The question of whether Marco Polo really visited China is one of the most debated questions in the history of the Mongol Empire. The traditional view, which is based on Marco Polo’s own account of his travels, is that Marco Polo spent more than two decades at the court of Kublai Khan and that he wrote an influential account of his experiences. The skeptical view, which has been advanced by a number of scholars in recent years, is that Marco Polo did not actually visit China, or that he visited a much more limited portion of China than he claimed.
The question of whether Marco Polo really visited China is significant for what it tells us about the reliability of the medieval travel accounts, and it is significant for what it tells us about the cultural exchange between East and West in the medieval period.
The Traditional View
The traditional view of Marco Polo’s travels is based on the “Travels of Marco Polo,” the account that Marco Polo dictated to a writer named Rustichello da Pisa in 1298-1299, while the two were prisoners of war in Genoa. According to the Travels, Marco Polo was born in Venice in 1254, and he traveled to China with his father and uncle in 1271-1275.
According to the Travels, Marco Polo spent more than two decades at the court of Kublai Khan, and he served as an envoy of the khan to various parts of the empire. Marco Polo returned to Venice in 1295, and he dictated the account of his travels to Rustichello da Pisa in 1298-1299. The Travels was widely read in Europe, and it was one of the main sources of European knowledge of China and the Mongol world for several centuries.
The Skeptical View
The skeptical view of Marco Polo’s travels is based on a number of arguments that have been advanced by scholars in recent years. The most important of these arguments is that the Travels do not mention a number of features of China that one would expect a visitor to notice, including the Great Wall, the Chinese characters, the use of tea, and the practice of foot binding. The omission of these features, the skeptics argue, suggests that Marco Polo did not actually visit China, or that he visited a much more limited portion of China than he claimed.
The skeptical view has been advanced by a number of scholars, including the British historian Frances Wood, who argued in her 1995 book “Did Marco Polo Go to China?” that Marco Polo did not actually visit China, but that he compiled his account from the accounts of other travelers, particularly the accounts of Persian merchants. The skeptical view has been challenged by other scholars, who argue that the omissions in the Travels are consistent with Marco Polo’s actual visit.
The Middle View
The middle view of Marco Polo’s travels is that Marco Polo did visit China, but that he did not visit all of the places that he claimed to visit. According to this view, Marco Polo visited the Yuan court and spent time in Khanbaliq, but he did not visit the southern provinces of China or the regions beyond. The middle view is supported by the fact that the Travels contain detailed descriptions of the Yuan court, the Yuan administration, and the Yuan culture, but they do not contain detailed descriptions of the southern provinces of China.
The middle view is also supported by the fact that the Travels contain a number of features that are consistent with a personal visit to China, including detailed descriptions of the climate, the geography, and the customs of the regions that Marco Polo visited. The middle view is, in this sense, a compromise between the traditional view and the skeptical view, and it is supported by a growing body of evidence.
The Significance of the Question
The question of whether Marco Polo really visited China is significant for what it tells us about the reliability of the medieval travel accounts, and it is significant for what it tells us about the cultural exchange between East and West in the medieval period. The Travels of Marco Polo is one of the most important travel accounts in the history of the world, and it is one of the most important sources of European knowledge of China and the Mongol world for several centuries.
The question is also significant for what it tells us about the Mongol world. The Mongol world was a major center of trade and cultural exchange, and it was a major destination for travelers from all over the world. The Travels of Marco Polo is one of the most famous accounts of these travels, and it is one of the most important sources for the history of the Mongol world.
The Cultural Legacy of the Travels
The cultural legacy of the Travels of Marco Polo is significant. The Travels was widely read in Europe, and it was one of the main sources of European knowledge of China and the Mongol world for several centuries. The Travels was also an important influence on the European imagination, and it was a major source of inspiration for the European voyages of discovery that began in the fifteenth century.
The Travels was also an important source of information about the Mongol world. The Travels contains detailed descriptions of the Mongol administration, the Mongol military, and the Mongol culture, and it is one of the most important sources for the history of the Mongol world. The Travels is, in this sense, a major contribution to the cultural exchange between East and West, and it is a major work of world literature.
Sources
- Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (Berkeley, 1988).
- John W. Chaffee, Banners and the Borderlands in Yuan China (Cambridge, 2012).
- David Morgan, The Mongols (2nd ed., Oxford, 2007).