Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. IV.pdf/72

 ANCIENT BUDDHIST ARCH AT KEW-YUNG-KWAN, NANKOW PASS.

A DOUBLE line of wall rises from the village of Kew-yung-kwan, and, running up the mountain side, unites with another wall that sweeps across the crest of the hill. This point is considered one of the most important in the Nankow Pass, and it is the spot where, it is said, Genghis Khan was successfully routed in his attempt to enter the north of China. There is at this village a very remarkable marble arch (see No. 56), erected apparently during the Yuen dynasty, and said to have oricrinally carried a pagoda on its top. This pagoda was taken down shortly after the Ming Emperors got possession of the throne, and this was done to propitiate the Mongols, who were deterred by superstitious fears from passing beneath the shrine. The arch is remarkable on account of its octagonal form, and also for the strange figures from the Indian mythologies with which its surface is adorned. These ornaments very closely resemble many of the sculptures found on the ruined temples of Cambodia. I was at once struck with the similarity when I first saw the arch, and having since compared its entablatures with the photographs which I took in Cambodia in 1866, I find my original impressions confirmed.

It will be observed that the key-stone carries a mythological figure flanked with two others wearing crowns of a seven-headed snake, while the bodies of the snake flow into the ornamentation on either side. The date of the erection of this arch would be about 1345 a.d., at any rate, that is the date of an old inscription on its inner surface. Mr. Williamson mentions a fine arch and marble bridge near Kal-gan, ornamented with marble figures of monkeys, elephants, &c. These structures may prove to belong to the same period, and may point to some connection with Cambodia beyond what we can trace in the style of their ornaments. 1 have obtained further evidence regarding the knowledge possessed by the Chinese of the ancient Cambodians which throws light on the greatest period of their history, or more probably on the epoch when they had ceased to conquer, and were showing unmistakable marks of decline by raising great stone monuments to perpetuate their memory. But as this subject is somewhat foreign to my present work, 1 cannot introduce it here.

The interior of the arch is also elaborately sculptured, and two of the kings of the Devas in Buddhist mythology are to be seen on both its inner sides. As to the upper surfaces, these are covered with a great multitude of small images of Buddha carved in bas-relief. Between the two Deva kings is a Buddhist inscription in Sanscrit, with translations into the characters of five other languages, i.e. Thibetan, Mongol, Ouigour, Neu-chih, and Chinese. For a full notice of this inscription see Wylie's Translation, " Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," vol. v. Part 1, pp. 14 seq.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.

MY readers doubtless share with me in feeling that no illustrated work on China would be worthy of its name if it did not contain a picture of some portion of the Great Wall. This wall is an object neither picturesque nor striking. Viewing it simply as a wall, we find its masonry often defective, and it is not so solid or honestly constructed as one at first sight would imagine. It is only in the best parts that it has been faced with stone, or rather, that it consists of two retaining walls of stone, and a mound of earth within. In other places it is faced with brick, and there are again some other parts, of the highest antiquity, as is supposed, where we find it to consist of an earthen mound alone. Not a few travellers regard this wall as the greatest monument of misdirected human labour to be met with in the whole world, and those who have no sympathy with the modern