The Greatest Story Ever Told, Or A Made-Up Adventure Based On Hearsay
New historic and economic research in China may answer questions about Marco Polo
In my early twenties I randomly bumped into an acquaintance from my high school in an area where I’d moved. So, we started hanging out.
Immediately, he told me wild stories about his life. I figured they were B.S. and pleasantly smiled and nodded.
But then we went out to bars, and the insane became a regular occurrence on our outings. Suddenly, those wild stories were plausible. The more time we spent together, I soon realized they weren’t only possible, but must be true.
Perhaps the Italian writer Rustichello felt similar around 1298. As he sat in a prison cell, a man captured in a battle between Genoa and Venice was tossed in with him. This combatant had a crazy story as well; perhaps the craziest that had ever been told in Europe.
While the tale bordered on the impossible, something about the teller made Rustichello a believer. So much so, he started writing the story out in prison.
By the time he was finished, and the story published, it became a hit in his time — possibly the greatest adventure ever written. Although Rustichello’s name faded from history, his friend telling the story became immortal. You know him as Marco Polo.
While many modern historians doubt the eight-thousand-mile trek to China, and the wonders he saw, they’re not alone. In Polo’s time, he was called “Il Millione,” perhaps due to the millions of tales of he told. In fact, Rustichello called the book Il Millione too.
But like my friend, recent evidence and research gives Polo’s stories more credence. But let’s start with his adventure first.
A Very Summarized Version Of Polo’s Tale
In the documentary The Secret File of Marco Polo, the adventure begins with the seventeen-year-old Polo tagging along with his merchant uncle and father for a trip to China. Both had been there previously, meeting with Kublai Kahn.
In fact, he invited the duo back, ordering them to bring Christian priests.
The Italians went from Venice with a boatload of Crusaders to Acre in the Middle East. From there they traveled by land. At some point the monks accompanying them on the journey fled due to fear, and the merchants continued seeing amazing things.
Not only did they meet the Khan, but Polo became part of his court. He was sent on missions throughout China, spending years in government employment. As Kublai Kahn aged, the Polos got nervous about their fate if another took the throne.
They accompanied a team of nobles from Persia returning home with a Chinese princess. The Italian merchants returned to Italy after some twenty years, when many assumed they were dead.
A few years later, Polo was captured in a battle between Italian city states, meeting Rustichello. I left out a lot, but even in brief, it’s an amazing story. Its magnitude makes many roll their eyes. Rustichello’s creative liberties add doubt as well, since he was a known romance writer.
But evidence lies within the “millions” of details Polo provides.
The Older Polos And Travel Through The Desert
In Polo’s story, his father and uncle had been given courier tablets. These golden seals awarded the holder the Kahn’s protection, and access to whatever they needed along their way. Literary scholar Marina Münkler says the older Polos really owned these tablets.
In the previously mentioned documentary, Münkler finds them stated in the will of Marco’s uncle, leaving them to his nephew. Plus, they’re mentioned again in the dowry list of one of Marco’s daughters.
The younger Polo also knew much about the trade route to China and various details along the way. For instance, how to cross the Taklamakan Desert before China, and how to survive there.
He even mentions the sands sing. While this sounds odd, National Geographic documents this phenomenon as being caused by piles of moving sand. Vibration occurs between dry and wet layers. It produces a boom, like something from a trippy rave party.
While historian Frances Wood mentions Polo did miss certain big details, like the main hub traders entered called Dunhuang, and its fantastic caves carved by Buddhist monks. He also never notes the Great Wall. It leads her to believe Polo never made it to China and just retold other traveler’s stories.
However, a German Sinologist and a few Chinese historians find detailed and credible evidence only an eyewitness would have known.
The Hidden Story In Salt, Money, And Government
While many often say Chinese records from the Yuan (Kublai Khan’s) Dynasty have no mentions of Polo, Peng Hai disagrees. Hai, a historian from the University of Yangzhou finds mention of a name Bolowo. Hai believes this is Polo.
In the documentary, he reveals a chronicle of a foreign confidant of the Kahn getting in trouble by fraternizing too closely with ladies in the court. While officials wanted him punished, the Khan sends Bolowo away on a mission to collect taxes. Polo also mentions running into an issue with an official at the Kahn’s court.
In his book Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues, Sinologist Hans Ulrich Vogel explains Polo had deep knowledge of the salt trade in Yuan China — like that of a government official.
He explained an old Chinese way of producing salt by boiling brine and where salt was distributed.
Polo knew that some regions used salt as money.
The explorer had figures for the revenues generated in salt taxes in various regions. Vogel also claims these numbers are consistent with Yuan records.
Although Vogel doesn’t believe Polo was a tax official, but some type of administrator who was privy to government information. For instance, Vogel says Polo accurately relayed tax rates for various commodities in different regions. He also knew the Yunnan region used cowrie shells imported from India as money.
In the documentary Vogel also points out that not only did Polo describe paper money used in Yuan China, but knew how it was made. Furthermore, the explorer explained the administrative districts within the empire accurately.
But the inside details from Polo don’t end here.
Polo’s Random Descriptions Match Chinese Records
Within his tale, Polo mentions how the Khan ordered trees to be planted by main roads on each side, so many paces apart. University of Beijing historian Dang Baohai found this program described three times in Yuan records.
In the documentary Baohai says Polo is the only European to mention such a “marginal detail.”
Moreover, on a visit to China, Vogel found Polo’s description of Lugou Bridge totally accurate. From the statues of lions, to the odd shape of its pilons, he explained it correctly.
Finally, as Vogel went through Yuan records with other Sinologists in China, the team found mentions of a mission from Persia to retrieve a Chinese princess meant to be a bride. The names of the officials matched the names Polo listed in his story.
So, where does this leave us?
A Million Tall Tales, Or A Million Details Of An Adventure
With the details listed above, you may be settled that Marco Polo is in the same category as my friend mentioned earlier. But be warned. The Encyclopedia Britannica explains there are a hundred and forty versions of Il Millione floating around.
See, back in Polo’s time, manuscripts were hand copied. Depending on the copier, they may also change the story, not to mention language translations, which may drain away nuance.
The documentary also notes Rustichello definitely spiced up the account, even dropping speeches word-for-word from his romance novels into the text.
However, even with all this warping that took place over the years, there’s something to Polo’s story. Is it an outlandish, and sometimes unbelievable adventure? Definitely. Yet there’s also strange “marginal details” in significant amounts which could only come from first-hand knowledge.
Polo also rarely lists his own thoughts during the adventure, just describes what he encounters — like a medieval historian. At points it appears like the Khan is the title character.
While it would be improper to consider it totally accurate, you can’t dismiss Marco Polo. There’s just too much there; it lives somewhere in the middle. But even so, it makes the tale one of the greatest adventures of all time.
-Originally posted on Medium 7/11/23