Marco Polo vs. the skeptics

[Safe-Keeper]

When most of us hear the name Marco Polo, we think of the great explorer who went all the way to China from Europe. Some of us know details of his journey, such as that he served under the great Kahn. Others of us are awed by his descriptions of Chinese inventors, giant armies, and mysterious Chinese culture. However, very few seem to be aware of the controversy, the fact that there are historians and cultures that do not believe Polo's book.

I subscribe to a Scandinavian history magazine, and one of the articles some time ago detailed Marco Polo's travels, or, more accurately, the criticism directed at him from certain historians. Skeptics argue that Polo greatly exaggerates certain details, such as the size of the Chinese military (as far as I know, the exaggerations that abound in the book are the reason why it's been given the nickname The Million). He also leaves out important aspects of Chinese culture, and makes several glaring mistakes, such as when he describes the Great Wall of China (which he can't have seen as it was in ruins at the time of his alleged visit). Furthermore, the Chinese at the time were xenophobic and unlikely to let a foreigner rise as far in the ranks as Polo allegedly did, and even though they kept accurate and detailed historical records, there's no mention of Marco Polo.

Historians theorize that Polo traveled a certain distance eastwards, and, when returning to Italy and meeting up with a disgruntled author, fell for the temptation to take what he knew of China from people he had spoken to and written a fictional book to save face.

Can anyone elaborate? Wolfman?

[Gagglegnash]

Hi

Just an aside: The Great Khan wasn't Chinese, and a very practical man. If someone had skill, The Khan'd put him to work, no matter where he came from.

...and as the Mongols of the time governed something like 13 million square miles of land from the shores of China on one side, through Eurasia and on into Europe, there was a LOT of, "where he came from," going on.

[Foolmewunz]

I think you got the criticism of the Great Wall bit wrong. It wasn't that he said he saw it. It was that he never mentioned it.

This argument's been kicking around for a while. Critics (much led by Francis Wood) say that there are a number of glaring omissions in his tales. Most notably:

He never mentions the Great Wall.
No mention of footbinding, either.
He doesn't mention tea drinking.
No mention of a wai gwo ren in the Imperial entourage in any records.

I've ranked them in order of credible complaints, IMHO.

The "Great" Wall wasn't so great at the time. It consisted of fortifications to keep the Mongols out, so they destroyed most of them. What we consider The Great Wall was built in the 16th century under the Ming Dynasty.

Footbinding was limited to upper class women who rarely left their homes, and it's possible that Polo never got access to those homes.

Tea drinking was a southern tradition in China and had been popularized in the courts of the Sungs, but had been largely cast aside by the upper classes under the Mongols. It was a common beverage by the time of Polo's journey, and it might conceivably be argued that he didn't think it noteworthy because it was so common. (And by the time of his memoirs being dictated, tea was known in the west.)

The lack of mention of a westerner in high places is the most telling, though. The Chinese love their records! Since the inward turning of the Mings certainly led to a degree of expurgating many unpopular(with the Confucianists) writings, it's conceivable that any mention of contacts with civilizations outside of China would have or could have been destroyed. But there are many records of the era from all over China, and there's no mention of any westerner in or around the court of the Khan.

I believe Polo went to some part of China, but likely not to Beijing and the eastern reaches he claims to have visited. Alternately, if he got to the east, it was probably as a humble trader, and his Mediterranean complection, after years on the Silk Road, probably made him dark enough to fit in as an Arab merchant, and he never got to the heights of society that he claims.

I also find his tale of his return trip by boat to Hormuz to be a little incredulous. The Chinese didn't make long sea voyages in that century. Trips were on a series of boats with transfer points from one trader to another to another. Zheng He became a hero of the court by making almost that same voyage about a hundred years later, and it's hard to fathom that it was commonplace under the Khans or it wouldn't have been such a big deal.
(This, I admit, is an argument from personal incredulity.)