Kublai Khan - Marco Polo: the journey that changed the world

Gobi

Atlas of the Year 1000

Alpha Beta

The Gutenberg Revolution

Genghis Khan

Attila the Hun

Kublai Khan

The Terracotta Army

The Great Wall

The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan

Samurai: The Last Warrior

Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior

A note on sourcing...

The quotations in this book are mostly either from YuleCordier or MoulePelliot, which is a conglomerate of many texts. Sometimes I give the source, but often not, because to track every quote would be to clog the book with footnotes, kill the narrative and repeat established works of scholarship.

... and spelling:

Genghis is pronounced Chingis in Mongol, and should be spelled like that in English. I retain Genghis out of deference to tradition. The same for Xanadu, which is Shangdu in Chinese; but Xanadu is traditional in English, thanks to Coleridge.

JOHN MAN is the author of Attila, Genghis Khan, The Great Wall, Gobi: Tracking the Desert, Ninja, Samurai, and other works. Educated at Oxford and the University of Londons School of Oriental and African Studies, he was awarded Mongolias Friendship Medal in 2007.

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Of the thousands of books and articles on Marco Polo, these are the ones I relied on. Of the many editions, Yule and Cordier is still without rival, mainly for its astonishing notes. As a text, Moule and Pelliot is the most rigorous, but no popular edition is available. The best bibliographies are in Haw, Larner and Wood.

Abu-Lughod, Janet L., Before European Hegemony: The World System AD 12501350 . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Alexander, Caroline, The Way to Xanadu . London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993.

Atwood, Christopher, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire . New York: Facts on File, 2004.

Bretschneider, Emil, Archaeological and Historical Researches on Peking and its Environs . New York: Elibron/Adamant Media Corp., 2005: facsimile of the original, publ. Shanghai and London, American and Presbyterian Mission Press, 1876.

Bushell, S. W., Notes of Journey Outside the Great Wall of China, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society , London, vol. 44 (1874).

Campbell, C. W., Journeys in Mongolia, Geographical Journal , vol. 22, no. 5 (Nov. 1903).

Cannadine, David, and Price, Simon, eds, Rituals of Royalty . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Chn Yan, Western and Central Asians in China under the Mongols, Monumenta Serica Monograph XV . Berkeley: University of California at Los Angeles, 1966.

Cleaves, Francis Woodman, A Chinese Source Bearing on Marco Polos Departure from China and a Source on his Arrival in Persia, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies , vol. 36 (1976).

Clements, Jonathan, Marco Polo . London: Haus, 2007.

Curzon, George Nathaniel, The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus, Geographical Journal , vol. 8, nos 13 (JulySept. 1896).

Dalrymple, William, In Xanadu: A Quest. London: Collins, 1989.

Delgado, James, Khubilai Khans Lost Fleet . Vancouver: Douglas & MacIntyre, 2008; London: Bodley Head, 2009.

Harada, Yoshito, Shang-tu, the Summer Capital of the Yuan Dynasty in Dolon Nor, Mongolia, Proceedings of the Far Eastern Archaeological Society , 1941.

Hare, John, Mysteries of the Gobi. London: Tauris, 2009.

Haw, Stephen G., Marco Polos China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan . London: Routledge, 2006.

Hedin, Sven, Dr Sven Hedins Travels in Central Asia, Geographical Journal , vol. 5, no. 2 (Feb. 1895).

Impey, Lawrence, Shangtu, the Summer Capital of Kublai Khan, Geographical Review , vol. 15, no. 4 (Oct. 1925).

Jackson, Peter, Marco Polo and his Travels, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , vol. 61, no. 1 (1998).

Jackson, Peter, The Mongols and the West . Harlow: Pearson-Longman, 2005.

Jackson, Peter, trans. and ed., with David Morgan, The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck . London: Hakluyt Society, 1990.

Jagchid, Sechin, and Hyer, Paul, Mongolias Culture and Society . Boulder, Colo.: Westview; Folkestone: Dawson, 1979.

Juvaini, Ata-Malik, Genghis Khan: The History of the World-Conqueror , trans. and ed. J. A. Boyle. Manchester: Manchester University Press/UNESCO, 1958; 2nd edn 1997.

Kates, G. N., A New Date for the Origins of the Forbidden City, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies , vol. 7 (19423).

Larner, John, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World . Harvard, Mass.: Yale University Press, 1999.

Latham, Ronald, trans. and ed., The Travels of Marco Polo . London: Penguin, 1958.

Liu Yutang, Imperial Peking . London: Elek, 1961.

Lynn, Richard John, trans., poems on Shangdu. Personal communication.

Man, Edward Horace, On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands . London: Royal Anthropological Institute, 1932.

Man, John, Kublai Khan . London: Bantam, 2006.

Man, John, The Mongol Empire . London: Bantam, 2014.

Marsden, William, ed., The Travels of Marco Polo . London: Cox & Baylis, 1818.

Morgan, David, The Mongols . Oxford and Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1986.

Morgan, David, Marco Polo in China or not?, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , 3rd ser., no. 6 (1996).

Mote, F. W., Imperial China 9001800 . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Moule, A. C., Quinsai, with other notes on Marco Polo . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1957.

Moule, A. C., and Pelliot, Paul, Marco Polo: The Description of the World , 2 vols. London: Routledge, London, 1938. The second volume is the so-called Z text, found in Toledo in 1932.

Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilisation in China , vol. 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.

Norwich, John Julius, A History of Venice . London: Penguin, 1982 (first publ. in 2 vols, 1977 and 1981).

Olbricht, Peter, Das Postwesen in China unter der Mongolenherrschaft im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1954.

Olschki, Leonardo, LAsia di Marco Polo . Venice: Istituto per la Collaborazione Culturale; Florence: Sansoni, 1957. Publ. in English as Marco Polos Asia , University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, and Cambridge University Press, 1960.

Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo , ed. L. Hambis. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 195973.

Polo, Marco. For versions of the text see Latham, Marsden, Moule and Pelliot, Ramusio, and Yule and Cordier.

Rachewiltz, Igor de, Marco Polo Went to China, Zentralasiatische Studien , vol. 27 (1997). For a summary see http://rspas.anu.edu.au/eah/marcopolo.html

Rachewiltz, Igor de, Marco Polo Went to China: Additions and Corrections, Zentralasiatische Studien , vol. 28 (1998).

Rachewiltz, Igor de, trans. and commentary, The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the 13th Century . Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004.

Ramusio, Giovanni Battista (Giambattista), Navigazionni e viaggi , ed. M. Milanesi, vol. 3. Turin: Einaudi, 1980. Facsimile, ed. R. A. Skelton and George B. Parks (vol. 3 of 3 vols). Amsterdam, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1968.