CHAPTER VI.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN WENT BACK TO THE CITY OF CAMBALUC.

And after the Great Kaan had defeated Nayan in the way you have heard,

he went back to his capital city of Cambaluc and abode there, taking

his ease and making festivity. And the other Tartar Lord called Caydu

was greatly troubled when he heard of the defeat and death of Nayan,

and held himself in readiness for war; but he stood greatly in fear of

being handled as Nayan had been.{1}

I told you that the Great Kaan never went on a campaign but once, and

it was on this occasion; in all other cases of need he sent his sons

or his barons into the field. But this time he would have none go in

command but himself, for he regarded the presumptuous rebellion of

Nayan as far too serious and perilous an affair to be otherwise dealt

with.

NOTE 1.—Here Ramusio has a long and curious addition. Kúblái, it

says, remained at Cambaluc till March, “in which our Easter occurs;

and learning that this was one of our chief festivals, he summoned

all the Christians, and bade them bring with them the Book of

the Four Gospels. This he caused to be incensed many times with

great ceremony, kissing it himself most devoutly, and desiring

all the barons and lords who were present to do the same. And he

always acts in this fashion at the chief Christian festivals,

such as Easter and Christmas. And he does the like at the chief

feasts of the Saracens, Jews, and Idolaters. On being asked why,

he said: ‘There are Four Prophets worshipped and revered by all

the world. The Christians say their God is Jesus Christ; the

Saracens, Mahommet; the Jews, Moses; the Idolaters, Sogomon Borcan

[_Sakya-Muni Burkhan_ or Buddha], who was the first god among the

idols; and I worship and pay respect to all four, and pray that

he among them who is greatest in heaven in very truth may aid

me.’ But the Great Khan let it be seen well enough that he held

the Christian Faith to be the truest and best—for, as he says, it

commands nothing that is not perfectly good and holy. But he will

not allow the Christians to carry the Cross before them, because on

it was scourged and put to death a person so great and exalted as

Christ.

“Some one may say: ‘Since he holds the Christian faith to be best,

why does he not attach himself to it, and become a Christian?’

Well, this is the reason that he gave to Messer Nicolo and Messer

Maffeo, when he sent them as his envoys to the Pope, and when they

sometimes took occasion to speak to him about the faith of Christ.

He said: ‘How would you have me to become a Christian? You see that

the Christians of these parts are so ignorant that they achieve

nothing and can achieve nothing, whilst you see the Idolaters can

do anything they please, insomuch that when I sit at table the

cups from the middle of the hall come to me full of wine or other

liquor without being touched by anybody, and I drink from them.

They control storms, causing them to pass in whatever direction

they please, and do many other marvels; whilst, as you know, their

idols speak, and give them predictions on whatever subjects they

choose. But if I were to turn to the faith of Christ and become a

Christian, then my barons and others who are not converted would

say: “What has moved you to be baptised and to take up the faith of

Christ? What powers or miracles have you witnessed on His part?”

(You know the Idolaters here say that their wonders are performed

by the sanctity and power of their idols.) Well, I should not know

what answer to make; so they would only be confirmed in their

errors, and the Idolaters, who are adepts in such surprising arts,

would easily compass my death. But now you shall go to your Pope,

and pray him on my part to send hither an hundred men skilled in

your law, who shall be capable of rebuking the practices of the

Idolaters to their faces, and of telling them that they too know

how to do such things but will not, because they are done by the

help of the devil and other evil spirits, and shall so control the

Idolaters that these shall have no power to perform such things in

their presence. When we shall witness this we will denounce the

Idolaters and their religion, and then I will receive baptism; and

when I shall have been baptised, then all my barons and chiefs

shall be baptised also, and their followers shall do the like, and

thus in the end there will be more Christians here than exist in

your part of the world!’

“And if the Pope, as was said in the beginning of this book, had

sent men fit to preach our religion, the Grand Kaan would have

turned Christian; for it is an undoubted fact that he greatly

desired to do so.”

In the simultaneous patronage of different religions, Kúblái

followed the practice of his house. Thus Rubruquis writes of his

predecessor Mangku Kaan: “It is his custom, on such days as his

diviners tell him to be festivals, or any of the Nestorian priests

declare to be holydays, to hold a court. On these occasions the

Christian priests enter first with their paraphernalia, and pray

for him, and bless his cup. They retire, and then come the Saracen

priests and do likewise; the priests of the Idolaters follow. He

all the while believes in none of them, though they all follow his

court as flies follow honey. He bestows his gifts on all of them,

each party believes itself to be his favourite, and all prophesy

smooth things to him.” Abulfaragius calls Kúblái “a just prince and

a wise, who loved Christians and honoured physicians of learning,

whatsoever their nation.”

There is a good deal in Kúblái that reminds us of the greatest

prince of that other great Mongol house, Akbar. And if we trusted

the first impression of the passage just quoted from Ramusio, we

might suppose that the grandson of Chinghiz too had some of that

real wistful regard towards the Lord Jesus Christ, of which we seem

to see traces in the grandson of Baber. But with Kúblái, as with

his predecessors, religion seems to have been only a political

matter; and this aspect of the thing will easily be recognised in

a re-perusal of his conversation with Messer Nicolas and Messer

Maffeo. The Kaan must be obeyed; how man shall worship God is

indifferent; this was the constant policy of his house in the days

of its greatness. Kúblái, as Koeppen observes, the first of his

line to raise himself above the natural and systematic barbarism

of the Mongols, probably saw in the promotion of Tibetan Buddhism,

already spread to some extent among them, the readiest means of

civilising his countrymen. But he may have been quite sincere

in saying what is here ascribed to him in _this_ sense, viz.:

that if the Latin Church, with its superiority of character and

acquirement, had come to his aid as he had once requested, he would

gladly have used _its_ missionaries as his civilising instruments

instead of the Lamas and their trumpery. (_Rubr._ 313; _Assemani_,

III. pt. ii. 107; _Koeppen_, II. 89, 96.)