The Travels of Marco Polo

The city of Chan-gli is a great center of commerce, powered by the large river that runs through it, on which pass vast quantities of silk and other articles. The city of Tandinfu, also a manufacturing center, was the scene of a great rebellion by an officer appointed by the Great Khan. The officer, Litan Sangon, convinced the entire province to join him in his rebellion, and the Great Khan sent an army to stop it:“There was much slaughter on both sides, but at length Litan was killed, and his troops took to flight” (3077).

This large city is a center of manufacturing. A main feature of the city is a large, deep river that has two branches: one branch flows east through China, and the other branch flows west, toward a neighboring province. Polo writes: “It is astonishing to observe the number and size of the vessels continually passing to-and-fro on it, laden with merchandise of the greatest value” (3087-88).

This chapter actually mentions three cities, all with very similar names. Lingui features a warlike culture, Pingui is a relative cash cow for the Great Khan, and Cingui is a manufacturing center. All are loyal to the Great Khan and employ his paper as currency.

As in Chapter 40, the traveler reaches the river Kara-moran; again, the traveler finds links to the great Christian leader Prester John. On an island in this river is a military installation, at which the Great Khan “keeps in constant readiness for carrying an army to any of the Indian Isles that may happen to be in rebellion, or for expeditions to any more distant region” (3106-07) by employing “fifteen thousand vessels, each of them capable of carrying fifteen horses and twenty men, besides the crews to navigate them, and the necessary stores and provisions” (3105-06).

Polo states that “[t]he province of Manzi is the most magnificent and the richest known in the eastern world” (3115-16), and was once ruled by a prince whose wealth and prestige exceeded all but that of the Great Khan. The prince, who was named Facfur, was of a benevolent nature and did not pay attention to military matters. He was a beloved ruler. Manzi was large and rich and a tempting target for the Great Khan, who put together a large force and invaded. Confronted with this large force of invaders, Facfur fled, leaving his queen in charge. The queen consulted her astrologers, who told her that the king “could never be deprived of his sovereignty by any but a chief with a hundred eyes” (3146-47). The general who arrived to seize the queen and the province had a name that meant “a hundred eyes.” The Great Khan was victorious.

This city is on the banks of the great river Kara-moran and is at the entrance of the province of Manzi; as such, the city is a manufacturing center, specializing in salt transport.

This chapter relates a detail from the conquest described in Chapter 65. Regarding the province of Manzi, Polo states that“[t]here is no other road by which the province can be entered. It is, however, accessible by water, and it was in this way that the commander of the Great Khan’s armies invaded it” (3164–3165). Both the town of Pau-ghin and the city of Kain are flourishing trade centers. Kain has plentiful numbers of pheasants, which bring in good money.

Saltworks dot the area between these two cities. Chin-gui is “from whence enough salt is exported for all the neighboring provinces” (3179). Nearby Chin-gui is a military manufacturing center. It is also the city of which “Marco Polo, by special order of the Great Khan, acted as governor […] for three years” (3186-87).

Like other cities and provinces in this part of the world, Nan-ghin sees large amounts of silk and commerce. Particular to this province are large amounts of corn and prodigious numbers of domestic cattle and hunting game, including tigers.

A great producer of silk, this city withstood a three-year siege by the Great Khan's forces. Niccolo and Maffeo Polo convinced the Great Khan to build the kind of siege engines that were known in the West. When the Great Khan's army employed these machines against the walls of the city:

the first stone hurled by one of them fell with such weight and force upon a building that a great part of it was crushed. So terrified were the inhabitants by this disaster, which to them seemed to be like a thunderbolt from heaven, that they immediately surrendered (3212-14).

This river, the beneficiary of the discharge of several other rivers, Polo describes as “the largest river in the world, its width being in some places ten, in others eight, and in others six miles” (3221). More than 200 cities and towns use the river for their commerce and trade. Salt is a prime commodity. Polo includes many details about the size of the boats that do business along this river.

Large amounts of corn and rice are harvested annually in the lands around this city. Linking this city with China is “a wide, deep canal which the Great Khan has had dug in order that vessels may pass from one great river to the other” (3239-40). Also notable is a monastery atop an island in the middle of the river.

This city trades in tissues of silk and gold and offers plentiful game for hunting.

Referencing Chapter 65, Polo relates how the general whose name meant “one hundred eyes” sent a force to take this city as well. The would-be conquerors found the walls and gates open and took the city without a struggle. They celebrated by drinking themselves into a stupor and fell asleep. The conquered then became the conquerors, killing the invaders as they slept:

When Chinsan Bayan [“Hundred Eyes”] learned the fate of his detachment, his indignation and anger rose to the highest pitch and he sent another army to attack the place. When it was captured, he gave orders for putting to the sword all the inhabitants, great and small, without distinction of sex, as an act of retaliation (3264-67).

Polo describes the people of this city as wealthy manufacturers who do a great trade in silk;“distinguished professors of learning” (3275); and “many physicians of great skill, who can determine the nature of a disorder and know how to apply the proper remedies” (3274-75). He adds, “They are, however, a mean-spirited race, and solely occupied with trade and manufacture” (3271-72). Ginger and rhubarb grow here in large quantities.

“The Celestial City” is another name for Kinsai:“This name it merits from its preeminence, among all others in the world, in point of grandeur and beauty, as well as from its many charms, which might lead an inhabitant to imagine himself in paradise” (3288-90). Polo visited this city many times and includes a great many details about the grandeur of the place. 

This city displays some of its great wealth in the contents of its roads:

The main street of the city is paved with stone and brick to the width of ten paces on each side, the center strip being filled with gravel and having curved drains for carrying off rain water into nearby canals so that it remains always dry (3387-89).

In this chapter and the previous one, Polo includes several examples of how the rich have leisure time aplenty:“Men and women who like riding are in the daily habit of hiring them for that purpose, and so at every hour you can see vast numbers of them driven along the middle part of the street” (3390-91).Stone towers are built as storehouses for goods in case of fire, since most houses are made of wood. 

To the Great Khan, from the city of Kinsai, go revenues on salt, sugar, rice wine, cattle, vegetables, and silk.

Like many other cities and towns on this part of Polo's travels, “the inhabitants [of Tai-pin-zu] worship idols, use paper money, burn the bodies of their dead, are subjects of the Great Khan, and gain their subsistence by trade and crafts” (3499-00). The city is also known for its canes “of greater bulk and length than those already noticed” (3504-05). In the city of Chanshan is a hill that divides the river into two branches.

The descriptions are similar to other cities to which Polo has traveled. The people enjoy animal sports, especially those involving birds. They produce ginger and a saffron-like vegetable. Polo says that“[t]he people in this part of the country are addicted to eating human flesh, esteeming it more delicate than any other, provided the person has not died from any disease” (3522-23). This preference extends to battle, for which they adorn themselves with blue paint and fight fiercely: “They are such a savage race that when they slay their enemies in battle, they are anxious to drink their blood, and afterwards they devour their flesh” (3525-26).

This city became a great sugar producer after the Great Khan conquered it and sent some scientists to tell the inhabitants the right way to produce it. Sugar is also prevalent in another city, Fuju, which belongs to the Kingdom of Kon-cha. In Fuju can be found great quantities of sugar and a bustling port full of vessels carrying jewels and pearls from India.

The city has a busy port:“The quantity of pepper imported there is so great that what is carried to Alexandria to supply the demand of the western parts of the world is trifling in comparison—perhaps not more than a hundredth part” (3558-60). Provisions are plentiful, as is trade, driven by the large river that flows through the city.