Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

I>46 ISLAND OF HAINAN. 179
year and have already ceased blooming in the spring, only the water-lily blooms
from the fourth or fifth month (i. e., May to June) to the end of the twelfth
month, and the plum and chrysanthemum follow it immediately.
The people are simple, honest, and frugal folk. The women do not wear
5 silk gauzes (^ ^),
nor do they whiten their faces nor blacken their
eyebrows (as Chinese women do). They follow the orthodox (Chinese) fashions
in their marriage and funeral ceremonies. No one of the common people suffers
from hunger or cold (i. e., there are no indigents).
The College was originally situated in the south-eastern section of the
10 city; it was later on transferred to the western, but in the shau-hing period
(1131 — 1163) it was again transferred to the eastern. The Memoir (|g)
concerning it was written by Duke Li Kuang (^ ^ 3^), Assistant Prime
Minister (^ ^y\
Fifteen U from the Departmental Capital there is a place called Tan-
15 ch'ang (^ :^). When Chau Ting, who was canonized as Duke Chung-kien
iM- ^ M ^ 7^)' '^^^ degraded to the rank of Magistrate in Ki-yang ",
he passed this place, where all the springs had gone dry during a great
drought in midsummer; and here, on digging a well, water was found at a
depth of a few feet. (This well) has not dried up to the present day, and it
20 is called the Siang-ts'iian or «The Minister's spring» {j^ ^); it is also well
known as the Pai-ma-tsing-ts'iian or .(White horse well springa (^ ^^ ^ ^);
it has wonderfully good water, and trading junks supply themselves from it
for the voyage home.
There is a shrine called the Ling-tsi-miau (^ ^ j^)
inside the
25 Ch5n-an gate (^ ^ P^ ), which is dedicated to the worship of the noble-
woman Tan-ir {\^ ^ ^ A)- Inuring the sAaM-AM*^ period (1131— 1163)
she was raised to the rank of an official deity under the appellation of Hienying
Fu-jon (^ J® ^ A. "*^® Noblewoman not invoked in vain»). When
the Li villages (il||^) away from the coast (i. e., in the mountains) get much
30 loot in a raid on the Tan district, they believe they have solely to thank the
power of the Fu-j5n.
Some 60 li west of the city there is, in a big laguna on an islet of the
sea, a rocky peak shaped like a lion, which the people call «the Lion god»
(^ j^ II). The fact is that there is here one of the temples consecrated
35 to the manes of Marquess Chon Li (^ %\\ ^^^, where trading junks pray
for good wind. The district has three cities, I-lun (g ^), Ch'ang-hua, and
Kau-on(^^)^«.
After a journey of 340 U in a southerly direction, one reaches the
12*