The Great Khan's post houses
- Written
- dictated in 1298; about what Polo saw in China between about 1275 and 1291
- Place
- Canbalu (Khanbaliq)
- Language
- Franco-Italian (Old French)
- Kind of source
- travel account
- Reading time
- 6 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Intensity
- Low: nothing violent or graphic; one mention of rebellion
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A runner wore a belt hung all around with bells. He ran three miles at full speed, and the next runner, hearing him coming, took what he carried and ran on. In this way, Marco Polo says, the Great Khan got news from ten days away in a single day and night.
Marco Polo was a merchant of Venice who spent about seventeen years in China under the Mongol ruler Qubilai, the Great Khan. Back in Italy he was imprisoned in Genoa. There, in 1298, he told his story to a fellow prisoner, Rustichello of Pisa, a writer of romances about King Arthur. Rustichello wrote it down in Franco-Italian, a form of French used by Italian writers. This text comes from a manuscript in Paris copied around 1310, which scholars take to be the version closest to the lost original. The Société de Géographie printed it in 1824.
Polo says he traveled widely on the Khan’s business, so he would have known the post roads and their lodgings from use. But no traveler could count the horses or the stations of an empire. His figures are his own claims, or what he was told.
He told this story years after leaving China, to a writer who shaped it for European readers. Chinese records confirm a large post system: in the late thirteenth century the lands Qubilai ruled directly had more than 1,400 stations and bridges, served by some 44,000 horses. Polo’s two hundred thousand horses and ten thousand palaces are far larger, and should be read as his claims.
Watch who pays. The towns near each post keep its horses, and the Khan supplies only the posts in remote places. Notice too that the fine beds and silk sheets are for the Khan’s messengers, not for ordinary travelers.
The edited translation, in simplified modern English. Bracketed words were added for clarity; [...] marks a cut. Tap a note number to read the note.
98Now you should know for a fact that many roads lead out of this city of Canbalu1 to many provinces. One goes to one province and another to another, and every road is named for the place it goes to. This is a very wise arrangement.
When you leave Canbalu by any of these roads and have gone twenty-five miles,2 the messengers of the Great Lord3 find a post. In their language it is called a janb,4 which in ours means "post of horses." At each post the messengers find a large and handsome palace where the Great Lord's messengers stay. These lodgings have very rich beds, made up with rich silk sheets, and everything else that messengers need. If a king came there, he would be well lodged. And at this post the messengers find a good four hundred horses, which the Great Lord has placed there. They are always kept there, ready for his messengers whenever he sends them anywhere.
These posts stand every twenty-two or every thirty miles on all the main roads that go to the provinces I told you about. At each one the messengers find from three hundred to four hundred horses, all ready at their command. And they find palaces just as fine as I described, where the messengers lodge just as richly. In this way the posts run through all the provinces and kingdoms of the Great Lord.
Sometimes the messengers travel through remote places where there is no house or inn. There too the Great Lord has had a post built in each place, with palaces and everything the other posts have, both horses and harness. But these are longer day's journeys,5 for here the posts are thirty-five miles apart, and some more than forty. In this way, as you have heard, the Great Lord's messengers travel everywhere and find lodgings and horses ready at the end of every day's journey. This is truly the greatest grandeur and splendor that any emperor, king or other man on earth has ever had.
For you should know quite truly that more than two hundred thousand horses are kept at these posts just for his messengers. And there are more than ten thousand of these palaces, all furnished as richly as I said.6 It is so marvelous a thing, and worth so much, that it can hardly be told or written.
I will tell you something else that I had forgotten, which belongs with what I have just told you. Between one post and the next there is a village every three miles, with about forty houses. In these live runners, men on foot who also carry the Great Lord's messages. I will tell you how. They wear a large belt hung all around with bells, so that they can be heard from far off as they come. They always run at full speed, and each goes only three miles. The next man, waiting at the end of the three miles, hears him coming from far off and stands ready. As soon as the first man arrives, the next takes what he is carrying, and a little slip of paper that the clerk gives him. Then he sets off running to the next three-mile stop and does just as the other did.
In this way the Great Lord gets news from these runners from ten days' journey away in one day and one night. For you should know that in one day and one night these runners cover ten days' journey. In two days and two nights they bring news from twenty days away. So in ten days and ten nights he would have news from a hundred days away. And I tell you that these runners often bring the lord fruit from ten days' journey away in a single day.
The Great Lord takes no tax from these men. Instead he has them paid from his own goods. Now for the horses that I told you of, so many of them at the posts to carry the messengers. I tell you quite truly that the Great Lord arranged them like this. He asks which city lies near a certain post, and has someone find out how many horses it can keep for the messengers. They tell him a hundred, and the city is ordered to keep a hundred horses at that post. Then he has all the other towns and castles checked to see how many horses they can keep. He orders them to keep as many as they can at the post. That is how all the posts are arranged, so that the Great Lord pays nothing for them himself. Only the posts in remote places he supplies with his own horses.
Sometimes messengers on horseback must go very fast, to tell the Great Lord that some land or some baron has rebelled, or about something else the lord needs to know. Then they ride a good two hundred miles in a day, or even two hundred fifty. I will show you how. When the messengers want to go so fast and so many miles in a day, they carry the gerfalcon tablet.7 It is a sign that the rider wants to go very fast.
If there are two of them, they set out from where they are on two good horses, strong and swift. They bind their bellies tight and wrap their heads.8 Then they set off at a gallop as fast as they can go, and ride until they reach the next post, twenty-five miles away. There they find two more horses ready, fresh and rested and swift. They mount at once, without stopping to rest at all. As soon as they are in the saddle, they set off again as fast as the horses can go. They do not stop until they reach the next post, and there they find more horses ready. They mount at once and are on their way. They keep this up until evening. In the way I have told you, these messengers ride a good two hundred fifty miles to bring news to the Great Lord, and when it is needed, a good three hundred. These messengers are highly valued. Now we will leave this account of the messengers, for we have explained it clearly. From here on I will tell you of a great kindness that the Great Lord does for his people twice a year.
Notes
- Khanbaliq, “the city of the Khan,” the Mongol capital, called Dadu in Chinese, on the site of modern Beijing. back
- Polo’s miles and day’s journeys are rough estimates, not measured distances. back
- Qubilai (reigned 1260–1294), Great Khan of the Mongols, who gave his dynasty in China the name Yuan. Polo usually calls him “the great lord.” back
- Polo’s spelling of the Mongol word jam, in Persian and Turkic yam: the chain of post stations along the empire’s roads, where official travelers changed horses and found food and lodging. back
- A jornée is a day’s journey, the distance a traveler covered in a day, used as a measure of distance. back
- These figures are Polo’s own claims. Some other versions of his book give 300,000 horses. back
- A paiza, a tablet given to official travelers as a pass. From 1261 Qubilai issued urgent post paizas marked with a gerfalcon, a large hunting falcon, instead of a tiger’s head. back
- Apparently to stand the shaking of a long gallop. Another version of the book says the riders could not keep up the pace without these bands. back
Or sachiés por vérité qe de ceste vile de Canbalu se partent moutes voies lesquel vont por maintes provences, ce est à dire qe le une vait à tel provinces, et ceste à tel, et toutes les voies sunt devisés là où elle vont, et ce est mout sçue chouse.
Now know for truth that from this town of Canbalu many roads set out, which go through many provinces; that is to say, the one goes to such provinces, and this one to such, and all the roads are named [for] where they go, and this is a very wise [thing].
Now you should know for a fact that many roads lead out of this city of Canbalu to many provinces. One goes to one province and another to another, and every road is named for the place it goes to. This is a very wise arrangement.
- Khanbaliq, “the city of the Khan,” the Mongol capital, called Dadu in Chinese, on the site of modern Beijing.
Et sachiés qe quant l'en s'en part de Canbalu por toutes les voies qe voz ai contés, et il est alés vingt cinq miles, adonc le mesajes dou grant sire qe ceste vingt cinq miles ont alés, il trovent une poste que s'apelent janb. en lor langue, et en nostre langaje vaut à dir poste de chevaus, et de chascune poste treuvent les mesajes un mout grant paleis et biaus, là où les mesajes dou grant sire herbergient, et cest erbergies ont mout riches lit, fornis des riches dras de soie, et ont toutes les couses qe as autres mesajes convient, et se un rois hi venist, si seroit bien, herbergiés ; et encore voz di que à ceste poste treuvent les mesajes bien quatre cens chevaus que le grant sire a stabli, qe toutes foies hi demorent et soient aparoillés por sez mesajes quant il les envoie en aucune part.
And know that when one sets out from Canbalu by all the roads that I have told you, and he has gone twenty-five miles, then the messengers of the great lord, who have gone these twenty-five miles, they find a post which they call janb in their language, and in our language it is worth to say post of horses; and at each post the messengers find a very great palace and fine, where the messengers of the great lord lodge; and these lodgings have very rich beds, furnished with rich cloths of silk, and have all the things that are fitting to other messengers; and if a king came there he would be well lodged. And again I tell you that at this post the messengers find a good four hundred horses, which the great lord has established, which always stay there and are ready for his messengers when he sends them anywhere.
When you leave Canbalu by any of these roads and have gone twenty-five miles, the messengers of the Great Lord find a post. In their language it is called a janb, which in ours means "post of horses." At each post the messengers find a large and handsome palace where the Great Lord's messengers stay. These lodgings have very rich beds, made up with rich silk sheets, and everything else that messengers need. If a king came there, he would be well lodged. And at this post the messengers find a good four hundred horses, which the Great Lord has placed there. They are always kept there, ready for his messengers whenever he sends them anywhere.
- Polo’s miles and day’s journeys are rough estimates, not measured distances.
- Qubilai (reigned 1260–1294), Great Khan of the Mongols, who gave his dynasty in China the name Yuan. Polo usually calls him “the great lord.”
- Polo’s spelling of the Mongol word jam, in Persian and Turkic yam: the chain of post stations along the empire’s roads, where official travelers changed horses and found food and lodging.
Et encore sachiés que en toutes vingt deus miles ou ongnes trente sunt ceste poste que je voz ai dit, ce est en toutes les principaus voie que vunt à les provences qe je voz ai contés desoure. Et chascune de ceste poste treuvent les mesajes da trois cens chevaus à quatre cens, tuit aparoillés à lor comandemant ; et encore hi treuvent si biaus palais con je voz ai contés là où les mesajes herberjent si richemant con je voz ai devisé desoure. Et en ceste mainere vait por toutes les provences et reingnes dou grant sire.
And again know that in every twenty-two miles, or every thirty, there are these posts that I have told you of; that is, on all the principal roads that go to the provinces that I have told you of above. And [at] each of these posts the messengers find from three hundred horses to four hundred, all ready at their command; and again they find there such fine palaces as I have told you, where the messengers lodge as richly as I have described to you above. And in this manner it goes through all the provinces and kingdoms of the great lord.
These posts stand every twenty-two or every thirty miles on all the main roads that go to the provinces I told you about. At each one the messengers find from three hundred to four hundred horses, all ready at their command. And they find palaces just as fine as I described, where the messengers lodge just as richly. In this way the posts run through all the provinces and kingdoms of the Great Lord.
Et quant les mesajes vont por desviables leus que ne i trouve ne maison ne herberges, si hi a fait faire le grant sire poste en chascun leu desviable et palais et toutes les chouses come ont les autres postes, et des chevaus et de arnois, mès ce sunt plus grant jornée : car il sunt faites les postes à trente cinc miles, et tiel hi a à plus de quarante, et en ceste mainere qe vos avés hoï vunt por toutes pars les mesajes dou grant sire, et hont herbergies, et chevaus aparoilés à ogne jornée, et ce est bien la greingnor autesse et la grandese greingnor qe aie ne haïst onques nul enperaors, ne nulz rois, ne nul autre homes teroine.
And when the messengers go through out-of-the-way places where one finds neither house nor lodging, the great lord has had a post made there in each out-of-the-way place, and palaces and all the things that the other posts have, both horses and harness; but these are greater day's journeys, for the posts are made at thirty-five miles, and some there are at more than forty. And in this manner that you have heard, the messengers of the great lord go through all parts, and have lodgings and horses ready at every day's journey. And this is truly the greatest loftiness and the greatest grandeur that ever had any emperor, nor any king, nor any other earthly man.
Sometimes the messengers travel through remote places where there is no house or inn. There too the Great Lord has had a post built in each place, with palaces and everything the other posts have, both horses and harness. But these are longer day's journeys, for here the posts are thirty-five miles apart, and some more than forty. In this way, as you have heard, the Great Lord's messengers travel everywhere and find lodgings and horses ready at the end of every day's journey. This is truly the greatest grandeur and splendor that any emperor, king or other man on earth has ever had.
- A jornée is a day’s journey, the distance a traveler covered in a day, used as a measure of distance.
Car sachiés tout voiremant que plus de deus cent mille chevaus demorent à cestes postes propemant por les sez mesejes, et encore voz di que les paleis sunt plus de dix mille qe sunt ensi forni de riches arnois con je voz ai contés, et ce est chouse si merveilose et de si grant vailance, qe à poine se poroit bien conter ne scrivre.
For know quite truly that more than two hundred thousand horses stay at these posts properly for his messengers; and again I tell you that the palaces are more than ten thousand, which are thus furnished with rich furnishings as I have told you. And this is a thing so marvelous and of such great value that it could hardly be well told or written.
For you should know quite truly that more than two hundred thousand horses are kept at these posts just for his messengers. And there are more than ten thousand of these palaces, all furnished as richly as I said. It is so marvelous a thing, and worth so much, that it can hardly be told or written.
- These figures are Polo’s own claims. Some other versions of his book give 300,000 horses.
Et encore voz conterai una cause qe je avoit dementique, qe fait à nostre materie qe je vos ai ore contés. Il est voir qe entre le une poste et l'autre sunt ordreé ogne trois mile ha un chasaus, qe hi poit avoir entor quarante maison esquelz demorent homes à piés qe encore font ceste mesajarie dou grant sire, et voz dirai comant; il portent une grant centure toute pleine environ de sonaille, por ce qe quant il vont qe il soient oï de bien longe, et cesti vont toutes foies au grant gallon, et ne vont for qe trois moilles ; et les autres qe est à chief des les trois miles qe bien de longe le oient venir, demore tout aparoillés, et tant tost qu'il est celui venu il prant la chouse qu'il aporte, et prant une carte petite qe li done l'escrivain, e se met corant, et vait jusque à le autre trois miles et fait ausi come avoit fait le autre.
And again I will tell you a thing that I had forgotten, which belongs to our matter that I have now told you. It is true that between the one post and the other there is ordered, every three miles, a village, where there may be about forty houses, in which live men on foot who also do this message-service of the great lord; and I will tell you how. They wear a great belt all full of bells around, so that when they go they may be heard from very far; and these always go at a great gallop, and go only three miles. And the other, who is at the end of the three miles, who hears him coming from far off, waits all ready; and as soon as that one has come, he takes the thing that he brings, and takes a little paper that the clerk gives him, and sets off running, and goes as far as the next three miles, and does just as the other had done.
I will tell you something else that I had forgotten, which belongs with what I have just told you. Between one post and the next there is a village every three miles, with about forty houses. In these live runners, men on foot who also carry the Great Lord's messages. I will tell you how. They wear a large belt hung all around with bells, so that they can be heard from far off as they come. They always run at full speed, and each goes only three miles. The next man, waiting at the end of the three miles, hears him coming from far off and stands ready. As soon as the first man arrives, the next takes what he is carrying, and a little slip of paper that the clerk gives him. Then he sets off running to the next three-mile stop and does just as the other did.
Et si voz di qe en ceste mainere ha le grant sire de cesti homes à pié noveles des dix jornée en un jorno et en une noit. Car sachiés qu'il vont cesti homes à piés en un jor et en une noit dix jornée, et en deus jors et deus noit aportent noveles de vingt jornée, et ausi auroit noveles en dix jors et en dix nuit de cent jornée. Et si voz di qe cesti tielz homes aportent au seingnors plusors foies fruit de dix jornée en un jor.
And so I tell you that in this manner the great lord has, from these men on foot, news from ten days' journey in one day and one night. For know that these men on foot go in one day and one night ten days' journey, and in two days and two nights they bring news from twenty days' journey; and so he would have news in ten days and ten nights from a hundred days' journey. And I tell you that these men often bring the lord fruit from ten days' journey in one day.
In this way the Great Lord gets news from these runners from ten days' journey away in one day and one night. For you should know that in one day and one night these runners cover ten days' journey. In two days and two nights they bring news from twenty days away. So in ten days and ten nights he would have news from a hundred days away. And I tell you that these runners often bring the lord fruit from ten days' journey away in a single day.
Et les grant sire à ceste tielz homes ne prant nul treu, mès fait lor doner dou sien et des chevaus qe je vos ai dit, qe sunt tant por les postes por les mesajes porter. Voz di tout voiremant qe le sire grant les ensi establi, car il dit qui est près à la tel poste la tiel cité, et il fait veoir quant chevalz puet tenoir por les mesajes, et l'en li dit cent, et il li est comandé qe il metrent à la tel poste cent chevaus, puis fait veoir toutes les autres viles et chastiaus quant chevaus puent tenir et celz qu'il puent tenir, et elz comande qu'il tienent à la poste. Et en tel maineres sunt ordenée toutes les postes, si qe rien ne i met le grant sire, for tant seulemant qe les postes des leu desvoiables fait-il fornir de sez chevaus propes.
And the great lord takes no tribute from these men, but has them given [something] from his own. And [as for] the horses that I have told you of, which are so many at the posts for carrying the messengers, I tell you quite truly that the great lord established them thus: for he says, which is the city near such a post, and he has it seen how many horses it can keep for the messengers, and they tell him a hundred, and it is commanded that they put a hundred horses at that post. Then he has all the other towns and castles seen, how many horses they can keep, and those that they can keep he commands them to keep at the post. And in such manner all the posts are ordered, so that the great lord puts nothing into it, except only that the posts of the out-of-the-way places he has furnished with his own horses.
The Great Lord takes no tax from these men. Instead he has them paid from his own goods. Now for the horses that I told you of, so many of them at the posts to carry the messengers. I tell you quite truly that the Great Lord arranged them like this. He asks which city lies near a certain post, and has someone find out how many horses it can keep for the messengers. They tell him a hundred, and the city is ordered to keep a hundred horses at that post. Then he has all the other towns and castles checked to see how many horses they can keep. He orders them to keep as many as they can at the post. That is how all the posts are arranged, so that the Great Lord pays nothing for them himself. Only the posts in remote places he supplies with his own horses.
Et si voz di qe quant il est beinzonz qe mesajes de chevaus aille tostainemant por conter au grant sire d'aucune tere qe soit revellés, ou d'aucun baron, ou des chouses qe soient beizognables au seingnor, il chevauchent bien deus cent miles en un jor, ou voir deus cens cinquante, et voz mostrerai raison comant. Quant les mesajes vuelent aller si tostainemant et tantes miles en un jor con je voz ai contés, il a la table dou gerfaus, en senificance qe il vuelt aler tostainemant.
And so I tell you that when it is needful that mounted messengers go very fast to tell the great lord of some land that has rebelled, or of some baron, or of things that are needful to the lord, they ride a good two hundred miles in a day, or indeed two hundred fifty; and I will show you the reason how. When the messengers want to go so fast and so many miles in a day as I have told you, they have the tablet of the gerfalcon, in sign that he wants to go very fast.
Sometimes messengers on horseback must go very fast, to tell the Great Lord that some land or some baron has rebelled, or about something else the lord needs to know. Then they ride a good two hundred miles in a day, or even two hundred fifty. I will show you how. When the messengers want to go so fast and so many miles in a day, they carry the gerfalcon tablet. It is a sign that the rider wants to go very fast.
- A paiza, a tablet given to official travelers as a pass. From 1261 Qubilai issued urgent post paizas marked with a gerfalcon, a large hunting falcon, instead of a tiger’s head.
Se il sunt deus, il se muent dou leu où il sunt sor deus buens chevaus fors et corant, il se bindent tout lor ventre, et lien lor chief, et se metent le grant cors tant con il plus puent, et corent tant qu'il sunt venus à l'autre poste de vingt cinq miles, et adonc treuvent autre deus chevaus aparoilés, frès et repousés, et corant. Il montent tant tosto qu'il ne se repousent ne pou ne grant; et quant il sunt montés, il se metent maintinant tant com il puent dou cheval traire, et ne restent de corer tant qu'il sunt venus à l'autre poste, et iluec treuvent les autres chevaus aparoillés, et il montent ausi erament et se metent (à) la voie. Et ensi font dusqe au soir : et en ceste mainere qe je voz ai contés vont cesti tiel mesajes bien deux cent cinquante miles por aporter novelles au grant sire, et encore quant il beizogne vont-il bien trois cens, et cesti tielz mesajes sunt mout preziés. Or voz laison de ceste raison des mesajes que bien la voz avon monstré apartemant, mès desormès voz conterai d'oune grant bonté que fait le grant sire à sez homes par deus foies l'an.
If they are two, they set out from the place where they are on two good horses, strong and swift. They bind all their belly, and bind their head, and set off at the great run as much as they most can, and run until they have come to the next post, of twenty-five miles. And then they find two other horses ready, fresh and rested, and swift. They mount so quickly that they do not rest, neither little nor much; and when they have mounted, they set off at once as fast as they can draw from the horse, and do not stop running until they have come to the next post; and there they find the other horses ready, and they mount just as promptly and set off on the road. And so they do until evening. And in this manner that I have told you, these messengers go a good two hundred fifty miles to bring news to the great lord, and still more, when it is needful, they go a good three hundred. And these messengers are much prized. Now we leave you this account of the messengers, which we have shown you clearly; but from now on I will tell you of a great kindness that the great lord does to his men twice a year.
If there are two of them, they set out from where they are on two good horses, strong and swift. They bind their bellies tight and wrap their heads. Then they set off at a gallop as fast as they can go, and ride until they reach the next post, twenty-five miles away. There they find two more horses ready, fresh and rested and swift. They mount at once, without stopping to rest at all. As soon as they are in the saddle, they set off again as fast as the horses can go. They do not stop until they reach the next post, and there they find more horses ready. They mount at once and are on their way. They keep this up until evening. In the way I have told you, these messengers ride a good two hundred fifty miles to bring news to the Great Lord, and when it is needed, a good three hundred. These messengers are highly valued. Now we will leave this account of the messengers, for we have explained it clearly. From here on I will tell you of a great kindness that the Great Lord does for his people twice a year.
- Apparently to stand the shaking of a long gallop. Another version of the book says the riders could not keep up the pace without these bands.
Questions a reader might ask, with short answers and the sections they rest on. Checked in a separate review.
What happens
What is a post, and what do the Great Lord's messengers find there?
A post, which Polo says the Mongols call a janb, is a "post of horses." At each one the messengers find a large, handsome palace with rich beds and silk sheets, and three or four hundred horses kept ready for them.
How far apart are the posts?
On the main roads they stand every twenty-five miles, or every twenty-two or thirty. In remote places with no houses or inns they are farther apart, thirty-five miles and sometimes more than forty.
How do the runners on foot carry messages?
They live in villages every three miles. Each wears a belt hung with bells, runs his three miles at full speed, and hands what he carries, with a slip of paper from the clerk, to the next man, who has heard him coming.
Read section 98.6
Who pays for the horses at the posts?
The towns and castles near each post. The Great Lord has someone find out how many horses each can keep and orders it to keep that many. He supplies only the posts in remote places with his own horses.
Read section 98.8
Why does a rider carry the gerfalcon tablet?
It is a sign that he must go very fast, as when a land or a baron has rebelled. The note explains that it was a paiza, a pass for official travelers, and that Qubilai issued urgent ones marked with a gerfalcon from 1261.
Read section 98.9
Thinking further
Who were the posts for, and who was left out?
Polo describes them as being for the Great Lord's messengers, and even a king would be well lodged there. He says nothing of ordinary travelers using them, and the people of the nearby towns had to keep the horses.
How far should we trust Polo's numbers?
He claims more than two hundred thousand horses and ten thousand palaces. The headnote notes that Chinese records give more than 1,400 stations and bridges, served by about 44,000 horses, in the lands Qubilai ruled directly, and that Polo told his story years later to a writer of romances.
Read section 98.5
Who and what this source names, in the original. Each name links to every source in the library that mentions it. Not yet checked.
Ideas
- Inns, hotels and hospitality Lodging and feeding travelers and guests: a monastery's guest rooms, Roman roadside inns, the Great Khan's post houses, Paris restaurants and the first great city hotels. Sections 98.2, 98.4.
- Post roads and messengers Chains of stations along a ruler's roads where official messengers changed horses and found food and lodging. The Mongols called theirs the jam. Sections 98.2, 98.6, 98.9.
People
- Qubilai (Kublai) Khan Great Khan of the Mongols and first Yuan emperor of China, whose post roads and messengers Marco Polo described. Sections 98.2, 98.9.
Places
- Canbalu (Khanbaliq) “The khan's city,” the Mongol capital, called Dadu in Chinese, on the site of Beijing. Marco Polo knew it as Canbalu, and the empire's post roads ran out from it. Sections 98.1, 98.2.
Page images of the original object or of the printed edition, from the libraries and archives that hold them. The pages shown are copied here where the holder marks them public domain; titles link to the holder's own viewer. Click a page to see it full size.
Recueil de voyages et de mémoires, vol. 1: Voyages de Marco Polo, Paris 1824
Natural History Museum Library, London, via Internet Archive (also in the Biodiversity Heritage Library). pp. 111–113. Public domain, as the record states; published 1824.
The edition our text follows.
Other translations of this passage. Links go to copies that are free to read online.
Henry Yule, revised by Henri Cordier, 1903. English. Public domain.
All of our chapter, from a text Yule built from several versions, with some passages not in the Franco-Italian (the boats at rivers, the night riders with torches) and some figures that differ (300,000 horses)
Difficulty: Moderate, plain, though Polo repeats himself and gives many large figures.
Fits these units
- Being a guest. How were travelers and guests treated, and what did hosts owe them? (Checking In)
- New ways to travel, eat and shop. Who gained from new ways of serving travelers, diners and shoppers, and what changed for them? (Innovation in History)
Key terms
- post
- a station on a road where official messengers changed horses and found food and lodging
- the Great Lord
- Polo’s name for Qubilai, the Great Khan of the Mongols, who gave his dynasty in China the name Yuan
- day’s journey
- the distance a traveler covered in one day, used as a measure of distance
- province
- a large region of an empire, with its own government under the ruler
- baron
- a noble who held land and power under a ruler
- gerfalcon tablet
- a tablet, called a paiza, carried by official travelers as a pass; this kind, marked with a gerfalcon, a large hunting falcon, was for urgent business
Questions
- Comprehension
How far apart are the posts on the main roads and in remote places, and what do the messengers find at each one?
- Analysis
Polo calls the posts the greatest grandeur of any ruler on earth, yet he says the Great Lord pays nothing for most of them. Who keeps the horses, and how is the number decided? How does this change your picture of the Great Lord’s grandeur?
- Analysis (reliability)
Polo told this story years after leaving China, in a prison in Genoa, to Rustichello, a writer of romances. The headnote gives much smaller figures for the stations and horses in the lands Qubilai ruled directly. Which parts of his account would you trust most, and which least? Why?
- Connection
In The Rooms of the Tremont House, William Havard Eliot, one of the hotel’s owners, describes its rooms and fittings. Compare his building with Polo’s post palaces. Whom was each meant to serve, and why might each writer want it to sound grand?
Activity
The class runs a relay. Students stand at stations around the room or field, and a slip of paper is passed from runner to runner as Polo describes, while a timekeeper records how long the whole chain takes. Afterward students use Polo’s own figures, runners every three miles covering ten days’ journey in a day and a night, to list which of his claims the relay makes seem possible and which it makes seem doubtful.
A printable worksheet for this source · More on Hearth Learning
New translation from the Franco-Italian text of Recueil de voyages et de mémoires, volume 1, Voyages de Marco Polo (Paris: Société de Géographie, 1824), pages 111–113, which prints Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 1116. Chapter 98 complete; the chapter heading is not translated.
The text was taken from the edition’s OCR, corrected by code and then read against the page images; every correction is listed in Compare. Polo’s grant sire is “the Great Lord.” His miles and day’s journeys are kept. His long, run-on sentences are broken up, and his repeated “I tell you” and “know that” are sometimes dropped.
- Original
- Text as printed in the named edition or on the object, read from page images. Edition: Recueil de voyages et de mémoires, publié par la Société de Géographie, tome I: Voyages de Marco Polo (Paris: Société de Géographie, 1824), chapter 98 (printed XCVIII), pp. 111–113: the Franco-Italian text of Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 1116. Digital text: Internet Archive item recueildevoyages01soci (Natural History Museum Library, London, copy), OCR text, extracted by code and read word by word against the page images. The edition’s chapter number and page numbers are not copied. Polo’s text only.
- Transliterated
- Not needed: the original is in the Latin alphabet
- Close English
- Close translation drafted by Claude (Anthropic), kept as a working draft
- Simplified English
- Drafted by Claude (Anthropic) from the original and checked unit by unit against the original in a separate review, then compared with earlier translations and tested for borrowed wording.
- Editor’s review
- Not yet.
- Specialist review
- Not yet. Readings a specialist should confirm are listed for later review.
- Rights
- Original: public domain. Edition: public domain. Our translations and notes: CC BY-SA 4.0; credit “Hearth Library, hearthinteractive.com” with a link.
Sources for the notes
- Recueil de voyages et de mémoires, publié par la Société de Géographie. Vol. 1, Voyages de Marco Polo. Paris: Société de Géographie, 1824. Chapters 97–99, pp. 110–114. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/recueildevoyages01soci
- Kinoshita, Sharon. Review of Marco Polo, Le Devisement du monde: version franco-italienne, ed. Joël Blanchard and Michel Quereuil, with Thomas Tanase. H-France Review 20, no. 51 (March 2020). https://h-france.net/vol20reviews/vol20no51kinoshita.pdf (Rustichello; Genoa, 1298; the F manuscript, BnF fr. 1116).
- Atwood, Christopher P. “Mongol Messenger’s Badge (Paiza or Gerege) in Pakpa Script: Signs of Authority in the Mongol Empire.” Project Himalayan Art, Rubin Museum of Art, 2023. https://projecthimalayanart.rubinmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Mongol-Messengers-Badge-Paiza-or-Gerege-in-Pakpa-Script-I-Project-Himalayan-Art.pdf (the paiza; the jam post roads; Qubilai’s reign; station and horse counts).
- Department of Asian Art. “Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368).” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001. https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/yuan-dynasty-1271-1368 (Dadu, or Khanbaliq, now Beijing).
- Yule, Henry, trans. and ed. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian. 3rd ed., revised by Henri Cordier. 2 vols. London: John Murray, 1903. Vol. 1, introduction (Polo’s arrival at Qubilai’s court about 1275 and his missions; Genoa, 1298); book 2, chapter 11, note 1 (Cambaluc as Kaan-baligh, “the City of the Kaan”); book 2, chapter 26 and note 2 (300,000 horses in Yule’s text; the riders’ bands; sçue as an Italianism, in note 1; yam in Persian and Turkic). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/bookofsermarcopo01polouoft
- Yule, Henry, and C. Raymond Beazley. “Polo, Marco.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. 22, 7–11. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911. Wikisource transcription (Polo’s dates, about 1254–1324; arrival in spring 1275; departure early 1292; his public missions; Rustichello as a writer of Arthurian romances).