Chapter 17 Chapter 12 The Core Area of Highly Developed Culture in Eurasia
Just as the formation of the early Eurasian core separated the classical period from the ancient period, so the formation of the mature Eurasian core now distinguishes the medieval from the classical period.In the past, improvements in technology, especially the mass production of iron tools and their multiple impacts on all aspects of life, contributed to the formation of the early Eurasian core (see Chapter 7).Now, the further improvement of technology, especially the development of shipbuilding and navigation industry, has promoted the formation of a mature Eurasian core area.But in these centuries, political reasons were more important—for the first time in history, there were huge empires; And it also spans several regions, including most of the entire Eurasian landmass.
It is well known that Alexander the Great knew nothing about the Ganges valley or China; nor did the Roman and Han empires at either end of Eurasia actually have any direct connection with each other.The reason for this was that Alexander's empire was largely confined to the Middle East, with only one very unstable stronghold in India.The Roman Empire and the Han Empire were actually limited to the east and west ends of Eurasia.In sharp contrast to this, the earliest Islamic empire formed in the Middle Ages had expanded its territory from the Pyrenees to the Indian Ocean, and from Morocco to the Chinese border by the middle of the eighth century.In the following centuries, Islam further expanded to Central Asia, Southeast Asia and even the interior of Africa. The Mongol Empire in the 13th century is even more impressive. Its territory includes Korea, China, the entire Central Asia, Russia and most of the Middle East. It is the largest empire in Eurasia.
The unprecedented size of the empire made it possible for the Eurasian regions to connect and influence each other directly, thereby eliminating the previous isolation between regions.This chapter describes the nature of the resulting new commercial, technological, religious, and intellectual ties.
During the classical period, the continued existence of the Great Roman Empire and the Great Han Empire at both ends of the Eurasian trade route promoted the overall development of the trade industry.On the contrary, the collapse of these empires disrupted and weakened this trade.However, in the Middle Ages, the emergence of the Islamic Empire and the Mongol Empire made this trade flourish again and reached a new height.
The Muslim conquest unified the entire Middle East, which was the hub of all trans-Eurasian trade routes; there were land routes to the Black Sea and Syrian ports, and water routes through the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.Among them, the trade with the Malabar coastal area in southwestern India was particularly prosperous across the Arabian Sea.Large numbers of Muslim traders, mostly Arabs and Persians, settled in the ports of India and Ceylon, shipping horses, silver, iron, linen, cotton, and wool from the West to the East in exchange for silk, gems, teak and various spices.
Muslim merchants continued to sail from India and Ceylon to Calabar (Kedah) on the coast of Malaya. From this, some of them went south to Sumatra and Java, while others crossed the Strait of Malacca and then went north to southern China. Canfu (Guangzhou).The usual plan for Muslim businessmen is to leave the Persian Gulf in September and October, sail to India and Malaya by the northeast monsoon, and then rush to the Chinese sea in time to reach Guangzhou by the south monsoon.Spend the summer in Guangzhou, then return to the Strait of Malacca by the northeast monsoon, cross the Bay of Bengal, and return to the Persian Gulf in early summer of the following year-the round trip takes a year and a half.
After the first group of Muslims arrived in Guangzhou in 671, many people settled here, just like in various ports in the Indian Ocean.The local authorities allowed them self-government, so they elected their own chiefs who were responsible for maintaining order in their settlements.Descendants of some Muslim families, like the later Marco Polo, served in Chinese administrative institutions.By 758, Muslims were numerous enough to attack Canton, and as a result, the Chinese closed their ports to foreign trade. In 792, the port was reopened, and Canton continued to be a trading center for Muslim merchants until they were killed by Chinese rebels in 878.Since then, Muslim merchants and Chinese merchants have been doing business in Calabar, Malaya.
In the Song Dynasty (96O -1127), China's ports were opened to the outside world again.During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese made great progress in shipbuilding and navigation. At the end of the 12th century, they began to replace the Muslims' maritime superiority in East and Southeast Asia.After the Mongols conquered China and established the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), Chinese ships were the largest and best equipped; Chinese merchants spread across ports in Southeast Asia and India. In 1291, when Marco Polo escorted a Mongolian princess to Iran via Southeast Asia, he witnessed and described the grand occasion of China’s navigation industry; When I went to China, I also witnessed and described this grand event.China's import and export trade is also worth noting, which shows China's dominance in the world economy during this period.In addition to fine-grained cotton fabrics, the imported goods also include leather, horses from Central Asia, high-quality wood, jade, spices and ivory from South Asia.As for export commodities, in addition to ores, there are books, paintings, especially porcelain, silk and other products.
During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), China's nautical activities reached their peak, culminating in the remarkable but short-lived maritime superiority in the Pacific and Indian Oceans in the early fifteenth century. From 1405 to 1433, a court eunuch named Zheng He led his fleet to the Western Seas seven times, which can illustrate this point.These seven ocean voyages were unprecedented in scale and feat.On the first voyage, 28,000 people took 62 ships and sailed to Java, Ceylon and Calicut.On the way back, a pirate fleet from Sumatra tried to stop Yun, but the whole army was wiped out.Later voyages were even more distant, reaching as far as the east coast of Africa, the Persian Gulf and the mouth of the Red Sea.The Chinese have also been to more than 30 ports on the Indian Ocean. Everywhere they went, they persuaded or forced the local rulers to recognize the suzerainty of the Ming emperor.And all this happened when the Portuguese were just beginning to grope their way along the coast of Africa, and it was not until 1445 that they reached Cape Verde.
In 1433, the emperor suddenly decreed that these famous voyages were terminated.The reason for the start and end of the voyage is still a mystery.It is speculated that the initiation of the voyage may be to make up for the loss of land foreign trade caused by the collapse of the Mongol Empire, or it may be to improve the prestige of the imperial court, or to find a senior monk of the emperor who lived in seclusion as a monk.It is also speculated that the termination of the voyage was either due to excessive costs or due to the historical rivalry between court eunuchs and Confucian bureaucrats.In any case, the withdrawal of the Chinese has left a power vacuum in the waters of East and South Asia.As a result, the Japanese Japanese pirates harassed and robbed the coast of China, and the Muslim Arabs regained their previous advantages in the Indian Ocean.Although the Arabs were good at business, they were disorganized and lacked the resources to develop the powerful navy that the Chinese built in a short period of time.Therefore, in 1498, when the Portuguese bypassed Africa and entered the Indian Ocean, they encountered no serious resistance and established their Western maritime supremacy.
At the same time, with the rise of the Mongol Empire, overland trade underwent a major transformation.For the first and only time in history, a regime spanned Eurasia, namely: from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, from Siberia to the Persian Gulf. In the middle of the 14th century, an Italian pamphlet outlined the great significance of Mongolian peacetime commerce by describing a trade route from Tana at the mouth of the Don River across Central Asia.
In 1264, Kublai Khan moved his capital from Khara and Lin in Mongolia to Beijing, inadvertently opening China to European merchants who often traded along the trans-Eurasian trade routes.The first Europeans to come to Kublai Khan's new court were not diplomatic envoys, but two Venetian merchants: Nicola Polo and Maffeo Polo.However, the first visit to India and the East Indies, the birthplace of spices, was of greater economic value than to China.Spices have always been transported to Europe by two routes; or via the Red Sea and Egypt to ports in the Black Sea or the eastern Mediterranean; or into the Persian Gulf, and then the goods were transported to these ports by caravans.The first was controlled by the Arabs and the Venetians; the Arabs shipped the spices to Egypt, and the Venetians shipped the goods from Alexandria to Europe for sale.The second route was controlled by the (Ilkhanate) Mongol rulers of Persia and Mesopotamia and the Genoese; the Genoese waited for spices at the port transshipment station.
However, the Genoese were not content to sail the Black Sea alone.From the Sea of Azov they traveled up the leading river in small canoes, perhaps by ox-cart across the narrow strip, to the Volga, and from there to the Caspian Sea and Persia.In this way, the Genoese could reach the Persian Gulf and go directly to India and the East Indies.There they discovered that the spices were cheap in their origins, and that for centuries brokers had made huge profits by brokering the sale between South-East Asian producers and European consumers.
During peacetime under Mongol rule, the revival of overland trade was only brief.One reason for this was that the Mongols were driven out of China in 1368 and the total collapse of the Mongol Empire split Central Asia again, leading to the collapse of trade between Eurasia.More importantly, Ghazan Khan (1295-1304) of the Ilkhanate converted to Islam and inadvertently cut off the European transportation route to the Spice Islands.From then on, almost all the spices were transported by ship along the route from the Red Sea to the Nile, which brought huge profits to Arabian and Venetian brokers.But some Europeans are unwilling to continue to pay the expensive price, especially since they now know the origin and price of the spices, and have since then started to look for a new way to avoid the obstacle of Muslims. As a result, Da Gama opened up an epoch-making road around Africa. route.
The Muslim Empire and the Mongol Empire not only affected the trade exchanges between Eurasia, but also affected the spread of technology. The dhow is an obvious example.This is a tall, triangular schooner that has always been used by the Arabs.In the Mediterranean, however, the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans used a flat sail that was easier to steer in rough weather.However, Arabian sailboats are more sensitive to maneuver, can sail against the wind, and can change course in rivers and narrow waters.On account of this it soon replaced the square-sailed galleon in the Levant.By the 11th century it had become an official means of transport throughout the Mediterranean.Although this triangular sailboat was introduced to the Mediterranean by the Arabs with the Muslim invasion, it is known today as the "Latin" or 'triangular' sailboat. Later, this kind of sailboat spread from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. In the 15th century, Portugal and Spain A ship designer who combined the fore-mast of a galleon with the main-mast and mizzen-mast of a dhow to create a three-masted ship that can sail in any weather; making the ocean-going voyages of Columbus and Vasco da Gama possible .
The Muslim empire stretched across North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, and kept in touch with various regions of Eurasia, thereby smoothing and regulating the mutual exchange of knowledge, technology, and commodities. The following account of an Arab physician and scientist who lived in Baghdad from 850 to 925 serves as an example of this interaction.It tells people how the Chinese learned about Galen from Muslims; Galen (130-200 AD) was a famous Greek doctor, and many of his works had been translated into Arabic.
The situation described in this account is unique, because the Chinese were usually the donors, not the recipients, of exchanges in Eurasia during the Middle Ages.Indeed, the opposite was the case earlier.In ancient and classical times, the wheels, wheels and pulleys of Mesopotamia, the handles and cranks of Egypt, the windmills of Persia, and the ironmaking of Asia Minor spread from their respective origins to all directions.But during the 14 centuries AD, China was a great center of technological innovation, spreading many inventions to other parts of Eurasia (see Table 1).
In 1620, the English philosopher Francis Bacon wrote:
Table 1 Diffusion of technologies and inventions
Bacon correctly evaluated the historical significance of the three major inventions, all of which originated in China.Block printing is a printing technique in which each page of the book to be printed is engraved on each board separately.The earliest surviving woodblock printing is the Chinese Buddhist scriptures printed in 868.Movable type printing was also invented by the Chinese first, and it was successfully trial-produced by an ordinary artist; from 1041 to 1049, this ordinary artist produced movable type that was baked with clay.Over the next few centuries, the Chinese replaced clay type with wood and various metal types.These inventions spread from China to the Middle East, and from the Middle East to Europe.In Europe, in 1423, woodblock printing was used for the first time, and in 1456, the first book - "Gutenberg Bible" was printed with movable type.
As early as the Tang Dynasty (618-906), China used gunpowder to make fireworks. In 1120, the Chinese invented a weapon, the "Shuhuo Gun", which was made of a thick bamboo tube stuffed with gunpowder.This was pretty much the precursor to the metal barrel gun.Metal pipe guns appeared around 1280, but it is not known whether they were first invented by the Chinese, Arabs or Europeans.
About 240 BC, in a Chinese book, the earliest explicit mention of magnets.But in the following centuries, the compass was only used in the witchcraft activities of earth fortune tellers. In 1125, the compass began to be used for navigation, apparently Arab merchants came to China and learned to use this instrument.and bring it to Europe.
In addition to these three inventions, there are many other things that the Chinese passed on to their neighbors in Eurasia. In 105, the Chinese invented papermaking, which provided a prerequisite for the invention of printing. In 751, the Chinese prisoners of war who were taken to Samarkand passed the papermaking technology to the Arabs; the Arabs then introduced it to Syria, Egypt, and Morocco. After papermaking was introduced to Spain in 1150, it spread to France and other European countries from there; wherever it went, parchment was replaced.Facts have proved that its value is very significant: in the past, at least 300 pieces of sheepskin were needed to make a "Bible" from parchment.
Other Chinese inventions with far-reaching influence that spread throughout Eurasia were the stern rudder, the stirrup, and the chest harness.The stern rudder was introduced to Europe at the same time as the compass in 1180; the stirrup enabled feudal knights wearing heavy armor in medieval Europe; Pull things with all your might without getting strangled.Finally, the Chinese cultivated many fruits and plants; they were often spread across Eurasia by the Arabs.These fruits and plants include chrysanthemums, camellias, azaleas, tea-scented roses, asters, lemons, oranges, etc. Oranges are still called "Chinese apples" in the Netherlands and Germany.
Finally, it should be noted that the spread of these and other inventions was clearly related to political events.Thus, it is believed that the widespread spread of the 12th-century compass, stern rudder, papermaking, and windmills can be attributed to the Crusades.Likewise, peace under Mongol rule facilitated the massive spread of gunpowder, silk manufacturing, printing, and iron-making blast furnaces in the 14th century.
The Middle Ages were characterized not only by an unprecedented exchange of goods and technology across Eurasia, but also by an unprecedented spread of religious beliefs.As far as Christianity and Buddhism are concerned, they began to spread at the end of the classical period and continued to spread during the Middle Ages (see Chapter 7, Section 3).But in the centuries of the Middle Ages, the most famous religious reform movement was the emergence of Islam.In addition to its teachings (which will be described in the next chapter), this new religion spread suddenly and widely from the Arabian Peninsula after the death of Muhammad in AD 632, and had a profound impact on large areas of Eurasia and Africa.
The spread of Islam (details will be described later) is divided into two stages: the first stage, from 632 to 750, Islamic pastor first spread throughout the Middle East, and then spread westward to the Pyrenees.spread eastward into Central Asia; the end result, in effect, turned the Mediterranean into a Muslim lake.In the second stage, from 1000 to 1500, during these centuries, Islam spread further and spread to India, Southeast Asia and Africa, turning the Indian Ocean into a Muslim sanctuary.
The enormous expansion of Islamic territory naturally terrified the rulers of the besieged Christendom, who were now effectively isolated on the western tip of Eurasia.This is also the reason why the rulers of Christendom reacted rather contradictory to the rise of the Mongols in the 13th century.The Mongols were devastated by their plunder and massacres; these massacres and plunders showed the seemingly irresistible advance of the Mongol cavalry. In 1260, Pope Alexander IV, in his Clamat in auribus, called upon all Christian sovereigns to unite in the face of a common danger: "...to act farsightedly against the approaching and manifest Dangerous... the wrath of God will punish these savage Tartars, who have sprung up as if from a mysterious hell. . . . "
However, the picture is not all pitch black, as Westerners see it.The Mongols conquered the Christian Russians, the Greek Orthodox Christians, but they dealt the most devastating blows to Islamic Persia and Mesopotamia.The words of the Bishop of Winchester, when desperate Muslims asked the rulers of a Christian country for aid, expressed the usual reaction: "Let the beasts kill each other!" Some Westerners also believe that the Mongols The aggressor was a divine intervention in favor of the Christian cause and a potent ally against the arch-enemy Islam.They even hoped that the new barbarians would convert to Christianity like the former Magyars and Vikings.With no knowledge of civilization, no advanced religion, and no organized clergy support, these Mongols seemed ripe for conversion and assimilation.
Arab manuscript of the 15th century, collected in the National Library of Paris, depicting Muhammad and his daughter Fatima.
However, Catholics were not the only ones doing business with the Mongols. At that time, representatives of the other three major religions were vying for supremacy in Asia.Among them, Islam was the most aggressive; they crossed the Oxus River from Persia, expanded to Central Asia, and won the support of certain Turkic tribes.Buddhism has also been familiar to the Mongolians during the process of being introduced to China from the "Silk Road" from the birthplace of India to Turkestan.Finally, the Nestorians; their origin goes back to the Council of Ephesus (431), when they were accused of being heretics, and the Nestorians withdrew from the Roman Empire to Persia, and later, in Persecuted by the ever-advancing Islam, they traveled overland through Central Asia and entered China.They were thus able to convert various Turkic tribes; and when the Mongol Empire expanded, these converted Turks served the Mongols as administrators, written or oral translators, and envoys.
While these Nestorians were longing for the conversion of the Mongols, the Catholics sent two missionary missions to the court of the Great Khan in Harakolin, northern Mongolia.The first mission (1245-47) was led by the Italian Franciscan monk John Carpini Piano; the second mission (1253-55) was led by the Flemish Franciscan The monastery was led by William Luberook.Both emissaries went to the Mongol court and found that the khans were very interested in all foreign religions.William Xiutu was invited to chant hymns in the western style and explain the illustrations in the Bible.But, a few days later, he found the Khan absorbed in his study of the charred shoulder blade of a lamb.If they were intact, the Khan thought he could plan a war that he was sure to win.If he sees the tiniest crack, he stands still.Traditional warlocks, shamans, were very powerful in the court, and it was impossible for monks to win over any member of the royal family. "We believe in one God," said Montgomery to Sir William Xiu, "but just as God has given us different fingers, He has given human beings different ways. God has given you the Bible, and you Christ Religionists should not disobey....God gave us diviners and we will do what they say and live in harmony." Similarly, it is impossible to form an anti-Islamic alliance, because the Mongols need others to submit to them, rather than working with them. "Without exception," Montgohan declared, "all of you must serve us and be loyal to us... What we have told you is the commandment of God." Provides first-hand reliable information on the formation, habits, and military tactics of this new barbarian people.
Brother William had just returned to the West, and the hope of forming a victorious Christian-Mongol alliance to end the Islamic threat once again arose.This hope was fueled by the great victories achieved by Genghis Khan's grandson, Hulagu.Hulagu was a Buddhist, while his wife was a Christian.With the aid of Christian soldiers from the kingdoms of Armenia and Georgia, Hulagu occupied and sacked Baghdad, the capital of the caliph, between 1258 and 1260, and then invaded all areas from Syria to the Mediterranean coast.It was hoped with confidence that he would take Egypt and North Africa lightly, and then, together with the Catholic nations, conquer Spain, and finally exterminate the hateful Islam from the face of the earth.
But things backfired, and in 1260, the Mongols were defeated by the Egyptian Mamluk army in the decisive battle of Ainzarut in Palestine (the birthplace of Karia).The retreat of the Mongols saved Egypt and the Islamic world.This defeat evidently impressed the superstitious Mongols on the greater power of the Muslim Allah, prompting them to convert to Islam.As a result, instead of destroying Islam, the Mongols in the Middle East and Central Asia were eventually converted to Islam, and the Mongols in the far east were converted to Buddhism (see Chapter 14, Section 4 for details of these campaigns).
In the West, there is still hope for a great and mysterious China; as we all know, China does not believe in Islam.Neither Carpini nor Rubrook has ever been to China, but they heard that it only takes 20 days to reach China from Hara and Lin, and it is an extremely rich country. Europeans entered China for the first time in 1264 when Kublai Khan moved his capital to Dadu (also known as Khan Bali, the "City of the Great Khan", today's Beijing).The first to come to China were two Venetian merchants: Nicola Polo and Maffeo Polo.Kublai Khan gave them a warm welcome, asked them about Europe, and asked them to forward their letters to the Pope.In these letters, Khubilai requested that 100 missionaries be sent to his court to preach to his people and debate with representatives of other religions.
In making this claim, it is hard to believe that Khubilai was inspired by Christian zeal.He probably wanted to recruit talents for his bureaucracy, because he had just conquered China and did not dare to risk using too many Chinese in the upper echelons.In fact, he did employ a large number of foreigners.In order to maintain his power, he paid great attention to maintaining the balance of power among the various groups.Regardless of Kublai Khan's motives for sending priests, the Roman classroom only sent two Dominican monks, but because of the turmoil on the road, they only reached Asia Minor and returned.
In 1259, Pope Nicholas IV sent John Montegovino to the Mongolian court; he was an experienced missionary who had worked for 14 years in Muslim countries on the eastern Mediterranean coast.Brother John took the sea route from the Persian Gulf to India, crossed the Strait of Malacca, went to Canfu (Guangzhou), and then traveled from Guangzhou to Dadu (Beijing) by land.He was allowed to remain in the capital to preach, and as a result, within six years of arriving in Dadu in 1292, he built a church with a bell tower and a choir of 150 boys who sang Gregorian hymns very love to listen.After learning of this success, the Pope sent some missionaries to enable John Hughes to carry out another missionary activity in Canfu.By the time the monk died in 1328, thousands of converts had been won in China.
This progress was mainly due to the positive attitude of the Mongolian rulers.They thoughtfully encouraged all foreign religions, whether Islam, Buddhism, or Christianity, to compete with the dominant Confucianism in China.Hence the Christian missionaries, receiving a large stipend from the emperor's treasury, founded a monastery with a "superior chamber".However, the unexpected influx of foreign believers to China was short-lived, as it was entirely dependent on the Khan's support.But, as Marco Polo said: "All Chinese hated the Great Khan's rule because...he gave all power to the Tartars, Saracens or Christians. These people were attached to his The royal family, serving him, are foreigners in China.” Thus, when the Mongols were driven out of China in 1368, all the foreigners under their protection were also driven out, including the Catholic missions. In the 16th century, Da Gama's voyage opened up a sea route directly connecting the two ends of the Eurasian continent, paving the way for the arrival of the Jesuits. Only then did Catholicism gain a foothold in China.
Although the Europeans failed to win the Mongols as allies and make them believe in the same religion, the peace under the Mongol rule greatly broadened their horizons and gave them a new understanding of Eurasia.This perception is quite different from that of the early Middle Ages, when the collapse of the Han and Roman empires severed the connection between Eurasia and Eurasia in classical times.The parish system began to take shape, and in the West, the creeds of successful Christianity emphasized this system. The "Bible" became the main source of geographical knowledge, so Jerusalem was considered to be the center of the earth, while the Nile, Euphrates and Ganges were considered to originate from the same source in the Garden of Eden.
The expansion of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries created a pernicious barrier across North Africa and the Middle East, further narrowing European horizons.It was not until the 12th century, when the Crusaders returned to the West from the countries along the eastern Mediterranean coast with various legends, that Europeans regained first-hand information about the outside world.Although the Mediterranean was still the center of the world at that time, their knowledge of the regions to the east and south was very poor.
The peace under the Mongols brought about a great breakthrough, turning the horizon from the Mediterranean to Eurasia, just as Columbus and Vasco da Gama later turned the horizon from Eurasia to the globe.The travels of merchants, missionaries, and prisoners of war told of a great empire in the Far East, whose population, wealth, and civilization not only equaled, but surpassed, that of Europe.On the other hand, the East also began to understand the West at this time.Marco Polo not only made the West understand China, but also made China and the Middle East understand the West.
As we all know, during this period, Moscow, Tabriz and Novgorod had Chinese overseas Chinese business offices; in Mesopotamia, Chinese technicians were employed in the construction of water conservancy projects.According to records, Chinese bureaucrats accompanied Genghis Khan on expeditions.Travel from one end of Eurasia to the other.In addition, Raben Bar Soma, a Nestorian believer born in Beijing, traveled to Baghdad, the court of the Ilkhanate in 12788, and was sent from there by the Mongols to Europe to seek the aid of Christianity and oppose Islam.He set off in 1287 and traveled to Constantinople, Naples, Rome, Paris and London, meeting Philip IV of France and Edward I of England on the way.During the Middle Ages, the most extensive traveler was the Muslim Ibn Batuta (13O4-1378).He set off from his native Morocco, went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and then continued his journey, via Samarkand to India, where he was sent to China as a judge and envoy.After returning to Morocco, he continued his journey north to Spain and then south into the interior of Africa to Timbuktu.When he finally returned to settle in Morocco, he traveled at least 75,000 miles.
The most famous and important traveler in the western world was Marco Polo.He accompanied his father and uncle on their second voyage to China, arriving at the court of Kublai Khan in 1275.He made a good impression on Khubilai and served him in various capacities for 17 years, traveling all over the country.As an official, he paid special attention to observing the local residents and resources wherever he passed, and once wrote down something like this: "There is a kind of black stone, which is dug out of the mountain like other stones, but it can burn like wood. In 1292, he escorted a Mongolian princess sailing around Southeast Asia, across the Indian Ocean, to Persia, and married the Great Khan of the Ilkhanate.After arriving in Persia, Marco Polo continued westward and returned to Venice, his hometown after an absence of 25 years, in 1295.Soon after, he was captured in a battle with Genoa and dictated his travels in prison.
The following passage is the beginning of the book, and it introduces things that people were very surprised at the time:
The story Marco narrates is indeed as exciting as this introduction says.He spoke of the court of the Great Khan with gardens and man-made lakes, elephants laden with silver harnesses and precious stones.He also spoke of the avenues, high above the surrounding ground, for easy drainage; of the Grand Canal, with its annual stream of merchant ships; Ginger, sugar, camphor, cotton, salt, saffron, sandalwood and some places in china.Marco also described all the fabled countries he visited and heard about when he escorted the Chinese princess to Persia—Singapore, Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, India, Socotra, Madagascar, Arabia, San To Baal and Abyssinia.
Everything in the book seems weird and exaggerated, so people nicknamed him "Mr. Million", because "he always said a million this and a million that." Europeans provided the most comprehensive and reliable information on China.It is no accident that the title of this book is "World Experience Record".In effect, this work suddenly doubled the scope of Westerners' knowledge of the world.Marco Polo, like Columbus two centuries later, broke new ground for his contemporaries.Indeed, it was his fascinating descriptions of China and the Spice Islands that beckoned the great explorers to seek a sea route and move on after the Muslims blocked the land road.
Arab manuscript of the 15th century, collected in the National Library of Paris, depicting Muhammad and his daughter Fatima.
However, Catholics were not the only ones doing business with the Mongols. At that time, representatives of the other three major religions were vying for supremacy in Asia.Among them, Islam was the most aggressive; they crossed the Oxus River from Persia, expanded to Central Asia, and won the support of certain Turkic tribes.Buddhism has also been familiar to the Mongolians during the process of being introduced to China from the "Silk Road" from the birthplace of India to Turkestan.Finally, the Nestorians; their origin goes back to the Council of Ephesus (431), when they were accused of being heretics, and the Nestorians withdrew from the Roman Empire to Persia, and later, in Persecuted by the ever-advancing Islam, they traveled overland through Central Asia and entered China.They were thus able to convert various Turkic tribes; and when the Mongol Empire expanded, these converted Turks served the Mongols as administrators, written or oral translators, and envoys.
While these Nestorians were longing for the conversion of the Mongols, the Catholics sent two missionary missions to the court of the Great Khan in Harakolin, northern Mongolia.The first mission (1245-47) was led by the Italian Franciscan monk John Carpini Piano; the second mission (1253-55) was led by the Flemish Franciscan The monastery was led by William Luberook.Both emissaries went to the Mongol court and found that the khans were very interested in all foreign religions.William Xiutu was invited to chant hymns in the western style and explain the illustrations in the Bible.But, a few days later, he found the Khan absorbed in his study of the charred shoulder blade of a lamb.If they were intact, the Khan thought he could plan a war that he was sure to win.If he sees the tiniest crack, he stands still.Traditional warlocks, shamans, were very powerful in the court, and it was impossible for monks to win over any member of the royal family. "We believe in one God," said Montgomery to Sir William Xiu, "but just as God has given us different fingers, He has given human beings different ways. God has given you the Bible, and you Christ Religionists should not disobey....God gave us diviners and we will do what they say and live in harmony." Similarly, it is impossible to form an anti-Islamic alliance, because the Mongols need others to submit to them, rather than working with them. "Without exception," Montgohan declared, "all of you must serve us and be loyal to us... What we have told you is the commandment of God." Provides first-hand reliable information on the formation, habits, and military tactics of this new barbarian people.
Brother William had just returned to the West, and the hope of forming a victorious Christian-Mongol alliance to end the Islamic threat once again arose.This hope was fueled by the great victories achieved by Genghis Khan's grandson, Hulagu.Hulagu was a Buddhist, while his wife was a Christian.With the aid of Christian soldiers from the kingdoms of Armenia and Georgia, Hulagu occupied and sacked Baghdad, the capital of the caliph, between 1258 and 1260, and then invaded all areas from Syria to the Mediterranean coast.It was hoped with confidence that he would take Egypt and North Africa lightly, and then, together with the Catholic nations, conquer Spain, and finally exterminate the hateful Islam from the face of the earth.
But things backfired, and in 1260, the Mongols were defeated by the Egyptian Mamluk army in the decisive battle of Ainzarut in Palestine (the birthplace of Karia).The retreat of the Mongols saved Egypt and the Islamic world.This defeat evidently impressed the superstitious Mongols on the greater power of the Muslim Allah, prompting them to convert to Islam.As a result, instead of destroying Islam, the Mongols in the Middle East and Central Asia were eventually converted to Islam, and the Mongols in the far east were converted to Buddhism (see Chapter 14, Section 4 for details of these campaigns).
In the West, there is still hope for a great and mysterious China; as we all know, China does not believe in Islam.Neither Carpini nor Rubrook has ever been to China, but they heard that it only takes 20 days to reach China from Hara and Lin, and it is an extremely rich country. Europeans entered China for the first time in 1264 when Kublai Khan moved his capital to Dadu (also known as Khan Bali, the "City of the Great Khan", today's Beijing).The first to come to China were two Venetian merchants: Nicola Polo and Maffeo Polo.Kublai Khan gave them a warm welcome, asked them about Europe, and asked them to forward their letters to the Pope.In these letters, Khubilai requested that 100 missionaries be sent to his court to preach to his people and debate with representatives of other religions.
In making this claim, it is hard to believe that Khubilai was inspired by Christian zeal.He probably wanted to recruit talents for his bureaucracy, because he had just conquered China and did not dare to risk using too many Chinese in the upper echelons.In fact, he did employ a large number of foreigners.In order to maintain his power, he paid great attention to maintaining the balance of power among the various groups.Regardless of Kublai Khan's motives for sending priests, the Roman classroom only sent two Dominican monks, but because of the turmoil on the road, they only reached Asia Minor and returned.
In 1259, Pope Nicholas IV sent John Montegovino to the Mongolian court; he was an experienced missionary who had worked for 14 years in Muslim countries on the eastern Mediterranean coast.Brother John took the sea route from the Persian Gulf to India, crossed the Strait of Malacca, went to Canfu (Guangzhou), and then traveled from Guangzhou to Dadu (Beijing) by land.He was allowed to remain in the capital to preach, and as a result, within six years of arriving in Dadu in 1292, he built a church with a bell tower and a choir of 150 boys who sang Gregorian hymns very love to listen.After learning of this success, the Pope sent some missionaries to enable John Hughes to carry out another missionary activity in Canfu.By the time the monk died in 1328, thousands of converts had been won in China.
This progress was mainly due to the positive attitude of the Mongolian rulers.They thoughtfully encouraged all foreign religions, whether Islam, Buddhism, or Christianity, to compete with the dominant Confucianism in China.Hence the Christian missionaries, receiving a large stipend from the emperor's treasury, founded a monastery with a "superior chamber".However, the unexpected influx of foreign believers to China was short-lived, as it was entirely dependent on the Khan's support.But, as Marco Polo said: "All Chinese hated the Great Khan's rule because...he gave all power to the Tartars, Saracens or Christians. These people were attached to his The royal family, serving him, are foreigners in China.” Thus, when the Mongols were driven out of China in 1368, all the foreigners under their protection were also driven out, including the Catholic missions. In the 16th century, Da Gama's voyage opened up a sea route directly connecting the two ends of the Eurasian continent, paving the way for the arrival of the Jesuits. Only then did Catholicism gain a foothold in China.
Although the Europeans failed to win the Mongols as allies and make them believe in the same religion, the peace under the Mongol rule greatly broadened their horizons and gave them a new understanding of Eurasia.This perception is quite different from that of the early Middle Ages, when the collapse of the Han and Roman empires severed the connection between Eurasia and Eurasia in classical times.The parish system began to take shape, and in the West, the creeds of successful Christianity emphasized this system. The "Bible" became the main source of geographical knowledge, so Jerusalem was considered to be the center of the earth, while the Nile, Euphrates and Ganges were considered to originate from the same source in the Garden of Eden.
The expansion of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries created a pernicious barrier across North Africa and the Middle East, further narrowing European horizons.It was not until the 12th century, when the Crusaders returned to the West from the countries along the eastern Mediterranean coast with various legends, that Europeans regained first-hand information about the outside world.Although the Mediterranean was still the center of the world at that time, their knowledge of the regions to the east and south was very poor.
The peace under the Mongols brought about a great breakthrough, turning the horizon from the Mediterranean to Eurasia, just as Columbus and Vasco da Gama later turned the horizon from Eurasia to the globe.The travels of merchants, missionaries, and prisoners of war told of a great empire in the Far East, whose population, wealth, and civilization not only equaled, but surpassed, that of Europe.On the other hand, the East also began to understand the West at this time.Marco Polo not only made the West understand China, but also made China and the Middle East understand the West.
As we all know, during this period, Moscow, Tabriz and Novgorod had Chinese overseas Chinese business offices; in Mesopotamia, Chinese technicians were employed in the construction of water conservancy projects.According to records, Chinese bureaucrats accompanied Genghis Khan on expeditions.Travel from one end of Eurasia to the other.In addition, Raben Bar Soma, a Nestorian believer born in Beijing, traveled to Baghdad, the court of the Ilkhanate in 12788, and was sent from there by the Mongols to Europe to seek the aid of Christianity and oppose Islam.He set off in 1287 and traveled to Constantinople, Naples, Rome, Paris and London, meeting Philip IV of France and Edward I of England on the way.During the Middle Ages, the most extensive traveler was the Muslim Ibn Batuta (13O4-1378).He set off from his native Morocco, went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and then continued his journey, via Samarkand to India, where he was sent to China as a judge and envoy.After returning to Morocco, he continued his journey north to Spain and then south into the interior of Africa to Timbuktu.When he finally returned to settle in Morocco, he traveled at least 75,000 miles.
The most famous and important traveler in the western world was Marco Polo.He accompanied his father and uncle on their second voyage to China, arriving at the court of Kublai Khan in 1275.He made a good impression on Khubilai and served him in various capacities for 17 years, traveling all over the country.As an official, he paid special attention to observing the local residents and resources wherever he passed, and once wrote down something like this: "There is a kind of black stone, which is dug out of the mountain like other stones, but it can burn like wood. In 1292, he escorted a Mongolian princess sailing around Southeast Asia, across the Indian Ocean, to Persia, and married the Great Khan of the Ilkhanate.After arriving in Persia, Marco Polo continued westward and returned to Venice, his hometown after an absence of 25 years, in 1295.Soon after, he was captured in a battle with Genoa and dictated his travels in prison.
The following passage is the beginning of the book, and it introduces things that people were very surprised at the time:
The story Marco narrates is indeed as exciting as this introduction says.He spoke of the court of the Great Khan with gardens and man-made lakes, elephants laden with silver harnesses and precious stones.He also spoke of the avenues, high above the surrounding ground, for easy drainage; of the Grand Canal, with its annual stream of merchant ships; Ginger, sugar, camphor, cotton, salt, saffron, sandalwood and some places in china.Marco also described all the fabled countries he visited and heard about when he escorted the Chinese princess to Persia—Singapore, Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, India, Socotra, Madagascar, Arabia, San To Baal and Abyssinia.
Everything in the book seems weird and exaggerated, so people nicknamed him "Mr. Million", because "he always said a million this and a million that." Europeans provided the most comprehensive and reliable information on China.It is no accident that the title of this book is "World Experience Record".In effect, this work suddenly doubled the scope of Westerners' knowledge of the world.Marco Polo, like Columbus two centuries later, broke new ground for his contemporaries.Indeed, it was his fascinating descriptions of China and the Spice Islands that beckoned the great explorers to seek a sea route and move on after the Muslims blocked the land road.