier can scarcely be right in saying that the practice was
disused by the Ming Dynasty and only reintroduced by the Manchus;
for in the story of Shah Rukh’s embassy the performance of the
K’o-tow occurs repeatedly.
[“It is interesting to note,” writes Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p.
22), “that in A.D. 981 the Chinese Envoy, Wang Yen-tê, sent to the
Uigur Prince of Kao-chang, refused to make genuflexions (_pai_) to
him, as being contrary to the established usages as regards envoys.
The prince and his family, however, on receiving the envoy, all
faced eastward (towards Peking) and made an obeisance (_pai_) on
receiving the imperial presents (_shou-tzŭ_).” (_Ma Twan-lin_, Bk.
336, 13.)—H. C.]
(_Gaubil_, 142; _Van Braam_, I. 20–21; _Baber_, 106; _N. et E._
XIV. Pt. I. 405, 407, 418.)
The enumeration of _four_ prostrations in the text is, I fancy,
quite correct. There are several indications that this number was
used instead of the three times three of later days. Thus Carpini,
when introduced to the Great Kaan, “bent the left knee four times.”
And in the Chinese bridal ceremony of “Worshipping the Tablets,”
the genuflexion is made four times. At the court of Sháh Abbás an
obeisance evidently identical was repeated four times. (_Carp._
759; _Doolittle_, p. 60; _P. Della Valle_, I. 646.)
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[1] _Gaubil_, cited in _Pauthier’s Hist. des Relations Politiques de la
Chine_, etc., p. 226.