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0624 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 624 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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608   200. ÇIPINGU

the true form with 5 was known and has actually been retained in the name of individuals : a

', it 2, Ch'ê-êrh-ch'ieh-ssû, ( ärkäs, is mentioned in YS, 22, 12 a, and a 4itt   Ch'ê-
ii-ko-ssû, *Öärgäs, in Yllan tien chang, I, 12 a. On the Chinese map of c. A. D. 1330, the name

appears as fa   474. , Sa-êrh-k'o-ssû, which has been retained by BRETSCHNEIDER (Br, II, 90)
and by T'u Chi (160, 16 a). But this map is of Mussulman origin, and the Persian form of the name is Cärkäs, sometimes 4ärkäz (cf. for instance LE STRANGE, Nuzhat al-Qulûb, transi., 10, 248, 261; VULLERS, I, 570; also REINAUD, Géogr. d'Aboulféda, II, 2; Järkäs = Cärkäs in Ibn

Battütah, II, 448). Since the name is written   , ! Ch'ê-êrh-k'o-ssû in the corresponding
list of YS, 63, 16 a, I have no doubt that in our late copies of the map of c. 1330, « Sa-êrh-k'ossû» is merely the result of a very common clerical error. The form «Särkäs» of the Secret

History has survived in Kalmuk; it was transcribed 8 1p A   S8-êrh-k'o-ssû in the 18th cent.
(cf. T'u Chi, 160, 16 a); the modern Kaimuk pronunciation is «Serk g» (RAMSTEDT, Kahn. Wörterbuch, 326).

200. ÇIPINGU

cianpagu S

cimpagu, cympagu, ziampagu VL

çinpachu, zinpachu TA$ cjnpuguj, zinpuguj VB çipagu, zanpagu, zianpagu VA

cipinggu Fr cipingu Ft, L çipingu Z cipngu, cypngu F sapangu FA simpagu LT

sipangu FAt, FB sypangu FB zipaghu TA' zipangu P, P5, R zipugu V zympagu G

This has long been recognized as a transcription of El :   Jih-pên-kuo, « Kingdom of

Japan ». For a reading with a in the second syllable, cf. YULE, Hobson-Jobson 2, 451. Nevertheless, one may just as well have theoretically «Cipingu », «*Çibingu» or even « *Çipungu », as «Çipingu »; «Çipingu» is supported in fact by Z. In spite of CORDIER (L'Extrême-Orient dans l'Atlas Catalan, p. 9), «Çipangu» cannot be a Fukienese pronunciation, as kuo has a guttural final in Fukienese. Fra Mauro seems to give « Cimpagu » as read by ZuRLA, but not the «Zimpungu » also mentioned by HALLBERG, 497-498.

The Catalan Map of 1375 has, according to CORDIER in Y', I, 301 : «Japan insuia, à M. Paulo Veneto zipangri dicta...». But Polo could not know the modern form « Japan », and this is a slip of CORDIERS; the notice comes, not from the Catalan Map, but from ORTELIUS (cf. CORDIER, L'Extrême-Orient dans l'Atlas Catalan, 8-9).

The name of Japan appears in Ragidu-'d-Din (Bl, II, 498) as   Jimingu (vowels uncertain),
which represents evidently the same original as Polo's. But one would like to be more certain about Rapid's real spelling; D'OHSSON (Oh, II, 319) has transcribed «Tchépangou» (cf. also

QUATREMÈRE, Hist. des Mongols, xci), which supposes   . Jipangu or Jibangu (vowels uncertain).