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[[underlined]] Chapter XVI. [[underlined]] 337.
will account for the frequent mention in the surviving ancient records of the employment by Ch'u of large armies of footmen and war-chariots---force that must have required considerable areas of dry and fairly firm ground in order to operate freely. [[superscript]] (302) [[/superscript]] The existence at the same time of large
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[[superscript]] (302) [[/superscript]] Armies, especially those which included and largely depended on such heavy and cumbersome objects as war-chariots, could never have maneuvered freely among the swampy ricefields which with their bordering embankments now cover so much of the surface of what was once the kingdom of Ch'u. Hence such obstacles can not have been present there in antiquity to anything like their present extent.
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navigable rivers, on the other hand, explains why so many of Ch'u's campaigns were fought on the water, in fleets of great war-canoes; [[superscript]] (303) [[/superscript]] and why,
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[[superscript]] (303) [[/superscript]] On these craft see Appendix II, pp. 13 [[underlined]]sq.[[/underlined]] and footnote 39 (page 14 of same). For a representation of their modern successors, the so-called "dragon-boats", [[underlined]] cf. [[/underlined]] fig. 5]^[[]5 (from a photograph).
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too, there was such a wide extension of trade the^[[r]]e in ancient times. [[superscript]] (304) [[/superscript]]
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[[superscript]] (304) [[/superscript]] Regarding commerce in Ch'u in antiquity, [[underlined]] cf. [[/underlined]] Appendix II, pp. 17 [[underlined]] sq. [[/underlined]]
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[[underlined]] The Site of Ancient Ying. [[/underlined]]
After an early breakfast, Mr. Tung and I set out next morning in rickshas to inspect the site of ancient Ying. Our way led us at first through Shasi itself---a crowded, bustling, filthy place, hot, humid, fly-infested, and ill-smelling. Save for one street, built along the top of the protecting dike, the town was at this season well below the level of the river that flowed past it, a few yards from its roof-tops.
Presently we left the town, with its dark, dank, and noisome wynds, and entered the open country---a densely cultivated plain of seemingly limitless extent. Though visibility was fair, not a mountain or a hill broke the horizon. Fields, mainly of rice, arum, and caladium ([[underlined]] taro [[/underlined]] or "elephant's-ear"); clumps of bamboos, brambles, sword grass, and
