论文部分内容阅读
1271年,威尼斯商人马可·波罗前往中国,接受了忽必烈(即元世祖1215～1294)交给他的一些任务。这些任务看起来令人惊讶,实际上却是蒙古皇帝们普遍采用的政策,即雇用外国人来检查、督察和监视中国官员。马可·波罗之所以能胜任这份工作是因为他掌握了“几种语言和四种文字”。他显然懂得波斯文和蒙占文,也许还粗通土耳其文和阿拉伯文。……大汗曾几次派他到甘州、杭州去检查税收,最后还派他去了印度。此外.马可还担任过一次重要的职务:当了三年扬州总督。……
In 1271, Marco Polo, a merchant from Venice, traveled to China to accept some of the tasks entrusted to him by Kublai Khan (Ye Shizu 1215~1294). These tasks may seem surprising. Actually, they are generally adopted by the Mongolian emperors. They employ foreigners to inspect, supervise, and monitor Chinese officials. Marco Polo was able to do the job because he had mastered “a few languages and four words.” He apparently understands Persian and Mongolian and may also have a rough idea of Turkish and Arabic. ... Khan has sent him to Ganzhou and Hangzhou several times to check the tax, and finally sent him to India. In addition, Mark also served as an important position: when he was the governor of Yangzhou for three years. ......