yan Posted March 7, 2004 at 01:18 PM Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 at 01:18 PM His accounts about Mongolian lifestyle really contain some bad mistakes (e.g. Mongol warriors drinking the blood of their horses, fermented milk looking like white wine etc), and his book also forgets to mention some things that should have been very obvious to someone living in china, e.g. women with bound feet. He even claimed that Khubilai put him in charge of a whole province! Some people suggested that he might never have travelled further than the Crimea peninsula in the Black Sea, and his book is only compiled from storys told to him by other traders. So, is there any evidence he really traveled to China? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted March 7, 2004 at 03:19 PM Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 at 03:19 PM Are you watching the National Geographic programme? Evidence? I don't know. But I've bought three issues of National Geographic just for its 3-part series on Marco Polo's journey. Real or not, the stories are just fascinating, don't you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yan Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:06 PM Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:06 PM Evidence? I don't know. But I've bought three issues of National Geographic just for its 3-part series on Marco Polo's journey. Real or not, the stories are just fascinating, don't you think?Yes, they are fascinating. But why are they so often taken as somehow based on fact, when they might not be more true than Baron Münchhausens adventures? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quest Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:12 PM Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:12 PM Did all Han women bind their feet back then? That is hard to imagine, I would believe a few did that, but the majority? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yan Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:18 PM Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:18 PM I don't know. But Marco Polo wrote about anything he found strange. He apparently even copied lots of nonsense from older sources (like the bit about venesecting the horses in order to have something to drink). So I think he would have written about footbinding if he had heard about it. And I think he would have heard about it or seen it if he had been in China. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quest Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:20 PM Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:20 PM I did not do much research on Marco Polo, were there Chinese historical account/records of him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yan Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:28 PM Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 at 04:28 PM I did not do much research on Marco Polo, were there Chinese historical account/records of him?None, as far as I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cavebear Posted March 12, 2004 at 04:24 AM Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 at 04:24 AM I would take the claim seriously that he did not really made it to china himself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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