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by Frances Wood

Author:	Frances Wood
Subcategory:	Humanities
Language:	English
Publisher:	Westview Press (August 1, 1996)
Pages:	208 pages
Category:	Other
Rating:	4.9
Other formats:	lit mobi azw lrf

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Did Polo go to China? Wood makes a convincing case that he did not. The thesis is that Rustichello da Pisa basically took some of Polo's stories and wedded them to other travel writings about the East. Wood notes that "Polo" misses a bunch of stuff in China he should have seen and done.

The book notes that Polo failed to mention the Great Wall, the use of chopsticks as eating utensils, tea, foot-binding, Chinese calligraphy or other significant features and that there are no Chinese records of Polo's presence

FREE shipping on qualifying offers. Marco Polo's book The Description of the World is one of the classics of medieval literature, describing his epic journey to China and subsequent return to Italy. He has become a cultural icon bridging East and West. Did Polo go to China? Wood makes a convincing case that he did not.

Contrary to an assumption basic to European and Chinese history-the tales of Marco Polo's journey to China-Frances Wood argues that he not only never went to China, but probably never ventured past his family home on the Black Sea. Instead, his imagination fueled by stories garnered from other traders and with the help of a ghostwriter, Polo may simply have sought to exploit the growing demand for tales of distant lands.

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Home Browse Books Book details, Did Marco Polo Go to China? . In this fascinating piece of historical detection, marking the 700th anniversary of Polo's journey, Frances Wood questions whether Marco Polo ever reached the country he so vividly described

Home Browse Books Book details, Did Marco Polo Go to China? Did Marco Polo Go to China? By Frances Wood. Did Marco Polo Go to China? By Frances Wood. In this fascinating piece of historical detection, marking the 700th anniversary of Polo's journey, Frances Wood questions whether Marco Polo ever reached the country he so vividly described.

We all know that Marco Polo went to China, served Ghengis Khan for many years, and returned to Italy with the . Did he? I read the book carefully and I don't have the answer.

We all know that Marco Polo went to China, served Ghengis Khan for many years, and returned to Italy with the recipes for pasta and ice cream.

In 1995 historian Frances Wood argued in her book Did Marco Polo Go to China? that the famous Venetian never made it past the Black Se.

In 1995 historian Frances Wood argued in her book Did Marco Polo Go to China? that the famous Venetian never made it past the Black Sea. She noted that his travelogue leaves out the Great Wall of China, the practice of binding women’s feet, chopsticks and tea drinking, among other details; furthermore, Chinese documents from Polo’s day make no mention of the explorer and his retinue. Will we ever know whether Marco Polo traveled to China and attended Kublai Khan? Perhaps not, but the consequences of his real or fictional journey are still felt across the globe.

In a book published in 1995, Did Marco Polo Go to China?, Frances Wood, the head of the Chinese section at the British Library, also argued that he probably did not make it beyond the Black Sea. She pointed out that despite being an acute observer of daily life and rituals, there is n. . She pointed out that despite being an acute observer of daily life and rituals, there is no mention in Marco Polo’s chapters on China of the custom of binding women’s feet, chopsticks, tea drinking, or even the Great Wall. There’s nothing in the Venetian archives to say that the Polo family had direct contact with China at all, Dr Wood told The Daily Telegraph

En 1995, Frances Wood, directrice du département de sinologie à la British Library est l auteur d un ouvrage, Did Marco Polo go to China ?, dans lequel elle s interroge sur la véracité du séjour de Marco Polo en Chine. Did Marco Polo go to China - ?

We all know” that Marco Polo went to China, served Ghengis Khan for many years, and returned to Italy with the recipes for pasta and ice cream. But Frances Wood, head of the Chinese Department at the British Library, argues that Marco Polo not only never went to China, he probably never even made it past the Black Sea, where his family conducted business as merchants.Marco Polo's travels from Venice to the exotic and distant East, and his epic book describing his extraordinary adventures, A Description of the World, ranks among the most famous and influential books ever published. In this fascinating piece of historical detection, marking the 700th anniversary of Polo's journey, Frances Wood questions whether Marco Polo ever reached the country he so vividly described. Why, in his romantic and seemingly detailed account, is there no mention of such fundamentals of Chinese life as tea, foot-binding, or even the Great Wall? Did he really bring back pasta and ice cream to Italy? And why, given China's extensive and even obsessive record-keeping, is there no mention of Marco Polo anywhere in the archives?Sure to spark controversy, Did Marco Polo Go to China? tries to solve these and other inconsistencies by carefully examining the Polo family history, Marco Polo's activities as a merchant, the preparation of his book, and the imperial Chinese records. The result is a lucid and readable look at medieval European and Chinese history, and the characters and events that shaped this extraordinary and enduring myth.

Comments:

BlessСhild

When I bought this book, it was in anticipation of my world history class--but then by the time the class started, it was no longer on the required reading list. So I never finished reading the book. I'm sure it was good--the beginning seemed to be nice. But I can't say how it ends.

Zololmaran

I agree with the previous author. The reason I gave it two stars instead of two is for creativity, but just like Kepler saw relationships where none existed between the planets and the Platonic solids, so does this author, with all due respect. That some gaps exist, ones that require explanation is acceptable, but who among us can recount all the details of his or her trips or life's journey. That is hardly evidence that they didn't take place.
The best answer to her book is a documentary that tackles this issue. You can find it on Amazon as well. It clearly shows the other side of the argument. I think this book should've done just that. Instead, this book omits the countless of accounts that are present in Marco Polo's book and that do not have any other explanation other than that he was there. These were accounts that were unknown to anyone else until modern times because they were accounts that required committed scholars to uncover the ancient books and internal records. One example is Marco Polo's naming the individuals that accompanied a betrothed princess to Persia along with uncanny details about the inner workings of the salt industry in one of China's provinces along with some industrial secrets of paper that couldn't have been known except for someone who was actually there, NOT from a second-hand account. See the documentary for yourself and cast a judgment then. It is called: The Secret File of Marco Polo
http://a.co/fVVhSCg

Shistus

Abandoned Electrical

Some readers no doubt have heard of a forthcoming book, The City of Light, which purports to be the account of a 13th-century Italian-Jewish merchant visiting China four years before Marco Polo. With doubts being raised as to its authencity, because, among other reasons, the manuscript's owner refuses to allow its inspection, publication by Little, Brown has been postponed. Disappointed readers may take solace however in the recent publication of Did Marco Polo Go To China? (London: Secker & Warburg, 1995; Westview Press October 1, 1996, Hardcover, 187 pages, ISBN: 0813389984). Frances Wood, also author of the China entry for the famous Blue Guide series of travel guides, offers a critical look at what for many was the first inspiration of interest in Central Asia and the Silk Road. The book is a tour through the history of the various Il Milione manuscripts and the question of their authorship, but never bogs down into dry detail. Instead it asks a number of thoughtful questions which will give the reader pause. If Polo actually did visit all the places he claimed, why does he never mention those oddities such as chopsticks, footbinding and others which have caused the most comment among Westerners? And why does he seem to dwell so consistently on certain other topics such as markets and fortifications? Wood points out that despite Polo's claims of contacts with the Kublai Khan and other high officials, he is not mentioned in the court documents of the period. But if we doubt some of Polo's tale, how much is true and what are the true sources of this information? You will have to reach some of your own conclusions, but Wood skilfully and always engrossingly presents all the evidence you'll want to solve this detective tale.

Golkree

About Frances Wood's Did Marco Polo Go To China?
In 1995 Dr Frances Wood published a book titled Did Marco Polo Go To China?, which became Marco Polo Did Not Go To China in the German version. This book, purporting to unmask Marco Polo as a fraud, has enjoyed considerable attention - which it fully merited as an entertaining piece of light reading. Unfortunately, Wood's argument appears to have been taken at face value in some academic circles, so much so that a word of warning now seems appropriate: Wood's story is neither original, nor is it scholarly. The gist of Wood's argument has been commonplace through the ages and, especially, in the 19th century. In its present form it was suggested in a lighthearted way some years ago by the eminent German sinologist Herbert Franke who now categorically rejects Wood's thesis. As for the scholarship of Wood's book, it is impugned on a series of counts, notably in an exhaustive study published in 1997 by Igor de Rachewiltz of the Australian National University wherein Wood's arguments are discussed one by one, not infrequently on the basis of documents that the author overlooked, or even deliberately ignored as inimical to her story. One case in point shall suffice here to cripple Wood's thesis. It concerns the accounts in a 15th century Chinese encyclopaedia (publ. in 1941 by Yang Chih-chiu) and in the Persian historian Rashid al-Din's Collection of Histories (discussed by F.W. Cleaves in 1976) of the 1291-3 naval expedition conveying the Mongol princess Kokecin from China to Persia - of which Marco Polo bears detailed witness as a participant. It really should be incumbent on authors in Dr Wood's position, as a matter of intellectual correctness, clearly to signal the distinction between historical fancy and the reporting of serious research. Canberra, Australia

Bumand

I enjoyed it and found it well argued. I think I remember hearing that on first publication Wood received threatening phone calls from men with Italian accents; some of the comments on this site are in the same spirit.

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