Hi again Ciao~
I've included information about how people today AND in the past have
judged Marco Polo. If you need clarification, please don't hesitate to
ask.
Kind regards,
Kriswrite
When "The Travels of Marco Polo" came into print, many people were
shocked. They were used to tales of mythological creatures and
deformed humans living in other parts of the world. What Polo offered
instead was so...down to earth.
Worse, Polo noted that Asia was civilized. Worse still, he showed that
it was more advanced than the West.
Most Westerners came to think of the book as fiction, or a pleasant
fable. School children even came to call exaggerated stories "Marco
Polos." Less charitable contemporaries called Polo "the man of a
million lies."
In 1324, when Polo was on his deathbed, priests asked him to admit his
tales were less than truthful. Polo's reply was: "I have not told half
of what I saw." ("The Fabulous Fabulist," U.S. News:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/marco.htm )
But when Westerners began to travel to Asia in larger numbers, the
public had to admit it had been wrong. The stories of paper money and
coal were proven accurate. In the 19th century, when British explorers
followed his text on the "Silk Road" to China, they were stunned at
how accurate Polo's account was.
Yet today, some scholars are questioning Polo.
Some modern scholars believe Polo never went to China, as he claimed.
Their reasoning is that Polo did not mention certain aspects of 13th
century Chinese life, which they think he would have mentioned had he
traveled there. Namely: tea, calligraphy, the binding of women's feet,
and the Great Wall of China. Polo is also not mentioned in any known
Chinese records.
Some scholars insist Polo never went beyond Persia. They believe his
tales of China were "stolen" from accounts of other travelers--and
possibly even from Arabic and Persian manuscripts.
The strongest argument against Polo being in China is that he didn't
mention The Great Wall. But some scholars say "The Great Wall" wasn't
all that amazing during Polo's visit. Much of it had crumbled by the
13th century, and what we know today as The Great Wall was rebuilt in
the 16th century.
For more information, please see:
See also "Man of Lies?" The Travels of Marco Polo:
http://website.lineone.net/~mcrouch/marcopolo/liar.htm
"Marco Polo's Journey into Plagiarism:" http://www.aliasoft.com/themes/polo.html
KEYWORDS USED:
"the travels of marco polo"
"Marco Polo" liar
"marco polo" true
"Marco Polo" "didn't believe"
"Marco Polo" believe |
