Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/249

 THE IBON DYNASTY. 225 a East Capital, when Shangking was again made the chief residence. The walls of this East Capital, or liaoyang, were thirty feet high and thirty li in circumference. The palaces were in the north- east of the dty, and the walls enclosing them — ^a fort within a fort — ^were also thirty feet high. Within the palace grounds were towers so high that every portion of the city could be seen thenoe, — ^a very excellent idea, when the first leader of any rabble, murdering the reigning king, stepped into the vacant throne. This city he called "Heavenly Happiness,'' and to dwellers in tents and feeders of cattle on the grassy slopes of eastern Mongolia, the fertile plain lying all round and far beyond liaoyang, covered with waving green crops far as the eye could see, would certainly seem a paradise. He was nominated a How (Marquis) by Tsin Emperor, and wa« the first to assume the title of " Liao " or " Iron " for his dynasty. The fifth ruler from Abaoji built Joongking, or Central Capital, in the land of Anping of Han. It was west of Kwangning, just within the border of modem Mongolia^ — hence the name " Central." It was changed by the succeeding Elin dynasty to Beiking or the "North Capital" — ^the name given to the modem capital of China. The Kitan are said to have delighted in drinking human blood. The husband cut open a small slit in his wife's back and drank ! — a novel mode, if true, of showing the superiority of the male sex I Strange that Chinese story makes no mention of talented females advocating Woman's Bights; — ^they should have at least demanded reciprocity. The Kitan were, nevertheless, very hospitable, and lovers of strong drink. They were. painters: and when they entered China they had a literature of several thousand volumes, among which were medical works unknown to the Chinese. In the beginning of the tenth century, Hoo Jiao, the Ling or Chi Men of Goyang, in company with Sioshan, visited the land of Kitan, and minutely related what he saw. Some of the curious stories of Ihis traveller we give below. Ten days' joumey north from Yowchow (Peking) was the