What is there to note and learn from Marco Polo s Travels?

Marco Polo's Travels is a travelogue about Asia, which records the situation of many countries in Central, West Asia, Southeast Asia and other regions, with an emphasis on the situation in China. Marco Polo stayed in China for the longest time, and his footprints traveled throughout the Northwest, North, Southwest and East China. In his Travels, he wrote in a large number of chapters and enthusiastic language about the inexhaustible wealth of our country, the huge commercial cities, the perfect transportation facilities, and the magnificent palace buildings.

For example, Marco Polo said of Beijing that "the ground planning of the whole city is like a chessboard, and its beauty is too great to declare." For example, Hangzhou is called "Xingzai", "Tiancheng", and Suzhou is called "underground city". "Xingzai" is the general name of Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, referring to the place where the emperor Xingxing is located, and "Tiancheng" and "Earth" are also a translation of the Chinese proverb "Heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below".

For Hangzhou, which is known as paradise, Marco Polo is full of praise. He said: "Walking in the entertainment provided by the city, which is unmatched by all the cities of the world, people are confident that they are in heaven."

There is also no lack of wonderful descriptions of characters in the travelogue, such as the "The Great Khan's Physical Appearance and Manners" in Chapter 81 of Volume II, which states that "the monarch's name Kublai Khan's Great Khan's physical appearance is as follows: neither long nor short, medium stature, appropriate configuration of muscles and limbs, clear white face, black eyes, and straight nose", so that we can get a glimpse of Kublai Khan's demeanor.

The Travels of Marco Polo directly or indirectly opened up a new era of direct contact and contact between China and the West, and also brought the dawn of a new century to medieval Europe. It has been confirmed that "The Travels of Marco Polo" has had a huge impact on the world, and its positive effect cannot be erased. However, Marco Polo's understanding of China is still not deep enough.

There is no mention of the Great Wall of China, nor does it mention printing. may be out of personal preference and the preference of Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, but he relish some feudal, superstitious, wedding and funeral customs; Some of the rhetoric is also inappropriate, such as the so-called "barbarian" province, which is a contemptuous term for the Southern Song Dynasty. Overall, The Travels of Marco Polo is still a well worth reading.

Although the names of the places described in the book are not quite the same as those of today, so that we cannot clearly understand where the story he describes takes place, it basically provides us with another window into the people of the time.

The Travels of Marco Polo broke new ground in European intellectual circles. More than 2,000 years ago, the Chinese used coal as fuel, but in the thirteenth century, Europeans did not understand what coal was. Marco Polo saw the Chinese using coal and thought it was a "black stone" that could be burned.

The travelogue reads: "There is a black stone found everywhere in the whole Khitan Province, which is dug from the mine and extends in veins underground. Once ignited, it is as potent as charcoal, but its flame is larger and stronger than charcoal.

It can even burn from night to dawn and still not go out. This kind of stone does not usually catch fire unless a small piece is lit first. If it catches fire, it emits a huge amount of energy.

In the travelogue, there are also several kinds of rare birds and animals, exotic flowers and plants, pearls and gemstones, and many other things that Europeans have never seen. All these had a great impact on the Europeans, and the famous traveler Christopher Columbus was also greatly inspired and inspired by them, and he admired China's civilization and prosperity very much, and aroused his determination to venture into the Eastern Voyage.

Before the Travels of Marco Polo, or more precisely before the 13th century, the political, economic, and cultural exchanges between China and the West were indirectly linked through the bridge of Central Asia. In this kind of Sino-Western exchanges, China has always taken a positive attitude and made efforts to understand and understand places outside China, especially the Western civilized world. The earliest can be traced back to King Mu of Zhou's western tour.

Although the story of King Mu of Zhou's western tour is full of absurdity and mythology, it at least reflects that the Chinese have begun to understand and understand the West, and after Zhang Qian passed through the Western Regions during the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, a "Silk Road" from China to Europe through Central Asia appeared, and China has a further understanding and understanding of the Western world. The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of China's feudal society, and the economy and culture reached unprecedented prosperity, and a large number of Western merchants came to China, and China's understanding of the Western world deepened. However, until the 13th century, the exchanges between China and the West only stayed on the economic ties dominated by the first, and there was a lack of direct contact and understanding.

Before the 13th century, Europe's understanding of China was limited to hearsay, and their knowledge and understanding of China was very superficial. Therefore, Europeans are full of mystery and curiosity about the Oriental world. "Marco Polo's Travels" exaggerated and even mythical descriptions of the Oriental world aroused the curiosity of Europeans about the Oriental world.

This, in turn, has consciously or unconsciously promoted direct exchanges between China and the West. Since then, a new era of direct political, economic, and cultural exchanges between China and the West has begun. Marco Polo is a symbol of the times.

Marco Polo's Travels is divided into four volumes, the first of which records what Marco Polo and his people saw and heard along the way to the east. The second volume records the Mongol Khan Kublai Khan and his palace, capital, court, **, festivals, safaris, etc.; From the capital to the south to Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou and the coast of the east and the seas and continents; The third volume deals with Japan, Vietnam, the East Indies, South India, the coast and islands of the Indian Ocean, and eastern Africa, and the fourth volume deals with the wars of the Tatar kings of Genghis Khan's descendants, who reigned in Asia, and northern Asia. Each volume is divided into chapters, and each chapter describes the situation of a place or a historical event, with a total of 229 chapters.

There are more than 100 names of cities in the countries described in the book, and the situation of these places, taken together, includes the topography of mountains and rivers, products, climate, merchants**, residents, religious beliefs, customs, etc., as well as the trivial anecdotes of the country, and the history of the dynasty and the country.

Marco Polo's trip to China and his travelogues were considered myths in medieval Europe, and were regarded as "Arabian Nights". However, "The Travels of Marco Polo" greatly enriched the geographical knowledge of Europeans, breaking the fallacy of religion and the traditional theory of "the sky is round and the place is round"; At the same time, "The Travels of Marco Polo" played a huge role in promoting the seafaring industry in Europe in the 15th century. Columbus in Italy, Vasco da Gama and Benedict in Portugal, Cabot, Anthony Jenkinson, Johnson, Martin Robicher and many other navigators, travelers, and explorers came east to visit China after reading "The Travels of Marco Polo", breaking the shackles of Western theocracy in the Middle Ages and greatly promoting the transportation and cultural exchanges between China and the West.

Thus, it can be said that Marco Polo and his Travels of Marco Polo opened a new era in Europe.

From the outline map of Marco Polo's trip to China in the appendix of the book, we can see that the Yuan Empire had a very wide border, from India in the south, south to southern Russia, and west to Central Europe, across the Eurasian continent. Although many of the place names described in the book are not the same as those of today, or even very different, you can see the strength of the Yuan Dynasty at that time. The war described in the book can also feel the ambition of the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty to expand their territory and the cruelty of the war.

This also adds some material to our understanding of the history of the rise and fall of the Mongols from another aspect.

In terms of folk customs and customs, he praised the residents of Hangzhou for their "white faces and beautiful shapes, both men and women", good manners, and harmonious getting along. But he seems to be far more willing to introduce the strange things that are enough to surprise the reader than to the common folklore, such as the confinement of a woman in a certain place after giving birth to a child. He mentioned that hunting was a pastime for the Chinese and noticed how keen they were on astrology.

The examples and detailed content of the travelogue cited can give a glimpse of Marco Polo's sufficient knowledge of the things he has come into contact with, and it is not difficult to understand why "Marco Polo's Travels" can be called "one of the world's great wonders" and is famous in the world.

Marco Polo was born in Venice, Italy, a beautiful city of water. In May 1275, he and his father arrived for the first time in Shangdu, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty at that time. For the next 17 years, they served in the Yuan Dynasty.

The clever Marco Polo quickly learned Mongolian and Chinese, was proficient in Chinese culture, and was widely knowledgeable, and was highly used by Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty. As a result, in addition to most of the capital's errands, he was often ordered to inspect the provinces and send foreign envoys. He also served as the governor of Yangzhou.

Marco Polo has formed a deep friendship with the Chinese people, and at the same time built a bridge of Sino-Italian friendship, so that many advanced technologies in China have been transmitted to Europe and promoted the development of European science and technology.

The Travels of Marco Polo is a 13th-century Italian merchant Marco Polo's account of his travels through the Mediterranean, Eurasia and China.

Marco Polo was the first Italian traveler to travel to China and other Asian countries. Based on what he had seen and heard in China for 17 years, he told a beautiful myth that shocked the Western world. Known as "one of the world's greatest wonders", this travelogue is the first work in the history of mankind in which Westerners perceive the East, and it opens the mysterious door to the Orient to the whole of Europe.

During the Yuan Dynasty, Marco Polo came to China, that is, in 1282 AD, Marco Polo came to Yangzhou, he was tall, his eye sockets were sunken into his clothes, and he looked like a foreigner, but he was wearing an official uniform. Although some people have questioned whether Marco Polo really came to China, the "Travels of Marco Polo" he left behind showed the European countries at that time the prosperity and civilization of a mysterious oriental power. The Italian traveler had a colourful life experience, and it was he who introduced a powerful and rich China to the Western world, thus igniting a passion for the ancient Orient.

The reason why the European Renaissance took place in Italy is precisely because Italy is the country that has the most contact with China, Italy has been exposed to Chinese culture and thought, and many Chinese inventions have also been transmitted to Europe through the Arab world, creating the necessary conditions for the European Renaissance. It was because Marco Polo stayed in China for more than ten years, and after returning to Europe, he wrote the book "Marco Polo's Travels", through which he presented a prosperous Eastern country to Europeans.

It is because of this book that the whole world is connected, and the nations can communicate with each other, when businessmen discover business opportunities, and wise people discover new ideas. Marco Polo played a very important role in the integration and connection of world cultures, but because of the description of China everywhere in the book, many European powers coveted China's wealth, which indirectly brought aggression to China.

It is the work of an Italian traveler, from this book you can see some of China's history, some culture and Chinese art, and this book describes China's mountains and rivers in detail, through this book also let the West understand a lot of China's benefits, this book also saw some Western traditions, and learned about the political landscape of the West at that time. Promoted the development of China and the West.

Italy. The book had a particularly far-reaching impact at the time, arousing people's curiosity about distant places, enhancing people's knowledge, and promoting exchanges between countries around the world.

"The Travels of Marco Polo" is the first time for Europeans in the West to understand China. It is precisely because of the popularity of "Marco Polo's Travels" in the West that it has also shaped a perfect China in the hearts of Europeans, and it has made them more and more fascinated by China. Therefore, in the era of European exploration, the dream of those navigators was to reach the far East and come to China.

But a large part of the content in "Marco Polo's Travels" was made up by Marco Polo himself in terms of real history. Because according to the research of modern scholars, more people have begun to think that Marco Polo actually never came to China at all, and his descriptions in "Marco Polo's Travels" are all random things made up by him alone. Marco Polo was just an illiterate man in Venice, and the reason why he wrote "Marco Polo's Travels" was because Marco Polo's cellmates in prison told him.

Then Marco Polo added the oriental stories he heard from other places and his own imagination to finally write this "Marco Polo's Travels". <

Marco Polo once said that he was received by the Great Khan of Mongolia, but Marco Polo did not write about some of the characteristics of China in his travelogue at all. If Marco Polo really came to China, it would be impossible for Marco Polo to ignore these unique things in China. And Marco Polo's description of some of China's geographical locations is entirely Western.

If Marco Polo had really been to China and knew Chinese, he would not have written about China like this in his travelogue. And Marco Polo said that he had just returned to China, but with Marco Polo's return to China, none of the objects around him were from the East. If Marco Polo really came back from China, how did he manage to leave not a single Oriental object with him?

And the route that Marco Polo himself wrote in "Marco Polo's Travels" was later followed by people in the United States. But they found that it was not easy to walk this road with the current means of transportation, so how did Marco Polo get to China along this road back then?