Scholars Agree That There May Be Inaccuracies

Then in 1979 J. W. Heagei, an American scholar,put forth a new argument, He said that Marco Polo had really been to China, but he only visited the places around Beijing, certainly not as many places as he described in The Travels, let alone diplomatic several points of contention. Firstly, if Marco Polo were really so highly regarded by Kublal Khan,and was given a high position as an official in the imperial government, why wasn't his name mentioned in the vast historical records of the Yuan Dynasty? Furthermore, if Marco Polo had really been to China and was familiar with Chinese culture, why did he fail to mention both Chinese tea and Chinese characters - two products typical of Chinese culture - in The Travels?

 

Shown, here is the first printed edition of The Travels pf Marco  Polo, published in German in 1477. On the cover is a drawing of Marco Polo as a youth, with the words,"This is a portrait of the great Venetian traveller Marco Polo,who witnessed many extraordinary wonders of the world never seen before, and recorded them hem for posterity"---->

 

               

Top: A set of Feng Chengjun's three-part edition of The travels is in the collection of Zhongshan University in Gnangzhou.

 

There is also no description of printing - one of China's great inventions, and there are many questionable figures and events which cannot be verified. Marco Polo was even not clear about the family tree of the Mongolian emperors. Lastly, many Chinese place names were spelled ha Persian.Why didn't Marco Polo use Chinese spellings if he had really been to China?

The above questions support the arguments of some scholars who believe that Marco Polo never went to China. The early 19th-century German scholar K. D. Hullmann regarded The Travels as a mere church legend, a poorly designed travel book for missionaries and merchants.