was marco polo's tale a truth or a hoax?

Question

he described largely about china but mentioned nothing about the great wall...

Answer 1

Could his tale be a mixture of truth and hoax? Exaggeration on his behalf would keep in favor at the court for quite a few months since it took approximately 10-12 months to travel to the Far East. Truth is he brought back great wealths to Court so like most why not exaggerate to the point of a hoax. Like the fisherman who claims to have caught the largest fish in the pond but that it broke his reel so it got away.

Answer 2

I don't think there is any doubt that he actually went to China as he was by no means the first European to travel to China on the Silk Road, just the first European to popularise it in a book.

I have not read all of Il Milione, so I have no idea whether he mentions the Great Wall or not, so I will have to take your word for it.

It seems to me, however, that in the bits I have read he is trying to impress upon his readers the size and wealth of the place. The Wall of the time would have been rather an inconsequential ruinous thing, probably not worth a mention. As he was dictating the story some years later, the Wall could evidently not be something he considered sufficiently important to include, or something that he may even have forgotten about.

Answer 3

Well there are many different things to point out :
1) Marco Polo , by his will, didn't say all the truth. Lets remember he was a merchant from Venice , and he dictated the "Milione" a Pisan prisoner inside the Genoa prison.... Would you tell all your commercial secrets about your commercial partners to your competitors (and enemy of your city ?) ..
2) Also he made this work not for writing a geographical and ethnological work , but for passing time while being in a jail. So for sure, he put more emphasis that we would like in a scientific work
3) We give all this importance to Great Wall as, from satellites, we can see all its dimension. But if Marco Polo passed it , was him able to understand its extension? Maybe Not, and as wall, to a Venetian who maybe saw the walls of Padua and Montagnana (I suggest you to see the yet existing XIII century walls of this town, much higher and impressive than the great wall). they were not so impressive.
4) Great wall was partially in ruing in that age.
5) It is not said that he passed great wall. It didn't cover the whole Chinese border if you can see...... Maybe they avoid to pass through it....

Answer 4

I read Fitzgerald's (?) book and it certainly seems there is a case to answer.
Apparently, one the book was out, she got death threats over the phone from men with Italian accents!
As for the no doubt upcoming answer that the Great Wall was in a state of temporary ruin when he passed it and there was nothing to see, she says that where she was in China, there were the remains of earth walls built in the Shang dynasty, (-1122 BC), so it's likely there would be plenty to see of the Great Wall.

Answer 5

I don't think Marco Polo was even near the "wall" and, at the time, what was it? to him? nothing at all. His interests lay more at making money, trading, etc.

He maybe used it as a filler and what others had said at a later date.