Did Marco Polo really travel to China in the 13th century? On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of his death, literary scholar Marina Münkler defends the famous Venetian.
700 years ago, on January 8, 1324, the most famous western traveler to China of all died: Marco Polo. In 1271, as a 17-year-old, the Venetian set off with his father and uncle to the court of the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, whose world empire also included what is now China. As prefect of the Great Khan, he traveled across large parts of China before finally returning to Venice in 1295. During a stay in prison four years later, he told a fellow prisoner about his experiences, which he wrote down. “The Wonders of the World,” Polo's travelogue, became a bestseller. But there have always been doubts about whether Marco Polo was even in China. The literary scholar Marina Münkler from the TU Dresden, however, says in an interview: Marco Polo certainly made it to the Far East. Münkler is the author of the book “Marco Polo: Life and Legend”.
Ms. Münkler, at the beginning of his travel report, Marco Polo writes that he is telling “what he saw with his own eyes.” Is that true? For centuries it has been doubted that it even made it to China.
Marco Polo most likely did not see everything he talks about with his own eyes. For example, he also reports historical facts about the history of the Mongols, which he couldn't possibly have experienced. But that doesn't mean he wasn't in China at all, as some claim.
One person who has claimed this and has received a lot of attention is the historian Frances Wood, the author of Marco Polo Didn't Get to China.
Honestly, I think this book is the biggest nonsense ever written about Marco Polo. Unfortunately, it received a lot of attention when it was released. And although it was torn apart in reviews back then, many of Wood's theses have held up to this day.
“The Great Wall of China looked completely different in the 13th century than it does today”
Wood cites, for example, the fact that he does not mention the Great Wall of China in his book as evidence for her claim that Marco Polo was never in China.
The Great Wall of China looked completely different in the 13th century than it does today. What we know today as the Great Wall of China was only built in the 17th century. When Marco Polo was in China, the Great Wall of China consisted primarily of earthworks. And they weren't anything unusual, so nothing worth reporting on. Marco Polo also doesn't mention Chinese tea culture – no wonder! After all, he was at the court of the Mongols, and they didn't drink tea, but rather kumys, fermented mare's milk. Just to argue with what Marco Polo said in his report not mentioned is problematic. Why should Marco Polo 700 years ago have been interested in the same things as historians today?
What evidence is there that Marco Polo was in China?
Marco Polo, for example, was very knowledgeable about the production of Mongolian paper money, which is not described in any other European or Persian source from the period. That means he can only know this from his own eyewitnesses. The claim that he learned such things from other travelers around a campfire somewhere on the Black Sea and merely passed them on is grotesque.
Marco Polo's travelogue has been doubted for centuries. Because he seems so incredible?
Marco Polo's journey wasn't all that incredible, after all, his brother and uncle had already been to the Mongol court before him. Part of the Polo family already had a branch on the Black Sea. Other long-distance merchants also traveled very far back then. Many goods offered in Venice or Genoa came from the Far East. Nevertheless, readers at the time found much of what Marco Polo reported overwhelming, new, different, irritating and disturbing.
“The idea that there could be an emperor so powerful was hard for many to believe.”
For example?
For example, that in the Mongol Empire payments were made with paper money. This was unimaginable for Europeans; after all, paper is worth nothing! How is this supposed to work? People asked themselves. The idea that there could be an emperor so powerful that he could impose a paper currency was hard to believe for many.
Why was it Marco Polo's report that became so legendary? As you say, he was not the only traveler to Asia of his time.
One factor was certainly that Marco Polo's account is a vernacular account. Furthermore, merchants who traveled to Asia at that time generally left no records. Among other things, because they didn't want others to find out too many details – such as where to get certain goods at a good price. In ad
dition, a different knowledge culture prevailed in the Middle Ages than today: knowledge only circulated in very small circles, for example in monastic orders or at the courts of rulers. Everyone else was virtually excluded from knowledge.
How should we read Marco Polo's text today? As a travel report that mixes facts with a bit of fiction?
Marco Polo did not write a travel report, but rather a description of a Far Eastern empire. There is probably a lot of factual knowledge mixed in with some that he only knew from hearsay. For example, what he writes about Japan. The Mongols tried several times to conquer Japan in the last quarter of the 13th century, but were unsuccessful. What the Mongols may have told each other about Japan – for example, that the houses there were covered with gold – was taken over by Marco Polo. And this also contributed to many Europeans' perception of the supposed riches of the East.
“Marco Polo is highly valued in China”
How did Marco Polo shape the image of China at his time?
Marco Polo especially shaped the image of the Mongols. In the early 13th century, the Mongols advanced as far as Liegnitz, in what is now Poland, on their expansion campaigns, when the Europeans thought: This is the apocalypse! The Mongols that Marco Polo describes, however, are completely different. He writes appreciatively of their ability to rule an empire. And he describes himself as someone who served the Mongols. In his report, Marco Polo suddenly pays enormous tribute to a non-Christian, a non-European.
And how do people view Marco Polo in China?
He is very valued there. Precisely because he ensured that what is now China was viewed so positively in Europe. But this is most likely a modern phenomenon. Because the China that Marco Polo traveled to was part of the Mongol Empire as the Yuan dynasty. And the Chinese only began very late to understand the Yuan Dynasty as part of their own tradition. Only then do they start to be interested in Marco Polo. By the way, there is no doubt that he was ever in China.
So could a Marco Polo serve as a bridge builder at a time when the relationship between China and the West is worse than it has been for a long time?
Yes, culturally you can definitely use it as a bridge builder. What you can also learn from Marco Polo is the enthusiasm for foreign things, which many people have lost these days. Today people travel by cruise ship, go ashore for a few hours and practically don't have to leave European soil, even when they're abroad. Moving into other cultures is what brings people together. And that's what Marco Polo did.
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