The strongest brain in entertainment

Chapter 387 Marco Polo
On the podium, Li Fan looked calm.

他道：“我们先介绍一下马可·波罗这个人的背景，他出生于1254年9月15日，逝世于1324年1月8日。

The reason why he is well known to us Chinese people is because of the book "Marco Polo's Travels" dictated by him.

This is introduced in our history books, saying that Marco Polo was the first Italian traveler to visit our country and various countries in Asia.

Based on his experience in my country for 17 years, he described a beautiful country that shocked the Western world. It is the first great book in the history of mankind that Westerners perceive the East. It opens the mysterious Eastern gate to the whole of Europe.

This is the positioning of Marco Polo and the value of this book!

Let me introduce to you the birth process of "Marco Polo's Travels". "

Li Fan briefly introduced this. "Marco Polo's Travels" was originally called "Millions" because the word "millions" was often mentioned in the book to highlight the prosperity of the Yuan Dynasty.

Marco Polo has a characteristic that he is illiterate.I can write a book without literacy because after he returned from the Yuan Dynasty, he was captured and imprisoned. It happened that a fellow prisoner was a writer named Rustician, so they dictated a record one by one and formed this travel note. .

Li Fan said: "Now I will tell everyone why Marco Polo is a liar and why this book is deceiving the world.

Point 1: Marco Polo claimed to have traveled in my country for 17 years and visited many places on behalf of Kublai Khan. However, chopsticks, traditional Chinese medicine, tea, writing brushes, bound feet, and the Great Wall did not appear in his travel notes. .

This is very bizarre, just like the first time we see people of other skin colors or the first time we see Westerners eating with knives and forks. It is too incomprehensible that these are not mentioned in Polo's Travels.

Point 2: What image does Marco Polo blow himself into in his book?He said that he is the emperor's most steadfast little brother, who has a good grasp of domestic affairs, foreign affairs and taxation. Look at the big screen! "

On the big screen, there were photos of Wei Xiaobao and his seven wives from film and television dramas.

After the audience laughed, Li Fan said: "I'm sorry, this photo is wrongly matched, Wei Xiaobao has seven wives, but Marco Polo doesn't have any, and Marco Polo took the opportunity to get his wife after the book was published.

Attention everyone, such a great person, such a pivotal person in the history of the Mongolian Empire, does not even have half of his name in the historical materials!

Moreover, he also said that he had been the magistrate of Yangzhou for three years, and he had never found this person in the local chronicles of Yangzhou. The local chronicles of our country are very detailed, so how could there be no him?
Point 3: Xiangyang presents artillery.

Everyone knows that there is a plot in the novel that Guo Jing and Huang Rong guard Xiangyang.

How did Xiangyang City be conquered during the Song-Yuan War?According to historical records, Kublai Khan recruited gunsmiths to Persia and created the extremely powerful "Huihui Cannon". Only then did he successfully conquer the city of Xiangyang, which had not been conquered for five years.The return gun here is the trebuchet.

Of course, this matter was also taken by Marco Poloan himself, saying that it was invented by him.

It can be seen from this that he dared to say this purely to fool the Venetians. How could he have thought that this book would have an influence in the future?
Point 4: He made a fatal mistake in the book. He even thought that the prince at that time was the son of Kublai Khan. The prince is the grandson of Kublai Khan!He is the son of the dead prince. "

The crowd exclaimed:
"Wow!"

"This is a big mistake, a mistake that lost your head!"

"If Zhen and Kublai Khan are so strong, and they are powerful ministers and favorites, how could such a low-level mistake happen?"

……

Li Fan continued:
"The fifth point, Zaitong City (that is, Quanzhou) was the most prosperous foreign trade port in the world at that time, and hundreds of large ships from Arabia stayed in the port forever.

At that time, there were a lot of Semu people in the city of Citong, and Semu people were the collective name for all ethnic groups from Central and West Asia in the Yuan Dynasty.At that time, the Yuan Dynasty had a four-level system of ethnic groups, namely Mongolians, Semu people, Han people and Nan people.

At that time, the 'mayor' of Erythrone City was an Arab. There were at least three cathedrals and seven splendid mosques in Erythrone City at that time.

As a result, he didn't mention it at all when he arrived in Zyton City.

......"

After listing countless evidences, Li Fan continued: This book is basically full of questions, unlike travel notes, its rhetoric is no different from a novel!
However, according to my analysis, this book is more like a 'travel novel' created by a person who is full of fantasy about the East, based on hearsay.

Marco Polo had this condition. First of all, he was indeed a well-traveled businessman, well-informed, and this cannot be denied.

Secondly, Kublai Khan was famous all over the world at that time. During his heyday, the land area reached 2400 million or even 3300 million square kilometers. talk.)
As a traveling businessman, he had sufficient conditions to learn a lot of information about Kublai Khan and even the Yuan Dynasty.

Finally, according to Venetian history, Marco Polo was brought to court because he was accused of defrauding people of money.

The author of this popular work in the West could not find any conclusive evidence of its existence in China, and the book is full of falsehoods. This travelogue, which is more like a novel, was recorded in our The history textbooks have affirmed it, and we have to think about it, what is the reason!
No, we must need this person to come to the Yuan Dynasty, right?
By the way, there is a proverb in Marco Polo's hometown, This-is-Marco-Polo! The translation is, 'This is fooling people' or 'It's not reliable at all'. "

The audience was fascinated, and many people fell into deep thought.

In the audience, a student whispered to the professor beside him: "Professor, do you think Li Fan is right?"

The professor frowned, "There is indeed no direct evidence that Marco Polo appeared in the Yuan Dynasty, and some historians are also trying to find evidence that Marco Polo came to China."

The student asked: "Then why, under the premise of no objective evidence, the book contradicts the facts a lot, such a character like 'Wei Xiaobao' will appear in our country's history textbooks as a great traveler?"

Professor: "Uh... By the way, this book is a handwritten copy. Various errors will inevitably occur during the hand-copying process. This is also an explanation."

Another student asked: "At that time even movable type printing was invented. Marco Polo is such a powerful figure, and he is also a businessman. Why is he still making manuscripts in Europe and printing them directly!"

"This..." the professor was stopped by the question.

……

On the stage, after 3 hours of three consecutive episodes, the recording was finally completed.

"Thank you for watching today's show, see you next time."

Li Fan finished speaking, and after bowing to the audience, he did not go backstage directly as usual, but raised his feet to the auditorium, and gently hugged the jelly in his mother's arms into his arms.

Jelly slept for a full two and a half hours. At this time, her thick eyelashes were slightly opened. Seeing that it was her brother, she hugged her brother's neck, closed her eyes and continued to fall asleep peacefully.

She subconsciously blew a bubble out of her mouth, exactly the same as Li Fan's sleeping habits.

Li Fan said: "Mom, let's go home."

Professor Diao, who was beside Mama Li, suddenly asked, "Li Fan, in the program just now, you said that there is no direct evidence that Marco Polo came to our country. I have a different opinion."

Li Fan shook his sister slightly and said, "Oh? What did Professor Diao say?"

Professor Diao said: "I recently found a record in the fragment of the Yongle Grand Ceremony "Zhanchi", 'Ulud, Abishi and Huozhe went to the throne of Aluhun through Ma Erba', which is similar to "Marco · The records in Polo's Travels are consistent."

Li Fan said: "However, this book also records the Yuan Dynasty's expedition to Japan and the king's rebellion. If he is right about a few things, he must have been to the Yuan Dynasty!
These things should have been widely circulated at the time. "

Professor Diao nodded, "You are right!"

Regarding Marco Polo's experience and "Marco Polo's Travel Notes", there have been constant debates in Chinese and foreign historians in his previous life. Some historians tried to find evidence that Marco Polo had been to the Yuan Dynasty, but no direct evidence could be found. , there are a lot of speculations.

In order to verify whether Marco Polo really came to the Yuan Dynasty, the United States even formed a scientific expedition team in 1999. They retook the road that Marco Polo walked back then, but used modern transportation instead.

However, the journey was still extremely difficult. After the inspection, 10 expedition team members and 22 experts who provided backup agreed that it was unimaginable for Marco Polo to come to my country through this road.

However, even though "Marco Polo's Travels" is a "fiction work" based on hearsay, its world influence does exist objectively, and it has influenced a large number of people, even Columbus.

Professor Diao pondered for a while, and then said: "I will continue to look for relevant evidence."

Li Fan smiled lightly, then left the studio with his sister in his arms.

(PS: Some readers said that the chapters are getting shorter and shorter, um, they will be longer.)
(End of this chapter)