The original series was shown in s. In , when Marco Polo was just six, his father and uncle set out from their merchant colony in the Crimea to sell jewels in the lower Volga and stayed a year there at the camp of a Mongol Khan. Some Mongol traders escorted them eastward and introduced them to Kublai Khan. In , when Marco Polo was just 15, his father and uncle returned from their nine-year journey.
They told fantastic stories about their experiences. No one believed them. The brothers Maffeo and Niccilo Polo went on to Surai, on the Volga river, where they traded for a year. Shortly after a civil war broke out between Barka and his cousin Hulagu, which made it impossible for the Polos to return with the same route as they came. They therefore decide to make a wide detour to the east to avoid the war and found themselves stranded for 3 years at Bukhara.
The Mongol ambassador persuaded the brothers that Great Khan would be delighted to meet them for he had never seen any Latin and very much wanted to meet one. So they journeyed eastward. They left Bukhara, Samarkand, Kashgar, then came the murderous obstacle of the Gobi desert.
Through the northern route they reached Turfan and Hami, then headed south-east to Dunhuang. The Polos traveled deep into the Mongol empire. They journeyed across the steppes of what is now southern Russia and Kazakhstan and stayed for three years in Bukhara Uzbekistan and arrived at Kublai Khan court, perhaps in Shangdu Xanadu , not so far from Beijing.
Kublai Khan had never met people from southern Europe before. He welcomed the two Venetians with open arms. The Polos remained in his court for four years. Pamirs Kublai Khan asked the Polo brothers to be his emissary to the Pope; to retrieve some oil from the lamp at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, considered a potion for the soul; and to recruit one hundred missionaries "educated in all Seven Arts," who would argue the merits of their religion in the khan's court.
Kublai Khan reportedly said if there case was convincing he was willing to covert his subjects to Christianity. He had set up his court at Beijing, which was not a Mongol encampment but an impressive city built by Kublai as his new capital after the Mongols took over China in and established Yuan dynasty Kublai asked them all about their part of the world, the Pope and the Roman church. Niccolo and Matteo, who spoke Turkic dialects perfectly, answered truthfully and clearly.
The Polo brothers were well received in the Great Khan's capital. One year later, the Great Khan sent them on their way with a letter in Turki addressed to Pope Clement IV asking the Pope to send him learned men to teach his people about Christianity and Western science.
He also asked Pope to procure oil from the lamp at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Let him that pays him not reverence be killed. It took the Polos three full years to return home, in April Pope Gregory denied the Great Khan's request and sent only two Dominican friars.
Marco Polo and his father and uncle passed through the Pamirs, a rugged mountain range with huge glaciers and many peaks over 20, feet, to reach Kashgar in China. Marco Polo was the first Westerner to mention the Pamirs, which he said "is the highest place in the world.
It is believed the Polos traveled through Wakhan--the long valley in present-day Afghanistan that divides the Pamirs from the Hindu Kush and reaches across to China--and may have entered present-day Tajikistan, where the bulk of the Pamirs are located. The journey through the Pamirs was the most difficult leg of the Polo's journey.
It took them nearly two months to traverse miles. On the 15, foot passes they traversed, Marco Polo wrote, "Fire is not so bright" and "things are not well cooked. Their horns grow to as much as six palms in length and are never less than four. From these horns the shepherds make big bowls from which they feed, and also fences to keep in their flocks. Known for its wide spreading horns, it and the argali of Mongolia are the largest members of the sheep family.
At this point in their journey the Polos had been traveling for about two years and had covered around 5, miles and still had 2, miles to go before they reached their goal: Shangdu Xanadu , not so far from Beijing. The Polos followed the Silk Road caravan route through China.
Describing Kashgar Marco Polo wrote: "The people are for the most part idolaters, but there are also some Nestorian Christians and Saracens They have fine orchards and vineyards and flourishing estates. Cotton grows here in plenty, besides flax and hemp. The soil is fertile and productive of all the means of life. The country is the starting point from which many merchants set out to market their wares all over the world.
The Polos traversed the forbidding gravel plains and sand dunes of the Taklamakan Desert, whose names means "go in and you won't come out. It often seems to you that you hear many instruments sounding and especially drums. The old people believe they are hearing devils speak One night I heard, three times, a terrible noise, like crying, like someone dying Beasts and birds there are none,because they find nothing to eat.
After spending three years in Bukhara in present-day Uzbekistan, they were encouraged by a Mongolian embassy to visit Kublai Khan , grandson of Genghis Khan , who controlled a huge swath of Asia. Kublai quizzed them on European affairs and decided to send them on a goodwill mission to the pope. At the request of Kublai Khan, they secured some holy oil from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and then backtracked to Acre to pick up gifts, papal documents and two friars from newly elected Pope Gregory X.
The friars quickly abandoned the expedition, but the Polos continued on, possibly by camel, to the Persian port city of Hormuz. Over the next three years they slowly trekked through deserts, high mountain passes and other rough terrain, meeting people of various religions and cultures along the way. Kublai, who generally relied on foreigners to administer his empire, took Marco Polo into his court, possibly as a tax collector.
At one point, the Venetian was sent on official business to the port city of Hangzhou then called Quinsai , which, like Venice, was built around a series of canals. Marco Polo also purportedly journeyed across inland China and into present-day Myanmar. After many years of seeking a release from service, the Polos finally secured permission from Kublai to escort a young princess to her intended husband Arghun, the Mongol ruler of Persia.
In the Polos joined a flotilla of 14 boats that set out from Zaitun now Quanzhou, China , stopped briefly in Sumatra and then landed in Persia 18 months later, only to find out that Arghun was dead.
He also told partially erroneous self-aggrandizing tales about warfare, commerce, geography, court intrigues and the sexual practices of the people who lived under Mongol rule. A Genoese-Venetian peace treaty in allowed Marco Polo to return home. Traveling by sea, the Polos left with a caravan of several hundred passengers and sailors.
The journey proved harrowing, and many perished as a result of storms and disease. By the time the group reached Persia's Port of Hormuz, just 18 people, including the princess and the Polos, were still alive.
Later, in Turkey, Genoese officials appropriated three-quarters of the family's wealth. After two years of travel, the Polos reached Venice.
They'd been gone for more than two decades, and their return to their native land undoubtedly had its difficulties. Their faces looked unfamiliar to their family and they struggled to speak their native tongue. Just a few years after returning to Venice from China, Polo commanded a ship in a war against the rival city of Genoa. He was eventually captured and sentenced to a Genoese prison, where he met a fellow prisoner and writer named Rustichello. As the two men became friends, Polo told Rustichello about his time in Asia, what he'd seen, where he'd traveled and what he'd accomplished.
The book made Polo a celebrity. It was printed in French, Italian and Latin, becoming the most popular read in Europe. But few readers allowed themselves to believe Polo's tale.
They took it to be fiction, the construct of a man with a wild imagination. Polo, however, stood behind his book, and it influenced later adventurers and merchants. After his release from prison in , Polo returned to Venice, where he married, raised three daughters and, for some 25 years, carried on the family business.
Polo died at his home in Venice on January 8, As he lay dying, friends and fans of his book paid him visits, urging him to admit that his book was fiction. Polo wouldn't relent. In the centuries since his death, Polo has received the recognition that failed to come his way during his lifetime. So much of what he claimed to have seen has been verified by researchers, academics and other explorers.
Even if his accounts came from other travelers he met along the way, Polo's story has inspired countless other adventurers to set off and see the world. How long did it take Marco Polo to get to China? How many trips did Marco Polo make to China? How did Marco Polo get to China? Why did Marco Polo get Cancelled? At what age did Marco Polo die? What great desert Did Marco say would take a year to cross?
What did Marco Polo do on his deathbed?
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