Marco Polo, True or False?

Question

I'm doing a debate on Marco Polo for both Affirmative and Negative side. Affirmative for supporting the fact that Marco Polo actually exists. Whereas Negative where he does not. Could someone give me evidence and points for both sides.

Answer 1

That's a good question, I always assumed his stories were true.
--On the affirmative side, the only so-called proof is his book "The Travels of Marco Polo ", however, few people of the day believed it was true and most Europeans dismissed the book as pure fable. Europeans called his book " IL Milione", The Million Lies.
--On the negative side, Many of his stories are considered fairy tales, the "strange oil " in Baku, the" monstrous birds which dropped elephants from a height and devoured their broken carcasses."
All the time he said he spent in China ,he never mentioned the Great Wall of China. He never learned the Chinese language, he never mentioned things of everyday life of China such as women's foot-binding, calligraphy or tea. Perhaps the most important was that his name never appeared in
" The Annals of the Empire " by Yuan Shih, which recorded the names of foreign visitors far less important and illustrious than Marco Polo.
After reading the article, I'm sure Marco Polo lived, I not sure if his stories are true or not . The fact he never mentioned the Great Wall is mystifying.

P.S.
How flattering, I've been plagiarized.

Answer 2

I do not believe there is any question as to whether Marco Polo actually existed. The dispute has historically been whether he actually made the journey that he claimed.

Prime basis for the dispute: Though his fantastic work, The Travels of Marco Polo, did offer up China as a thriving modern country, decidedly far more advanced than any place in Europe, had he really been there, he would have invariably included reports of Chinese life that he failed to mention - most notably the Great Wall, use of calligraphy, and the custom of drinking tea.

Answer 3

He probably existed; or at least someone using that name did.

First, China-European trade routes had existed for thousands of years. Chinese-crafted products had turned up in stone-age Ireland. The silk Road was werll in place; noodles reached Italy in Roman times, as I understand it.

His travels do not match real geography; he includied some rather fantastic accounts as well.

Next, while Europeans were probably not well acquainted with Chiese, Chines did know of white people - they were the barbarians who lived in the western hinyterlands of China. If a well-grabed Eurpean traveller arrived at court, it would be rather unlikely that he would be taken seriously as anything but a barbarian who probably robbed a Silk Road merchant. Add onto this that China of the time was rather ethnocentric and it seems more and more unlikely of his alleged warm reception in China (even less if he spoke no Chinese at all - there is nothing to suggest he did).

I have heard that examination of Kublai Khan's court records indicate no such reception as a visitor - a rather remarkable omission for one supposedly made a governor for a year.

Answer 4

I would say he existed because his exploits were not so amazing since the road to China was well established early in the Middle Ages by the Moors by the time Polo went to China

Answer 5

Hey, Marco Polo EXISTED !
He died in the XIV century. He wrote a book where he described the wonders he saw in Asia.
Any history book mentions him

Answer 6

That Polo could travel to Asia at that time was not particulary remarkable. After all, the silk road had been running for a long time. He was just the first European to get on it.

Answer 7

I really think that Marco Polo existed, he brought noodles to Italy

Answer 8

True. Polo was considered a big fat liar by his contemporaries.

Answer 9

True

There are many ways of finding the infomation you want, and I have included the links you will need to help you. Of course, in addition to this, you can also use the resources at your local library, they are only too happy to help you with your searches and queries.

http://www.google.com

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/web

http://findarticles.com/

http://vos.ucsb.edu/index.asp

http://www.aresearchguide.com/

http://www.geocities.com/athens/troy/886...

http://www.studentresearcher.com/search/...

http://www.chacha.com/