Volume I Part 48 (1/2)

Chinghiz and his first successors used the Uighur, and sometimes the Chinese character. Of the Uighur character we give a specimen in Bk. IV.

It is of Syriac origin, undoubtedly introduced into Eastern Turkestan by the early Nestorian missions, probably in the 8th or 9th century. The oldest known example of this character so applied, the _Kudatku Bilik_, a didactic poem in Uighur (a branch of Oriental Turkish), dating from A.D.

1069, was published by Prof. Vambery in 1870. A new edition of the _Kudatku Bilik_ was published at St. Petersburg, in 1891, by Dr. W.

Radloff. Vambery had a pleasing ill.u.s.tration of the origin of the Uighur character, when he received a visit at Pesth from certain Nestorians of Urumia on a begging tour. On being shown the original MS. of the _Kudatku Bilik_, they read the character easily, whilst much to their astonishment they could not understand a word of what was written. This Uighur is the basis of the modern Mongol and Manchu characters. (Cf. E. Bretschneider, _Mediaeval Researches_, I. pp. 236, 263.)--H. Y. and H. C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hexaglot Inscription on the East side of the Kiu Yong Kwan]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hexaglot Inscription on the West side of the Kiu Yong Kwan]

[At the village of Keuyung Kwan, 40 miles north of Peking, in the sub- prefecture of Ch'ang Ping, in the Chih-li province, the road from Peking to Kalgan runs beyond the pa.s.s of Nankau, under an archway, a view of which will be found at the end of this volume, on which were engraved, in 1345, two large inscriptions in six different languages: Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongol, _Bashpah_, Uighur, Chinese, and a language unknown till recently. Mr. Wylie's kindness enabled Sir Henry Yule to present a specimen of this. (A much better facsimile of these inscriptions than Wylie's having since been published by Prince Roland Bonaparte in his valuable _Recueil des Doc.u.ments de l'epoque Mongole_, this latter is, by permission, here reproduced.) The Chinese and Mongol inscriptions have been translated by M. Ed. Chavannes; the Tibetan by M. Sylvain Levi (_Jour. Asiat._, Sept.-Oct. 1894, pp. 354-373); the Uighur, by Prof. W.

Radloff (Ibid. Nov.-Dec. 1894, pp. 546, 550); the Mongol by Prof. G. Huth.

(Ibid. Mars-Avril 1895, pp. 351-360.) The sixth language was supposed by A. Wylie (_J. R. A. S._ vol. xvii. p. 331, and N.S., vol. v. p. 14) to be Neuchih, Niuche, Niuchen or Juchen. M. Deveria has shown that the inscription is written in _Si Hia_, or the language of Tangut, and gave a facsimile of a stone stele (_pei_) in this language kept in the great Monastery of the Clouds (Ta Yun Ssu) at Liangchau in Kansuh, together with a translation of the Chinese text, engraved on the reverse side of the slab. M. Deveria thinks that this writing was borrowed by the Kings of Tangut from the one derived in 920 by the Khitans from the Chinese.

(_Stele Si-Hia de Leang-tcheou_ ... _J. As._, 1898; _L'ectriture du royaumes de Si-Hia ou Tangout_, par M. Deveria ... Ext. des Mem ...

presentes a l'Ac. des. Ins. et B. Let. 1'ere Ser. XI., 1898.) Dr. S. W.

Bush.e.l.l in two papers (_Inscriptions in the Juchen and Allied Scripts, Actes du XI. Congres Orientalistes_, Paris, 1897, 2nd. sect., pp. 11, 35, and the _Hsi Hsia Dynasty of Tangut, their Money and their peculiar Script, J. China Br. R. A. S._, x.x.x. N.S. No. 2, pp. 142, 160) has also made a special study of the same subject. The Si Hia writing was adopted by Yuan Ho in 1036, on which occasion he changed the t.i.tle of his reign to Ta Ch'ing, i.e. ”Great Good Fortune.” Unfortunately, both the late M.

Deveria and Dr. S. W. Bush.e.l.l have deciphered but few of the Si Hia characters.--H. C.]

The orders of the Great Kaan are stated to have been published habitually in six languages, viz., Mongol, Uighur, Arabic, Persian, Tangutan (Si-Hia), and Chinese.--H. Y. and H. C.

Ghazan Khan of Persia is said to have understood Mongol, Arabic, Persian, something of Kashmiri, of Tibetan, of Chinese, and a little of the _Frank_ tongue (probably French).

The annals of the Ming Dynasty, which succeeded the Mongols in China, mention the establishment in the 11th moon of the 5th year Yong-lo (1407) of the _Sse yi kwan_, a linguistic office for diplomatic purposes. The languages to be studied were Niuche, Mongol, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Bokharan (Persian?) Uighur, Burmese, and Siamese. To these were added by the Manchu Dynasty two languages called _Papeh_ and _Pehyih_, both dialects of the S.W. frontier. (See infra, Bk. II. ch. lvi.-lvii., and notes.) Since 1382, however, official interpreters had to translate Mongol texts; they were selected among the Academicians, and their service (which was independent of the _Sse yi kwan_ when this was created) was under the control of the _Han-lin-yuen_. There may have been similar inst.i.tutions under the Yuen, but we have no proof of it. At all events, such an office could not then be called _Sse yi kwan_ (_Sse yi_, Barbarians from four sides); Niuche (Niuchen) was taught in Yong-lo's office, but not Manchu. The _Sse yi kwan_ must not be confounded with the _Hui t'ong kwan_, the office for the reception of tributary envoys, to which it was annexed in 1748. (_Gaubil_, p. 148; _Gold. Horde_, 184; _Ilchan._ II. 147; _Lockhart_ in _J. R. G. S._ x.x.xVI. 152; _Koeppen_, II. 99; G. Deveria, _Hist. du College des Interpretes de Peking_ in _Melanges_ Charles de Harlez, pp. 94-102; MS.

Note of Prof. A. Vissiere; _The Tangut Script in the Nan-K'ou Pa.s.s_, by Dr. S. W. Bush.e.l.l, _China Review_, xxiv. II. pp. 65-68.)--H. Y. and H. C.

Pauthier supposes Mark's four acquisitions to have been _Bashpah-Mongol, Arabic, Uighur_, and _Chinese_. I entirely reject the Chinese. Sir H. Yule adds: ”We shall see no reason to believe that he knew either language or character” [Chinese]. The blunders Polo made in saying that the name of the city, Suju, signifies in our tongue ”Earth” and Kinsay ”Heaven” show he did not know the Chinese characters, but we read in Bk. II. ch.

lxviii.: ”And Messer Marco Polo himself, of whom this Book speaks, did govern this city (Yanju) for three full years, by the order of the Great Kaan.” It seems to me [H. C.] hardly possible that Marco could have for three years been governor of so important and so Chinese a city as Yangchau, in the heart of the Empire, without acquiring a knowledge of the spoken language.--H. C. The other three languages seem highly probable.

The fourth may have been Tibetan. But it is more likely that he counted separately two varieties of the same character (e.g. of the Arabic and Persian) as two ”_lettres de leur escriptures_”--H. Y. and H. C.

NOTE 2.--[Ramusio here adds: ”Ad und citta, detta Carazan,” which, as we shall see, refers to the Yun-nan Province.]--H. C.

NOTE 3.--From the context no doubt Marco's employments were honourable and confidential; but _Commissioner_ would perhaps better express them than Amba.s.sador in the modern sense. The word _Ilchi_, which was probably in his mind, was applied to a large variety of cla.s.ses employed on the commissions of Government, as we may see from a pa.s.sage of Ras.h.i.+duddin in D'Ohsson, which says that ”there were always to be found in every city from one to two hundred _Ilchis_, who forced the citizens to furnish them with free quarters,” etc., III. 404. (See also 485.)

CHAPTER XVI.

HOW MARK RETURNED FROM THE MISSION WHEREON HE HAD BEEN SENT.

When Mark returned from his amba.s.sage he presented himself before the Emperor, and after making his report of the business with which he was charged, and its successful accomplishment, he went on to give an account in a pleasant and intelligent manner of all the novelties and strange things that he had seen and heard; insomuch that the Emperor and all such as heard his story were surprised, and said: ”If this young man live, he will a.s.suredly come to be a person of great worth and ability.” And so from that time forward he was always ent.i.tled MESSER MARCO POLO, and thus we shall style him henceforth in this Book of ours, as is but right.

Thereafter Messer Marco abode in the Kaan's employment some seventeen years, continually going and coming, hither and thither, on the missions that were entrusted to him by the Lord [and sometimes, with the permission and authority of the Great Kaan, on his own private affairs.] And, as he knew all the sovereign's ways, like a sensible man he always took much pains to gather knowledge of anything that would be likely to interest him, and then on his return to Court he would relate everything in regular order, and thus the Emperor came to hold him in great love and favour. And for this reason also he would employ him the oftener on the most weighty and most distant of his missions. These Messer Marco ever carried out with discretion and success, G.o.d be thanked. So the Emperor became ever more partial to him, and treated him with the greater distinction, and kept him so close to his person that some of the Barons waxed very envious thereat.