Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
NOTE 1.—There can be no doubt that this second chief city of
Carajan is TALI-FU, which was the capital of the Shan Kingdom
called by the Chinese Nan-Chao. This kingdom had subsisted in
Yun-nan since 738, and probably had embraced the upper part of
the Irawadi Valley. For the Chinese tell us it was also called
_Maung_, and it probably was identical with the Shan Kingdom of
Muang Maorong or of _Pong_, of which Captain Pemberton procured a
Chronicle. [In A.D. 650, the Ai-Lao, the most ancient name by which
the Shans were known to the Chinese, became the Nan-Chao. The Mêng
family ruled the country from the 7th century; towards the middle
of the 8th century, P’i-lo-ko, who is the real founder of the Thai
kingdom of Nan-Chao, received from the Chinese the title of King of
Yun-Nan and made T’ai-ho, 15 _lis_ south of Ta-li, his residence;
he died in 748. In A.D. 938, Twan Sze-ying, of an old Chinese
family, took Ta-li and established there an independent kingdom.
In 1115 embassies with China were exchanged, and the Emperor
conferred (1119) upon Twan Ch’êng-yn the title of King of Ta-li
(_Ta-li Kwo Wang_). Twan Siang-hing was the last king of Ta-li
(1239–1251). In 1252 the Kingdom of Nan-Chao was destroyed by the
Mongols; the Emperor She Tsu (Kúblái) gave the title of Maháraja
(_Mo-ho Lo-tso_) to Twan Hing-che (son of Twan Siang-hing), who had
fled to Yun-Nan fu and was captured there. Afterwards (1261) the
Twan are known as the eleven _Tsung-Kwan_ (governors); the last of
them, Twan Ming, was made a prisoner by an army sent by the Ming
Emperors, and sent to Nan-King (1381). (_E. H. Parker, Early Laos
and China, China Review_, XIX. and the _Old Thai or Shan Empire of
Western Yun-Nan_, _Ibid._, XX.; _E. Rocher, Hist. des Princes du
Yunnan, T’oung Pao_, 1899; _E. Chavannes, Une Inscription du roy.
de Nan Tchao, J.A._, November–December, 1900; _M. Tchang, Tableau
des Souverains de Nan-Tchao, Bul. Ecole Franç. d’Ext. Orient_, I.
No. 4.)—H. C.] The city of Ta-li was taken by Kúblái in 1253–1254.
The circumstance that it was known to the invaders (as appeals from
Polo’s statement) by the name of the province is an indication of
the fact that it was the capital of Carajan before the conquest.
[“That _Yachi_ and _Carajan_ represent Yünnan-fu and Tali, is
proved by topographical and other evidence of an overwhelming
nature. I venture to add one more proof, which seems to have been
overlooked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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