PAU PEL LOI

P. 254, vers le bas. — Zire M. J. Fliche.

P. 255, n. 2. — Pour les portraits de généraux peints par les Jésuites sous K‘ien-long, cf. Laufer, Christian Art, p. 17, renvoyant à une note de M. F. W. K. Müller dans Zeitschr. für Ethnologie, 1903, t. XXXV, p. 483.

Note finale (cf. p. 187): — Au dernier moment, j'ai accès à la revue d'art et d'archéologie Eh y LE Xi Yi chou ts'ong pien, qui paraît depuis quelques années à Changhai. Dans le n° du 4° mois de 1917 est reproduit un tableau de Castiglione du type usuel, représentant une femme jouant avec deux enfants. Le n° du 8° mois de cette même année contient une image de tigre mise sous le nom de Castiglione, encore que le tableau ne soit pas signé de lui et porte seulement la signature (fausse) de ol + Pao Kouei des Song; tout ce qu’on peut dire est que c’est là une œuvre sinon de Castiglione lui-même, du moins de l’école «européenne» de la Cour; aussi est-il curieux de voir cette peinture porter une notice autographe de Touan-fang, où ce collectionneur affirme que c’est «sûrement là un

chef-d'œuvre des Song».

P. 233, 1. 20: Lire: c’est que ceux-ci n’existaient pas encore... — L. 22: Lire: chouei-fa,

ou «systèmes hydrauliques». — L. 25: Lire: comme tout le Palais d'Eté,

— Le —

Nothing can be more vague than the chronology of Odoric's life and travels, with the single exception of the date of his death.

The date of his birth has been guessed as 1285 or 1286, Yule adding (in Cathay IT, p. 8) “judging, however, from the effigies of Odoric on his tomb at Udine, I should have guessed the date of his birth to stand a dozen years earlier than that mentioned”, — that is, in 1274. On this point no new evidence seems to have come to light, although Jerome Golubovich O.S.F. (in Archivum Franc. Histor., 1917, p. 22) would place the date of birth in 1265 by an argument which seems to me to have little or no weight.

Of the date and duration of Odoric’s travels a little more can be said than about his birth, but after all it is very little and very vague. On his travels ‘he started sometime between 1316 and 1318 (inclusive), and from them he returned shortly before the spring of 1330” (Yule, L.ce. p. 9). Cordier accepts the date of his departure, which some say was from Venice ‘with the galleys”, as April, 1318. Yule (1.c. p. 98) tells us that the galleys for Trebizond did not leave Venice till the middle of July; and the years 1318 or 1316 are vigorously attacked by Golubovich on the following

grounds.

276 A. © MOÛLE.

The date 1318, he says, has no other foundation whatever than the statement of two late Italian MSS of the type underlying the second or minor Ramusian text. These two MSS are 52 and 53 in the Yule-Cordier list (Cathay IX, pp. 59, 60), and begin, sure enough, ‘“Ani domini mocexvii. Jo frate odoricho” and “Anno mccexvii. 10 Frate Oderigo” respectively. Unfortunately for Golubovich's reputation for accuracy, No. 51 and 54 in the list also contain the date mcccxvii, though the month, April, seems to be due to the printed editions of Virunio (1513) and Ramusio (1583). The four MSS are dated, in Cathay: 51, ‘xivth or xvth cent.”;, 52, ‘‘xivth cent.”; 58, ‘‘xvth cent.”’; and 54, ‘“‘xivth cent.”, whereas Golubovich assigns 52 and 53 (the only ones he mentions) to the xvth century.

But there is another possible way of arriving at the date. According to Golubovich two other Italian MS$S and one Latin MS give the duration of Odoric’s travels sas fourteen or fourteen and a half years and so, counting back from 1330, fix the beginning in 1315 or 1316. These MSS are Yule-Cordier No. 58 (at Lucca — “paesi ne li quali el feze dimora anni xuij'”) and 59 (at Pisa — “paesi nelle qualli elli fue personalmente quattordici anni”), both of the xvth century; and 47, of the xivth or xvth century, at Venice, which says (Cathay II, p. 279) “Quatuordecim annis cum dimidio ..in hujusmodi partibus sum moratus”. Here again a second Latin MS (27) of the xivth century, which mentions fourteen years, must be added to the list.

Golubovich has, no doubt, done good service in pointiug out that all this is not very secure evidence for fixing Odoric's departure in 1315, 1316, or 1318; but what are we to say to the reasoning by which he himself makes Odoric sail for the Holy Land in 1296, and again for the Far East in 1314? He writes (1. c. p. 21) that

Odoric's ‘‘whole oriental missionary career was full 33 years, as we

[Re

are assured by the following indubitable testimony of one of his superiors. Here is the interesting document, preserved in a rare codex in the Royal Library at Monaco (cod. lat. 3702), written about 1450, which contains a list of Franciscan Saints, among whom ïis our Odoric, with the following notice: — ‘Item, in the Province of St Anthony Brother Odoric, who for XXXIII years read the word of life among the infidels, preaching many years in many tongues. He travelled as far as to the Indies where in the court of the great Khan (magni Kay) he represented the glory of the faith for three years. About him brother Conrad of Pigan, Vicar of the North, who himself went about among the Saracens for thirty years, has told (De ipso narravit fr. Conradus de Pigan, Vicarius Aquilonaris, qui et ipse inter Sarracenos XXX aunis circuiens, quod) that wherever the said Brother, who knew only Latin, came he found him an interpreter of tongues. In obedience to a command he told the marvels which he saw and heard from trustworthy persons, a certain Brother writing them down A.D. 1330, in the month of May at Padua. He departed to the Lord A.D. 1331 on the 13th day of January...”

Of this it is enough to say that it was written 120 years after Odoric’s death, and that the unknown Conrad (who is no doubt the “one of his superiors” alluded to by Golubovich) is not made to vouch for the traveller’s thirty-three years missionary career.

No room for the preliminary seventeen years of this career is found in the ‘‘authoritative life” (as Golubovich constantly calls it) of the Saint of which I proceed to offer a translation, and it seems to me that we practically have as yet no reason to start Odorie on his travels before 1314, and no evidence at all of the date of his birth.

The Life of Odoric is contained in the Chronicles of the General Ministers of the Order of Minor Friars. This valuable work, which

was already more or less known through the use made of it by Wadding for his Annales Minorum, was printed for the first time from an Assisi MS (No. 329) as vol. III of Analecta Franciscana, Quaracchi, 1897. The editors give reason for believing that the bulk of the work was written before 1369, and so we may suppose that the Life of Odorie which comes on fol. 150 r0—151 vw? (Anal. Franc. IT, pp. 499—504) was written within forty years of his death. It is as follows: —

“Under this General (Gerard Odo) there flourished and died before the Chapter at Perpignan the most perfect man Brother Odorie of Friuli, who entered the Order of Minor Brothers when he was quite young, and from the time of his profession always wore hair-cloth 1) or eoat of mail next his skin. He was never willing to be promoted to the official positions of the Order, but to be busy with humble ministries. He always fed sparingly, too, as far as possible on bread and water; and the bread was commonly made of a red grain which : given to donkeys for oats. Also,

before he went beyond the sea, he was alone in a certain wood,

with the leave of his Minister, leading the solitary life of a hermit.

Once also while he was praying in church he saw the devil trying to strangle a burgher for three nights. A certain woman, the wife of a smith, who had a cancer on her jaw, was cured by the divine power alone through Brother Odoric at the prayer of her husband, after the sign of the eross had been impressed on her jaw with the greatest devotion. And with the sign of the cross he healed a girl who had a disease of an incurable nature in the hand. He exacted from her, nevertheless, a faithful promise that she would never tell it as long as he lived.

“Moreover when in his piety he had crossed the sea and passed

through many lands towards the south and east, he saw many

1) The ciicium still shown at Udine is a kind of chain girdle, cirgulus ferreus.

wonderful things which he committed to writing and so made a book, which is called Concerning the wonders of the world. In the sixteen years for which he was there (In xvi annis quibus ibi fuit) he baptized twenty thousand infidels and subdued them to the catholic faith.

“Once he was there in a place where the order was that no one should receive any Christian under his roof under pain of death and confiscation of his goods. He however was so seriously ill that for a year he could not walk on his feet. He was never- * theless placed by a rustic under a tree which is called fasciol, to lie there. And all through that year he ate nothing but the fruits of that tree, which continue all the year round, an@ drank nothing but the water which flowed from the foot of that tree. He said too that he had borne this patiently without auxiety. Moreover once when, being very hungry, he had eaten a fruit which he had found in a stream, that fruit gave him so great strength that he travelled for nine days without needing or taking food or driuk. And he believed that he would never have needed food or drink any more, if he had not eaten other things to oblige some lady.

“Afterwards when he was going to the house of an idolater to convert him, and was taking the man’s son with him, when he got up after matins the boy was so sleepy that he could not go on. So Brother Odoric put him up in a tree to sleep because of the wild beasts, and gave himself up meanwhile to prayer. And he saw a multitude of women dressed in green, walking along the road in procession and singing melodiously. And after that he saw another longer procession of women dressed in red, who were followed by others dressed in white silk, and all had wouderful crowns. And last he saw a lady of extreme beauty dressed in garments of cloth of gold, and supported by many knights. And then Brother Odoric

was called by his own name by that lady so great, and he answered

in amazement: ‘Lady, who are you, and how do you know me?” ‘I, says she, am the Mother of God, and go with all these to do honour to a woman who is soon to die, who has always served me in viginhood. The first procession indeed, which you saw, is of holy wives and widows; the second, of martyrs; the third, of those who have kept their virginity pure.” And so as they talked Brother Odoric walked with her nearly half a league. At length the blessed Virgin told him to go back quickly to the boy whom he would find erying, and then to follow her at once, because the said woman could not die until he had ministered the Eucharist to her. As the vision vanished therefore, Brother Odoric found the boy crying and after that the sick woman who, when he had communicated her, departed this life as the Virgin had said.

“He came also to a country, which is called Malescorte !), where as well as in great Tartary God has given such grace to the Minor Brothers that with a word alone they drive out devils from bodies possessed as quickly as they would chase a dog from the house. And for this reason demoniacs are brought bound to the Brothers from a distance of ten days journey, and beiug set free and converted to the faith are baptized by the Brothers. And then the Brothers put their idols which are made of felt in the fire, and if, as sometimes happens, they come out of the fire by the help of the devil, the Brothers sprinkle the fire with holy water and put the devil to flight, and the idols are burnt up at once. And the evil spirit cries out in the air ‘See how I am driven out of my house’. And the idolaters hearing this are converted and are baptized by the Brothers.

“When he was going through a valley which is placed above

a Certain river of delight, he saw many corpses of dead men, and

1) Cf. Cathay I, pp. 257, 260, 261, where the casting out of devils is not connected with this place (Millestorte, Melensorte, etc.), but only with great Tartary.

heard such a sound of nakers and musical instruments, that he was shaken by a great fear. Moreover that valley is seven or eight miles long, and whoever enters it never comes out, as is kuown in that land, but dies without delay. Nevertheless Brother Odoric, committing himself to God, went into it. So after he had found innumerable corpses of the dead at the entrance, as he went on he saw in the rock on one side a human face so terrible that he nearly died of fright. Commending himself however to God by saying continually ‘The Word was made flesh’, he went up to within about seven paces of the face, but being afraid to go nearer he passed on to the head of the valley. And going up a sand hil] and looking about from thence, he saw nothing but a quantity of silver on the top of the hill gathered together like fishes” scales. And at first he put some of it into his bosom, but afterwards, having no use for it, he threw it away. He heard moreover all the time the sound of the said nakers and by the protection of God came out unhurt. And when the Saracens saw him they saluted him with the greatest astonishment, and said that he had so escaped because he was baptized and holy. They said also that the saïd dead men, were evil spirits of hell 1).

“He came also to the wonderful palace of the most great emperor who is called the great Khan, where the Minor Brothers always have a special place at table, and the emperor receives the blessing from them. When however he had stayed with him for two years, he came back of his own wish this side of the sea, that he might take Brothers there to teach the people. While therefore he was returning for the said reason to his own land, the devil appeared to him on the road in the form of a woman pilgrim. And when she asked him, calling him by his own name, where he

was going, Brother Odoric said to her, ‘Who and whence art thou ?’

1) Cf. Cathay I, pp. 262—266.

Le) Œ Le)

She replied ‘I am the devil, come to hinder thee in thy business, lest thon drive us from our possessions. And know that never shalt thou return to these lands’. And he, all disturbed, shouted in answer ‘Go, Satan and father of lies, for I believe thee not at all’. Now his companion, who was behind him, wondered that he talked so loudly with himself, and thought that he had gone mad. And when he blamed him for talking so, he answered that he was not talking to the air, but to the devil ‘who’, says he, ‘said so and so to me”.

‘When however he wished to go to the lord Pope for his blessing and to beseech him with regard to the troubles of the Order, when he was at Pisa he began constantly to be very ill. And when he was in great pain the blessed Francis appeared to him in a cloud which was bright inside and dark outside and said ‘Brother Odoric, thou shalt not go to the Court, for I am going and will set forward the business for which thou wishest to go. But rise aud go back to thy nest, and there shalt thou die, for this city is not worthy to hold thee dead.” And he had himself carried at once to Udine, his own country, notwithstanding his very great bodily weakness and the distance of the place. And when he had been generally confessed and the confessor wished to absolve him, he said ‘Father, I am glad for thee to absolve me, although I have no need, because I have been absolved from all my sins by God.” And afterwards on Monday about Terce (die lunae cirea tertiam) he departed this life.

“But when the Brothers wished to bury him after the Office at Vespers, the Gastald, or governor of the city, who was a great friend of Brother Odorie, comes and says ‘Brothers, it would not be a good thing that such a man should be buried thus. But wait ll the morning, and I and the whole town will do him honour, And so it was done. And on the following Tuesday morning (sequenti vero die Martis de mane), while the Brothers were saying

the funeral service and women were coming up according to the

custom to kiss his feet, a certain lady [in the service] of the sister (quaedam matrona sororis) of the lord Patriarch of Aquileia, who had had her whole arm shrunken for seven months, so that she could do nothing for herself, confidently touched her own shrunken arm with the arm of Brother Odoric aud instantly called out and showed that she was cured. Then everyone shouted alond and saïd ‘he is holy, and so must uot be buried so quickly. And then many sick people came and all went away cured by his merits.

“His face was more beautiful than when he was alive, and his limbs were as pliant as those of a living man. But when people had torn off his cassock up to his knees, a woman who tried to eut off one of his fingers with scissors was suddenly paralyzed; and on account of this the Brothers shuë up his body in à coffin (uchia). For on Wednesday the Reader of the Preachers preached about his life in the evening. And when they wanted to put him in another coffin (arca) with three locks and then to bury him in a new tomb, aud devout people were coming in cerowds to kiss his feet and hands, so sweet a swell came from the coffin that all wondered. And the Custos of the church of the Canons, a man of position, and some of the burghers wanted to prove whether the Brothers had put in scent to deceive the people, and one of them uncovered him and, by applying his nose even between his legs, found the same fragrance all over the body, and even swore that for more than a week he perceived that scent on his hands which had touched the sacred corpse.

“When he was buried and people were taking pieces of the frst coffin (caxia, = capsa) for relies, one man, wanting to take a piece of the first shirt with a great sword, eut off the whole of his own finger. And after putting some of the said wood on the eut, he wrapped up his finger, hanging as it was by the skin, and so went

to the doctor. And when the broken finger was unbound, it was

found so healed that scarcely a trace of the cut could be seen. And the doctor was annoyed thinking that he had been hoaxed, until the man, lost in astonishment, stoutly declared that the cut had really been made and that he had been healed by Brother Odoric.

“On the following sixth-day (Friday) the lord Patriarch of Aquileia came from one of his castles to visit the sacred corpse. And when the doctors said that they doubted whether he had really been dead before he was buried, since his limbs were supple aud his face fair aud of a good colour and his body sweet, the lord Patriarch caused him to be publicly taken from the grave so as to remove this mistake. And when the Governor of the city and the Consuls and the Warden, who for safer custody were keeping the three keys where the sacred corpse was, met, the coffin was unlocked, and the sacred body taken from the coffin and reverently placed on an altar. And the lord Patriarch seeing his limbs still supple and pliant as those of a living man, and perceiving the greatest sweetness with his nose, could not refrain from tears. And putting a ring on his finger, he knelt down and worshipped him as a Saint; and after him his whole retinue did the same. His face moreover was fair and fresh as if he were alive. And when the Abbess of Aquileia, whose convent was at a distance of six leagues, came to the place, the Governor, Consuls, and Warden aforesaid, who held the keys of the said coffin, came, and the sacred corpse was placed on an altar again with lighted candles, at her request, because she was very noble. And while the Sisters two and two were coming devoutly to kiss his feet, a stone from the building fell on Brother Odoric’s leg, making a bruise and wound from which blood flowed. And the governor of the city wiped up the blood with his silk-lined

hood !) and kept it as a relic.

1) Caputio folrato de serico. The printed text has caputio foderato de serico, ‘a furlined hood of silk’.

“Brother Michael of Venice, who had fistulas of an incurable kind in his throat, and the throat itself pierced, for quite seven years, heard in the lands beyond the sea of the miracles of Brother Odoric, and devoted himself to the same holy man. And the saïd (sic) Brother James sent him a letter to this effect: ‘Brother Odorie, most loved companion, for the mutual love, friendship, and fellowship which we had together amongst the unbelievers, and by the merit of thy holiness, I beg, pray, and beseech thee to heal our friend and faithful representative from every desease.’ !) When indeed the said Brother Michael came to his tomb on the vigil of Pentecost after Matins, and had read the aforesaid letter on his knees in the presence of two Brothers, and had put a piece of the holy man's coat on the wouud with faith, he found himself after prayer so perfectly healed, that he preached to the people the same day and showed them the place of the wound and published the miracle.

“On the next day a woman was brought from Padua im à carriage, who had broken the spine of her back in hard labour and had become so doubled and bent towards the ground that she could not raise her head more than three palms, though, nevertheless, she was [naturally] tall (cum tamen esset longa), and had walked with a stick doubled up like this for ten years. But when she stayed there by the tomb, on the third day she was restored to her former health, walking in the sight of all perfectly upright without à stick.

“With many other miracles did the Lord make his Saint wonderful, to whom is honour and glory for ever.”

To this Life, which after all does not tell us much that is new, we add versions of extracts from other works.

“At Udine lies holy Brother Odorie who from zeal for the faith went to the lands of the unbelievers and made much fruit in the

conversion of the nations, and visited the greater part of the lands

1) James, one of Odoric’s travelling companious, seems to have been an Irishman. » 5 P ,

of the unbelievers in person. And though he was very well informed about the cireumstances, dwellings, and manners of the aforesaid peoples and could speak with truth, yet he desired to have a threefold command to write the marvels of the aforesaid peoples; and s0, bound by obedience, he published a short work about the marvels of the unbelievers. Coming back at last to his native province of St Anthony he slept in the Lord at Udine, and his death was glorious in the sight of the Lord. After death this saint did and still does many signs, on account of which he was canonized in the patriarchate of Aquileia. This Brother Odoric raised from the dead, at the prayer of his sister, a certain Minor Brother who had lain six days in the tomb. And Brother Henry the Minister General saw him raised up, as Master Matthew Bartoli said.” 1)

And again: ‘The Custodia of Friuli has a station at Udine, in which lies buried Brother Odoric, canonized for his virtues in the patriarchate of Aquileia, who visited almost the whole world preaching and teaching.” ?)

Next we translate an interesting passage from the Chronicle of John of Viktring, which is quoted in full by Cordier (p. vit), but is little known to English readers, as it is barely mentioned by Yule. John’s Chronicle extends from 1211 to 1343, and is therefore the work of a contemporary of Odoric, and although this passage does not come in what seems to be the original form of the Chronicle, the extended form in which this and other additions are found is

only carried to the year 1347, so that we may well think that

1) Or, according to the Assisi codex, ‘as be himself told me Master Bartholomew by word of mouth. Bartholomew of Pisa, De Conformitate, in Analecta Franc. IV, p. 274. Bartholomew of Pisa (i.e. Bartholomaeus de Rinonico de Pisis) is not to be confused, as Yule and others confuse him, with his earlier contemporary Bartholomaeus domini Albisi, also of Pisa, who died ce. 1360; whereas the author of the De Conformitate is first heard of in 1352 and is said to have died in 1401, having finished the book about 1390.

2) Ibid. p. 525.

the notice of Odoric is written by a contemporary. This extended Chronicle was printed from a 15th century MS, under the title of ‘Anonymi Leobiensis Chronicon’ by Hier. Pez in Scriptores Rerum Austriacarum, Vol. I, 1743, where this passage will be found in col. 919,20. Cordier quotes it, and it is here translated, from the text printed by J. F. Boehmer in lontes Rerum Germanicarum, vol. I, 1843, p. 391. Boehmer, whose text differs a little from that of Pez, presumably copied the additions (which he priuts in footnotes) from the same Kloster-Neuburg MS. It is then as follows :

‘At this time [i.e. in the days of Pagano, Patriarch of Aquileia] a Brother of the Order of Minors, named Ulric, of the descendants of those whom King Ottakar had once placed at Pordenone as a guard, who had gone into exile for a long time for the propagation of the faith in the lands beyond the sea, came home and told wonderful stories. Amongst the rest, when some of his companious had been burned by the Saracens, he himself, coming to collect their bones, is caught and thrown into the fire, but came out unhurt. And when the gentiles were praising him because of this, he says that the Lord had shown this miracle not for his merits, but for the virtue of the bones of the saints. He related besides that he had seen in a monastery a man, who was keeper of animals of different kinds, sheep, goats, monkeys, dogs, aud such like, which at a fixed time he drove up to feed, and placed before them remnants of food; and said that they were (human) souls, but had lived like these animals, and so were changed into their likeness. And when he could make no progress against this belief, although he argued in the catholic way, he shook off the dust from his feet and went away, leaving the error in minds hardened by the wiles of the devil. He died at Udine in Friuli, famous for many miracles.

The people had run in erowds to his tomb.”

Lastly we give the brief notice of Odorie, derived probably in part from the Chronica G'eneralium, which Marianus of Florence inserted in his Compendium Chronicarum O. F. M., ce. 1525, which was first printed in Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, 1908 — 11, and issued separately in 1911. It is as follows:

“Brother Odoric of Friuli, a most holy man and bright with miracles, fell asleep in the Lord on the 14th January A.D. 1331. And the Patriarch of Aquileia inscribed him on the roll of Saints in his own patriarchate. In the sixteen years for which he stayed in the lands of the south and east he saw many wonderful things, and baptized twenty thousand unbelievers and subdued them to the catholic faith. And coming back thence to Italy, he wrote by command a book called Concerning the wonders of the World.” ?)

We have said above that no date in Odoric's career is certain, except the date of his death. Two modifications of this statement should be made. First, it is not open to doubt that his book was dictated and written at Padua in May, 1330. Secondly, there is more divergence than Yule, Cordier, or Golubovich would lead one to suppose with regard to the date of his death. Yule (Cathay IT, p. 13) says “he died on the 14th January, 1331” and adds in a note: “This is the date given by the postscripts to Odoric’s narrative, and all the subsequent accounts.” In the postscripts which he himself prints in Latin (pp. 276, 336) and English (p. 275) it 1s “pridie idus Januarii” or the 12th January! Cordier (p. xxxt) and Golubovich (p. 22) accept the 14th January, 1331, without remark.

From the little extracts from the MSS which are given in the Yule-Cordier Bibliography (Cathay II, pp. 39—74), with some help from other pages, it is possible to discover the date given in the postscript in seventeen cases, with the following result.

One MS (14; 14th cent.) has 4 Jan., 1330; two MSS (16, 17;

1) Compendium etc., Quaracchi, 1911, p. 71.

? and 15th cent.) have 14 Jan., 1330; three (13; 14th cent. 47; l4th cent, and another (p. 276)) have 12 Jan., 1331; two MSS (33, 40; 14th cent.) supported by the 15th cent. notice quoted above, have 13 Jan., 1331. All the above are Latin. The date 14 Jav., 1331, is given in four Latin MSS (2, 5, 18, 61) of the 14th cent. and one (37) of the 17th cent, and in one Italian MS (58) of the 14th cent. and two (66, 67) of the 15th or 16th centuries. And finally one French MS (69) of the 15th century gives 14 Jan., 1332. None of these postscripts seem to name the day of the week or the hour; and Wadding's Monday is no doubt derived from the Zife which is translated above. In 1331, the 14th January fell on Monday, a fact which of course tends to confirm the accepted date. Whether the variation which exists between the third and ninth hour can be in any way due to the correspondence of the “third hour” with “9 o’elock” I do not know.

Such is the meagre story of our traveller. From boyish asceticism and the life of a hermit in the greenwood he turned about the year 1314 or 1315, with one of those sharp changes which sometimes bisect a human life, to spend the rest of his time wandering through the busiest and most crowded haunts of men. Yule is perhaps too quick to deny him the spirit and intention of a missionary. His book asserts that he went out to win souls, and came back to collect a party of fifty missionary recruits for Cathay. In his first seven years spent in Armenia and Persia among members of his own Order who were so busy with daily baptisms and confirmations that they had no time for meals until the stars came out, he probably helped in the work, and several of his later stories allude to preaching or to baptism. He seems to have reached Thana near Bombay in 1321 or 1322 and has left us one of the most detailed stories of the martyrdom there, on their way to China, of four of

his Brothers. An old document, the existence and nature of which

have not been verified, asserts that he visited Lin-ch'‘ing in Shantung and founded a Church there in 1326, on his way to or from his two or three years stay at Peking 1). And he was home again in Padua in May, 1330. It is not doabted that he saw most of the places he describes; but the sources of his information are perhaps less certain. He has some stock travellers’ tales like the O!4 Man of the Mountains. In his notice of Cansai (Hang-chou in China) it can almost be demonstrated that he merely repeats the words of his hosts and guides. Some of his sentences are actual translations from contemporary guide books, still extant, which no doubt contain the sort of stories which would be told to visitors. Conspicuous is the story of the feeding of the beasts which had human faces and souls. It is in the Chinese books and it is still recorded on the rocks; but it was the performance of the ‘Ape's Father”, a particular monk who died eight centuries before Odoric was born. Odoric describes the place, which he quite probably visited, and the way there by water quite correctly, but I doubt if he saw the show. Marignolli, twenty years later, declares that he experimented on the beasts with a cross, but still I have my doubts. The Chinese books, not one but many of them, are resolutely sure that the performance took place once and long ago”). But this sort of question only adds to the interest of the narrative.

Born in the quiet country of Friuli, the traveller returned at

last from the ends of the earth to die there in peace.

1) Le Missioni Francescane in Palestina etc. vol. II, fase. VIII, 31 Agosto, 1892, pp. 475—481. The document is said to be in the archives of the Franciscan Mission at Chi-nan. I owe this reference to Monsieur Pelliot.

2) The curious version of the story given by John of Viktring (p. 287 above) suggests that Odorie may bave seen sheep and goats driven up to feed, aud at the same time heard the story of the apes, and perhaps unconsciously blended the two into one tale of his own

experience.

Public Debts in China. By Fexc-nua Huaxc, Ph. D. New York, Columbia University, 1919, in-8, pp. 105.

Cet ouvrage qui est le No. 2 du Vol. 85 des Studies in History, Economies and Public Law publiées par la Faculté des Sciences politiques de Columbia University passe en revue dans sept chapitres les différents emprunts contractés par la Chine: I. Emprunts domestiques; ÎT. Indemnités et Emprunts de guerre; III. Emprunts de chemin de fer; IV—V. Emprunts généraux; VI. Emprunts provinciaux, domestiques et étrangers; VII. Conclusions et suggestions. Dans des appendices, des tableaux récapitulent ces emprunts. Il eut été préférable, je crois, de donner une liste chronologique de ces emprunts dont le premier, dont il ne parait pas être question, est celui de décembre 1874 au capital nominal de 2.000.000 de taels à 8 °/, d'intérêt annuel, garanti par les Douanes maritimes, rem-

boursable en dix ans. Je ne parle pas des petites sommes prêtées

en 1865 — 1866. H C0:

The Foreign Trade of China. By Cnonc Su-see, Ph. D. Published under the auspices of the China Society of America. New York, Columbia University, 1919, in-8, pp. 451.

C'est le No. 199, Vol. 87 des Studies de Columbia University.

L'ouvrage est divisé en deux parties: les Relations commerciales

avant 1861; les Relations commerciales depuis 1861, suivies d’appendices renfermant d’utiles statistiques et se terminant par un index alphabétique.

L'ouvrage est écrit surtout d’après des sources anglaises, ce qui est assez naturel puisque le commerce anglais est le plus important de Chine, mais l’auteur aurait pu glaner dans d’autres livres des renseignements utiles. J'ai consacré de longs travaux aux Marchands hanistes et au Consulat de France à Canton que M. Chong ne paraît pas avoir connus; il aurait puisé aussi des notes nombreuses dans Cathay and the Way thither, seconde édition, qu'il a consultée trop sommairement. IÎl ne paraît pas connaître le Commerce du Levant de W. Heyn. C’est moi et non M. Albert MayBon (p. 212) qui ai baptisé les «Cent jours» la période des réformes de Kouang-siu. J'aurais désiré aussi plus de sources purement chinoises. Néanmoins, tel qu'il est, ce livre est intéressant et témoigne d’un travail consciencieux. Beaucoup des titres des ouvrages de la bibliographie ont été cités de seconde main: Breden pour Bredon (p. 410);

Grossier pour Grosier (p. 412). 1 AUDE

Modern China À Political Study by Sru-Guxc Cuex6, M. À, .... Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1919, in-8; pp. vi1— 380.

L'intérêt de ce petit volume est de nous présenter au point de vue chinois les problèmes que soulève la situation compliquée de l'heure actuelle. La partie qui sollicitera plus particulièrement l'attention du lecteur est celle qui traite des Nouveaux Problèmes depuis Ja guerre et spécialement de l'affaire de Kiao Tcheou. À la fin du livre ou trouvera un certain nombre de documents officiels des dernières années. L'auteur a raison (pp. 305 seq.) de marquer le réveil du patriotisme chinois dans les dernières années

et il rend justice au désintéressement des Etats-Unis, de la Grande

Bretagne et de la France. Il n’a pas tort de manquer de confiance

à l'égard du Japon. H°C:

The Tsokiang; or Water Transport Conditions between Tonkin, Lungchow, and Nanning. Shanghaï, Maritime 1 1 9 Le) )

Customs, 1920, in-4, pp. 23, carte.

Le Tso Kiang Æ ÿŸL ou Rivière de Gauche est formé du Soung ki kiang 42 Fe /L, appelé aussi Soung ki koung et rivière de Lang So’n et de la rivière de Kao P‘'ing En 2% ÿpf , appelé par les Annamites Soung Bang Giang, qui descend de Caobang; au confluent des deux rivières est bâti Loung Tcheou HE JA. Le Soung ki kiang nait près de la frontière du Tong Kivg et du Kouang Touug, près du poste de Baxa; la rivière de Caobang ou en chinois Mumaho (Muma, nom chinois de Caobang) #Y js Ye] ; prend naissance au Yun Nan et pénètre au Tong King près de Bingmang et rentre en Chine à Chouei k'eou (Shui k'ou 7% FH) pour descendre à Loung Tcheou.

Le Tso Kiang se termine à San kiang k'eou, — ÿT F1, 30 milles au-dessus de Nan Ning, après sa jonction avec le Yeou Kiang À /L ou rivière de droite; sa longueur de Loung Teheou à San Kiang K'eou est de 183 milles; la distance par eau entre Loung Tcheou et Nan Ning est de 213 milles. Le principal affluent du Tso Kiang est le Ning Ming Ho ## H}} ÿpf ou Ming Kiang H}} /T ; les deux autres affluents sont le Hei chouei ho Æ 7K ÿn] à gauche

et le Houa Ho Âk, Fr] à droite.

Cette étude qui forme le No. 33 de la «Special Series» des publications des Douanes maritimes est dûe à M. Pierre Boürnais,

Acting Commissioner à Loung T'eheou. Hi: €:

Louis Finor, La Marche à la Lumière (Bodhiëaryävatära) [Les classiques de l'Orient], Paris, Bossard, 1920, in-8°, 166 pages PL Se n-tch. ll 280

La collection des Classiques de l'Orient, entreprise par l'éditeur Bossard sous le patronage de l'Association française des Amis de l'Orient et sous la direction de M. Victor Goloubew, a pour but de mettre entre les mains du public lettré des traductions fidèles, mais facilement lisibles, d'œuvres caractéristiques de l'Orient. Elle a débuté par un épisode fameux du ÆRämaäyana, La légende de Nala et Damayantt, traduite par M. $S. Lévi, et doit successivement donner des V5 traduits par M. N. P£rt, Trois drames tibétains traduits par M. Bacor, Les Questions du roi Ménandre traduites par M. Finor ; l'intérêt des œuvres et les noms des traducteurs font bien augurer de l’avenir de l’entreprise.

Le Bodhicaryävatära de Çantideva, qui est sans doute du milieu du VII siècle, méritait de figurer dans cette série. Dès la première publication du texte sanscrit par Minayev en 1890, M. Barth, avec son jugement si sûr des choses de l'Inde, avait proclamé que c'était là «une très belle œuvre, une sorte de pendant bouddhique de l'Imitation». Depuis lors on a eu une traduction française de M. de La Varrée Poussin et une traduction anglaise abrégée de M. Baunerr. La nouvelle version française de M. Finot, d’une élégante sobriété et enrichie des gravures sur bois de Mlle H. Tirmaw, rencontrera certainement le meilleur accueil.

Ce poème, qui n’a pas 1000 vers, a d’ailleurs joui dans le monde bouddhique d’une grande popularité, qui lui a valu d'exister en plusieurs recensions. Bien que nous ne possédions que l’une d'elles en sanscerit, et que la traduction tibétaine, qu’on place dans la première moitié du XI® siècle, réponde au texte sanscrit que

nous avous, la version chinoise de circa 1000 A.D. n’est qu’en 8

sections au lieu de 10, et l'ordre et le contenu des sections sont sensiblement différents 1). En fait, l'historien tibétain du bouddhisme, Täranätha, parle de trois recensions du Bodhicaryävatära. Une seule est incorporée au Tanjur, mais elle y est accompagnée de 12 commentaires, tous traduits du sanserit en tibétain ?). Les Tibétains firent même connaître le Bodhicaryävatära aux Mongols, et la version mongole, qui date peut-être du début du XIV® siècle, a dû encore être revue par des lamas de Pékin au XVIII® siècle 5).

P. PezLior.

La Chine à travers les Ages hommes et choses — Précis — Index biographique — Index bibliographique. 1920, in-8, pp. 547. [Imprimerie de Hien Hien].

Ce livre termine la série des grands ouvrages désirés par les T. R. P. L. Marnin et F. X. Werwz, Généraux de la Compagnie de Jésus, et demandés au P. L. Wiçer par le P. Emile Becker, Supérieur de la Mission du Tche Li S.E., mort le 28 avril 1918, auquel l'ouvrage est dédié.

La Préface nous indique le but de l'ouvrage. Il résume et complète, dit le P. Wieger, mon Histoire politique de la Chine (Textes historiques), ét mon Histoire des Croyances religieuses et des Opinions philosophiques en Chine... Il se compose de trois parties:

Un précis. Un index biographique. Un index bibliographique.

1) M. S. Lévi a donné quelques indications à ce sujet dans B.£.F.E.-0., II, 253—55. 11 y a en outre entre le chinois et le sanserit des différences de détail qui semblent indiquer parfois des variantes de texte.

2) Cf. P. Cordier, Catal. du fonds tibétain, AW, pp. 306—310, 498, 526. M. Finot dit que la traduction tibétaine est de la première moitié du X1° siècle; c’est possible, mais le passage de Bendall auquel il renvoie n’en dit rien.

3) Cf. B. Laufer, Skizze der mongolischen Literatur (dans Keleti Szemle, t. VIII), p. 217. En outre, s’il y a eu une traduction mongole complète du Zanjwr, comme je le crois (cf. à ce sujet 7. 4, 1914, II, 112—113), tous les commentaires du Bodkicaryävatüra

déjà traduits du sanscrit en tibétain ont dû être alors retraduits du tibétain en mongol.

«Le Précis expose succinctement la suite des événements arrivés en Chine au cours des âges, depuis le commencement de son histoire jusqu'en 1911, mettant le lecteur à même de situer dans leur cadre les hommes et les choses.

«L'Index biographique contient plus de quatre mille notices.

«L'Index bibliographique contient un millier de fiches».

C'est comme on le voit, tout en complétant les ouvrages du P. Wieger, un immense répertoire qu’on peut consulter isolément. L'index biographique, noms en transcription avec les caractères chinois, me parait particulièrement précieux. L’index bibliographique sera un supplément aux Motes on Chinese Literature de WyLre.

Nous félicitons le P. Wieger sur l'achèvement de la tâche qu'il s'était imposée, mais nous comptons bien qu’il se remettra au travail

après un repos bien gagné. HxC:

LIVRES NOUVEAUX

S. E. ff fr LE Siu Che-tch'ang, Président de la République

chinoise, vient de publier un ouvrage EX Lun A ee FH Ngeou

tchan heou tche tchong kouo (<La Chine après la guerre européenne»), 1920, in-8, imprimé au je FE ££ }] Tehong-houa-chou-kiu, 2 + 4 + 138 pages.

À la librairie Bossard et sous le patronage de l'Association française des Amis de l'Orient, a paru un opuscule Art et anatomie hindous, par Abanindra Nath Tacore, 1921, 55 pages in-16, illustré, traduit de l’anglais par Mile Andrée Karpelés, avec préface de Victor Goloubew. C’est une étude sur les règles qui président dans l’art

hindou à la représentation du corps humain.

Nous avons reçu des Douanes Maritimes Chinoïises: Returns of Trade and Trade Reports, 1919. — Part IT. — Port Trade © Statistics and Reports. — Vol. II. — Yangtze Ports (Chungking to Chinkiang). — Vol. III. — Central Ports (Shanghaï to Wenchow). — Vol. IV. — Southern Coast Ports (Santuao to Pakhoi). — Vol. V. —

Frontier Ports (Lungchow to Tengyueh).

La Direction générale des Postes chinoises nous a remis son premier apport sur les Opérations de la Caisse d'Epargne

postale pour l'année 1919.

Deux fascicules ont paru de la Collection Paul Mallon; le premier par M. Gabriel Micsos ; le second par MM. Gabriel Miceox, Alexandre Morer et Maurice Pezarp; les planches sont d’une

exécution remarquable.

Nous ne faisons que signaler aujourd’hui chez Paul GeUTHNER — nous y reviendrons plus tard — l'apparition de quatre fascicules des planches que M. Paul PaLrior a consacrées à la description des

fameuses grottes de Touen Houang.

NECROLOGIE.