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0584 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 584 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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568   186. CUBLAI

«Cabui» remains unexplained; contrary to BLOCHET (Bl, II, 352), it can have nothing to do with Skr. jambu. Cabui was a Qonyrat, and both the YS (106, 2 b; 118, 2 b) and Rasidu-'d-Din agree in making her a daughter of Alcin-noyan; this is hard to believe, as it would make her three generations older than Tägülün (cf. also T'u Chi, 19, 7 b). She was already one of Qubilai's wives before his accession to the throne, was promoted «Empress» (Huang-hou) in 1260, and died in 1281 (cf. YS, 11, 5 a; 106, 2 b; 115, 3 a; T'u Chi, 19, 9 a; the date «1277» in YS, 114, 2 a, is an error, and so is «1283/1284» in Rand, Bl, II, 354). Raid insists on her

rare beauty (Ber, I, 152; Bl, II, 353). He also mentions her Chinese title of   qonqu (Ber, I,
152), which, despite CORDIER'S note in Y, I, 75, regularly renders huang-hou. According to the Chinese, she was the mother of Cinkim (or Jingim?; see « Cinchim»), Mangala (see « Mangalai »), and Nomoyan (see «Nomogan »). Rand says (Ber, I, 152) that she bore Qubilai four sons and five daughters. The four sons must be Dorji, Cinkim, Mangala, and Nomoyan; in the case of Ginkim, however, Ra"sid (Bl, II, 354-355) speaks of his mother as if she had been some one

other than Cabui, and gives her the «name» of , . tailiu, i. e.   J t'ai-hou, «Empress
Dowager », a title which Chinese 'texts never mention in the case of Cabui and which would seem to fit only Tägülün (cf. YANAI, 694); the Mo`azz is in agreement with Rand. After Cabui's death, she was succeeded in her ordo by another Qonyrat, Ok ,% Nan-bi (*Nam-bi),

Sy.A; Nambui in Rand (Ber, I, 152, where the name is misread «Täjiui»; Bl, II, 372),   Nanbui
in the Mo`azz. The name « Nambui » (perhaps Nombui) is not explained. According to Rand, Nambui was the daughter of Nacin kürügän (i. e. Imperial son-in-law), but the Chinese authorities must be more accurate when they state that she was the daughter of Nacin's grandson Hsien-t'ung (YS, 114, 2 a). She was proclaimed Empress (Huang-hou) in 1283. Chinese sources say that, as Qubilai was already well advanced in age, the ministers took to the habit of making their reports to her (YS, 106, 2 b). In spite of the Emperor's age, Nambui bore him a son, whose name is not given in the-genealogical tables of YS, 107, 8-9, is mistaken for that of 0yrugci by Rand in his notices of the tribes (Ber, I, 152, where «Carquici» is a wrong reading), and is omitted by him in Qubilai's history (Bl, II, 372), but has been preserved in YS, 114, 2 b, where it is given as 3 ! ;Jj-, T'ieh-mieh-ch'ih, Tämäci.

  1. The Empress (Huang-hou) Taraqai (lit. «Bald »). Nothing is known of her, nor of the concubine (fei-tzü) *Nuqan, who belonged to the same ordo.

  2. The Empress Baya'ucin and the Empress Kökölün. Chinese sources merely give their names, but from Rand (Ber, I, 178; Bl, II, 369-370) we know that Baya'u6in was a Baya'ut, the daughter of Buragcin (?) and that she was the mother of Toyön.

These are the traditional four ordos, and Polo must have had them in mind when he spoke of Qubilai's four wives. We do not know to which ordos was attached Hugijin, of the Hugin tribe, the mother of Ayaci (Ber, I, 168; Bl, II, 367), or Dörbäjin, of the Dörbän tribe, the mother of Hügäci (see «Cogacin ») or 0yrugci (cf. Ber, I, 195 [where the names are misread] ;

Bl, II, 364-366).

YANAI has supposed that Qubilai's first ordo (the «great Ordo ») was at Ta-tu (= Peking; see «Taidu»), the second at Shang-tu (see «Ciandu»), the third at Gayân-nör (see «Ciagannor ») and the fourth at Liu-lin (see «Cacciar-modun »), but this is quite hypothetical.