But None Of The Translated Extracts From The
Burmese Chronicle Afford Corroboration.
From Sangermano's abstract,
however, we learn that the King of Panya from 1323 to 1343 was the son of
a daughter of the Emperor of China (p. 42).
I may also refer to
Pemberton's abstract of the Chronicle of the Shan State of Pong in the
Upper Irawadi valley, which relates that about the middle of the 14th
century the Chinese invaded Pong and took Maung Maorong, the capital.[3]
The Shan King and his son fled to the King of Burma for protection, but
the Burmese surrendered them and they were carried to China. (Report on
E. Frontier of Bengal, p. 112.)
I see no sufficient evidence as to whether Marco himself visited the "city
of Mien." I think it is quite clear that his account of the conquest is
from the merest hearsay, not to say gossip. Of the absurd story of the
jugglers we find no suggestion in the Chinese extracts. We learn from them
that Nasruddin had represented the conquest of Mien as a very easy task,
and Kublai may have in jest asked his gleemen if they would undertake it.
The haziness of Polo's account of the conquest contrasts strongly with his
graphic description of the rout of the elephants at Vochan. Of the latter
he heard the particulars on the spot (I conceive) shortly after the event;
whilst the conquest took place some years later than his mission to that
frontier. His description of the gold and silver pagodas with their
canopies of tinkling bells (the Burmese Hti), certainly looks like a
sketch from the life;[4] and it is quite possible that some negotiations
between 1277 and 1281 may have given him the opportunity of visiting
Burma, though he may not have reached the capital.
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