Located in yangzhou city, the Dongmen Ruins Square on the banks of the Ancient Canal River is bustling with people all day long, and is a sacred place for tourism "punching cards". In the north square of the East Gate ruins, there is a bronze statue of a foreigner riding a high-headed horse, which is particularly eye-catching - he is the famous Italian traveler and merchant Marco Polo.
Less than 100 meters from the statue, there is also a Marco Polo Memorial.
(Statue of Marco Polo)
Traveler, merchant: Marco Polo
Marco Polo, a traveler and merchant in Italy in the 13th century. At the age of 17, he followed his father and uncle from the small town of Venice in Italy and traveled along the overland Silk Road to the East to do business. Along the way, they rode boats, horses, camels; pirates, starvation, and deserts; through the two river valleys of the Middle East, across the Iranian plateau and the Pamir plateau...
After four years, the group finally reached the capital of the Yuan Dynasty (present-day Beijing) in 1275. Entered the ancient country of the East, which is particularly mysterious in the eyes of Westerners.
(The walking route of Marco Polo's party)
Legend: In the 1370s, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, claimed the title of empress, received the Venetian merchant Nicholas Polo, his brother Mafei Polo, and his son Marco Polo, who came to worship, and left them to run errands for the imperial court.
During his time in China, the shrewd Marco Polo soon learned Chinese and Mongolian, and through business and travel, visited many parts of China, even leaving Yunnan and arriving in Vietnam and other countries. According to Marco Polo in his travelogue, they stayed in China for 17 years.
In early 1292, Marco Polo and his party left China and arrived in Persia by boat from the "Maritime Silk Road" through Sumatra and India. After more than three years of arduous trekking, he finally returned safely to his hometown of Venice at the end of 1295.
(Marco Polo Memorial Hall on Dongguan Street)
Later, after returning to his hometown, Marco Polo enlisted in the Venetian fleet and became a sailor. Defeated and captured in the war with Genoa, he was imprisoned in Genoa on 7 September 1298.
After Marco Polo was imprisoned, he happened to be imprisoned with the famous writer Lustiqian. So the two collaborated, dictated by Marco Polo and written by Lustiqian, to complete the book "Marco Polo's Travels" (also known as "Oriental Observations"). The book provides detailed descriptions of many famous Cities in China, such as Dadu (Beijing), Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, praising China's richness and civilization.
Marco Polo rose to fame with the publication of the book "The Conduct of Marco Polo" and was released as a result. Since then, China's exchanges with Europe and Arabia have become closer.
(Marco Polo's travels are informative)
2. Marco Polo's Poying State
A few years ago, the government of Anyi Town, Baoying County, carried out the "Settlement Project", the construction team excavated a Song tomb, and after the rescue excavation of the archaeological team, many lacquerware and porcelain were unearthed, so we can glimpse the life of the people in an ancient town of Anyi in the Song Dynasty.
However, since the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty has not been witnessed by much cultural relics, and there is no written record of the county records. People can't help but ask: Is it true that the old man of history is unfair, and has left a blank space in the historical record of the millennium Ancient Anyi?!
In fact, the ancient town of Anyi (Baoying City) in the Yuan Dynasty has long been recorded in writing in history, but it is all in foreign languages and comes from foreigners.
This person is Marco Polo, as described in this article. Around 1283, Marco Polo passed through Anyi on his way to Yangzhou and wrote a travelogue after coming to this ancient town in the "Travels", praising the richness and prosperity of the local area.
(Statue of Marco Polo on the side of the ancient canal)
In the second volume of Marco Polo's Travels, in chapter 63 of The Great Achievements of Kublai Khan and the Observations of the West and the South, it is described as follows:
“...... After leaving Huai'an Province, follow a causeway leading to Manzi Province and walk southeast for a day to reach Manzi Province. The causeway is lined with numerous wide lakes where the water depth can be navigated. There are no other roads to pass except by boat from the waterway into the province. When the generals who commanded the Army of the Great Khan invaded the province, they marched by boat by water. ”
"After a day of riding, when night fell, I came to a big town called Baoying Prefecture. The inhabitants here practice Buddhism and cremation the dead. The inhabitants used currency, all of whom were the people of the Great Khan. They subsisted on industry and commerce, produced high silk, and woven fabrics of money. The necessities of life are extremely abundant..."
(Marco Polo describes the beautiful scene of the southern city)
What Marco Polo called "Baoying MeiCheng" in his travelogue is today's Anyi Ancient Town. At that time, Baoying was still a government agency equivalent to the modern prefectural and municipal levels, with jurisdiction over Baoying, Yancheng, Shanyang, Huaiyin and other counties, and Anyi Town was also the seat of the state capital of Baoying Prefecture.
Marco Polo recorded that there were many vast lakes on both sides of the stone road where boats could be made; the local "cremation of the dead, the use of paper money..." They made a living from industry and commerce, produced silk, and could weave all kinds of gold thread fabrics. There are also plenty of necessities here.
Speaking of the Grand Canal, he said: "This is right here on the line of communication between the province of Manzi (the name for the northern province), which is made up of many rivers, lakes and a wide and deep canal.
His impression of "Baoying Prefecture" was: "Industry and commerce are very prosperous, the production of fish is particularly rich, and there are many prey such as animals and animals." The number of pheasants (chickens) is extremely high.".
He added, "The canal was dug by order of the Great Khan in order to enable ships to sail from one great river into another, so that they could go from the province of Manzi to Khan Bali without the need for coastal navigation." ”
……
As a result, future generations can imagine the prosperity of Anyi Ancient Town in that year.
(Marco Polo's Travels chronicle more than 100 countries and cities))
Time passes like a white colt. At the snap of a finger, many years have passed. Remembering the ancestors and thinking of the distant is a traditional Chinese humanistic sentiment.
The lakes dotted on both sides of the canal that Marco Polo once wrote have long become a rich treasure land with fragrant rice flowers; the sound of the loom "Zaza" heard by Marco Polo in those years has now become the roar of the machine, and the stretched "Baoying cable" is weaving the world network.
If Marco Polo had known about the spring, he would also sigh at the vicissitudes of the world and sincerely send out a surprise of "when the world is shocked".
(Marco Polo statue)
Third, the controversy around the authenticity of "Marco Polo's Travels", doubt and affirmation
Marco Polo and his travelogues are well known in China, needless to say. However, since the book came out, the controversy has not stopped. Its focus is nothing more than the following three aspects:
1. Has Marco Polo ever been to China?
2. Is Marco Polo's Travels a forgery?
3. Was Marco Polo ever an official in Yangzhou?
And around the above problems, two views of the academic community on Marco Polo have been formed, namely: skeptics and affirmators. Scholars of the two schools each quoted the scriptures and engaged in fierce debates, which eventually formed "three major doubts and three major rebuttals".
In particular, the focus of the repeated arguments of experts is whether Marco Polo, a foreigner, has been the governor (mayor) of Yangzhou for three years, and for decades he has been fighting for decades that he is blushing and thick-necked, rolling up his arms, rolling up his sleeves, and spitting stars, but there is still no conclusion.
(Late Qing Dynasty Grand Canal Painting)
Listen to the fact that for a foreigner who traveled to China more than 700 years ago to do business and wrote a "Travelogue" after returning to China, there was such a fierce debate in the academic community.
However, these are not the main stories in the "Chronicle of Ancient Towns along the Yangzhou Section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal". Here is not the table pressed.