加布里埃尔·卡佩基
摘要
《世界记述》——马可·波罗的旅行叙事(译者注:即《马可·波罗游记》)——呈现出生动的自然主义描述,同时包含对中国植物的好奇。在与欧洲的交流中,柑橘类水果的作用尤为突出,这些水果由泉州方济会修士为药用目的送往托斯卡纳。
与亚里士多德的宇宙论相反(Grant,1993),《世界记述》(《马可·波罗游记》)描绘了一个远在恒河极端边界之外(Cornish,1993)、植被丰富的南半球,丰富到要用泰奥弗拉斯托斯(Theophrastus)[1]的植物学知识来分类(Repici,2009, pp.77-94)。1303年,彼得罗·达巴诺(Pietro d'Abano)[2]通过乔凡尼·达·孟高维诺(Giovanni da Montecorvino)[3]遇见马可·波罗(Jensen,1997),确认了他的自然学著作(Bottin,2008)——《差异调停者》(Conciliator Differentiarum)[4]中描述的“独角兽”实为犀牛。因此,他预见了现代支持威尼斯旅行家(马可·波罗)的论点(Huang, 1986; De Rachewiltz, 1997; Tucci, 1997; Haw, 2006, pp. 1-7; Vogel, 2013, pp.1-11),同时驳斥了修正派的观点(Wood,1995)——后者将《世界记述》文本看作是波罗家族先前与拜占庭及蒙古东方的往来渊源(Jacoby,2006),或者是波斯语(当时陆上丝绸之路的“通用语”)日记体文献(Haeger,1978; Huang, 1986; Haw,2014)。关于波罗记述的植物(Bretschneider, 1898, I, pp.1-5),游记文本确实应用了分类标准:这些植物品种是否生长于同时代的威尼斯领地,是否与已知样本相似,或完全不同。
相关记载(Corna Pellegrini, 2005)始于波斯吉罗夫特附近的卡曼迪(the Persian Qamādīn near Jiroft)(Polo, 1903, I,p. 97;Le Strange, 1905, p. 314; Barthold, 1984, p.141)。马可·波罗记载此地有一种‘香橼果'(Citrus aurata)——约1223年十字军东征时期(De Vitry, 1527,pp.170-171),因外果皮带独特纹路而闻名(Capecchi, 2017,pp.576-578)——进而转向如今柑橘栽培更兴盛的福建地区。
在汉代,与南岛民族的海上贸易促进了中国南部大型港口的建设,更重要的是引入了果树和香料——黑胡椒、肉豆蔻、姜——以及本地作物大黄、肉桂、樟脑。波罗偶尔不自觉地偏离了正题:忽必烈在上都夏季亭阁中使用“竹竿”(Shatzman Steinhardt, 2024,pp.104-115)、蒙古人对米酒的滥用,或高粱在元代文明中的价值(Polo, 1903, II, p.24)。对中国茶道的描述被遗漏,可能是由于茹斯提切罗(Rusticello)的忽略,但波罗游记文本也证明了农业上的卓越,如桑树在丝绸生产周期中的应用,以及树皮用于造纸。
波罗特别关注刺桐(即泉州),一个新石器时代就已存在的海港,活跃数个世纪——通往大秦的路线(Jenkins, 2008,pp.64–68)或波罗家族返回西方的旅程——直至宋代修建船厂,这里制造了巨大的昆仑舶和远洋帆船(Manguin,1993)。巨大的码头——1345年伊本·白图泰(Ibn Baṭṭūṭa)[5]提及有150万艘船只——以及多民族背景吸引了乔凡尼·达·孟高维诺,他于1308年在此建立教区(Huc,1857-1858,I,pp.391-397),十年后扩建为修道院,并可能设有贫民医院,由帝国资助(Polo,1903,I,p.444)。多种疾病通过陈皮治疗(Xu et al., 2002,pp.272–273),其中包含活性物质,取自“柑橘”或类似本的地品种(Hagerty, 1923,pp.74-79)——包括海红柑、朱橘(朱沙橘)、甜橘——尤其是“柳橙”。这种水果的踪迹可在比萨圣克罗切修道院(Santa Croce in Fossabanda)找到——14世纪中期从刺桐为药用目的传入——该标本于1674年被科西莫三世·德·美第奇(Cosimo III de’ Medici)的御用植物学家保罗·博科内(Paolo Boccone)重新发现,归入托斯卡纳大公宫廷珍藏,继而由巴托洛梅奥·比姆比(Bartolomeo Bimbi)在1715年前绘制成图。
[1]译者注:古希腊生物学家、逻辑学家。
[2]译者注:意大利哲学家、医学家。
[3]译者注:方济会修士,罗马教廷首任驻元朝大主教。
[4]译者注:中世纪医学与哲学文献,旨在调和不同学派在医学和哲学上的分歧。
[5]译者注:摩洛哥著名穆斯林学者和旅行家
加布里埃尔·卡佩基。
参考资料
- Barthold, W. (1984). An historical Geography of Iran. Princeton (N.J.): Princeton University Press.
- Blench, R.M. (2005). Fruits and arboriculture in the Indo-Pacific region. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association. 24, 31-50.
- Bottin, F. (2008). Pietro D’Abano, Marco Polo e Giovanni da Montecorvino. Medicina nei secoli. Arte e scienza. 20 (2), 507-526.
- Bretschneider, E. (1898). History of European botanical discoveries in China. 2 volumes. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co.
- Capecchi, G. (2017). L’agrumicoltura di area musulmana e delle civiltà asiatiche nell’Occidente mediterraneo. Atti e Memorie dell’Accademia Toscana di scienze e lettere La Colombaria. 82 (2017), 529-583.
- Capecchi, G. (2022). Giardini di agrumi nella Versilia del Cinquecento. Pisa: due allestimenti botanici per Cosimo I. Bollettino ingegneri. 4 (2022), 5-25.
- Corna Pellegrini, G. (2005). La geografia di Marco Polo, oggi. In Gino De Vecchis (Ed.), Verso l’altro e l’altrove. La geografia di Marco Polo, oggi. Roma: Carocci, 13-40.
- Cornish, A. (1993). Dante’s moral cosmology. In Norriss S. Hetherington (Ed.), Encyclopedia of cosmology. Historical, philosophical, and scientific foundations of modern cosmology (1st ed.). London: Routledge, 139-148.
- De Rachewiltz, I. (1997). Marco Polo went to China. Zentralasiatische Studien. 27, 34-92.
- De Vitry, J. (1527). Historia Hierosolymitana. Douai: Ex Officina typografica Balthazaris Belleri.
- Dunn, R.E. (2012). The Adventures of Ibn Battuta. A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century. Oakland: University of California Press.
- Grant, E. (1993). Medieval cosmology. In Norriss S. Hetherington (Ed.), Cosmology. Historical, literary, philosophical, religious, and scientific perspectives. New York: Garland Publishing, 181-199.
- Haeger, J.W. (1978). Marco Polo in China? Problems with internal evidence. Bulletin of Sung and Yüan Studies. 14, 22-30.
- Hagerty, M.J. (1923). Han Yen-chih’s Chü Lu (Monograph of the Oranges of Wen-chou, Chekiang). T’oung Pao. 22 (2), 63-96.
- Haw, S.G. (2006). Marco Polo’s China. A Venetian in the realm of Khubilai Khan. London: Routledge.
- Haw, S.G. (2014). The Persian Language in Yuan-Dinasty China: A Rappraisal. East Asian History. 39, 5-32.
- Huang, S. (1986). The Persian language in China during the Yüan dynasty. Papers on Far Eastern History. 34, 83–95.
- Huc, E. (1857-1858). Le christianisme en Chine, en Tartarie et au Thibet. 4 volumes. Paris: Gaume Fréres.
- Jacoby, D. (2006). Marco Polo, His Close Relatives and His Travel Account: Some New Insights. Mediterranean Historical Review. 21 (2), 193-218.
- Jenkins, P. (2008). The Lost History of Christianity: the Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia – and How It Died. New York: Harper Collins.
- Jensen J. (1997). The World’s most diligent observer. Asiatische Studien. 51 (3), 719-727.
- Laufer, B. (1919). Sino-Iranica: Chinese Contributions to the History of Civilization in Ancient Iran. Publications of the Field Museum of Natural History. Anthropological Series. 15 (3), 185-597, 599-630.
- Le Strange, G. (1905). Lands of the Eastern Caliphate. Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia, from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur. Cambridge: University Press.
- Manguin, P.-Y. (1993). Trading Ships of the South China Sea. Shipbuilding Techniques and Their Role in the History of the Development of Asian Trade Networks. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 36 (3), 253–280.
- Polo M. (1903). The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East (3rd ed.). Henry Yule (Ed.), 2 volumes. London: John Murray.
- Repici L. (2009). Il De plantis pseudo-aristotelico nella traduzione antica e medievale. In Agostino Paravicini Bagliani (Ed.), Le monde végétal. Médecine, botanique, symbolique, Firenze: Sismel.
- Shatzman Steinhardt, N. (2024). Yuan. Chinese Architecture in a Mongol Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Tucci, U. (1997). Marco Polo. Andò veramente in Cina? Studi Veneziani. 33 (1997), 49-59.
- Vogel, H.U. (2013). Marco Polo Was in China. Leiden: Brill.
- Wood, F. (1995). Did Marco Polo Go To China? London: Secker & Warburg.
- Xu, L. – Wang., W. (2002). Chinese Materia Medica: Combinations and Applications. Potters Bar (UK): Donica Publishing.
