Marco · Polo (1254-1324) was a great traveler in the Middle Ages. He arrived in China from Italy in 1275 (Yuan Shizu to the twelfth year of Yuan Shizu), traveled throughout China, and left China in early 1291 (to the twenty-eighth year of Yuan Dynasty). His Travelogue not only recorded in detail the political events, products and customs of China during the Yuan Dynasty, but also had a significant impact on the Western world. On the mainland, in 1874 (the thirteenth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty), Yingtang Jushi published a short article entitled "The Entry of Westerners in the Yuan Dynasty into China" in the No. 21 of the Zhongxi Wenjianlu, which was the first article to introduce Marco · Polo. Since then, for more than 120 years, there have been six Chinese translations of Travelogues, two Mongolian translations, and more than 100 introductory and research volumes and papers. Although there is still a gap between the achievements of foreign research on this book, it also has our characteristics, which have contributed to the research of this discipline and made certain contributions.
1. About the Chinese-Mongolian translation
The six Chinese translations are: 1. Wei Yi: "The Travels of Marco Boluo, a Keqing in the Yuan Dynasty", published by Beijing Zhengmeng Printing Company in 1913.
2. Zhang Xingxi: "Marco Polo's Travels", printed by the North American Printing Bureau in 1929 and distributed by the Yen Ching Restaurant University Library. Previously, Zhang Xingxi had translated the notes to the English translation of the English translation by the Englishman Henry · Yuer and the introduction to the revised supplement to the revised supplement by the legal person Henry · Cody, which was published by the Beijing Geosciences Society in 1924 under the title of "Introduction to the Travels of Marco Polo". It was not until 1929 that the 30 chapters of the first volume of the main text of the translated "Travelogue" were combined with the "Introduction".
3. Li Ji: "Marco · Polo's Travels", issued by Shanghai Oriental Oriental Library in April 1936.
4. Feng Chengjun, "The Travels of Marco · Polo", published by the Shanghai Commercial Press in November 1936, the third edition in February 1947, and reprinted by Zhonghua Book Company in 1954 after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The book is divided into three volumes: first, middle and second.
5. Zhang Xinghong, "The Travels of Marco Polo", published by the Shanghai Commercial Press in July 1937.
6. Chen Kaijun et al., "Marco · Polo's Travels", published by Fujian Science and Technology Publishing House in November 1981.
In the 68 years from 1913 to 1981, six translations were produced, which is quite a lot. As to the quality of the translations, it has already been written[1] and there is no need to repeat them. The author's impression is that, as far as the translator's version is concerned, Mr. Zhang Xinghong's translation of "The Travels of Marco Polo" before and after is better. Because the former is an English translation of the book of Mark · Polo by scholars in England and France, it is accompanied by rich and scholarly commentaries, which is extremely helpful for understanding the account of Mark · Polo, but unfortunately the translated text is only 30 chapters, which is only one-seventh of the whole book; The latter translation is based on a newer version of the Travelogue, the Latin manuscript known as the Z Manuscript, which was translated into Italy by Professor Benedetol of Italy and into English, from which Mr. Zhang translated. There are many accounts of this version that are not found in other versions, and it is very valuable. The disadvantage is that there are no annotations, because the original English translation is not annotated; In addition, because "all sentences and classes are translated according to the original book" (the original book's example), the writing is not concise and fluent, but it is still extremely valuable as a historical material.
Mr. Feng Chengjun's translation of "The Travels of Marco · Polo" is based on the French translation of the France Sha Haiang (who later became a Chinese citizen), and the Sha translation is a translation of the old French style of the legal person Pojie (a translation of Bao Ti) into a new French style, and at the same time an appendix to the summary of the annotated summary of the Yuer · Kaodiben, which is not found in the Maha Xue (a translation of Lai Maixi) version of the Quite section of the text. According to Mr. Feng, Sha Haiang's translation of this book is only a hobby, not an expert's work, and his personal annotations are inevitably wrong, while Feng's translation "takes his strengths and discards his shortcomings", and Mr. Feng is quite accomplished in the history of the Yuan Dynasty, so the translated book is unique in terms of translation and commentary compared with the previous translations. Both Wei and Li's translations were criticized, and Zhang's translations were incomplete (the old version) and the other was not annotated (the new version), which could not meet the needs of readers. Although Chen's translation is relatively recent and should have been the last, the translation on which he is based is not a new edition, and although the translation is relatively smooth, there are still some errors, some of which are more obvious where professional knowledge is involved[2]. Therefore, for the time being, it is still better to use the Zhang and Feng translations.
The best English translation of the Travels is Marco Polo: The Description of the world, co·-translated by A.C. Moule and P. Pelliot in 1938. This book is a combination of various editions into one book, with the abbreviation of the version indicated next to the main text, which can be called the Book of Mark·Polo of the Hundred Books. In addition to the value of the Jade·· Caddy book, the annotated version is based on Birch's Notes on Marco Polo (Notes on Marco Polo) [3]. Both of these books are being translated in China, but their publication is still far off. We hope that with the deepening of reform and opening up and the development of economic modernization, these two books will be published at an early date.
Translating Marco · Polo's "Travels" is the starting or basic work for the study of Marco · Polo, which is very important. Although the above-mentioned six Chinese translations have their own shortcomings and lengths, it is difficult to achieve satisfactory results, but the translation itself is a work worthy of recognition, and it is only by virtue of the ladder of Chinese translations that the vast majority of scholars and readers in mainland China have learned that Marco · Poloqi and embarked on the road of research. However, because of the extremely wide range of things involved in "Travels", it is a meticulous and complicated task to compare and explain the events and places he has seen and heard in China and the places he has traveled in China. Here is an example to illustrate a little.
During the period of Yuan Shizu, there was a minister Ahma, who was good at managing money and was favored by Yuan Shizu, but it caused the jealousy and dissatisfaction of the Han ministers, and Ahma also did some illegal acts with his power. In the nineteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1282 AD), a group of people led by the Han Yidu Qianhu Wang Shu designed to kill Ahma. This matter is recorded in detail in the "Yuan Shi Benji" and "The Biography of Ahma" and other related biographies. Marco · Polo was in Dadu (present-day Beijing, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty), and this event was also recorded, which can confirm and supplement the shortcomings of the Yuan History. He also mentions the name of the king's writings, but the modern Chinese translations have mistranslated the name of the first one. For example, Wei Yi, who first translated this book, translates it as: "There is a Khitan named Chen Guozhi Chen-ku, and there are also military officers, and there are 6,000 people in the department...... Trying to plot to kill Amak. Among his close friends was Van-ku, a famous kingdomman, who was also an officer and led a crowd of 10,000 people. (Volume 2, p. 16) Li Ji's translation says: "There was a Khitan named Zhang Yi, who was a thousand-man commander...... He was full of anger and conspired with another Khitan king, who was a commander of 10,000 (according to the Yuan History, Yidu Qianhu)—to destroy the Ah clan" (p. 155, in parentheses.
Feng Chengjun's translation says: "Among them, there is a Khitan named Tchen-tchou, who is a thousand households...... Then he murdered him with another Khitan who was a king-thou of ten thousand households. (p. 341)
Zhang Xinghong's new translation says: "There was a Khitan man named Chencu, who was an officer of a thousand households...... In a fit of rage, he murdered Ahma against another Khitan officer, Vancu. (p. 163)
Finally, Chen Kaijun et al.'s translation is: "There was a Khitan man named Zhang Yi (Chenchu), who was a thousand households...... Filled with grief and indignation, he conspired with another Khitan, Vanchu, to kill Ahma. The translator attached a footnote under the name of "Wang's Writings" and said: "According to the "History of the Yuan", Wang's writings are Yidu Qianhu. (p. 113)
According to "Yuan Shi · Shizu Ji" and "The Biography of Ahma", Wang's book is Yidu Qianhu, not Wanhu, and the translator has also pointed out; The person who conspired with Wang Shu was a high monk, who was recommended by Zhang Yi, the privy deputy envoy in February of the seventeenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1280), saying that he "has a secret technique, can serve ghosts as soldiers, and control the enemy remotely", and was ordered to go to the north with the minister and Lihuo Sun's generals, and then fled back without inspection. Zhang Yi did have his own person, but he did not participate in the scene of the murder of Ahma, when he was the privy deputy envoy, Wang Zhu sent his fellow party Cui Governor to falsely pass on the prince's Zhenjin decree, ordering him to send troops, Zhang Yi "did not detect his hypocrisy", that is, sent his subordinates to lead the troops away ("Yuan Shi · Ahma Biography"). As for Chen Guo, Wang Guo, Chen Shu, and Zhang Ku, just Mr. Wei, Feng, and Zhang San have literally transliterated them, and there are no others; Even the person they translated as Wang's book was not the king's book in the "History of the Yuan", and they all translated it wrong.
This problem has long been pointed out and solved by Chinese and foreign scholars who have studied Marco · Polo Studies. Around 1943, Professor Shao Xunzheng of Southwest Associated University pointed out in an academic report entitled "Language and History: A Commentary on the Historical Value of Marco · Polo's Travels" that Marco · Polo's Cenchu in this chapter should be translated as "Qianhu", which is an official name rather than a personal name, and his person is the Wang Shu in the "Yuan History"; As for Vanchu, it should be translated as "Wanhu", not Wang's book, and Mr. Shao thinks it may be Ashma's fellow party Cui Zong. In short, the original text of the two masterminds referred to by Marco · Polo, one is a Qianhu official and the other is a Wanhu official, and he does not know the real names of these two masterminds, and the Chinese translator, knowing that the leader of the assassination of Ahma is Wangshu, has a preconceived idea and uses T. Wade to translate Vanchu as Wang's book, while the other Cenchu has no one else in the Yuan Shi, so he can only translate it at will [4].
Foreign scholars explain it even earlier. In 1927, Moore pointed out in an article entitled "The Murder of Ahmarpro" that Cenchu was indeed the king of a thousand households, and Vanchu was a thousand households, and that his person was very likely to be a high monk in the "Yuan History". Later, Birch and Birch affirmed his statement even more [5].
From the above, it can be seen that translating Marco · Polo's Travels is not only a matter of translating words, but also a serious and difficult exploration and research work. We should not ask Chinese translators to solve all the problems in the book in one go, but on the basis of their translations, we should do some unfinished work such as proofreading, supplementation, and verification. Over the years, we have made a few of them, which are described below.
By the way, the Mongolian translation. The first is based on Li Ji's Chinese translation, which was published by Jilin People's Publishing House in 1977. The second is based on the translation of the "Z Manuscript" by Kazuo Aoki Japan Italy Bainedetto, which was translated into Japanese and then translated into Mongolian. Although the second book is a work of repeated translation, it shows that the mainland attaches great importance to "Marco · Polo's Travels".
2. Overview of the study
Marco · Polo's book recorded that the affairs of China in the Yuan Dynasty were very rich, and he traveled to a wide area, and what he saw and heard was written in many books. These records can not only corroborate with Chinese historical books, but also have some obscure places that need to be verified, which provides a topic for researchers. Western scholars have already studied and solved some problems, and on the basis of their research, it is our unshirkable task to supplement, examine, and put forward new views.
(1) The identity of Marco · Polo
Marco · Polo is inaccurate about his role in China, first stating that he traveled for the Great Khan (i.e., Kublai Khan) and that he ruled Yangzhou for three years, which is not found in Chinese history. In this regard, mainland scholars have put forward three theories.
(1) The Privy Envoy said France that in the "Travels of Marco · Polo the Venetian" published by the scholar Pojie (a translation of Bao Ti) in 1865, according to the translation of the "Yuan Shi · Shizu Ji" to February of the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1277), "with the great Si Nong, the imperial historian, and the Xuanhui envoy and the ceremonial secretary Polo as the privy deputy envoy, and the Xuanhui envoy, and the ceremonial secretary" in the book "The Biography of Ahma", after Wang Shu killed Ahma, the Yuan Shizu ordered the privy deputy envoy Polo and other "troublemakers" and other records, and believed that this privy deputy envoy was Marco· Polo, Henry· Yuer from it. When translating Henry · Yuer's English translation of "Introduction to Travelogue", Zhang Xingxi supplemented "Marco Polo in Chinese History Books" for it, searched the "Yuan History" and other materials in detail, and confirmed the argument of the Quite Modest. After seeing his article, Shu Shizi agreed with his statement, and wrote "Ma Ge Polo Examination in Chinese History Books", which is more complete than the Polo information collected by Zhang Wen. However, it also raises a point of "doubt", that is, Polo in the "History of the Yuan Dynasty" had been appointed as the Imperial History Zhongcheng in the seventh year of the Yuan Dynasty (1270) at the latest before he was appointed as the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, and if he was Ma Ge Polo, then Ma Ge's arrival in China would be in the same year at the latest, and according to the "Travels", the time of his arrival in China should be in the twelfth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1275). He said, "Is it not the Privy Councillor Polo who is not Marco Polo?" However, why is there no one who is inconsistent with "Travelogue"? This was a crucial issue, but Mr. Shu basically agreed with Mr. Zhang's Privy Councillor and finally did not pursue it on the basis of the erroneous speculation recorded in the Polo Book (this is Zhang's theory) [6].
Zhang's article was quite influential at the time. The France Shahaion (the one who translated the Travelogue into the new French) read it, translated it into French, and gave a propaganda speech at the Beijing Observatory in October of that year (1922), indicating that the two had the same views. Li Sichun's "Yuan Historiography" published in 1926 includes "Supplement to Marco· Polo's Biography", and also says that Marco "worshiped the privy deputy envoy in 1277". However, Tu Ji (1856-1921), the author of the History of the Mughal Dynasty, objected to this in his book 117 "The Biography of Marco Paul", and he quoted the "Yuan History· Ahma Biography" in the notes of the volume, saying: "Those who read the Yuan history in the West vainly claim that this deputy envoy Polo is Marco Paul, and the word Polo is close to Paul's sound, but in fact, the deputy cardinal Polo must be a Mughal and not Marco, so the old version of "Marco's Travels" does not contain it, and the Ming Jiajingjian (1522-1566) Westerners continued to know the "Complete Version of Marco's Travels". And it is said that Marco does not want to know it in the world, so it will not be spread first. Qian Nianqi's "Old Hidden Notes" was suspicious, and he thought that it must be a Westerner's second-minded theory. Tu's statement was long before Zhang Xingxi's supplementary biography, and it was directed at Henry ·'s "Introduction", which can be seen from the note "Yingren Youshi (i.e. Yuer-Citation) Cloud" at the end of the article. This was the first mainland scholar to reject Marco · Polo as the Privy Councillor. He translated Polo as "Paul" instead of "Polo", so as not to be confused with the famous Polo in the "Yuan History", which is quite insightful. Although he only extrapolated from the differences in race and did not cite further arguments, he was also a great advocate of the initiative.
Subsequently, the France Oriental scholar Bo Xihe published an article entitled "The Correctness and Error of Marco · Polo's Travels" in the Circular (title of the journal, Netherlands published) in 1927 and 1928, criticizing Sha Haiang's mistake in following the "Privy Deputy Envoy Theory" of Pojie. He argues that the Englishman Parker had said in 1904 that Polo in 1277 was not to be Marco's · Polo, and that he himself had cited a passage from Rashu-d-Din's History of Mongolia (now translated into Chinese as the Historical Collection—Citation) to prove that Polo, who was mentioned in Chinese history books as participating in the Ahma case, was not Komar Polo [8]. Feng Chengjun said in the "Preface" of the first volume of Sha Haiang's "Marco · Polo Xingji": "In the examination of the "History of the Yuan", in the seventh year of the Yuan Dynasty, Cheng Polo was also the chief secretary of Nongqing; In the twelfth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Dasi Nong and Cheng Polo in the imperial history were the imperial historians; In the fourteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Polo, the chief of the imperial history, the Xuanhui envoy and the chief of ceremonies, was the privy deputy envoy, and the record of the beginning and end of the Polo worship official was very detailed, so it could not be the beginning of the ninth year of the Yuan Dynasty (according to, it should be the twelfth year of the Yuan Dynasty, that is, 1275 - the introducer) to the beginning of the Pole of the Supreme Capital, which shows the Ming Dynasty. He said, "That's why I call him Marco · Polo instead of Marco Polo." This note was made on February 20, 1935.
In December of the same year, the fourth issue of the fifth volume of the Proceedings of the Institute of History and Linguistics of the Academia Sinica published Mr. Cen Zhongmian's "Notes on the History of Mongolia", the eighth article of which was "Privy Deputy Envoy Polo", which made a detailed discussion of Mr. Zhang Xingxi's arguments. First of all, three questions are raised: 1. Zhang's forced reduction of the Polo family's time from Venice to Dadu from three and a half years to more than one year, which is inconsistent with the facts, and doubt 1; 2. Zhang's purpose in shortening the travel time is to prove that Marco and his son went to China in the tenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1273) and participated in the battle of shelling Xiangyang, but the battle was in the first month of the tenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, and Marco's father and son were ordered to arrive, and the line was loaded and unloaded, so how could they immediately offer artillery to attack the city, and second; 3. Zhang said that Ma Ke was a Daru Huachi or a consolation envoy in Yangzhou, and if Marco was a privy deputy envoy, then his appointment as an official in Yangzhou was demoted, and why did the person who was favored by the ancestors of the Yuan dynasty move to the left and the outside rank? And the age of its governance of Yangzhou is also difficult to determine, and there are three doubts. Shum further commented on the fact that Polo's official experience was inconsistent with the era of Marco's entry into China, and that Polo's positions (such as Xuanhui envoy and ceremonial secretary) were not suitable for Marco's recent entry into China, and denied Marco's theory that he was the privy deputy envoy [9].
As for Polo, the privy deputy envoy in the "History of the Yuan", someone has made a detailed study of his life experience. Professor Yu Dajun pointed out in his long article "The Compendium of Polo of the Mongolia Duoer Bian Clan" that Polo was a native of the Mongolia Duoer Bian, born around 1246, and in the summer of 1283 (to the twentieth year of the Yuan Dynasty), Polo was ordered to envoy to the Persian Ilkhanate, arrived in late 1284 or early 1285, never returned, and died in April 1313 [10]. It can be seen that this person has nothing to do with Marco · Polo.
(2) The governor of Yangzhou said that Marco · Polo said that Yangzhou was "chosen as one of the twelve provincial cities" and that he "was ordered by the Great Khan to govern the city for three years" [11]. There is no record of any official position in Yangzhou, the mainland history books and Yangzhou chronicles. Yingtang Jushi said in "The Entry of Westerners into China in the Yuan Dynasty" that Boromag (this is the translation before the surname according to Chinese custom) "used to be the governor of Yangzhou", which was the first person to put forward the theory of the governor of Yangzhou in the mainland. After that, Tu Ji also said in his book "The History of the Mughal ·Biography of Mark and Paul": "In the fourteenth year of the (Zhiyuan) (1277) year...... When Song has been flat, he was specially appointed as the general manager of Yangzhou Road, and he has been in office for four years. Later, in the "Narrative" (p. 9) and chapter 15 (note 1, p. 35) of Feng's translation of the Xingji, it is stated that Marco · Polo was appointed as the governor of Yangzhou, but in the text and notes of the section "Yangzhou City" in chapter 143 of the same book (see pages 542~543 of the middle volume), the word "chief steward" is not mentioned.
In addition to the governor of Yangzhou, there are also Yangzhou propaganda envoys (page 100 of Zhang Yi's "Introduction to Travels"), governors (page 226 of Li Ji's translation), and governors (page 288 of Zhang Yi's "Travels", page 168 of Chen's translation). These translations are worth scrutinizing.
In the author's opinion, the governor, the governor, and the governor are all official names used by Chinese translators, and they have nothing to do with the positions that Marco · Polo actually held in Yangzhou.
When Marco · Polo said of the city of Yangzhou, he said that Yangzhou "was chosen as one of the twelve provincial cities, so one of the twelve governors of the Great Khan was stationed in this city." He also said that Marco Polo "ruled the city for three years under the command of the Great Khan" (see page 288 of the Zhang translation). This is to refer to Yangzhou as the capital of a province, and Yangzhou was indeed the seat of the Jianghuai province for a period of time. In the Yuan Dynasty, the governor of the province was called Pingzhang Zhengshi, which could not be expressed in European characters, but could only be translated as Gouverneur or Gouverneur général (French), Governor general (English), and the French text of Pojie and Shahaiang and the English version of Yuer were translated in this way. When translated into Chinese, these two foreign languages can be translated as governor, governor, or governor. From a translation point of view, this book is beyond reproach. However, in the Yuan Dynasty, the roads below the provincial level happened to have the position of governor, so Marco · Polo changed from the governor of the province understood by Westerners to the governor of Yangzhou Road as understood by Chinese. In short, the so-called Marco · Polo as the governor of Yangzhou is just a coincidence or coincidence of text translation, so that the false becomes true. This conclusion cannot be drawn from the account in the book of Mark[12]. As for the governor and the governor, their intentions are the same as the governors, and the provinces of the Yuan Dynasty did not have their officials, so they can not be discussed.
Regarding the Yangzhou consolation envoy, it is Mr. Zhang Xingxi's translation of Henry · Yuer's "Introduction to Marco Polo's Travels", and it seems that Yuer believes that Marco was once a Yangzhou consolation envoy. In fact, this is another problem with Mr. Zhang's Chinese translation. The original text of Cha Yuer is: "At one time weknowthathe held for three years the government of thegreatcityofYang-chau", the literal translation can be as: "He once ruled the great city of Yangzhou for three years", and the literal translation is "taste for Yangzhou to proclaim comfort for three years", which is far from the original text. The reason for this may be that he identified Polo, the privy deputy envoy in the History of the Yuan Dynasty, as Marco · Polo, and believed that this Polo had served as a consolation envoy. In his article "Marco Polo in the Chinese History Books", he quoted the "History of the Yuan Dynasty", Volume 7, "Shizu Benji", "to December of the seventh year of the Yuan Dynasty...... In the imperial history, Cheng Polo and the Great Secretary of Nongqing" said: "This person was later promoted to the imperial historian, the ambassador of consolation, and the deputy envoy of the privy council. Citing the same volume 9 as "In February of the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty, Polo, the chief priest, the imperial historian, and the envoy of consolation and the secretary of ceremonies, was appointed as the deputy envoy of the privy council, the envoy of Xuanhui, and the secretary of ceremonies", which proves that Marco · Polo had served as a consolation envoy, and that the consolation envoy was the head of the consolation department of the local organization. This does not seem wrong, but it is a pity that the version of the "Yuan History" he quoted is wrong. According to the Hongwu edition of the "History of the Yuan" and the punctuated version of the "History of the Yuan" of the Zhonghua Book Company, in February of the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty, this article was not used as a "Xuanhui envoy", which is correct. Because at this time, the imperial historian Polo was an official in the central government, and it was impossible for him to be a magistrate [13]. Li Sichun's "Yuan Historiography · Supplement Marco ·Polo's Biography" follows Zhang's saying, saying that "next year (1280), he will serve as the Huaidong Dao Propaganda Envoy", and the Department of Victory and Consolation is set up separately, and Yangzhou is called Huaidong Dao ("Yuan History· Baiguan Zhi" VII).
In fact, it is difficult to determine whether Marco · Polo served in Yangzhou. Henry · Yur has pointed out that there is a version of the Travels that says that Marco · Polo "lived in the city for three years at the behest of the Great Khan" without mentioning his post. Bo Xihe argues that most of the envoys appointed by Marco · Polo were salt tax affairs, and that his position in Yangzhou should also be that of an official in salt affairs[14]. Of course, this is only speculation, and there is no way to confirm it. The issue of Marco · Polo's tenure in Yangzhou and his 17 years in China is still an open case. In recent years, a scholar has proposed further clean-up work.
In 1992, Professor Cai Meibiao published an article "On Marco · Polo in China" in the second issue of Chinese Social Sciences, and after examining Marco·Polo's "language and concept" in China, he made a detailed exploration and analysis of Marco's "status and identity", and deduced that Marco ·Polo was "a merchant of merchant". The arguments are as follows:
1. Marco· Polo's Travels account of whether he served as an administrator or an envoy is implausible. The book only states that he is referred to as Messer, without any official name or title. Envoys of the Yuan Dynasty had to hold the plaques (plates) granted by the imperial court, and Marco traveled through various parts of China without mentioning that he was awarded the plaques, so it was impossible for him to be an official envoy. He mentions missions to Harajang (Yunnan) and India, but does not mention any administrative mission, but only local customs, trade (foreland) and pearl diving methods and precious stones (postland). There is neither a sign nor a record of envoys, indicating that he does not have the status and status of an envoy, and at most he is only an attaché. His position in Yangzhou is suspicious, and there is an account that he lived in the city for three years, and Bo Xihe speculates that he was a salt official, but there is no evidence. It is possible that he participated in the business management of Yangzhou as a businessman.
2. The Travelogue describes the situation in China in many aspects, but it does not describe the scenery of famous mountains and rivers and cultural relics like a traveler, nor does it describe administrative affairs and officialdom disputes like an official, but records with great interest the products, trade, markets, transportation, currency, taxation and other things related to commerce, showing that he has rich business knowledge and practical experience in doing business in China. The pearls, precious stones, spices, salt, etc., which are mostly covered in the book, are all industries operated by the merchants of the Yuan Dynasty, and may also be the industries operated by the Polo family. Ma Ke did not know Chinese and had no dealings with Han Chinese scribes and Semu literati, but with merchants and business officials, so that some of the historical events he recounted were often true but not inconsistent.
3. The Polo family was originally a wealthy Venetian merchant, they had been in China for 17 years, and there was no record of envoyship or office, so they should continue to do business. When he returned to China, he brought back a large number of treasures and became a "millionaire", indicating that he had made a fortune in business in China. It would not have been possible for a traveler, a missionary, or an ordinary official to amass such a vast fortune. He wrote about the production of musk in China, brought back a pair of musk deer skulls and foot bones, and appealed in Venice over a musk trade dispute, and the trade in spices was a trade run by merchants in the Yuan Dynasty.
Based on this, the author believes that Marco · Polo was a merchant during his time in China, and that the "Travels" only talks about what he saw and heard in various places and rarely talks about his own deeds, and that there is no account of him in Chinese literature, which may be related to this. The author further points out that although the Polo family were Semu merchants, they were not ordinary Semu merchants, but "disobedience merchants" among Semu merchants. It is a transliteration of the Turkic word Ortoq, which means "companion", "buddy", or literally translated as "Shangjia". They were officials and merchants, and they were "people who saw the decrees of the gods and the kings, and traded as they went," so they were different from ordinary merchants. The "envoys" mentioned in the "Travels" are probably those who were received and commissioned by Kublai Khan to do business for the royal family and were unofficial envoys. In this sense, Mark's "envoy" should not be entirely fictional.
The author believes that this article gets rid of the dilemma of the predecessors who were entangled in solving the problem of Marco · Polo's appointment as officials, and puts forward a new idea and new insight from the record of the book "Travels" and the social situation of the Yuan Dynasty, which is a breakthrough in the study of Marco · Polo. Regardless of whether the reader agrees with it or not, as far as the article itself is concerned, it can be said that it is persistent and reasonable.
(2) Does Marco · Polo understand Chinese?
Marco · Polo's family has lived in China for 17 years, does he understand Chinese? Soon after Marco · Polo arrived in China, Marco "already knew four languages, their alphabets, and their ways of writing" (Zhang, p. 15). France scholar Pojie considers these four languages to be Chinese (文), Uyghur, Baspamon, and Arabic-Persian. However, Henri · Yull of United Kingdom and Henry · Cody (Gordie) of France were negative about their knowledge of Chinese when they annotated the Travels. Yuer believed that Marco did not know either Chinese or Chinese. Mr. Shao Xunzheng, a mainland scholar, commented on Marco · Polo's travels in China: "The people he traveled with and returned were all from the Western Regions, and there were very few Mongolia, and I am afraid that there were simply none", and "the name of a Han friend was never mentioned in the "Travels...... Judging by his knowledge of the language in his Travels, we dare say that he did not know Chinese at all, and that Mongolia was very limited, and that he was more certain of Persian (including the Persian word for the Great Food)" [15]. The author explains this problem from the investigation of the social situation of the Yuan Dynasty: the Yuan Dynasty was a dynasty established by the Mongolia aristocracy, and although it used some Han people to help it rule, it also used many Semu people (or Western Regions people), whose status was far above the Han people. Genghis Khan once borrowed the Uyghur alphabet to spell the Mongolian language, and when Yuan Shizu used the Tibetan monk Ba Si Pa to create new Mongolia characters, he also set up the Mongolia Guozi School, so that the children of Mongolia and Han bureaucrats were enrolled, and translators were generally set up in various government institutions. Therefore, the Chinese language was not necessary in the officialdom at that time. The existing Yuan Dynasty political book "Yuan Dian Zhang" and the inscriptions of the Yuan Dynasty are mostly slang and difficult to understand, that is, they are literally translated or hard translated from Mongolian. In the fifteenth year of Yuan Shizu (1278), someone played: "Jianghuai is the most important province to do, and none of the provincial ministers are well-versed in literature and ink." It can be seen that the Chinese language was not valued at that time. In such a social environment, how could Marco · Polo be required to know Chinese and Chinese characters?
(3) Several chronological issues
(1) Marco · Polo's departure from China when the Polo family left China, previously Chinese and foreign scholars believed that it was in early 1292. More than 50 years ago, the author found a government document dated August 17, 27 Yuan Dynasty (September 21, 1290), which was quoted in the Yongle Da·dian volume 19418 in the rhyme of the word "station", and found a government document dated August 17, 1290, which was a submission asking for instructions on how to supply rations to the attachés of the Ulu, Abishiha, and Huozhi sent to the king of Aruhun (i.e., the king of Persian Ilkhan) in March of that year The three envoys who followed the Polo family to Persia (see page 37 of the Feng translation and page 18 of the Zhang translation). Based on this and other sources, the author infers that Marco · Polo's family left China in early 1291 rather than early 1292, which has been endorsed by Chinese and foreign scholars[16].
(2) Marco · Polo's time in Yangzhou, regardless of whether Marco · Polo served as an official in Yangzhou or not, his three-year residence in Yangzhou was still recognized. According to the "Travels" and combined with the situation of the Yuan Dynasty, the mainland scholar Peng Hai made specific arguments: first, from the "Travels" that Yangzhou had "twenty-seven cities attached to it" and Yangzhou "was selected as one of the twelve provincial cities", it may be Yangzhou from 1282 to 1284; Second, judging from Marco · Polo's statement that he governed Yangzhou for three years, it may be after Yuan Shizu issued in 1282 that "internal and external officials should be tested for three years"; Third, from the perspective of Yangzhou's "paper money", it was after the Jianghuai Province issued yuan banknotes in 1280; Fourth, judging from Marco ·Polo's statement that grain was transported from Guazhou "by rivers and lakes" to Khan Bali (Dadu) from Guazhou, it should be transported before the sea was organized in 1285. After analyzing the above articles, the author argues that "during the period from 1282 to 1285 (to the nineteenth to twenty-second years of the Yuan Dynasty)," Marco · Polo's "activities in the Yangzhou area are credible" [17].
(3) The dates of Marco · Polo's departure from Venice, his departure from China to Persia, and his capture, these three dates were put forward by Professor Huang Shijian of Hangzhou University in his article "On the Three Chronological Issues of Marco · Polo". It is generally believed that Marco · Polo left Venice with his father and uncle in 1271, but at what point in that year, some people believe that in November, Professor Huang calculated the specific journey, and referred to the research of Moore and Birch, that he should leave Venice in the summer of 1271, and finally set off from Aga in November of that year at the official order of Pope Gregory X.
On the basis of acknowledging that Yang Zhijiu's date of departure from China was in early 1291, Huang Wen further calculated the date of their arrival in Persia, corrected Yang Zhijiu's estimation that the Polo family met Ghazan Khan in Persia in July and August 1293, and believed that it should be in April and May of that year, and listed the dates of his trip as follows:
In January 1291, he left the port of Quanzhou, China.
In April 1291, he arrived in Sumatra, where he stayed for five months.
In September 1291, he left Sumatra.
In February and March 1293, he arrived at the port of Kurime, Persia.
In April and May 1293, he met Ghazan Khan at Abahar.
Previously, I first went to a place near Tiberis to meet the beggar capital.
Shortly after the Polo family returned to Venice in 1295, they encountered a naval battle with the West Bank city-state of Genoa, and Marco · Polo was captured and worked with his cellmate Rusticello in Genoese prison to dictate his experience, which was recorded by the latter. For a long time, many authors believed that Marco was captured in the battle of September 8, 1298. But the major Travelogue manuscripts only mention that Marco · Polo completed his book in prison in 1298, and that the Venetians captured in this battle were imprisoned at noon on October 16, and if Marco had been captured on this occasion, would it have been possible for him to complete his work for the rest of the two months of the year? Professor Huang believes that this historical material is credible based on the information of Marco's contemporaries quoted in Yuer's "Introduction", which records the capture of Marco · Polo in a naval battle between Venice and Genoa in 1296, but Yuer does not use it on the grounds that this war and the war of 1294 were in the same place (Rayasi). Moore and Birch's English translation of the Cosmos "Introduction" (p. 34) agrees that the year 1296 was stated, and Huang Wen affirms that the year of Mark's capture was 1296. In addition, Professor Huang has retranslated this material to correct the mistranslation of Mr. Zhang Xinghong's Chinese translation of the Introduction (p. 193, lines 7-10) [18]. This will be useful for revising the date and clarifying the facts.
(4) In addition to the above eras, Marco · Polo's 17 years in China have visited many areas, and their journeys and dates should also be clarified. In this regard, Professor Chen Dezhi of Nanjing University made a detailed study in his article "Marco · Polo's Journey in China and Its Age".
1. The Age and Journey of the Envoy to Yunnan The Travelogue says that Marco · Polo's first mission was from Khan Bali (Dadu) to Harazhang (Yunnan), and the trip was in June. When passing through Jingzhaofu (present-day Xi'an), Marco said that the lord of the place was the son of the Great Khan; Upon arrival at Harazhang, Mark said that the king of the land was the son of the Great Khan (a grandson) and also preceded Timur. According to the Biography ·of Zhao Bing in the History of the Yuan Dynasty and other Yuan Dynasty sources, Professor Chen knew that Brother Zhi died in November of the fifteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1278), and it seems that Marco had arrived in Jingzhao Mansion before that; However, according to the "Yuan History· List of Kings" and "Zhang Lidao Biography", Timur also began to be crowned king of Yunnan in the seventeenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1280), and Ma Ke would not arrive in Yunnan before this year, which contradicts the statement that he went to Jingzhaofu in 1278, because it only took six months from Dadu to Yunnan, so why should it take one or even two years from Jingzhaofu to Yunnan. Professor Chen believes that this is due to the misrecording of the death date of the Anxi king Busy Gera (to the 17th year of the Yuan Dynasty) in the "Yuan History· Shizu Ji" and the "List of Kings". According to the "Biography of Shang Ting ·in the History of the Yuan Dynasty", after the death of his busy brother, his concubine Shang Ting asked for an order to the court, and answered the heir with his son Ananda, and the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty answered Ananda when he was young and did not learn the training of his ancestors, so that Shang Ting acted on behalf of the king. In June of the seventeenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, the Prime Minister's Mansion was dismissed and the Shaanxi and Shu provinces were reestablished. Chen Wen concluded: "In short, Polo's mission to Yunnan will not be earlier than the seventeenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, when he passed through Jingzhao, although Busy Brother was dead, but the princess and the prince's mansion were still in power, and the reputation of the heir was not obvious, so he only knew the name of the former king who had a high reputation in the local area, and thought that Busy Brother was still alive." According to the inference, Polo passed through Jingzhao about shortly before the sixth month of the 17th year of the Yuan Dynasty [19]. This research is very precise, not only correcting the mistake in the Yuan History about the date of his death, but also correcting Sha Haiang's claim in the Xingji ·Jingzhaofu City" (Note 4) that "according to the law, the time when the busy brother left Xi'an was in 1277 (to the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty), but it can be known that Marco · Polo passed through Xi'an around this year" (page 434 of the middle volume of Feng Yi's Xingji).
2. According to the "Travels", before and after the assassination of Ahma, that is, in March and April of the 19th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1282), Polo was in Dadu. Professor Chen estimated that Marco · Polo traveled south and lived in Yangzhou for three years, after the summer of the 19th century. After describing and examining the southbound route, it was determined that the upper limit of Marco · Polo's time in Yangzhou should not be earlier than the summer of the 19th century, and the lower limit was roughly in the 24th year of the Yuan dynasty (1287). Professor Chen agrees with Birch and his inference that Polo was an official of the salt authority, and argues that Polo's claim that he had visited Hangzhou to "inspect" the year's class, at least to inspect the school's salt class, is not a lie, and the time may be in the 23rd or 24th year of the Yuan Dynasty. As for the time of arriving in Zhenjiang, it should be a few years after the eighteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1281), and it should have passed through it on the way to Hangzhou.
3. The time of the mission to India and the time of departure from China Chen Wen set the time of Polo's mission to India to 24 to 26 years (1287~1289), according to the "Travel Notes", when he returned from his mission to India, it coincided with the three envoys of the Ilkhan, who escorted the future princess Kuokuozhen to Persia, but the land route was not accessible, seeing that Polo was familiar with the sea route, he invited him to go to Persia by sea, and obtained the permission of the Great Khan. According to the "Jingshi Dadian · Zhanchi", the edict was issued in the twenty-seventh year of the Zhiyuan Dynasty (1290), so the encounter between Polo and the envoy must be before this time. His return voyage from India required the use of the southwest trade winds, which should be between the summer and autumn of the twenty-sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1289); His trip to India required the use of the northeast trade winds, which could not be later than the winter of the twenty-fifth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1288) or earlier, so the author dated the period between the twenty-fourth and twenty-sixth years of the Yuan Dynasty. The author agrees that the Polo family left China in the spring of 1291, and he says that the Polo family, together with the three envoys of the Ilkhan and their attachés, escorted Princess Kukuozhen "from Dadu to the south at the turn of the spring and summer of 1290, and after arriving in Quanzhou, waiting for the trade winds to set sail west."
The author concludes with a roadmap and explanation of Marco ·Polo's envoy in China, which is recorded as follows:
1. Envoy to Yunnan (1280-1281)
2. Yangzhou office, Hangzhou inspection school class (1282-1287)
3. Envoy to India (1287-1289)
4. Return to China (1290-1291)
The author also makes some similarities with the toponyms that Marco · Polo experienced.
(D) the issue of geographical names
Marco · Polo traveled throughout Central Asia, Chinese mainland, the South China Sea and the India coast, and listed many place names, due to the change of years, place name changes, especially he did not know Chinese, except for a few Mongolia Chinese language or Persian, the Chinese place names recorded are not clear in the spelling, and the spelling of various versions is not the same, which causes certain difficulties to identify his original Chinese name, and also makes the Chinese names translated by the Chinese versions of the Chinese translation of "Travelogue" not consistent. In this regard, mainland scholars have done some work on the issue of geographical name research and survey.
As early as 1915, Ding Qian, a scholar of mainland history and geography, wrote the "Geographical Supplement to the Travels of Marco Boluo in the Yuan Dynasty", and in 1917~1918, he wrote a long article "The Supplement and Revision of the Travels of Marco Boro", which corrected the errors in the translation and annotations of the first "Travelogue" translated by Wei Yihan. Limited to the times and the lack of understanding of the research results of foreign scholars, it is inevitable that there are some errors, but Wei Yizhi's literal translation of Chinese place names has made a lot of corrections, and still contributes. He accused Wei Yi of taking Polo, the privy deputy envoy of the Yuan History, as Marco · Polo, and said that the Polo (Boluo) of the Yuan History was a Mongolia person, which was the same as what Tu Ji saw and was quite insightful [1].
In addition, in 1942, Mr. Li Changfu wrote an article entitled "New Notes on the Travels of Marco Polo in the Hainan Kingdoms", starting from the Cham kingdom to the end of the pawn, first quoting the original text of Zhang Xinghong's new translation of "Travels", followed by annotations, mostly using Western scholars' theories, and then applying them [2].
Regarding Marco's · trip to Yunnan, Professor Fang Guoyu's "Notes on Marco's · Polo Travels" made a detailed interpretation of Feng Chengjun's translation of "The Chronicles" chapter by chapter. For the chapter "Jiandu Prefecture", it is believed: "Jiandu is the Jiandi of "Yuan History and Geography". Jiandi's own name, which is used to refer to the place to which he belongs, is called the Luolan Department in the narrow sense, and is called Rollos in the broad sense"; "Polo's so-called establishment of the capital state, that is, the whole territory of Rollos." The "Brius" mentioned in this chapter is believed by Professor Fang to be the Bulusi River in the "Yuan History· Suge Biography" and the "Biography of the Duli Shiguan", that is, the Jinsha River. Bri Yusi is transliterated by Feng Chengjun, and Zhang Xinghong is translated as Bai Liusi.
Regarding the chapter "Harazhangzhou", Professor Fang agreed with Bo Xihe's statement in "Jiaoguang India Two Examinations", that is, Harazhang has a broad sense, referring to the whole province of Yunnan, and a narrow sense, referring to Dali District; As seen in the "History of the Yuan", there are also differences in broad and narrow senses. The same is true of what Mark is referring to. The Hara chapter of this chapter refers to the broad sense, that is, Yunnan Province, and the next chapter "Tautology Hara Zhangzhou" is Dali in the narrow sense.
Regarding the chapter of Amuzhou, the Feng translation is Amu, the other versions are cited as Aniu, Anyn or Anin, the main text of the Yuerben is Anin, and the new translation of Zhang Xinghong is also Anin, and the Chinese translation is "Anning" (p. 261). Sha Haiang thought that it was the Ah Yi Department of the "Yuan History Geography", and Fang believed that Amu should be in the far part of the southwest of Amu, and the main ethnic group near the Luo Wei, Situo, and Xi was Ah Ni, and there was a Ah (or Zuohe) mud road in the early Yuan Dynasty, and it is suspected that the name of Amu was Anin, but its place should not be interpreted as Anin or Anning.
Regarding the chapter "Bald Barbarian Prefecture", Fang agreed with Sha Haiang's annotation that the "Yuan History" of the Bald Thorn Man, Bald Old Man, Tu Lao Man, and Tu Fang, pointed out that the area from Wumeng (present-day Zhaotong and Huize in Yunnan) to Xuzhou (present-day Yibin City, Sichuan) was a scattered place for Tu Barbarians in the early Yuan Dynasty, especially Gaozhou and Yunlian Prefecture (now Sichuan County).
In addition to the interpretation of place names, the text also explains in detail the customs and anecdotes of the various places mentioned by Polo, which is very complete [3].
France famous sinologist Bo Xihe in his "Interpretation of the Travels of Marco · Polo" has many unique references to the Chinese place names in the "Travels", but there are also some debatable points. In 1980, Mr. Wang Ting, a young teacher at Nanjing University, in his article "Several Place Names in Marco · Polo's Travels" [4], put forward different views on the three Chinese place names surveyed by Bo Xi and other scholars: 1. In the Tigiu (Taizhou) chapter of "Travels", there is a city named Tingiu, which says that "this city is large and rich, and the salt production can be eaten by the whole province". Where is Tingiu, Feng translated Shahai Ang as Tinguy, Chinese as Zhenzhou, "(Note 2)" said that the name of this place, quite a section of the book as Tinguy, and the Earth Society and the Tim School of Cingui are both written in the latter way, covering the Zhenzhou, that is, the present Yizheng. According to the Yongle Canon, "from Taizhou to Haizhou is three stops", Bo Xihe said that there is a three-day journey from Tigiu to Tingiu, and believes that Tingiu is Haizhou, that is, Haimen. Wang Wen thinks that both theories are wrong, because Zhenzhou (now Yizheng) is on the Yangtze River, there is no record of salt production in the history books, and the Yangtze River water cannot be boiled for salt. As for Haimen, Yuan was only a county, and it was never called a state, and Haizhou in the "Yongle Canon" should be a mistake for Haimen. He thinks that Tingiu is right, that is, the antiphon of "Tongzhou", to the fifteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty for the Tongzhou Road Governor's Office, twenty-one years for the state, under Yangzhou Road, leading two counties: Jinghai, Haimen. Its place was a major salt-producing area in the Yuan Dynasty, that is, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province.
The author believes that Wang Wen's interpretation of Tingiu as Tongzhou, that is, present-day Nantong, is extremely accurate, and Yuer also holds this view in his commentary [5]. On page 287 of the new translation of Zhang Xinghong's "Travels", the original text here is Chinju, and the Chinese translation is "Jingzhou", with a note below: "This section seems to be a falsification of Jinghai." Between the Song and Yuan dynasties, there was Jinghai County, which is now Tongzhou", which was crooked and occasionally combined. As for the last original text of "Taizhou, Rugao, Tongzhou, Hai [-Zhou)" quoted in Bo Xihe's note in the Yongle Grand Canon, there is only one word "Hai", that is, "Hai", and the word "door" should be added under it, because on page 9 of the "Yongle Dadian" volume 19422 "Zhan Chi", "Haimen Station" is recorded under "Taizhou Water Station, Rugao Water Station, Tongzhou Water Station", and it is wrong for Bo Shi to add the word "Zhou", and it is believed that Tingiu refers to Haizhou as Haimen.
2. Wang Wen quotes chapter 147 of Murburn's "The Universe": "From Saianfu, go fifteen miles southeast to a city called Singiu, which is not particularly large, but prosperous in commerce...... It is a port. Chapter 146 of the Feng translation (p. 554 of the middle volume) translates Saianfu as Xiangyang Province and Singiu as Xinzhou; Shahai Angben's "Note 2" refers to Singiu as a transliteration of "Jinghu" (p. 555 of Feng's translation). Bo Xihe believes that the Saianfu in this chapter should be a mistake for Yangiu (Yangzhou), and therefore Singiu should be Zhenzhou, which is now Yizheng. Wang Wen believed that Saianfu should still be Xiangyang Prefecture, and Singiu was the antiphon of Jingzhou, which is now Jiangling. However, if Gangneung is not a port, Marco should refer to Shashi, a port southeast of Gangneung, and the Saianfu "fifteen miles southeast" in the text should be a mistake of "five days to the southeast".
3. In the chapter "Fuzhou Kingdom" in the "Travels" (chapter 155 of the Huanyu Ji, chapter 154 of the Feng translation), it is said that there is a place named Vuguen, which is rich in cane sugar, and it is also said, "Leave the city of Vuguen and go fifteen miles further to Fuzhou, the capital of a kingdom." Where is Vuguen? Feng's translation of "Xingji" is transliterated as "Wugan", and its "Note 7" is believed to be Youxi in Fujian; Geo. Phillips believes that it is Yongchun, and Bo Xihe believes that it is Yanping (present-day Nanping), and he says: "Yanping was called 'Nanjian' in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and in Polo's manuscript it may be called Namguem, and Vuguen may be falsely derived from Naguem" (the original text is "the outcome of", without the meaning of "false", it seems to be translated as "from" - the author). However, he also admitted that it was inconsistent with the book's statement of "fifteen miles to Fuzhou", so he believed that it was only speculation. Wang thinks none of the three arguments are appropriate. Vuguen should be the antiphon of "Hou Guan", Hou Guan is one of the two attached Guo counties in Yuan, fifteen miles away from Fuzhou, there is a sugarcane continent in its place, in the new county seat of Minhou County, rich in sugarcane sugar, which is exactly what Polo said.
Mr. Wang Ting has unique insights on the research of the above three place names, which can be said. However, the second place name, "Singin is a sand market", has aroused suspicion and controversy. In Professor Chen Dezhi's article "The Journey of Marco · Polo in China and Its Chronology", Polo suddenly interjected the situation in Nanjing (present-day Kaifeng) and Xiangyang after describing Yangzhou, and then he returned to the main topic, telling about "fifteen miles southeast of Yangzhou to the city of Singiu". Professor Chen said that because some of the books are written as "...... southeast from Saianfu (Xiangyang Province)", there is a controversy as to where the name Singiu should be referred to, "I think that the former place name should undoubtedly be like Yangiu (Yangzhou) in the Geographical Society's original work, because Polo has a passage before talking about Nanjing and Xiangyang, which obviously means that he will leave the main line and talk about the two regions to the west...... It can be seen that Nanjing and Xiangyang are obviously two episodes...... As for the city of Singiu, I unreservedly support the opinion of Bo Xihe, which should be Zhenzhou (now Yizheng). Because "the prosperity of commerce in this city, the width of the nearby river, and the number of ships passing by Polo are all in line with the situation in Jinju."
It seems that the issue of version is involved here. It should be noted that the versions used by Wang and Chen Erjun are all Moore (Chen translated by Mueller), Birch and the English translation of Marco · Polo Huanyuji, and the original book is found on page 320 and chapter 147, which is indeed Yangiu (Yangzhou) and not Xiangyang Mansion. "Note 1" on this page also lists several different names, in addition to Yangzhou, angiu, Saianfu (Xiangyang Prefecture), etc., which do not use later names, which should be considered. Feng translated Xiangyang Mansion (p. 554), Zhang translated Yangzhou City (p. 293), Li Ji translated (p. 228), and Chen Kaijun translated (p. 170) as Xiangyang Mansion, and Singui as Jiujiang City, all of which were inappropriate and were recorded for remarks.
In the article, Professor Chan also puts forward some views that differ from those of Birch. For example, Polo says that after leaving Jingzhaofu, he traveled west for three days to the mountainous Cuncun region, which is translated by Feng as "Guanzhong" (p. 435 of the middle volume) and "Hanzhong" (p. 226) in the Zhang translation. Chen Wen thinks that "this name is quite difficult to find out", because Jingzhao Mansion is also in Guanzhong, why bother traveling west for three days to reach its place. Bo Xihe believes that this name seems to be restored to Cancion, that is, "Hanzhong", but it is not Hanzhong in the upper reaches of the Han River, but refers to Fengxiang Prefecture, which was the seat of the Yuan Dynasty Shaanxi Hanzhong Dao Su Zheng Lian Visiting Division. Chen Wen believes that "this is a bit reluctant, not only is Cancion's writing not found in the various versions of the Polo book, but also Hanzhong, as a regional name, only refers to the upper reaches of the Han River south of the Qinling Mountains." He said: "Of course, Polo must pass through Fengxiang Mansion to go to Yunnan through Jingzhao...... The so-called mountainous area undoubtedly refers to the Qinling Mountains. ”
Polo said that from this mountainous area, he rode 20 miles to Ahebali (Turkic for White City), the capital of the border of the Barbarian State. Bo Xihe believes that it is undoubtedly the Turkic name of Hanzhong (Yuan belongs to Xingyuan Road). Chen Wen disagreed. He said: "But Hanzhong (Xingyuan) is not on the post road from Jingzhao to Chengdu, and it is impossible for Polo to detour to this city without taking the straight post road. I thought that Ahei Bali should be Lizhou (Guangyuan). After Mongolia captured Lizhou, in the third year of Xianzong (1253), Wang Dechen was ordered to build this city, garrison heavy troops, and Tuntian, as the base for taking Shu...... The Wang clan is a Yonggu (one name Wanggu) people, so there is a Turkic name for this place. The post road from Jingzhao to Chengdu in the Yuan Dynasty passed through Guangyuan (Lizhou), and the geographical situation described by Polo is also very consistent."
The author believes that Chen's Kantong is very good at Ah Hei Bali. It should be noted that Shahaiang also has a Lizhou (Guangyuan) account for the city (Feng Zezhong, pp. 437~438, "Note 1"), but does not explain why it was given this Turkic name.
From the above, it can be seen that the interpretation of the place names in the "Travelogue" is not an easy task, and there are still arguments and questions about the names of some places. In the book "Zhan Chi" in the "Jingshi Dadian" of the Yuan Dynasty, which is included in the "Yongle Canon", it contains the post station system of the national transportation in the Yuan Dynasty. The comparative study of "Travelogue" and "Zhanchi" is still a shortcut to the end of the south to solve the mystery of the place name of "Travelogue".
(5) The authenticity of "Travelogue".
When the book was published, the richness, civilization, and customs of the Orient were considered absurd because the richness, civilization, and customs of the Orient were rare and unheard of in the West at the time, so that his friends, on his deathbed, advised him to correct and retract the factual inconsistencies in his book, but Mark replied: "I have not written down half of what I have seen." After many years of research by many scholars, it has been proved that what Marco · Polo said is roughly consistent with the situation of the Yuan Dynasty, and there are places that can supplement the history of the Yuan Dynasty, of course, there are also inaccurate memories, false rumors or self-boasting. Unfortunately, although most of the Chinese events recorded in the "Travels" have been confirmed in Chinese historical records, it is difficult to find traces of Marco's personal activities in the historical books of the Yuan Dynasty. At the time of Ahma's assassination, Marco said that he was in China, and that the facts recorded were consistent with the Yuan History, but that he was not the Privy Councillor Polo (see above); He said that he had served as an official in Yangzhou for three years, but his name was not on the Yangzhou Chronicle. This gives an excuse to those who suspect that Marco · Polo went to China, and they can say that the things in the Travels that correspond to the situation of the Yuan Dynasty are not heard of by others or copied from other books.
More than 50 years ago, the author found a piece of information in the above-mentioned "Yongle Grand Canon· Zhanchi", which is enough to confirm that it is directly related to Marco · Polo, although it is not mentioned that Marco · Polo's name. The material says:
On the 17th day of August (to the 27th year of the Yuan Dynasty), Ananda replied to the book, and did not spend any time: Pingzhang Shabudin said: "In March of this year, I was ordered to send the Ulu, Abishiha, and the fire, and to go to the throne of Aruhun by way of Mabal. There are 160 people in the same company, and 90 of them have been divided; The remaining seventy people, hearing that they were bequeathed and bought by the kings, begged for rations. "Order: Don't be with it. (Yongle Dadian, vol. 19418, p. 15b)
This passage is exactly the same as the chapter in the Travels that the Persian king Argon sent three envoys, Oulatai, Apousca, and Coja, to propose to the Emperor of China and get the girl Cocachin, and the three envoys asked the Polo family to accompany them from the sea. The official document is mainly about the ration supply of the attachés of the three envoys in Pingzhang Shabudin of Jianghuai Province to the central government, and of course it will not mention the Polo family, not even the heroine of Kuo Kuozhen, let alone the little character of Polo. However, the names of the three envoys in the Book of Polo are exactly the same as those recorded in the Zhan Chi, and they are completely in line with the circumstances by which their family left China, and there is no doubt that they left China at the end of the year or the beginning of the following year, which proves that the historical materials of the Western Regions (such as the Historical Collection) are also completely consistent. For this reason, the author wrote a "Chinese Record on Marco· Polo's Departure from China", and Xiang Dashi's evaluation of this article is: "This discovery proves two points: First, Marco's record that they accompanied the envoys of Arukhon Khan of Persia is a fact, which can be proved by the official letter of the Yuan Dynasty. Although there is no mention of Mark in the "Zhanchi", the names of the Persian envoys are exactly the same as those recorded by Mark, and this is enough. 2. Ananda's recital is in the eighth month of the lunar calendar in 1290, mentioning the events of the third month of the lunar calendar of this year, and asking for the holy decree. This shows that the departure of Mark and his colleagues from China should be the end of the lunar calendar in 1290 or the beginning of the lunar calendar in 1291, and provides extremely reliable evidence for the question of the years and months in the Travels of Marco · Polo. This also provides reliable evidence for the authenticity of "Marco · Polo's Travels". ”
But the question of "authenticity" has not been resolved. In 1966, Germany scholar Herbert Franke, United States scholar John W. Haeger in 1979, and United Kingdom scholar ·Craig Clunas in 1982 published articles on whether Marco had been to China, or only to the north of China but not to the south. Their arguments are no more than the following: 1. There is not a single reference to Marco · Polo in Chinese historical books; 2. There is no mention of things with Chinese characteristics, such as tea, Chinese characters, printing, etc.; 3. Some records are exaggerated, inaccurate or incorrect, such as the attack on Xiangyang under the guise of artillery offerings, and the genealogy of the Mongolia royal family; 4. Some place names use Persian names, which may have been copied from the Persian Guide Guide ....... In this regard, the author has defended them one by one [6].
The above three foreign scholars may not have seen or paid attention to the information that the author found in Zhan Chi, so they raised the first question. But a Chinese professor who saw the author's paper still believed in foreign scholars, especially the article by Krunas published in the United Kingdom newspaper The Times. In 1988, Professor Wang Yumin published an article entitled "On the Authenticity of Marco · Polo's Travels" in the fourth issue of Shilin, sponsored by the Institute of History of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. (2) The "Historical Collection" (Persian History of Mongolia - Citation) records that Ghazan Khan married Kuokuozhen and did not mention anything about Marco's family, which is contrary to common sense. (3) Kublai Khan's choice of a concubine for the king of Aruhun was a well-known event of the government and the public, and Marco may have known it from hearsay, whether in China or in Persia, "or he may have had the opportunity to travel with him as a member of the fleet." The account in the "Standing Chi" does not show that Marco's family had any direct connection to the matter. Yang Wen asserts that the account of "Zhan Chi" "can only prove the authenticity of Marco · Polo's account", and the argument is insufficient. The author defended Professor Wang's argument and other views in the article "On the Authenticity of the Book of Marco · Polo" [7].
Until recently, there was still a Western scholar who insisted that Marco · Polo had never been to China, United Kingdom Dr. Frances ·Wood, director of the Chinese department at the British Library. It is said that in 1995, the 700th anniversary of the return of the "legendary" Marco · Polo from China to Venice, she will launch her new book, arguing that Marco · Polo never visited China. The author has not seen the book, but only from the English edition of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong on October 1, 1994 and the Youth Reference in Beijing on October 28, 1994 in the South China Morning Post·. I learned the synopsis. The South China Morning Post, written from London by David · Wallen, accused Marco of not mentioning Chinese women's foot binding, along with others who were mostly similar to skeptics. She mentions that Chinese scholars have pointed out from Chinese and Arabic (presumably Persian - citation) that Marco · Polo had escorted a princess of Mongolia from the seaway, but pointed out that Marco's name is not mentioned in the official historical texts, and she believes that Marco · Polo heard about it from the side, which is the same as what Professor Wang Yumin saw.
The author found that foreign scholars who have made great contributions to the study of Marco · Polo's books, such as Henry Yull and Moore in United Kingdom, Henry Caudi and Birch in France, L. Olschki (author of Marco · Polo's Asia) in Italy), F. Colif in United States. W. Cleaves) and others, both admit that Marco · Polo traveled to China, although they also point out the flaws in the book. In the well-informed Western world, why do some people ignore these research results and make a big difference? Of course, in academic research, it is important to think independently and contend, and the more the truth is debated, the clearer it will become. In the mutual discussion and debate, the study of Marco · Polo will be further promoted.
3. Several books on the introduction and study of Marco ·
Compared with the papers that study and introduce the "Travelogue", there are relatively few monographs that introduce and study this topic, but there are more than a dozen, and the length is not large. Here are a few of the best ones as follows:
1. Zhang Xinghong, "Marco Polo", published by the Commercial Press in 1934, 81 pages, about 48,600 words. This is the earliest book with research in the mainland. Previously, Zhang had already translated part of Yu'er and Kaodiben's translation of "Travelogue", so he was quite familiar with the content of "Travelogue". Chapter 4: The Legend of Marco Polo (verse 9); The Travels of Marco Polo (4 verses); Contents of the Travelogue (v. 4); The Book of China (v. 3). The first two chapters are mostly taken from Yuer and Kaodiben's "Travelogue · Introduction", and the fifth section of the first chapter, "Entering China", follows the theory of his privy deputy envoy and Yangzhou Dalu Huachi or Xuanhui envoy, which has been denied. Chapter 3 introduces the content of the book, which is a clear summary and an expression of one's own opinions. Although there are only three sections in the fourth chapter, the first section counts the famous people of the Yuan Dynasty recorded in the "Travels", which is very powerful and distinctive. The conclusion is that the celebrities recorded by Polo, in addition to the emperor, are several martial artists, and the Wenchen is only Ahma, so he "deeply thinks that Brother Ma entered the Yuan court and is a martial artist". It is still to find evidence for the statement of his privy deputy. The author believes that the large number of warriors should be related to their love of talking about war, because the war storyline can attract the audience the most. The second section is "The Historical Events of the Yuan Dynasty", which uses the "History of the Yuan" and local chronicles to explain the nine major events recorded in the book, which are also roughly the same. The third section, "Comparing Chinese Civilization as Seen and the Records of Marco Polo with the Chinese and Western Civilizations at That Time", summarizes the situation of the Yuan Dynasty in the "Travels" into six items: "National Prosperity and Strength", "Political Kindness", "Convenient Transportation", "Religious Morality", "Currency Circulation", and "Beautiful Architecture". He said: "In today's weak and chaotic China, we often hear that China is a semi-civilized country and that the human race is inferior and can never compete with Europeans and Americans. Reading "The Travels of Marco Polo" can make me excited, and I am not willing to give up on myself. "His patriotic feelings are admirable on paper.
2. Yu Shixiong, "The Great Traveler Marco ·Polo", published by China Tourism Publishing House in July 1988, 171 pages, 156,000 words. In 1983, Yu edited and published the collection of Introductions and Research ·· Marco Polo, selecting 37 representative papers from more than 100 articles. The book is divided into eight chapters: 1. Prelude to Marco · Polo's Departure to China (3 verses); 2. The beginning and end of Marco's · Polo's travels to China (v. 4); 3. The state of China in the early Yuan Dynasty as recorded by Marco · Polo (v.12); 4. Marco · Polo's account of China's historic cities (v. 9); 5. The foreign language version of Marco · Polo's Travels (v. 5); 6. Chinese translation of the Travels of Marco · Polo (v. 4); 7. Marco · Polo Studies in China (8 sections); 8. The influence of Marco · Polo's Travels on later generations (5 verses), which is accompanied by pictures, maps, book shadows, etc. It is quite distinctive, with all the opinions of the family, the participation of new personal views, the grand system, the rich content, and the hard work. Although there are occasional omissions (for example, on page 139 the historical value of Professor Shao Xunzheng's "The Travels of Marco · Polo", and on page 24, when recording the Ahmad incident, Polo is still accused of "Wang Shu (actually the transliteration of 'Wanhu') and Zhang Ku (actually the transliteration of 'Qianhu', see the last paragraph of the first question of this article)"), the small flaws do not hide Dayu, and this book can be a guide for beginners to get started.
3. Wang Miao, Shi Baoxiu, et al., Tracing a Page of History: Re-walking the Road of Marco · Polo into China, published by China Tourism Publishing House, Hong Kong, August 1993, 16 pages. This is a richly illustrated book with color pictures. In 1991, reporters from Hong Kong's "China Travel" pictorial wanted to follow the footsteps of Marco · Polo into China, and after carefully reading the "Travelogue" and consulting relevant people, they set off from the Khunjerab Pass in the Pamir Plateau and traveled through Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, and arrived in Beijing. Along the way, he compared Feng's translation of "Xingji", photographed the local mountain and river scenery, interviewed ethnic customs, and compiled what he saw and heard into this book. The frontispiece begins with "Did Marco · Polo Go to China?" They described the controversy and outcome of this issue, which they regarded as the key to whether or not they could start their journey, and attached a "Schematic Map of Marco · Polo's Route into China", which used two colors to indicate the route of Marco's itinerary and the route of this trip. It is divided into ten chapters: 1. The beginning of the Pamirs; Second, the tide of Kashgar people is surging; 3. Singing and dancing on the ancient road of Khotan; 4. The Great Pilgrimage to the Taklamakan Fifth, the vast road of the Qaidam Gobi; Sixth, a ten-day trip to Hexi; Seventh, the homeland of Western Xia is vertical and horizontal; 8. The ancient city of Juyan is isolated in the desert; 9. The resting place of the Great Khan of Ordos; 10. Starry night and journey into the capital of Yuan. The frontispiece of each chapter is an excerpt from Feng's translation of the Travels related to this chapter, and the main text describes the similarities and differences between the place and the Travels today, and devotes a large number of pages to describing the local experience, customs, and anecdotes, accompanied by a number of color photos, which makes it interesting to read as if you were in the scene, and also adds a lot of knowledge. It can be described as a unique and vivid supplementary textbook for reading "Travelogue". Previously, they had published the information obtained from this trip as a "big special" in the July 157 issue of China Tourism magazine, and the following month, it was published as a special book, and the frontispiece was revised again, hoping to see that the book was well received by the society.
4. Marco · Polo International Colloquium
When the colleagues of the Hong Kong China Travel Pictorial completed their tracking mission and arrived at the final destination in Beijing, the Marco · Polo International Symposium was held at the Working People's Cultural Palace in Beijing, from October 6 to 9, 1991. They took advantage of it and gladly participated.
The conference was jointly organized by the China International Culture Academy in Beijing, the Italy-China Economic and Cultural Exchange Association, the Beijing International Cultural Exchange Association, and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Federation of Social Sciences. The meeting was attended by international friends from Italy, United States, Germany and Australia, and more than 50 scholars from Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Quanzhou, Xiamen, Dalian, Chengdu and Xinjiang from mainland China. Italy has the largest number of scholars, nearly 20, most of whom are university professors, among which the notable ones are Professor Polo · Pardolecchia, a descendant of Marco · Polo, who looks quite like the portrait of Marco in "Travels", and the journalist and writer Madaro of Venice, who is enthusiastic about the cause of friendship and is known as "Little Marco · Polo". The former is proud of the achievements of his ancestors who have visited China, and expresses his yearning for China's magnificent mountains and rivers, customs and customs, and is willing to inherit and carry forward the friendship between the Italian and Chinese people pioneered by his ancestors. The latter gave a lengthy report: "Millions: How a Particular Case of Human Friendship and Solidarity Leads to an Case of Ordinary Greed". "Million" is one of the names of "Travelogue". The gist of the text is that Marco · Polo wrote with friendliness, sincerity, and respect about a great, industrious, culturally developed, and highly civilized people, but unexpectedly aroused the greed of the colonialists after the 15th century, who conquered and destroyed the two highly civilized kingdoms of Maya and Aztec in the Americas in search of gold. "History is a singular synthesis of 'several examples,' each of which is independent of the others, but all of which are strictly related and mutually influential," he said. The case of Marco · is the same as all others. This dialectical view is very insightful, although he does not make any research or elaboration on the "Travelogue". Other Italy scholars' papers include "The Influence of China and the Orient on Italy Art after Marco · Polo's Visit to China", "Marco · Polo and Chinese Law", "Marco · Italy in China in the Polo Era", etc.
Chinese scholars write essays on the characteristics of their field of study or the region in which they are located. For example, Huang Shengzhang, a researcher at the Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, "Research on the Field Investigation of Xinjiang Itinerary in the Travels of Marco · Polo and Related Issues", Zhang Ning, an associate researcher at the Capital Museum, "The Civilization of the Capital in Marco· Polo's Travels", Shen Dingping, a researcher at the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "From Marco · Polo to Matteo Ricci", Sana, a researcher at the Institute of World History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "The Influence of Marco · Polo on Columbus's Voyage to America", and Sun Guangqi, an associate professor of the Maritime History Research Office of Dalian Maritime University, "〈 Marco ·Polo's Travels" in Ancient Chinese Shipbuilding and Maritime Civilization", Jiang Hua, associate researcher of Jiangsu Higher Commercial College, "Marco · Polo's Travels" and Food Culture Exchange", Wu Xianzhong, deputy editor of Yangzhou Local Chronicles Office, Jiangsu Province, and Wei Peichun, vice chairman of Yangzhou Federation of Social Sciences, "Confirming Marco · Polo's Traces in Yangzhou from Yangzhou Local Chronicles", "The Historical Influence and Practical Significance of Marco · Polo's Travels" in Yangzhou, Li Jianping, deputy editor of Yangzhou Branch of China International Travel Service, Chen Yanhang, a senior engineer of Jimei Navigation College, wrote "Discussion on Several Issues Described in Marco · Polo's Travels", etc. In addition, Yu Shixiong, a professor at the China Institute of Industrial Movement, wrote a review of several issues in the study of Marco · Polo, and Zhu Jiang, a researcher at Jiangsu Higher Commercial College, and Zhu Jiang, a researcher at Jiangsu Higher Commercial College, who thought of three points from the 'Marco · Polo Travels'. In addition, Chen Shisong, a researcher at the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, wrote "The Bridge in Marco · Polo's Travels" and Long Darui, a lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages of Sichuan Normal University, "Marco · Polo's Travels and India Religion in the Thirteenth Century", which were rarely touched upon in the past. Gu Weimin, a lecturer at the Shanghai Institute of Education, provides research information on this topic in "Marco · Polo Studies in China". The articles that have been published in domestic journals include Cai Meibiao's "On Marco · Polo in China" (see above), and Huang Shijian's "On the Early Spread of Tea in North Asia and the Western Regions" (Historical Research, No. 1, 1993, pp. 141~145), and the subtitle of this article is "Also Saying Marco ·Polo Didn't Remember Tea". The article says that Marco · Polo's failure to remember tea has become one of the main arguments for some scholars to judge that he never visited China, and that such an argument cannot be established from the point of view of research methods. After a detailed examination of the history of the introduction of tea to Tibet, the Uighurs, Central Asia, the Khitans and the Jurchens, the article goes on to say that the Mongolia people did not drink tea for a period after the rise of the Mongolia. In 1268 and 1275, Yuan Shizu had already bought tea from Sichuan and Jiangnan, and in 1276, he set up tea gardens in Changhu and other places to "pick tea buds for the inner government". However, there is no data to show that in the 60~70s of the 13th century, Mongolia and Hui people have generally drunk tea. Marco · Polo Laihua (1275-1291), if he had lived among the Mongolia and Hui, he might not have had access to tea information. "Therefore, it is reasonable that he did not remember the tea." At the meeting, the author proposed the draft of "On the Authenticity of Mark's Book Revisited", and when it was published in the second issue of Historical Research in 1994, Professor Huang's article was cited as a note (see note [2] on page 76 of the journal).
The convening of this conference coincides with the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's departure from Quanzhou · departure from China, and its significance is worth noting. This is the first Marco ·Polo International Academic Conference held in mainland China in 100 years, and it is also the first national Marco ·Polo Academic Conference. It not only communicates the international academic information exchange, but also contacts the feelings and friendship of mainland and foreign scholars, and it is also a major review of the mainland academic circles on the study of Marco · Polo, which is an unprecedented grand event in a century! It will certainly promote the research and progress of Marco · Poloology on the mainland.
Exegesis:
[1] See Zhang Yueming, "The Translation and Research of Marco · Polo's Travels in China", Jianghuai Forum, No. 3, 1981; Yu Shixiong, "Commenting on the New Translation of Marco · Polo's Travels", Reading, No. 10, 1982. The two essays were included in the book "Introduction and Research on Marco ·· Polo" edited by Yu Shixiong of Beijing Bibliographic Literature Publishing House in 1983.
[2] See Yu Shixiong, "Commenting on the New Translation of Marco · Polo's Travels".
[3] See Jiang Xinmei, "Introduction to Bo Xihe's Interpretation of Marco · Polo's Travels", Studies in Chinese History, No. 2, 1959, included in Introduction and Research on Marco · Polo.
[4] See "Four Essays on the History of the Yuan Dynasty by Mr. Shao Xunzheng", Yuan History Research Association, Yuan History Essays, Volume 1, Zhonghua Book Company, 1982 edition.
〔5〕见穆尔（A.C.Moule）：THE MURDER OF ACMAT BAILO， 原刊英国亚洲皇家学会会报华北分会1927年上海版，收入其《行在及其它马可·波罗注释》（QUINSAI WITH OTHER NOTES ON MARCO POLO）论集第79～88页。 （Bailo，邵循正先生认为即女真语的“孛极烈”、 满洲语的“贝勒”，见前引邵文）；伯希和：《马可·波罗游记诠释》第10 ～11页ACMT①条，第236页CENCHU 条，第870页VANCHU 条。
[6] Zhang Xinghong's work was first published in the Journal of Geosciences, Nos. 1 to 4, 1922, and later included in his Introduction to Marco Polo's Travels. Shu Shisheng's article was published in the Journal of History and Geography, Vol. 2, No. 7, 1923. Zhang Jianshu later wrote an article entitled "Answer to Shu Shijun's 'Marco Polo's Questioning in Chinese History Books'" (in Journal of History and Geography, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1924), still insisting that the "Travelogue" itself was wrong.
[7] See the text "Answering Shu Shizijun" cited above.
[8] Bo Xihe's text was translated by Feng Chengjun and first published in his "Historical and Geographical Research and Translation Series of the South China Sea in the Western Regions", 1934 edition, pp. 83~99; Later, it was included in the second volume of his "Marco · Polo's Travels", 1936 edition of the "Appendix", pages 849~865.
[9] According to Cen, Zhang's arguments are mostly quoted from Zhang's other monograph "Marco Polo", so the text is slightly different from Zhang's "Marco Polo in Chinese History Books".
[10] See Yuan Shi Essays, Vol. 1, Zhonghua Book Company, 1982 edition, pp. 179~199.
[11] See page 288 of Zhang's translation and page 542 of Feng's translation of the middle volume.
[12] See Yang Zhijiu, "A Few Questions about Marco · Polo in China" (2) "Did Marco · Polo be the governor of Yangzhou?" Originally published in Studies in Chinese History, No. 2, 1982, included in Three Treatises on Yuan History, pp. 109~113.
[13] The "History of the Yuan" of the "Four Preparations" of the Chung Hwa Book Company and the "History of the Yuan" of the Enlightened Bookstore according to the 25th History of the Qing Dynasty were both mistakenly "Xuanyu Messenger", and page 3 of Feng's translation of "Marco ·Polo's Travels· Preface" was also mistakenly marked as "Xuanfu Envoy".
[14] Same as note [12].
[15] See "Four Treatises on the History of the Yuan Dynasty by Mr. Shao Xunzheng", edited by the Yuan History Research Association, Volume 1 of the Yuan History Essays.
[16] See "A Chinese Record on Marco · Polo's Departure from China", originally published in the Journal of Literature and History, Vol. 1, No. 12, published in Chongqing in December 1941, included in pages 89~96 of "Three Treatises on Yuan History"; "Research on Marco · Polo", originally published in Journal of Nankai University, No. 3, 1979, included in "Three Treatises on Yuan History", pp. 97~104; Xiang Da: "Marco · Polo and Marco ·Polo's Travels", originally published in Traveler, No. 4, 1956, included in Marco · Polo's Introduction and Research, pp. 3~14.
[17] Peng Hai, "On the Time of Marco · Polo in Yangzhou", Historical Research, No. 2, 1980.
[18] This article is included in "Introduction and Research of Marco · Polo", pp. 287~297.
[19] See Yuan History and Northern Ethnic History Research Collection, edited by the Yuan History Research Office of the Department of History, Nanjing University, No. 10, 1986.