Of the Sung Dynasty at the
time when the Mongols conquered Cathay or Northern China from the Kin, not
only by Marco, but by Odoric and John Marignolli, as well as by the
Persian writers, who, however, more commonly call it Machin. I imagine
that some confusion between the two words led to the appropriation of the
latter name, also to Southern China. The term Man-tzu or Man-tze
signifies "Barbarians" ("Sons of Barbarians"), and was applied, it is
said, by the Northern Chinese to their neighbours on the south, whose
civilisation was of later date.[1] The name is now specifically applied
to a wild race on the banks of the Upper Kiang. But it retains its
mediaeval application in Manchuria, where Mantszi is the name given to
the Chinese immigrants, and in that use is said to date from the time of
Kublai. (Palladius in J.R.G.S. vol. xlii. p. 154.) And Mr. Moule
has found the word, apparently used in Marco's exact sense, in a Chinese
extract of the period, contained in the topography of the famous Lake of
Hang-chau (infra, ch. lxxvi.-lxxvii.)
Though both Polo and Rashiduddin call the Karamoran the boundary between
Cathay and Manzi, it was not so for any great distance. Ho-nan belonged
essentially to Cathay.
[1] Magaillans says the Southerns, in return, called the Northerns
Pe-tai, "Fools of the North"!
CHAPTER LXV.
