Gelber - The Dragon and the Foreign Devils

Letter of 4 March 1993 in the science journal Nature.

From the beginning, many Venetians refused to believe Marcos stories and the doubts have continued ever since. See for instance Frances Wood, Did Marco Polo Go to China?, Secker & Warburg, 1995. On the other hand, some of his tales seem verifiable. For instance, one of the gold laissez-passer tablets that Kublai gave to the Polos seems to have existed in Marco Polos household as late as 1324.

There was even a music-hall ditty:

The MOG when his life ebbs out
Will ride in a fiery chariot
And sit in state
On a red hot plate
Between Pilate and Judas Iscariot.

Russian sources from the website New Martyrs of China of the All Saints of North America organisation.

Richard OConnor, The Spirit Soldiers: A historical narrative of the Boxer Rebellion, New York, Putnam, 1973, pp. 3412.

Aage Krarup Nielsen, Borodins Swan Song, Living Age, JulyDecember 1927, pp. 10023, cited Spence, Helpers, p. 202.

Many in the West have continued to find something mysterious and frightening about the Japanese soul. In the words of one Western novelist half a century after Nanjing, behind the flashing lights of Japan is something dark and very old.

Australia, Britain and the EEC 19611963
The Coming of the Second World War
The AustralianAmerican Alliance
Problems of Australian Defence (ed.)
Nuclear Weapons and Chinese Policy, Adelphi Paper No. 99
The Strategic Balance (ed.)
Technology, Defense and External Relations in China 19751978
Sovereignty through Interdependence
Nations out of Empires
Opium, Soldiers and Evangelicals

China and the World, 1100 BC to the Present

Harry G. Gelber

Copyright Harry G. Gelber 2007

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Walker & Company, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Published by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., New York

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8027-1630-9 (hardcover)

First published in the U.S. by Walker Publishing Company in 2007
This e-book edition published in 2011

E-book ISBN: 978-0-8027-1941-6

Visit Walker & Companys Web site at www.walkerbooks.com

Dedicated to Isabelle, Gabriel, Simon and Jocelyn,
who were not there last time

Founding emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. (British Library)

Wine vessel bronze, c.800 BC. (Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

Wine vessel bronze, 1011th century BC. (Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

Illuminated letter from William Rubrucks (12201324) manuscript of his journey to Karakorum. (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University)

Possible portrait of Marco Polo (12541324). (Hulton Archive)

Kublai Khan, the first Yuan emperor, on horseback, 1280. (Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

Founding Ming emperor Hongwu (13281398). (Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

Covered bowl with dragon design, early to mid-1400s (Ming dynasty). (Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

Dish with three immortals, c.1600 (Ming dynasty). (Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

Vase with floral scrolls, Hongwu reign, 136898 (Ming dynasty). (Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

Floral globe vase, Yongle reign, 140324 (Ming dynasty). (Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

Ming emperor Xiao Zong (14881505). (Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

The first Western atlas map of China (with an EastWest orientation), from the Ortelius Theatrum atlas, 1584. (Private Collection, Bonhams, London, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library)

A senior civil servant collecting taxes, 1690. (Private Collection, The Stapleton Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library)

The first great leader of the united Manchus, Nurhaci (15581626), looks on as two Mongol leaders are put to death outside a city wall. (British Library)

Portrait of the first major Jesuit figure in China, Matteo Ricci (15521626). (Gesu, Rome, Italy / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Ferdinand Verbiest (16231688). (Hulton Archive, Getty Images)

The German Jesuit, Adam Schall von Bell (15911666). (Athanasius Kircher, China momumentis qua sacris qua profanis aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata, Amsterdam 1649, plate 11. Photo: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich)

Qing emperor Kangxi (16541722). (From an.haiguinet.com)

Passport from the Qing dynasty. (From www.ecf.caltech.edu )

Count Fyodor Golovin (16501706), Russian negotiator of the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk. (From www.diplomatrus.ru )

View of the summer palace, Peking (Chinese artist, date unknown). (Bibliothque Nationale, Paris, France / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Lord George Macartney, Britains first ambassador to China, kneeling before the emperor (cartoon by James Gillray), 1794. (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library)

The Great Wall of China, by William Simpson, 1886. (Private Collection, Bonhams, London, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Canton c.1850. (Authors collection)

Dowager empress Cixi, the last Qing ruler (18351900). (Courtesy of Historic Photographs, Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library)

Bombardment of Canton during the Opium Wars, 1856. (Hulton Archive, Getty Images)

Chinese cartoon of devilish (fire-breathing) Europeans during the Opium Wars, 1857. (Hulton Archive, Getty Images)

Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, British foreign secretary and later prime minister (17841865). (Authors collection)

The Earl of Elgin, British commander in China in 1857 and 185960. (Time & Life Pictures, Getty Images)

Anson Burlingame, US diplomat, then Chinese ambassador to the West (18201870). (Library of Congress, Washington DC)

US Secretary of State John Hay, 1900. (Library of Congress, Washington DC)

A boxer waving a banner, 1900. (US National Archives)

Count Nikolai Muraviev-Amursky, Russian governor of eastern Siberia, 184761. (From www.peoples.ru )

Count Sergei Witte, who negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War (18491915). (Library of Congress, Washington DC)

Japanese naval base in the Elliot Islands during the Russo-Japanese War, 1905. (Hulton Archive, Getty Images)

US President Theodore Roosevelt presides over the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth to end the Russo-Japanese War, 1905. (US National Archives)

Nanjing massacre, 1937. Japanese troops using Chinese for bayonet practice. (Hulton Archive, Getty Images)

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of China, early 1940s. (Library of Congress, Washington DC)

Conferees at the 1943 Allied conference in Cairo. (US National Archives)

General Marshall, Roosevelts envoy to China in 19467. (The George C. Marshall Foundation of Lexington, Virginia, USA)

Chairman Mao and Stalin, 1949. ( ChinaStock)