Marco Polo (1254-1324), is probably the most famous Westerner traveled on
the Silk Road. He excelled all the other travelers in his determination, his
writing, and his influence. His journey through Asia lasted 24 years. He reached
further than any of his predecessors, beyond Mongolia to China. He became
a confidant of Kublai Khan (1214-1294). He traveled the whole of China and
returned to tell the tale, which became the greatest travelogue.
The Polo Brothers The marooned Polo brothers were abruptly rescued in Bukhara by the arrival
of a VIP emissary from Hulagu Khan in the West. The Mongol ambassador persuaded
the brothers that Great Khan would be delighted to meet them for he had never
seen any Latin and very much wanted to meet one. So they journeyed eastward.
They left Bukhara, Samarkand, Kashgar, then came the murderous obstacle of
the Gobi desert. Through the northern route they reached Turfan and Hami,
then headed south-east to Dunhuang. Along the Hexi Corridor, they finally
reached the new capital of the Great Khan, Bejing in 1266.
The Great Khan, Mangu's brother, Kublai, was indeed hospitable. He had set
up his court at Beijing, which was not a Mongol encampment but an impressive
city built by Kublai as his new capital after the Mongols took over China
in 1264 and established Yuan dynasty (1264-1368). Kublai asked them all about
their part of the world, the Pope and the Roman church. Niccolo and Matteo,
who spoke Turkic dialects perfectly, answered truthfully and clearly. The
Polo brothers were well received in the Great Khan's capital. To make sure the brothers would be given every assistance on their travels,
Kublai Khan presented them with a golden tablet (or paiza in Chinese, gerege
in Mongolian) a foot long and three inches wide and inscribed with the words
(Left Fig.): "By the strength of the eternal Heaven, holy be the Khan's name.
Let him that pays him not reverence be killed." The golden tablet was the
special VIP passport, authorizing the travelers to receive throughout the
Great Khan's dominions such horses, lodging, food and guides as they required.
It took the Polos three full years to return home, in April 1269.
Although the Polo brothers blazed a trail of their own on their first journey
to the East, they were not the first Europeans to visit the Mongols on their
home ground. Before them Giovanni di Piano Carpini in 1245 and Guillaume de
Rubrouck in 1253 had made the dangerously journey to Karakorum and returned
safely; however the Polos traveled farther than Carpini and Rubrouck and reached
China.
Marco Polo's Birth and Growing Up Marco Polo was only 6 years old when his father and uncle set out eastward
on their first trip to Cathay (China). He was by then 15 years old when his
father and his uncle returned to Venice and his mother had already passed
away. He remained in Venice with his father and uncle for two more years and
then three of them embarked the most couragous journey to Cathay the second
time.
The Long and Difficult Journey to Cathay Avoiding to travel the same route the Polos did 10 years ago, they made
a wide swing to the north, first arriving to the southern Caucasus and the
kingdom of Georgia. Then they journeyed along the regions parallel to the
western shores of the Caspian Sea, reaching Tabriz and made their way south
to Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. They intended to take sea route to the Chinese
port. From Hormuz, however, finding the ships "wretched affairs....only stitched
together with twine made from the husk of the Indian nut", they decided to
go overland to Cathay and continued eastwards. From Homurz to Kerman, passing
Herat, Balkh, they arrived Badakhshan, where Marco Polo convalesced from an
illness and stayed there for a year. On the move again, they found themselves
on "the highest place in the world, the Pamirs", with its name appeared in
the history for the first time.
When the Polos arrived the Taklamakan desert (or Taim Basin), this time
they skirted around the desert on the southern route, passing through Yarkand,
Khotan, Cherchen, and Lop-Nor. Marco's keen eye picked out the most notable
peculiarities of each. At Yarkand, he described that the locals were extremely
prone to goiter, which Marco blamed on the local drinking water. In the rivers
of Pem province were found "stones called jasper and chalcedony in plenty"
- a reference to jade. At Pem, "when a woman's husband leaves her to go
on a journey of more than 20 days, as soon as he has left, she takes another
husband, and this she is fully entitled to do by local usage. And the men,
wherever they go, take wives in the same way." Cherchen was also a noted
jade source.
It is the Gobi desert (Right Fig.)where Marco Polo left us the feeling of
awe for the vastness The fact that Marco was not a historian did not stop him offering a long
history about the Mongols. He provided a detailed account of the rise of Mongol
and Great Khan's life and empire. He described the ceremonial of a Great Khan's
funeral - anyone unfortunate enough to encounter the funeral cortege was put
to death to serve their lord in the next world, Mangu Khan's corpse scoring
over twenty thousand victims. He told of life on the steppes, of the felt-covered
yurt drawn by oxen and camels, and of the household customs. What impressed
Marco most was the way in which the women got on with the lion's share of
the work:"the men do not bother themselves about anything but hunting and
warfare and falconry." In term of marriage, Marco described that the Mongols
practiced polygamy. A Mongol man could take as many wives as he liked. On
the death of the head of the house the eldest son married his father's wives,
but not his own mother. A man could also take on his brother's wives if they
were widowed. Marco rounded off his account of Mongol's home life by mentioning
that alcoholic standby which had impressed Rubrouck before him:"They drink
mare's milk subjected to a process that makes it like white wine and very
good to drink. It is called koumiss"
Marco's account of the Mongol's life is particularly interesting when compared
to the tale of many wonders of Chinese civilization which he was soon to see
for himself. Kublai Khan, though ruling with all the spender of an Emperor
of China, never forgot where he had come from: it is said that he had had
seeds of steppe grass sown in the courtyard of the Imperial Palace so that
he could always be reminded of his Mongol homeland. During his long stay in
Cathay and Marco had many conversations with Kublai, Marco must have come
to appreciate the Great Khan's awareness of his Mongol origins, and the detail
in which the Mongols are described in his book suggests that he was moved
to make a close study of their ways.
Finally the long journey was nearly over and the Great Khan had been told
of their approach. He sent out a royal escort to bring the travellers to his
presense. In May 1275 the Polos arrived to the original capital of Kublai
Khan at Shang-tu (then the summer residence), subsequently his winter palace
at his capital, Cambaluc (Beijing).
Years Serviced in Khan's Court However there were some phenomena which were totally new to him. The first
we have already met, asbestos, but the other three beggared his imagination,
and they were paper currency, coal and the imperial post.
The idea of paper substituting gold and silver was a total surprise even
to the merchantile Polos. Marco attributed the success of paper money to Kublai
stature as a ruler. "With these pieces of paper they can buy anything and
pay for anything. And I can tell you that the papers that reckon as ten bezants
do not weight one." Marco's expressions of wonder at "stones that burn
like logs" show us how ignorant even a man of a leading Mediterranean seapower
could be in the 13th century. Coal was by no means unknown in Europe but was
new to Marco: "
Marco was equally impressed with the efficient communication system in the
Mongol world. There were three main grades of dispatch, which may be rendered
in modern terms as 'second class', 'first class', and 'On His Imperial Majesty's
Service: Top Priority'. 'Second class' messages were carried by foot-runners,
who had relay-stations three miles apart. Each messenger wore a special belt
hung with small bells to announce his approach and ensure that his relief
was out on the road and ready for a smooth takeover. This system enabled a
message to cover the distance of a normal ten-day journey in 24 hours. At
each three miles station a log was kept on the flow of messages and all the
routes were patrolled by inspectors. 'First class' business was conveyed on
horseback, with relay-stages of 25 miles. But the really important business
of Kublai empire was carried by non-stop dispatch-riders carrying the special
tablet with the sign of the gerfalcon. At the approach to each post-house
the messenger would sound his horn; the ostlers would bring out a ready-saddled
fresh horse, the messenger would transfer to it and gallop straight off. Marco
affirmed that those courier horsemen could travel 250 or 300 miles in a day.
Marco Polo traveled in great deal in China. He was amazed with China's enormous
power, great wealth, and complex social structure. China under the Yuan (The
Mongol Empire) dynasty was a huge empire whose internal economy dwarfed that
of Europe. He reported that Iron manufacture was around 125,000 tons a year
(a level not reached in Europe before the 18th century) and salt production
was on a prodigious scale: 30,000 tons a year in one province alone. A canal-based
transportation system linked China's huge cities and markets in a vast internal
communication network in which paper money and credit facilities were highly
developed. The citizens could purchase paperback books with paper money, eat
rice from fine porcelain bowls and wear silk garments, lived in prosperous
city that no European town could match.
Kublai Khan appointed Marco Polo as an official of the Privy Council in
1277 and for 3 years he was a tax inspector in Yanzhou, a city on the Grand
Canal, northeast of Nanking. He also visited Karakorum and part of Siberia.
Meanwhile his father and uncle took part in the assault on the town of Siang
Yang Fou, for which they designed and constructed siege engines. He frequently
visited Hangzhou, another city very near Yangzhou. At one time Hangzhou was
the capital of the Song dynasty and had a beautiful lakes and many canals,
like Marco's hometown, Venice. Marco fell in love with it.
Coming Home Marco did not provide full account of his long journey home. The sea journey
took 2 years during which 600 passengers and crewed died. Marco did not give
much clue as to what went wrong on the trip, but there are some theories.
Some think they may have died from scurvy, cholera or by drowning; others
suggest the losses were caused by the hostile natives and pirate attacks.
This dreadful sea voyage passed through the South China Sea to Sumatra and
the Indian Ocean, and finally docked at Hormuz. There they learned that Arghun
had died two years previously so the princess married to his son, prince Ghazan,
instead. In Persia they also learned of the death of Kublai Khan. However
his protection outlived him, for it was only by showing his golden tablet
of authority that they were able to travel safely through the bandit-ridden
interior. Marco admitted that the passports of golden tablets were powerful:
"Throughout his dominions the Polos were supplied with horses and provisions
and everything needful......I assure you for a fact that on many occasions
they were given two hundred horsemen, sometimes more and sometimes less,
according to the number needed to escort them and ensure their safe passage
from one district to another."
From Trebizond on the Black Sea coast they went by sea, by way of Constantinople,
to Venice, arriving home in the winter of 1295.
The Book, Life in Venice and Controversies In the summer of 1299 a peace was concluded between Venice and Genoa, and
after a year of captivity, Marco Polo was released from the prison and returned
to Venice. He was married to Donata Badoer and had three daughters. He remained
in Venice until his death in 1324, aged 70. At his deathbed, he left the famous
epitaph for the world: "I have only told the half of what I saw!" On Marco's
will, he left his wife and three daughters substantial amount of money, though
not an enormous fortune as Marco boasted. He also mentioned his servant, Peter,
who came from the Mongols, was to set free. We also learned that 30 years
after his return home, Marco still owned a quantity of cloths, valuable pieces,
coverings, brocades of silk and gold, exactly like those mentioned several
times in his book, together with other precious objects. Among them there
was "golden tablet of command" that had been given him by the Great Khan on
his departure from the Mongol capital.
Many people took his accounts with a grain of salt and some skeptics question
the authenticity of his account. Many of his stories have been considered
as fairytales: the strange oil in Baku and the monstrous birds which dropped
elephants from a height and devoured their broken carcasses. His Travels made
no mention about the Great Wall. While traveled extensively in China, Marco
Polo never learned the Chinese language nor mentioned a number of articles
which are part of everyday life, such as women's foot-binding, calligraphy,
or tea. In additional, Marco Polo's name was never occurred in the Annals
of the Empire (Yuan Shih), which recorded the names of foreign visitors far
less important and illustrious than the three Venetians. So did Marco Polo
ever go to China?
Contribution We see that Marco Polo was in every way a man of his time. He was quite
capable of comprehending cultures completely alien in spirit to his own. Traversing
thousands of miles, on horseback mostly, through uncharted deserts, over steep
mountain passes, exposed to extreme weathers, to wild animals and very uncivilized
tribesmen, Marco's book has become the most influential travelogue on the
Silk Road ever written in a European language, and it paved the way for t
he arrivals of thousands of Westerners in the centuries to come.
Today there are a school of experts conducting research and authentication
of Marco Polo and his Travels. Much of what he wrote, which regarded with
suspicion at medieval time was, confirmed by travelers of the 18th and 19th
centuries. Marco Polo is receiving deeper respect than before because these
marvelous characters and countries he described did actually exist. What's
more interesting is that his book becomes great value to Chinese historians,
as it helps them understand better some of the most important events of the
13th century, such as the siege of Hsiangyang, the massacre of Ch'angchou,
and the attempted conquests of Japan. The extant Chinese sources on these
events are not as comprehensive as Marco's book.
Although Marco Polo received little recognition from the geographers of
his time, some of the information in his book was incorporated in some important
maps of the later Middle Ages, such as the Catalan World Map of 1375, and
in the next century it was read with great interest by Henry the Navigator
and by Columbus. His system of measuring distances by days' journey has turned
out for later generations of explorers to be remarkably accurate. According
to Henry Yule, the great geographer: "He was the first traveler to trace a
route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after
kingdom.....". Today topographers have called his work the precursor of scientific
geography.
However Marco Polo's best achievement is best said with his own words in
his own book:
In 1260 two Venetian merchants arrived at Sudak, the Crimean port. The brothers
Maffeo and Niccilo Polo went on to Surai, on the Volga river, where they traded
for a year. Shortly after a civil war broke out between Barka and his cousin
Hulagu, which made it impossible for the Polos to return with the same route
as they came. They therefore decide to make a wide detour to the east to avoid
the war and found themselves stranded for 3 years at Bukhara.
One year later, the Great Khan sent them on their way with a letter in Turki
addressed to Pope Clement IV asking the Pope to send him 100 learned men to
teach his people about Christianity and Western science. He also asked Pope
to procure oil from the lamp at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
According to one authority, the Polo family were great nobles originating
on the coast of Dalmatia. Niccolo and Maffeo had established a trading outpost
on the island of Curzola, off the coast of Dalmatia; it is not certain whether
Marco Polo was born there or in Venice in 1254. The place Marco Polo grew
up, Venice, was the center for commerce in the Mediterranean. Marco had the
usual education of a young gentleman of his time. He had learned much of the
classical authors, understood the texts of the Bible, and knew the basic theology
of the Latin Church. He had a sound knowledge of commercial French as well
as Italian. From his later history we can be sure of his interest in natural
resources, in the ways of people, as well as strange and interesting plants
and animals.
At the end of year 1271, receiving letters and valuable gifts for the Great
Khan from the new Pope Tedaldo (Gregory x), the Polos once more set out from
Venice on their journey to the east. They took with them 17-year-old Marco
Polo and two friars. The two friars hastily turned back after reaching a war
zone, but the Polos carried on. They passed through Armenia, Persia, and Afghanistan,
over the Pamirs, and all along the Silk Road to China.
of desert and its effects on those hardy enough to penetrate it: "This
desert is reported to be so long that it would take a year to go from end
to end; and at the narrowest point it takes a month to cross it. It consists
entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat."
Despite the dangers encountered during the Gobi crossing, Marco's account
suggests that the route was safe and well established during Mongol's reign.
After they left Gobi, the first major city they passed was Suchow (Dunhuang),
in Tangut province, where Marco stayed for a year. Marco also noted the center
of the asbestos industry in Uighuristan, with its capital Karakhoja; he added
that the way to clean asbestos cloth was to throw it into a fire, and that
a specimen was brought back from Cathay by the Polos and presented to the
Pope.
By then it had been 3 and half years since they left Venice and they had traveled
total of 5600 miles on the journey. Marco recalled it in detail on the greatest
moment when he first met the Great Khan (Left Fig.):
Marco, a gifted linguist and master of four languages, became a favorite with
the khan and was appointed to high posts in his administration. He served
at the Khan's court and was sent on a number of special missions in China,
Burma and India. Many places which Marco saw were not seen again by Europeans
until last century. Marco went on great length to describe Kublia's capital,
ceremonies, hunting and public assistance, and they were all to be found on
a much smaller scale in Europe. Marco Polo fell in love with the capital,
which later became part of Beijing, then called Cambaluc or Khanbalig, meant
'city of the Khan.' This new city, built because astrologers predicted rebellion
in the old one, was described as the most magnificent city in the world. He
marveled the summer palace in particular. He described "the greatest palace
that ever was". The walls were covered with gold and silver and the Hall was
so large that it could easily dine 6,000 people. The palace was made of cane
supported by 200 silk cords, which could be taken to pieces and transported
easily when the Emperor moved. There too, the Khan kept a stud of 10,000 speckless
white horses, whose milk was reserved for his family and for a tribe which
had won a victory for Genghis Khan." fine marble Palace, the rooms of which
are all gilt and painted with figures of men and beasts....all executed with
such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and astonishment." This
description later inspired the English poet Coleridge to write his famous
poem about Kublai Khan's "stately pleasure-dome" in Xanadu (or Shang-du).
The Polos stayed in Khan's court for 17 years, acquiring great wealth in jewels
and gold. They were anxious to be on the move since they feared that if Kublai
- now in his late seventies - were to die, they might not be able to get their
considerable fortune out of the country. The Kublai Khan reluctantly agreed
to let them return after they escorted a Mongol princess Kokachin to marry
to a Persian prince, Arghun.
Three years after Marco returned to Venice, he commanded a galley in a war
against the rival city of Genoa. He was captured during the flighting and
spent a year in a Genoese prison - where one of his fellow-prisoners was a
writer of romances named Rustichello of Pisa. It was only when prompted by
Rustichello that Marco Polo dictated the story of his travels, known in his
time as The Description of the World or The Travels of Marco Polo.
His account of the wealth of Cathay (China), the might of the Mongol empire,
and the exotic customs of India and Africa made his book the bestseller soon
after. The book became one of the most popular books in medieval Europe and
the impact of his book on the contemporary Europe was tremendous. It was known
as Il Milione, The Million Lies and Marco earned the nickname of Marco
Milione because few believed that his stories were true and most Europeans
dismissed the book as mere fable.
Fiction or not, his Travels has captured readers through the centuries. Manuscript
editions of his work ran into the hundreds within a century after his death.
The book was recognized as the most important account of the world outside
Europe that was available at the time. Today there are more than 80 manuscript
copies in various versions and several languages around the world.