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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

6   INTRODUCTORY NOTICES.

of the ministers protested that there was no precedent for a censor hold-

ing this second post. Kúblái insisted.

3.  Chap. 8, p. 162 : 1275, second moon. Puh-lo and anyther sent

to look into the Customs taxation question in Tangut.

4.  Chap. 8, p. 2 2.1-- : 1275, fourth moon. The Ta-sz-nung and

yii-shï Chung-ch'êng Puh-lo promoted to be yü-shï ta fu.

5.  Chap. 9, p. I I : 1276, seventh moon. The Imperial Prince

Puh-lo given a seal.

P. Chap. 9, p. 162 : 1277, second moon. The Ta-sz-nung and yü-shï

ta fu, Puh-lo, being also siian-wei-shi and Court Chamberlain, promoted

to be shu-mih fu-shi, and also siian-hwei-shi and Court Chamberlain.

" The words shu-mih fu-shí, the Chinese characters for which

are given on p. 569 of M. Cordier's second volume, precisely

mean ` Second-class Commissioner attached to the Privy

Council,' and hence it is clear that Pauthier was totally mistaken

in supposing the censor of 1270 to have been Marco. Of course

the Imperial Prince Puh-lo is not the same person as the censor,

nor is it clear who the (I) pageant and (2) Tangut Puh-los were,

except that neither could possibly have been Marco, who only

arrived in May the third moon at the very earliest.

" In the first moon of 1281 some gold, silver, and bank-notes

were handed to Puh-lo for the relief of the poor. In the second

moon of 1282, just before the assassination of Achmed, the words

Puh-lo the Minister ' (ch'êng-siang) are used in connection with

a case of fraud. In the seventh moon of 1282 (after the fall of

Achmed) the ` Mongol man Puh-lo ' was placed in charge of some

gold-washings in certain towers of the then Flu Péh (now in Hu

Nan). In the ninth moon of the same year a commission was

sent to take official possession of all the gold-yielding places in

Yin Nan, and Puh-lo was appointed darugachi (= governor) of

the mines. In this case it is not explicitly stated (though it

would appear most likely) that the two gold superintendents

were the same man ; if they were, then neither could have been

Marco, who certainly was no ` Mongol man.' Otherwise there

would be a great temptation to identify this event with the

mission to ` una città, detta Carazan ' of the Ramusio Text.

" There is, however, one man who may possibly be Marco, and

that is the Poh-lo who was probably with Kúblái at Chagan Nor

when the news of Achmed's murder by Wang Chu arrived there

in the third moon of i 282. The Emperor at once left for Shang-tu

(i.e. K'ai p'ing Fu, north of Dolonor), and ` ordered the shu-mih

fu-shi Poh-lo [with two other statesmen] to proceed with Ell