Did Marco Polo Really Get to China?
Did Marco Polo really travel all the way to China? Or was he really a liar? Learn all about Marco Polo, his background, and his book in this exciting episode. Find out what's true and what's just a myth!
Transcript
Tzeela: Hi, I’m Tzeela!
Rina: Hi, I am Rina!
Dalia: Hi, I’m Dalia!
Penina: Hi, I’m Penina!
All: And this is Things You Thought You Knew About History!
Tzeela: Where we tell you the real story behind historical misconceptions.
Penina: Marcoooo
Tzeela & Rina: Poloooo
Penina: Marcoo
Rina: Who’s this game named after anyway? Who was Marco Polo?
Tzeela: Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant and traveler in the late 1200s. He wrote a famous book about his travels on the way to China and what he saw when he was there.
Penina: Not really, he’s a liar! He didn’t get to China at all.
Tzeela: Actually, he did get to China but before we discuss that, let’s go over his biography.
Rina: Marco Polo was born around 1254 in Venice, Italy. His father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, were successful merchants who had left on an expedition before Marco was born. They settled in Constantinople for some time and then around the Volga River. When political unrest kept them from going home to Venice, they headed eastward to the Mongolian Empire.
Tzeela: After a few years in that area, they met with the emperor Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan. They got along well and returned to Venice as Kublai Khan’s ambassadors to the pope, planning to return with wise men and oil from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Rina: When they got back to Venice in 1269 Marco Polo was already 15 or 16. Two years later the Polos, this time with Marco, set out again for the court of Kublai Khan. They went first to Jerusalem for the oil, then to Acre to pick up gifts, papers, and two friars from the pope to bring to Kublai.
Tzeela: In 1275 after years of traveling through Asia, seeing different cities, regions, people, deserts, and mountains, the Polos reached Kublai Khan. Marco Polo and his family worked in Kublai’s court for the next 16 - 17 years, sometimes traveling for the emperor, and taking on different roles. Kublai was quite fond of Marco and may have even given him some administrative jobs.
Rina: Around 1292 the Polos convinced Kublai to allow them to accompany a Mongolian princess on her way to marry the Persian ruler, Arghun Khan, and then to go back to Venice. Kublai was reluctant for them to leave, but the Polos wanted to get back to Venice, partly because Kublai was getting old and they didn’t know how much longer they’d be able to rely on his protection.
Tzeela: The Polos boarded one of the 14 ships in the big fleet taking the princess and began their journey to Persia. They stopped in different places in South East Asia, like Sumatra where they stayed for five months to avoid traveling through monsoons.
Rina: When they got to Persia they delivered the princess to Arghun Khan’s son because Arghun had already died. After that, they made their way to Europe and finally reached Venice in 1295. Kublai Khan had died the year before.
Penina: That’s a cool background so when did Marco Polo write his book?
Rina: Well, soon after he returned to Venice he was captured in battle with Venice’s rival, Genoa. When he was in Genoese prison he met romanced and adventure writer Rustichello of Pisa.
Tzeela: Marco Polo dictated the story of what he’d seen in his travels, probably adding stories that he only heard second-hand, and together they wrote Description of the World, now known better as The Travels of Marco Polo.
Rina: In 1299 he went free and seems to have lived quietly in Venice for the rest of his life. His book became a big success, being copied over many times, but we don’t have the original manuscript anymore.
Penina: Okay, so that all makes sense, but I heard this isn’t true!
Tzeela: According to some historians, such as Frances Wood, he didn’t go to China, he probably didn’t even go past his family’s trading posts in Constantinople. He took all the information from other written sources or things he heard from others.
Rina: These historians say he leaves out lots of details he probably would have noticed if he went to China himself, for example he never talks about tea. And he’s never mentioned in Chinese documents.
Tzeela: However, most historians criticize these claims. They say that he includes so much information that it makes more sense to say he went to China than to say he got all the information from other sources.
Rina: They point out that some of the details he left out can be explained by the fact that he was surrounded by Mongolian officials more than regular Chinese people. And we don’t know if he’s mentioned in Chinese documents because we don’t know what name he would have gone by.
Tzeela: Also, new research points out that Marco Polo was very accurate about some details. Hans Ulrich Vogel compared Marco Polo's descriptions of currencies to descriptions from Chinese sources and other Western travelers' writings. He found Polo was both accurate and more specific than other Western sources, so he couldn’t have just taken the information from those.
Rina: Similarly, he shows that Marco Polo’s description of salt production in a region called Yunnan is not only accurate but the only Western source to mention the process.
Tzeela: Still, even if he didn’t lie about going to China, he doesn’t seem to have been totally honest. He claims he and his father and uncle helped in the Mongolian siege of Hsiang-yang but the siege was over before they got to China. And he may have exaggerated about his official position.
Rina: So he wasn’t always totally accurate but Marco Polo probably did go to China after all.
Penina: Now it’s trivia time! How well do you know China?!?!
Rina: What is the largest city in China?
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
Shanghai
Penina: How many people live in China?
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Over 1.4 billion!
Rina: What is the longest river in China?
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
The Yangtze river
Penina: What is the currency in China?
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
Renminbi or Chinese Yuan
Rina: What place in China has the most skyscrapers of any city in the world?
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
Hong Kong
Tzeela: Thank you so much for listening to our last episode of Things You Thought You Knew About History.
BYE!