Kyle Poirot was the first European to describe the geography, society and customs of the East through personal experience. Many places written in his book are unheard of by Europeans before, so his book is indeed a unique work in the13rd century, which greatly enriches Europeans' understanding and knowledge of the East.

The earliest book in the west that described Asia, especially East Asia in detail, should be the famous Travel Notes of Marco Polo. 13rd century, European businessmen have gone deep into West Asian countries, and they also know something about India, but in Kelpolo (1254- 1325? Before coming to China, Europeans had a vague understanding of East Asia, which was basically limited to ancient legends and Christian theological concepts. Medieval Europe's understanding of the world can be seen from the so-called TO map, which is circular, that is, O-shaped. The circle means that the ocean surrounds the earth, with a T-shape in the middle, the Don River and the Nile River above, and Asia above, occupying the upper part of the map. The vertical line in the middle of the T-shape represents the Mediterranean Sea, with Europe and Africa on the left and right. The names of Noah's three sons are written on these three continents, Shem, Ham and Japheth. This is an idea in Genesis, which says that after the flood, Noah's ark stopped, and his three sons went to different parts of the world, including the south, and Japheth went to the west, so they became the ancestors of Asians, Africans and Europeans respectively. The tenth chapter of Genesis records the names of Noah's three sons and their descendants, saying that people living in different places "are all the clans of Noah's three sons, which were established according to their tribes. After the flood, they were divided into several ethnic groups on the ground. " In the Middle Ages, Europeans often equated Asia with India, and there was a legend that St. Thomas preached in India. In addition, in the 4th century BC, Alexander of Macedonia led troops to India. Legends about Alexander's crusade were very popular in medieval Europe, including legends about fierce Amazonians and various grotesque demon races conquered by Alexander the Great, such as Cynocephali and Blemmyae, whose heads were long on their chests. In the third scene of the first act of Shakespeare's famous tragedy Othello, Othello described his experiences and encounters in various places, and mentioned that he had seen "cannibals and freaks burying their heads under their shoulders". In medieval Europe's imagination of the East, in addition to elephants, camels and rhinos unknown to Europeans at that time, there were all kinds of strange animals, including pure fictional unicorns, winged monsters with lion's body and eagle's head and so on. At that time, Europeans knew nothing about the specific geographical location of Asia, especially East Asia.

1243, Sinibaldo Fieschi was elected Pope, and soon sent missionaries to Asia to spy on the information of the Mongolian empire, hoping to persuade the Mongols to convert to Christianity. The most important one is Italian Franciscan priest Giovanni di Pian di Capin. He set out from Lyon on 1245, delivered the Pope's letter directly to the Mongolian emperor Gui You, and said that some servants around Gui You were Christians. They believe that the Mongolian emperor "will soon become a Christian". Another Franciscan priest, William of France, set out on 1253 with the support of King Louis IX of France. It took him two years to complete his mission and gave a detailed report to Europe on the Mongolian Empire. As Henry Yule said, Pastor William "collected many specific materials, not only about Asian temperament, geography, race and customs, but also about religion and language. Although he has various difficulties in communication, his translation is also very incompetent. These materials are surprisingly real or very close to real. " However, although William of Red Luke is good at observing and describing, he has found out the origin and flow direction of the Don River and Volga River, and even mentioned North Korea in the western literature at the earliest, and made a more detailed and accurate report on Mongolian life and customs, but he only went to Mongolia after all, and did not go further south into the Central Plains of China. As for the growth of geographical knowledge in Europe, the works of these missionaries have little influence. Those who have made important contributions to Europe's understanding of Asia, especially China, especially geography have to wait for another important person, that is, Kyle Poirot, who went to the East twenty or thirty years after these two Franciscan priests.

127 1 year, the young Kyle Poirot started from his hometown Venice with his father and uncle and marched eastward along the ancient Silk Road. That year was the time when Kublai Khan decided that the title of the country was Yuan, and the Mongolian empire quickly advanced to the south. Less than ten years later, the Mongol Empire wiped out the Southern Song Dynasty in 1279 and ruled the whole of China. In other words, Kyle Polo has more opportunities to observe the territory of the Yuan Empire than his predecessors, and has a more and more reliable understanding of its geography and social customs. The Polos arrived in Shangdu (now Duolun County, Inner Mongolia) on 1275, and then went to Yuandadu (now Beijing), where they were warmly received by Kublai Khan of Yuan Shizu. According to Kyle's account, he gained Kublai Khan's trust. He was sent to the southwest and Jiangnan to work for Kublai Khan. He has been to Xi, Kaifeng, Chengdu, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou and other big cities, and has a direct understanding of the local customs. In his famous travel notes, there are also detailed accounts. But the situation of Kyle Poirot's book is more complicated because he didn't write it. Kyle Poirot returned to Venice from China on 1295. The following year, Venice went to war with Genoa. He was captured from the army and met Lu Sidi Cello da Pisa, the owner of the pizza shop, in a prison in Genoa. So Kyle dictated that the rustic Cherno wrote a book that made Kyle Polo famous. Kyle left Venice for the East when he was young. He had no idea how to organize his unusual experiences into a book. As a legendary story writer, Lu Sidi Cherno was familiar with the tradition and writing procedure of European legendary literature at that time, so it was quite lucky that Kyle and Lu Sidi Cherno met and cooperated in prison. 1July 279, Venice signed a contract with Genoa, and Kyle was released and returned to his home in Venice. At the same time, his books are very popular. In the next 25 years, French, Franco-Italian, Tuscan dialect, Venetian dialect, Latin and possibly German translations appeared. As John Rana said, "There were so many translations when the author was still alive, which was unprecedented in the Middle Ages". However, when recording Kyle's narrative, Lu Sidi Cherno will also use his tricks to explain the legendary story of medieval knights, adding fuel to the fire and adding luster to the story. This certainly makes Kyle's book more exotic and popular, but it also compromises its reliability, which makes many readers at that time and later generations doubt whether Kyle's narrative is true. However, Ma lived in the13rd century, and his knowledge and imagination will not exceed his time. We should not apply the modern understanding of the rationality of reality to him and Lu Sidi Cherno, nor should we think that the obvious exaggeration and fiction in travel notes must be made up by Lu Sidi Cherno alone. More importantly, Kyle's book is full of loopholes, and we can't completely deny its authenticity and value just because of fictional exaggeration.

Here I might as well talk about questioning Kyle Poirot's book. /kloc-Giambattista Ramusio, an Italian geographer in the 6th century, recorded a legend in his book Navigazioni e viaggi. When Kyle Polo returned to his hometown in Venice from the east with his father and uncle on 1295, his relatives living at home did not know them because they had been away from home for 24 years. Later, they cut off Tatar-style clothes. This story is an old story with a long tradition in western literature, and its classic model is the plot of Odysseus in Homer's epic Odessa, which was recognized by the old wet nurse after he returned from home for ten years. However, this legend tells the problem that Kyle Poirot's book has always encountered, that is, whether the narrative in the book is trustworthy. It is said that most contemporary readers don't believe Kyle's narrative, especially his description of the prosperity and development of the Mongolian Yuan Empire under Kublai Khan. Among scholars, there are always people who doubt Kyle. Frances Wood, who is in charge of the Chinese Department of the British Library, published Has Kyle Poirot been to China? 1995. ",the topic is straightforward to ask questions and has certain influence among readers. Skeptics point out that Kyle's book is obviously exaggerated and unbelievable, but he also points out that he didn't mention some typical things in China, such as the Great Wall, Chinese medicine and acupuncture, tea and teahouse, eagle hook fish, women's foot binding, China's writing and calligraphy, Confucianism and Taoism, etc. Finally, he searched the literature of China Yuan Dynasty, but he couldn't find Kyle Polo's name. In fact, it is not difficult to answer these questions, because when Kyle Polo arrived in China, it happened to be a period of time when Kublai Khan destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty. When he was in contact with the nobles of Mongolian court, it was difficult for him to understand the life and culture of the oppressed southern Han people. When a skeptic makes an argument based on nothing in Kyle's book, but ignores all the true and reliable contents in his book, it is hard to convince people. Yang Zhijiu's argument that Kyle Polo's name was not mentioned in China literature in Yuan Dynasty is very reasonable: "In Yuan Dynasty, many westerners came to China before or after Kyle Polo, such as Haydn, Armenian King, Italian priest Bertrand, French priest Rubruk, Italian priest Edolik, Moroccan traveler ibn battuta and so on. "These people are not suspected, but their names are nowhere to be found in the historical records of China. More interestingly, "Marignolli, the special envoy of the Pope who came to China at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, arrived in Shangdu in July of the second year of Zheng Zheng (1342) and presented Yuan Shundi with a horse. This event can be found in the History of Yuan Dynasty and Collected Works of Yuan People. "History of the Yuan Dynasty" said:' It's the moon, one foot one foot three inches long. He is six feet four inches tall, with a pure black body and white hind feet. "Describe the horse carefully, but don't mention the name of the horse's donor. Pay more attention to horses than people! Based on the names of unknown people, can we conclude that none of these people have been to China and their works have been heard or copied? Why do you ask so much of Kyle Poirot? " (Kyle Polo in China, by Yang Zhijiu, Nankai University Press, 1999), pp. 157- 158. ) Among the China scholars who studied Kyle Polo, Mr. Yang Zhijiu is indeed the most powerful defender of Kyle.

As early as 194 1 year, while studying the history of Hui nationality in Yuan Dynasty, Yang Zhijiu came across the rhyme "Kan" in the volume of Yongle Dadian, which was written in the fifth year of Yongle. An official document quoted the Grand Ceremony of Nian Chi Gate in Shi Jing in the twenty-seventh year of Yuan Dynasty (1290) and said, "Ananda, I spent nothing, and so on." Yang Zhijiu immediately realized sensitively that the names of several foreigners here are exactly the same as those mentioned in a very important passage in Kyle Polo's book: Lu Wu Irukair means Oulate, Abreu Ha means Abuska, Koya means arghun, Mabar means Mabar, and it is a coastal area in southeast India. According to Kyle's book, Bragan, the princess of argon, the monarch of East Tatar, told her when she died that she could not inherit her princess status unless she was a member of her family. So King argon sent Wutai, Absha and Huonan as messengers to see Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan chose a Buruhan princess, Kekaqin, and went back with three messengers to marry him. When the three messengers left, they asked Kyle Poirot, who is familiar with the sea, to go with his father and uncle. According to Kyle, "Khan loves these three Latins very much, so I have to give up my love and allow them to escort the princess with three envoys." Therefore, this is the reason why uncle and nephew, Polo's father and son, was able to leave Khan and finally return to Venice. Although Kyle Polo's name is not mentioned directly in Yongle Dadian, it is the most powerful circumstantial evidence to prove the reliability of Kyle Polo's narration in Chinese literature in Yuan Dynasty. From a seemingly ordinary and boring official document in Yongle Dadian, Yang Zhijiu saw something that can be mutually confirmed with the narrative in Kyle Polo's book, which is really a valuable discovery. However, although American scholar F. W. Cleaves wrote an article in Harvard Journal of Asian Studies in 1976 to introduce Yang Zhijiu's findings and inferences in Yongle Dadian, Mr. Yang's research results are still little known in the West. For example, a book about Kyle Poirot in recent years, namely "Kyle Poirot and the Discovery of the World" by John Rana, did not mention Yang Zhijiu. Moreover, although a note in the book mentioned Clive's article, there were mistakes in the number of volumes and page numbers, which shows that I have not read Clive's article carefully. I think the important textual research and research achievements of China scholars deserve more introduction and more attention from international academic circles.

As for Kyle's contemporaries, most people don't believe the truth of his narrative, not because there are too many bizarre things in Kyle's books, but because Kyle described China under Kublai Khan as a prosperous and civilized society outside the Christian world in the Middle Ages. He described Kublai Khan's great achievements and said, "Kublai Khan is still a great monarch and an emperor." He has the right to be named Adam, the ancestor of mankind, and has never seen a powerful monarch who owns people, land and goods in the world today. "Kyle described Kublai Khan as a monarch more powerful than all monarchs in Christian and Islamic countries, which made European readers feel incredible at that time. As Martin guzman said: Kyle "is considered exaggerated, mainly because his narrative is completely contrary to the traditional Mongolian image. "... it is hard to believe that the barbarians who almost destroyed Europe between 1240 and 124 1 have reached the level of organization and civilization described in Kyle's book. In fact, there are not many absurd narratives in Kyle's book, but the Travels of Sir John mandeville, which is full of strange ideas half a century later, is not considered by most people as absurd and unreliable. This travel book is widely circulated, and there are still 300 manuscripts in different languages in major libraries in Europe, which is four times that of Kyle's works. Although Kyle's book also wrote about old John, describing how the mysterious old man in the mountain trained assassins, most of Kyle's narratives were straightforward, with nothing extraordinary or magical. As Yang Zhijiu said, "Kelpolo's books have recorded a lot of political, economic and social conditions, people's activities and customs in China, most of which can be confirmed in China's literature. There are inevitably defects such as exaggeration, inaccuracy or error, but on the whole it can be said to be' basically true'. " ("Kelpolo in China" on page 1 16. There will always be doubts about the authenticity of Kyle Polo, but I think it is more meaningful to see what kind of book Kyle Polo is and whether it has made great contributions and influences to Europeans' understanding of the East, especially China.

Kyle Polo's book is usually called Travel Notes, but a closer look at this book reveals that it is not organized according to the route of travel, so it is neither a record of adventure nor a simple description of what you saw and heard during your trip. Although Kyle followed his father and uncle to the east to do business, his book is not devoted to business. John Rana thinks that we can regard Kyle's book as "basically a book about geography", and it is a rather unique geography book, because "the fact is that in the tradition of medieval geography, there are no works like Kyle Polo's book from Solinus to isidore and then to Gosuin". Kyle Poirot was the first European to describe the geography, society and customs of the East through personal experience. Many places written in his book are unheard of by Europeans before, so his book is indeed a unique work in the13rd century, which greatly enriches Europeans' understanding and knowledge of the East. Kyle's description of Kan baruch once caught the imagination of Europeans. He described his trip to the south (that is, Hangzhou) as "magnificent" and said it was "the richest and most precious city in the world." He wrote about Erythrina (Quanzhou, Fujian) and said, "All ships in India carry spices and all other valuable goods to this port. It is also a port frequented by all businessmen in Man Zi. The import of commercial gems and pearls is incredible, and then they are resold in Man Zi from this port. I dare say that there are more than 100 ships in Alexandria or other ports to transport pepper to Christian countries and even this port of Erythrina. " From Kyle's description, we can imagine the busy state of Quanzhou's commercial port at that time and its important position in Chinese and western transportation and trade. In addition to all parts of China, Kyle's book also describes Indian and Central Asian countries to varying degrees. He was the first person in Europe to mention Japan, "/kloc-before the 6th century, it was the only place in the west where Japan was mentioned". As Rana said: "The most powerful part of this book lies in its organization. It gradually and steadily narrates different nationalities, regions and cities one by one. They each have their own administrative institutions, religious beliefs, natural resources, material products and other characteristics, and they are different. Before and after this, no second person gave the West so much new geographical knowledge. " Of course, Kyle and his collaborator Lu Sidi Cherno didn't consciously write geography works, but The Travels of Marco Polo did play a very important role in the development of western geography.

1500 years ago, the world map drawn by Europe basically could not truly reflect the situation in Asia. For example, in the Chronicle of Nuremberg published by Hartman Scheedel 1495, a map of the world is still drawn according to the concept of the Bible, drawing Noah's three sons in the east, south and west of the world respectively, and the shape of the map is very different from that of modern maps, which is not so much a geographical map as a theological map. Among the early European maps that still exist today, the first map that absorbed the knowledge provided by Kyle Poirot to represent Asian geography was the famous Catalonia Atlas drawn by the Jew Abraham Laiske around 1380. This is a map drawn on eight boards, each board is 69 cm long and 39 cm wide. Its eastern part is based on the legends of the past, and also absorbs the records of travelers available at that time, including Odoric da Pordenone who visited China in the14th century, because there are Zincolan (Guangzhou) and Mingio (Ningbo) mentioned by Odric on the map. But there is no doubt that the map of Catalonia shows the East mainly based on the materials in Kyle Polo's book, including 29 cities named by Kyle. Although this map is far from modern times, it is on this map that "China is presented as an identifiable and rational shape for the first time in the west". Due to the influence of Catalonia map, especially the rise of humanism, the study of geography in15th century has been paid more and more attention. It was also at this time that Kyle Poirot's book began to have a greater impact. /kloc-at the beginning of the 5th century, Domenico di Bandino of arezzo absorbed a lot of materials from Kyle's works in a 35-volume encyclopedia edited by him.

/kloc-in the 5th century, from 1439 to 1442, another Venetian, niccol^· Kong Di Di, went to India, Malaysia, Java, Vietnam and other countries, then returned to Italy via Bangladesh, Abyssinia and Egypt, and met Pope Eugenius IV in Florence. His account of his experiences in the East has a great influence on Europeans' knowledge of Asian geography, and his experience strongly proves the reliability of Kyle Poirot's account. Since then, people have paid more and more attention to Kyle Polo's journey, and during the Renaissance, this book, Dante's Divine Comedy and Thomas Aquinas' Theological Anthology have become the classics that humanists pay attention to, thus having a wide influence.

Today, when we re-explore the history of East-West contact, Kyle Polo's experience and writings in the East can be said to have special significance. The history of contact between the East and the West, especially in the19th century when western imperialism and colonialism expanded outward, is the history of western powers' aggression and oppression of the eastern nations, and its influence still exists today. It is against this background that we can understand the significance of edward said's criticism of Orientalism and the radical significance of post-colonialism theory in opposing colonialism and western hegemony. However, the history of contacts and exchanges between the East and the West is not only the modern history since the 9th century. It is not only one-sided to generalize the whole relationship between East and West with Orientalism, but also does not play a positive role in promoting mutual understanding and harmony between East and West. At the same time, we see the theory of clash of civilizations represented by samuel huntington in the west, and think that the conflict in the future world will be the conflict between western Christian culture, eastern Islamic culture and Confucian culture. This theory not only can't solve the conflict, but may pave the way for western hegemony and its political and military strategy in reality. Under such circumstances, if we look back at the time of Kelpolo, we can see that it is a completely different world. In that world, Kyle told his experiences in the East. His motivation was to understand different cultures and to be curious about different peoples and their living customs in the world, rather than the desire of colonists to conquer and possess after centuries. In this sense, Kelpolo can be said to provide another model for the contact and mutual understanding between eastern and western cultures, and it is a model that can better promote the existence of different cultures. How to think about the relationship between the East and the West on the basis of this model and draw useful enlightenment from the past history is what we should do in cross-cultural research today.

2004 is the 750th anniversary of Kyle Poirot's birth. Let us remember with reverence this Venetian who took the first few steps and made great contributions to cross-cultural understanding between the East and the West.