IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
MARCO POLO BOOK II.
i
342
•
~
t
Ifor the folk there was dyeyng ;
So //ruche dent, noise of sweord,
The thondur blast no myghte beo hirde,
No the sunne hadde beo seye,
For the dust of the poudré !
No the weolkyn seon be myght,
So was arewes and quarelsji-yght."
—King Alisaunder, in Weber, I. 93-91.
And again :—
' The eorthe quaked heom undur,
No scholde mon have herd the thondur."
—Ibid. 142.
~.
Also in a contemporary account of the fall of Acre (1291) : " Renovatur ergo bellum terribile inter alterutros . . . . clamoribus interjectis hinc et inde ad terrorem; ita ut nec Deus tonans in sublime coaudiri potuisset." (De Excidio Acconis, in Marlene et Durand, V. 780.)
NOTE 5.—" Car it estoit homme au Grant Kaan." (See note 2, eh. xiv., in Prologue.)
NOTE 6.— In continuation of note 4, chap. ii., we give Gaubil's conclusion of the story of Nayan : " The Emperor had gone ahead with a small force, when Nayan's General came forward with i00,000 men to make a reconnaissance. The Sovereign, however, put on a bold front, and though in great danger of being carried off, showed no trepidation. It was night, and an urgent summons went to call troops to the Emperor's aid. They marched at once, the horsemen taking the foot soldiers on the crupper behind them. Nayan all this while was taking it quietly in his camp, and his generals did not venture to attack the Emperor, suspecting an ambuscade. Liting then took ten resolute men, and on approaching the General's camp, caused a Fire-Pao to be discharged ; the report caused a great panic among Nayan's troops, who were very ill disciplined at the best. Meanwhile the Chinese and Tartar troops had all come up, and Nayan was attacked on all sides : by Liting at the head of the Chinese, by Yusitemur at the head of the Mongols, by Tutuha and the Emperor in person at the head of his guards and the troops of Kincha (hipchak). The presence of the Emperor rendered the army invincible, and Nayan's forces were completely defeated. That prince himself was taken, and afterwards put to death. The battle took place in the vicinity of the river Liao, and the Emperor returned in triumph to Shangtu " (207). The Chinese record given in detail by Pauthier is to the like effect, except as to the Kaan's narrow escape, of which it says nothing.
As regards the Fire-Pao (the latter word seems to have been applied to military machines formerly, and now to artillery), I must refer to Favé and Reinaud's very curious and interesting treatise on the Greek fire (du Fez' GrJgeois). They do not seem to assent to the view that the arms of this description which are mentioned in the Mongol wars were cannon, but rather of the nature of rockets.
[Dr. G. Schlegel ( T oung Pao, No. 1, 1902), in a paper entitled, On the Invention and Use of Fire-Arms and Gunpowder in China, prior to the Arrival of Europeans, says that " now, notwithstanding all what has been alleged by different European authors against the use of gunpowder and fire-arms in China, I maintain that not only the Mongols in 1293 had cannon, but that they were already acquainted with them in 1232." Among his many examples, we quote the follo« ing from the Books of the Ming Dynasty : " What were anciently called P'ao were all machines for hurling stones. In the beginning of the Mongol Dynasty (A. D. 1260), p'ao (catapults) of the Western regions were procured. In the siege [in 1233] of the city of Ts'ai chow of the Kin (Tatars), fire was for the first time employed (in these p'ao), but the art of making them was not handed down, and they were afterwards seldom used."—II. C.]
h
~
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.