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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

THIBAUT DE CHEPOY.   I I

Lo-han No. 100 from a series of stone-engravings in the temple

T'ien-ning on the West Lake near Hang Chau. It will be noticed

that it agrees very well with the statue figured by M. Cordier.

In every respect it bears the features of an Indian Lo-han,

with one exception, and this is the curious hat. This, in fact,

is the only Lo-han among the five hundred that is equipped with

a headgear ; and the hat, as is well known, is not found in India.

This hat must represent a more or less arbitrary addition of the

Chinese artist who created the group, and it is this hat which

led to the speculations regarding the Portuguese sailor or Marco

Polo. Certain it is also that such a type of hat does not occur in

China ; but it seems idle to speculate as to its origin, as long as

we have no positive information on the intentions of the artist.

The striped mantle of the Lo-han is by no means singular, for it

occurs with seventeen others. The facts simply amount to this,

that the figure in question does not represent a Portuguese sailor

or Marco Polo or any other European, but solely an Indian

Lo-han (Arhat), while the peculiar hat remains to be explained.

Introduction, p. 92.

THIBAUT DE CHEPOY.

Thibaut de Chepoy (Chepoy, canton of Breteuil, Oise), son of

the knight Jean de Chepoy, was one of the chief captains of King

Philip the Fair. He entered the king's service in 1285 as squire

and valet ; went subsequently to Robert d'Artois, who placed

him in charge of the castle of Saint Orner, and took him, in 1296,

to Gascony to fight the English. He was afterwards grand

master of the cross-bow men. He then entered the service of

Charles de Valois, brother of Philip the Fair, who sent him to

Constantinople to support the claims to the throne of his wife,

Catherine of Courtenay. Thibaut left Paris on the 9th Sept., 1306,

passed through Venice, where he met Marco Polo who gave him a

copy of his manuscript. Thibaut died between 22nd May, 1311,

and 22nd March, 1312. (See Joseph PETIT, in Le Moyen Age,

Paris, 1897, pp. 224-239.)

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