Chapter Chinese Research on Marco Polo’s Devisement dou monde: an overview

Overview & Synopsis

Introduced in the 19th century, Marco Polo’s Devisement dou monde was utilized by Chinese historians to reconstruct China’s past and Silk Road history. This paper surveys the evolution of Chinese scholarship on it over the past century through three stages: early efforts (pre-1983) focused on translations and initial verifications; the middle phase (1983–2010) addressed skepticism with rigorous historical-geographic analyses; and the current era (post-2011) integrates philology, archaeology, and multilingual sources, fostering global collaborations. The study underscores China’s shift from reliance on Western translations to critical engagement with manuscripts and calls for deeper synergy between Asian historical expertise and European textual criticism to advance Polo studies worldwide.