Status: 08.01.2024, 08:26 a.m.
By: Sven Hauberg
CommentsPrint Share
Marco Polo and one of his companions receive a golden plaque from Kublai Khan, which assures them of safe passage (illustration from the 15th century). © Imago
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, probably the most famous Western traveler to China of all died: Marco Polo. In 1271, at the age of 17, the Venetian set off with his father and uncle to the court of the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, whose world empire also included today's China. As prefect of the Great Khan, he traveled through 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 that Marco Polo was in China at all. The literary scholar Marina Münkler from the TU Dresden, on the other hand, says in an interview: Marco Polo did indeed make it to the Far East. Münkler is the author of the book "Marco Polo: Life and Legend".
Ms. Münkler, at the beginning of his travelogue, Marco Polo writes that he tells "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 from the history of the Mongols, which he cannot have witnessed. But that doesn't mean he wasn't in China at all, as some claim.
One who claims this and has received a lot of attention is the historian Frances Wood, the author of "Marco Polo Didn't Come to China."
Honestly, I think this book is the biggest nonsense ever written about Marco Polo. Unfortunately, it got a lot of attention when it appeared. And although it was torn apart in reviews even 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"
As evidence for her claim that Marco Polo was not in China at all, Wood cites, for example, the fact that he does not mention the Great Wall of China in his book.
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 mainly of earthen ramparts. And they weren't anything out of the ordinary, so they weren't anything to report on. Marco Polo doesn't mention Chinese tea culture either – no wonder! After all, he was at the court of the Mongols, and they didn't drink tea, but Kumy's, fermented mare's milk. Arguing only with what Marco Polo does not mention in his report is problematic. Why would Marco Polo 700 years ago have been interested in the same things as today's historians?
Marina Münkler is Professor of Early and Early Modern German Literature and Culture at the Technical University of Dresden. She is the author of the book "Marco Polo: Life and Legend". © Christoph Soeder/dpa
What evidence is there that Marco Polo was in China?
Marco Polo, for example, was very knowledgeable about the production of Mongol paper money, which is not described in any other European or Persian source from this period. That is, he can only know this from his own eyewitness. 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.
My news
"Would turn around immediately": Café wants to get rid of guests after 20 minutesread
Italy: Rockfall buries shore road on Lake Garda.
After storm surge on the Baltic Sea: Spectacular discovery on the coastRead
China wants to drill into the Earth's mantle for the first time – and is also pursuing economic interests in the process.
Secret Epstein List Holds Surprises: The 15 Most Prominent NamesRead
Island in the Adriatic Sea for sale: living in a holiday paradise, but under special conditionsread
Marco Polo's travelogue has been doubted for centuries. Because it seems so incredible?
Marco Polo's journey wasn't all that incredible, after all, his brother and uncle had been to the court of the Mongols before him. Part of the Polo family already had a branch on the Black Sea. Other long-distance merchants also travelled very far at that time. Many goods offered in Venice or Genoa came from the Far East. Nevertheless, readers at the time naturally found much of what Marco Polo reported overwhelming, new, different, irritating and unsettling.
"The idea that there could be an emperor so powerful was hard to believe for many"
For example?
For example, that in the Mongol Empire people paid with paper money. This was unimaginable for Europeans, after all, paper is worth nothing! How is that supposed to work, people wondered. The idea that there could be an emperor so powerful that he succeeds in imposing a paper currency was hard to believe for many.
Why was it Marco Polo's report that has become so legendary? He was, as you say, not the only traveller to Asia of his time.
One factor was certainly that Marco Polo's report is a vernacular account. In addition, merchants who traveled to Asia at that time usually did not leave any records. Among other things, because they didn't want others to know too many details - for example, where to get certain goods at a good price. In addition, a different culture of knowledge prevailed in the Middle Ages than it does today: knowledge circulated only in very small circles, for example in monastic orders or at the courts of rulers. All others were virtually excluded from knowledge.
How to read Marco Polo's text today? As a travelogue that mixes fact with a bit of fiction?
Marco Polo did not write a travelogue, but a description of a Far Eastern empire. Presumably, a lot of factual knowledge is mixed with some that he only knew from hearsay. For example, what he writes about Japan. In the last quarter of the 13th century, the Mongols tried several times to conquer Japan, but they did not succeed. What the Mongols might have told each other about Japan – for example, that the houses there were covered with gold – Marco Polo took over. And this also contributed to the idea of many Europeans about the supposed riches of the East.
"Marco Polo is held in high esteem in China"
How did Marco Polo shape the image of China in his time?
Above all, Marco Polo shaped the image of the Mongols. In the early 13th century, the Mongols advanced as far as Legnica on their campaigns of expansion, in today's Poland, the Europeans thought: This is the apocalypse! The Mongols that Marco Polo describes, on the other hand, are quite different. For example, he writes appreciatively of their ability to rule an empire. And he describes himself as someone who was in the service of the Mongols. In his report, Marco Polo suddenly pays tremendous tribute to a non-Christian, a non-European.
And how do people in China look at Marco Polo?
He is held in high esteem there. Precisely because he ensured that what is China today was viewed so positively in Europe. But this is most likely a phenomenon of modern times. After all, the China that Marco Polo traveled to was part of the Mongol Empire as the Yuan dynasty. And the Chinese were very late in understanding the Yuan Dynasty as part of their own tradition. It was only then that they began to take an interest in Marco Polo. By the way, there is no doubt that he has ever been to China.
So could a Marco Polo serve as a bridge-builder at a time when relations between China and the West are worse than they have been for a long time?
Yes, culturally it can certainly be used as a bridge builder. What you can also learn from Marco Polo is the enthusiasm for the foreign, which many have lost today. Today, people travel by cruise ship, go ashore for a few hours and virtually do not have to leave European soil, even in a foreign country. Moving into other cultures, that's what brings people together. And that's what Marco Polo did.