Author Ofezumi Bunko
On his deathbed, Marco Polo was asked by his friends to admit that his knowledge of the Orient was bragging so that the soul could go to heaven. But his answer was: I have not said half of what I have seen with my own eyes.
Because the young Marco Polo once lived in Dayuan, it was a strange world, and almost no one in Europe at that time believed it, and everyone regarded "Marco Polo's Travels" as a story book similar to mythology.
The "Marco Polo Caravan" depicted in the Map of Catalonia
There are still many scholars who debate whether Marco Polo actually went to China, in fact, many details of Marco Polo's travels on the currency problems of the Yuan Dynasty, the administrative geography of the Yuan Dynasty, the structure of the country, and the taxation records of the Yuan Dynasty cannot be obtained through hearsay at that time.
Hans Urich Vogel (1954-), former professor of the Department of Sinology at the University of Tübingen, Germany, an expert in ancient Chinese history, and an internationally renowned sinologist, has published social, economic, scientific and technological works, articles and translations on modern Chinese history. He pays special attention to the economic history of ancient China, such as taxation and salt industry, and is the author of the salt industry volume of Joseph Needham's "History of Science and Technology in China".
Born in Basel, Switzerland in 1954, Fu hansi graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich in 1983. In April 2012, Fu published the book Marco Polo Visited China: New Evidence on Money, Salt, and Taxes.
Through his study of a large number of documents Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, German, Spanish, etc., Fu Hansi strongly shows that not only can all doubts of skeptics be explained, but many of the descriptions of China in Marco Polo's biography are unique and very accurate, enough to prove their authenticity. The book begins by enumerating and commenting on the arguments and arguments that have been put forward so far by both the parties who believed and doubted That Marco Polo had been to China.
In his new book, Marco Polo's Visits to China, he provides a detailed analysis of money, salt, and taxes, especially in the chapter on paper money, in which Fu Hansi explains through textual analysis, taking into account both written and historical objects in China: no other medieval European, Persian, or Arab writer has left a more detailed and comprehensive account of the Yuan dynasty's currency than that of the Venetian.
The accounts of various conditions in the fields of money, economy, and finance in Marco Polo's Travels are very consistent with the yuan history research revealed by many scholars through the analysis of documents and cultural relics.
Marco Polo passed through many cities, such as Xuzhou, Chengdu, Zhuozhou, Hejian, Changlu, Linqing, Jining, Lincheng, Baoying, Zhenzhou, Nanjing, Xiangyang, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Changlu, Linqing, etc.
Another example is to describe the paper, printing, shape and size of banknotes, the layout design and icons of banknotes, seals, inscriptions and denominations:
Sweating has people peel off the skin of the mulberry tree (its leaves can be used for silkworm farming), remove a thin layer of inner skin between the outer bark and the tree, then immerse the inner skin in water, and then put it into a stone mortar and mash it into a paste to make paper... When used, cut it into thin slices of different sizes, approximately square, but slightly longer, the smallest flakes are used as half a tournois, slightly larger as a Venetian silver coin (aVenetions Silvergroat), others as two, five and ten silver coins, and some as one, two, three or even ten gold coins...
Many specially appointed officials not only signed each note, but also stamped it, and when they all went through these formalities in turn, a general manager appointed by the Great Khan first dipped the imperial seal he kept in silver* and then stamped it on the paper, so that the form of the print remained on the paper, and after so many formalities, the paper money acquired the power of the universal currency, and all the acts of making counterfeit money were severely punished.
Not only that, but he was also involved in many other aspects related to circulation, such as the state monopoly on the exchange of gold, silver and jewelry for paper money, measures to prevent counterfeiting of money, the reversal of faint money, and the dominance of paper money in the field of public revenue and expenditure and various market transactions. These details, if not a person with a keen sense of business, no ordinary traveler can go deeper.
Another important fact is that in medieval Western, Arabic or Persian literature, only the Travels of Marco Polo mentions the use and circulation of shell and salt coins in Yunnan and Tibetan areas, the presence of salt wells in Yunnan Province, and the production of salt.
In the book "Marco Polo's Visits to China: New Evidence of Money, Salt, and Taxation", Fu Hansi based on his rich research results on salt, currency, and taxation in the Yuan Dynasty, and deeply interpreted the Yuan economy described by Marco Polo.
Author: (Switzerland) Fu Hansi
Publisher: Peking University Publishing
Translators: Dang Baohai / Ma Xiaolin / Zhou Sicheng
Publication year: 2022-5
Binding: Hardcover Number of pages: 555
Price: RMB 128.00
Not only to prove that Marco Polo came, but also to systematically show the real Yuan Dynasty society to the world, understand the "myth" of that era - the Great Yuan, and even understand that people at that time caused different cognitive differences due to different horizons and latitudes, such wonderful content can not be missed:
Historical works of The Ancient Spring Library:
Declaration of the Establishment of the Ancient Spring Library
The first kind of "Shouquan Jituo" of the Guquan Bunko
The second kind of Guquan Bunko "Ancient Spring Encyclopedia"
The third kind of Guquan Bunko "Azusai Izumi Tuo"
The fourth kind of Guquan Magazine in the Guquan Bunko
The Fifth Kind of "Silk Road Collection" of the Guquan Bunko
The sixth kind of ancient spring library "Maritime Silk Road Ancient Country Coin Essentials"
The seventh kind of ancient spring library "Muyuan Hundred Twenty Springs Tuo"
Guquan Bunko No. 8 "Muyuan Diary"
The ninth kind of Guquan Bunko "Forbidden City Qing qian spectrum"
The tenth kind of "Mountain Vagina Collection" of the Ancient Spring Bunko
The eleventh kind of Guquan Bunko "Dai men disciple Tibetan Spring Selection"
The Twelfth Kind of Ancient Spring Library Dong Song's "Qian Spectrum"
Guquan Bunko Thirteenth Kind of "Kaiyuan Tongbao Boutique Collection"
The fourteenth kind of Ancient Spring Library "Hengmen Hundred Springs Expansion"
The fifteenth kind of ancient spring library "Commemorative Spring Spectrum of Sino-Japanese Friendship Spring Friendship Exchange"
The Sixteenth Kind of Guquan Bunko 《The First Yuanming Coin Seminar Commemorative Collection》
Guquan Bunko Seventeenth Collection of Western Xia Coins
The Eighteenth Kind of Ancient Money Genealogy of the Joseon Dynasty
The nineteenth kind of ancient quan library The Chinese edition of "Vietnamese Historical Ancient Money"
The Twentieth Kind of Ancient Quan Library "Jin Kui On Ancient Compilation"
The 20th edition of the Ancient Spring Bunko Ishizumi Spectrum Chinese of showa springs
Works by Su Izumi:
"Continuing the Ancient Rare Shouquan Jituo"
《Keju Jiu Chi Shou Quan Ji Tuo》
"ShouquanHui Reunion Commemorative Collection"
《Chunfengtang Seventy Shouquan Jituo》
"Wuwei Seven Rank Shouquan Jituo"
"70 Self-Selected Works of Baifudo"
"Continuation of the Kishou Takuji"
"Longquan Zhai Seven Ranks Zensen Takuji"
《Fu shan elderly collection of tuo》
"Hachiseizuzumi Jito" (in production)