Directory_and_Chronicle_1845 — Page 392

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semicircle-with one exception, where the projecting part is square or nearly so. The arches of both the inner and outer gates are low and narrow perhaps twelve feet broad and ten or twelve high. The gates themselves are in good keeping with the walls of which they form part and parcel. Their names are the following.

1. Cháutsung mun,, generally called the

great east- ern gate: tsung is the point to which men and things turu; cháu is the morning; it also means to visit, to wait upon. This gate opens to the east, and is the principal thoroughfare to the eastern suburbs and the river, and this perhaps the name was designed to indicate. 2. Kwá lung mun,, lung is the dragon; and kwá means to pass over, to sit astride, or to ride in that attitude. This is the great south gate, and leads to a military parade and on into the country.

儀鳳門,

3. I′ fung mun

, the gate of í fung : fung is a crea- ture of the Chinese imagination, described as a divine bird, and is regarded as a felicitous omen, appearing when virtue is in the as- cendant and prosperous times are about to be enjoyed : i means what is right and proper, also a rule and pattern: what the two, i fung, when combined, are intended to indicate, it is not easy for the stranger to conjecture. We only know that this gate opens westward and leads forth to the wide and fertile plains of Kiangnán, where at no great distance you find Súchau, Nanking, and many other celebrated cities.

4. Ngánhái mun, literally the “

晏海門

"

tranquil sea gate," possibly has reference to the smooth and tranquil waters of the Wú- sung kiáng, which ebb and flow at no great distance, forming, when this city was built, the great high way to the delightful regions on

the west.

5. Cháu yáng mun,, stands near the south-east ex- treme of the city, and is commonly called the "little south

gate :" yúng means the sun, and cháu the morning; intending perhaps to designate is as the gate of the morning sun.

6. Páu tái mun, #P. "Precious girdle gate" or the gate of the precious girdle, stands distant from the great eastern gate northwards perhaps sixty rods, and is some twenty or thirty rods distant from the rivel.

Watchmen or guards are stationed at each of these six gates. They stand open by day, but are closed at an early hour at night, and it is there sometimes difficult for the native to find either in-