Xanadu,Marco Polo and Europe’s discovery of the East

Xanadu,

Marco Polo and Europe’s discovery of the East

by John Man, 2009 Bantam Press

 

上都

 

西紀 1271년(마르코폴로 17세)

 

1253년에 베니스를 떠나 쿠빌라이의 조정에서 일하다 10년만에 고향 베니스로 돌아온 마르코 폴로의 아버지와 삼촌이 마르코 폴로를 데리고 다시 쿠빌라이의 조정, Xanadu를 향한다.

 

(참고- 당시 동아시아 前後史 年表)

1206년 징기스탄 몽골통일

1227년 몽골 成吉思汗 死亡

1229년 몽골 太宗(오고타이) 황위계승

1231년 몽골1차 침입-撒禮塔 살례탑=사르타크 忠州까지

(선봉=義州-서북최단남하노선)

高麗3軍 몽골군8천에 潰滅 高麗 中央軍의 마지막 전투

1232년 몽골2차칩입-尙州,大邱진출, 高麗 江華遷都

敵將 살례탑, 龍仁-處仁城에서 金允侯와 처인 부곡민에게 사살

1234년 몽골-金을 완전 공략

1234년 蒙古-金멸망

1235년 몽골3차침입- 敵將- 唐古Tanggu-

(1)東京(慶州진출) (2)전북 부안 고란사 진출 (3)경주 黃龍寺탑 불태움

 

1241년 몽골 징기스 칸의 아들 Ogedei: 러시아, 폴란드, 헝가리 점령

1246년 교황- 몽골에 특사파견

1247년 몽골4차침입- 敵將-阿母侃mugan-全州진출

1251년 몽골신황제- 멍케蒙哥Monke-高麗高宗의 親 開京還都요구

1253년 몽골5차칩입-敵將 也窟Yegu-충주-부안 진출

1254년 몽골6(1)차침입-敵將 車羅大Charadai-산청 丹溪, 진주진출

1257년 몽골6(3)차침입-敵將 車羅大,보라다이-공주 진출

1258년 몽골6(4)차칩입-敵將 車羅大, 散吉大王 太子入朝 조건 화의진행

1270년 開京還都-三別抄 大蒙抗爭~1273년

1271년 몽골-元건국

1274년 고려.원 1차 일본정별 실패

1279년 元-南宋멸망

1281년 고려.원 2차 일본정벌 실패

1282년 [베트남] 몽고군(원) 침략~1287년

 

P.15

Marco Polo...and his account of his journey from Venice to the court of Kublai Khan.

 

P.17

Genghis Khan’s Mongols..the Tartars. In 1241, Russia, Poland and Hungary fll.

 

p.26

In 1253 two ambitious young Venetians, Niccolo Polo and his brother Maffeo, set off to make their fortunes, Niccolo left his wife pregnanat with Marco, her first and only chind.

 

p29

By 1260 Genghis had been in his secret grave for over 30 years, but his heirs ruled from China to soutern Russia, and were still intent on expansion, in Russia, Persia, Central Asia and north China.

 

P30

Crimea had been taken by the Mongols in 1238.

P31

Genghis’s grndson Berke ruled his inheritance, which stretched from north of Black Sea across present-day Kazakhstan- an area about the size of the USA.

... Hulegu, conqurer of the present-day Iraq, because in 1258 Hulegu had devastated Baghdad and executed the caliph, supreme head of Islam.

 

P32

In the summer of 1262, well able to afford a caravan of horses, camels and wagons, off they went across steppeand desert for two months and another 1,000 kilometers, until at last they reached Bukhara.

 

p33

Five years before (in 1260), Kublai, another of Genghis’s grand sons, had established himself as Khagan- khan of khans- in his capital, Xanadu.

 

P35

Kublai was no strange to Christianity, which, being the religion of all Europe.... Indeed, his mother,Sorkaktani had been a Nestorian... A non-Mongol, a member of the Turkic-speaking Kerait tribe, Sorkaktani was the wife of Genghis’s son Tolui and the mother of two emperors (Kublai and his predecessor Monkhe) and the ruler of Persia, Hulegu.

P37

..and in 1269, they (Niccolo Polo and his brother Maffeo) arrived back in Venice.

.. when Marco was eight.

 

P38

in the summer of 1271, when the two brothers decided to set off again for Xanadu...they had Marco, an unworldly 17-year-old, in tow.

 

p102

It was the route Kublai had just started to take twice a year on his regular seasonal commute between his two capitals- the heart of modern Beijing and his summer HQ, his upper Capital, Shangdu, or Xanadu.

 

p115

After the Mongol dynasty fell in 1368, Xanadu was thrashed by the troops of the incoming Ming dynasty, and then abandoned. For 600 years it decayed...

 

p184

Only in the early tenth century did Beijing emerge from the shadows, thanks to the Khitans, who swept in from Manchuria to seize all of China's north-east and Mongolia from the Song....A century later another group of 'barbarians', the Jurchen from manchuria, made Beijing their 'Central Capital'(Zhungdu). The south, what remained of Song, was left alone. So when Genghis assaulted north China in 1211-15, it was Beijing that was the key to conquest...Genghis ruined the place and it remained ruined for decades. in 1260, when Xanadu was rising as Kublai's base, Beijing's original heart was still broken, with shattered walls and burned-out palaces.

 

p281

It was the Japanese campaign of 1281 that revealed Kublai's faults and the limits to empire...Kublai had tried once before, in 1274, around the time of Marco's arrival.

 

p319

So, in 1296, after an absence of twenty-five years, the Polos arrived back in Venice..

 

p339

Later in that year he fell ill, and in early january 1324...He died about the time he dictated his will, at the age of 69 or 70.

 

p.345

In 1368 the Mongols were thrown out of China, and for the next 250 years foreigners were left dealing with the Ming, a dynasty that was the very opposite of the Yuan: shut-off, introverted, utterly convinced that foreigners had nothing to offer.

 

p348

It has often been said that Columbus, inspired by Marco, was aiming to make contact with the Great Khan and had a copy of the travels with him to use as a sort of guide when he arrived on the coast of Cathay, as if he would recognize Hangzhou from Marco's description and then journey up the Grand Canal to the imperial court.

 

-End-

2020/08/24 鎭