BOOK II.

PART I.—THE KAAN, HIS COURT AND CAPITAL.

CHAPTER I.

OF CUBLAY KAAN, THE GREAT KAAN NOW REIGNING, AND OF HIS GREAT PUISSANCE.

Now am I come to that part of our Book in which I shall tell you of the great and wonderful magnificence of the Great Kaan now reigning, by name CUBLAY KAAN; Kaan being a title which signifyeth "The Great Lord of Lords," or Emperor. And of a surety he hath good right to such a title, for all men know for a certain truth that he is the most potent man, as regards forces and lands and treasure, that existeth in the world, or ever hath existed from the time of our First Father Adam until this day. All this I will make clear to you for truth, in this book of ours, so that every one shall be fain to acknowledge that he is the greatest Lord that is now in the world, or ever hath been. And now ye shall hear how and wherefore.'

NOTE 1.-According to Sanang Setzen, Chinghiz himself discerned young Kublai's superiority. On his deathbed he said: "The words of the lad Kublai are well worth attention; see, all of you, that ye heed what he says! One day he will sit in my seat and bring you good fortune such as you have had in my day!" (p. 105).

The Persian history of Wassáf thus exalts Kublai: "Although from the frontiers of this country ('Irák) to the Centre of Empire, the Focus of the Universe, the genial abode of the ever-Fortunate Emperor and Just Kaan, is a whole year's journey, yet the stories that have been spread abroad, even in these parts, of his glorious deeds, his institutes,

his decisions, his justice, the largeness and acuteness of his intellect, his correctness of judgment, his great powers of administration, from the mouths of credible witnesses, of well-known merchants and eminent travellers, are so surpassing, that one beam of his glories, one fraction of his great qualities, suffices to eclipse all that history tells of the Cæsars of Rome, of the Chosroes of Persia, of the Khagans of China, of the (Himyarite) Kails of Arabia, of the Tobbas of Yemen, and the Rajas of India, of the monarchs of the houses of Sassan and Búya, and of the Seljukian Sultans." (Hammer's Wassaf, orig. p. 37.)

Some remarks on Kublai and his government by a Chinese author, in a more rational and discriminative tone, will be found below under chapter xxiii., note 2.

A curious Low-German MS. at Cologne, giving an account of the East, says of the "Keyser von Kathagien-syn recht Name is der groisse Hunt" (Magnus Canis, the Big Bow-wow as it were ;-see Orient und Occident, vol. I., p. 640).

CHAPTER II.

CONCERNING THE REVOLT OF NAYAN, WHO WAS UNCLE TO THE GREAT KAAN CUBLAY.

Now this Cublay Kaan is of the right Imperial lineage, being descended from Chinghis Kaan, the first sovereign of all the Tartars. And he is the sixth Lord in that succession, as I have already told you in this book. He came to the throne in the year of Christ 1256, and the Empire fell to him because of his ability and valour and great worth, as was right and reason.' His brothers, indeed, and other kinsmen disputed his claim, but his it remained, both because maintained by his great valour, and because it was in law and right his, as being directly sprung of the Imperial line.

Up to the year of Christ now running, to wit 1298, he hath reigned two and forty years, and his age is about eighty-five, so that he must have been about forty-three years of age when he first came to the throne. Before that time he had often been to the wars, and had shown himself a gallant soldier and an excellent captain. But

after coming to the throne he never went to the wars in person save once.3 This befel in the This befel in the year of Christ 1286,

and I will tell you why he went.

There was a great Tartar Chief, whose name was NAYAN, a young man [of thirty], Lord over many lands and many provinces; and he was Uncle to the Emperor Cublay Kaan of whom we are speaking. And when he found himself in authority this Nayan waxed proud in the insolence of his youth and his great power; for indeed he could bring into the field 300,000 horsemen, though all the time he was liegeman to his nephew the Great Kaan Cublay as was right and reason. Seeing then what great power he had, he took it into his head that he would be the Great Kaan's vassal no longer; nay more, he would fain wrest his empire from him if he could. So this Nayan sent envoys to another Tartar Prince called CAIDU, also a great and potent Lord, who was a kinsman of his, and who was a nephew of the Great Kaan and his lawful liegeman also, though he was in rebellion and at bitter enmity with his sovereign Lord and Uncle. Now the message that Nayan sent was this: That he himself was making ready to march against the Great Kaan with all his forces (which were great), and he begged Caidu to do likewise from his side, so that by attacking Cublay on two sides at once with such great forces they would be able to wrest his dominion from him.

And when Caidu heard the message of Nayan, he was right glad thereat, and thought the time was come at last to gain his object. So he sent back answer that he would do as requested; and got ready his host, which mustered a good hundred thousand horsemen.

Now let us go back to the Great Kaan, who had news of all this plot.

NOTE 1.-There is no doubt that Kublai was proclaimed Kaan in 1260 (4th month), his brother Mangku Kaan having perished during the

siege of Hochau in Ssechwan in August of the preceding year. But Kublai had come into Cathay some years before as his brother's Lieutenant.

He was the fifth, not sixth, Supreme Kaan, as we have already noticed (Book I. ch. li. note 2).

NOTE 2.-Kublai was born in the eighth month of the year corre sponding to 1216, and had he lived to 1298 would have been 82 years old. But by Mahomedan reckoning he would have been close upon 85. He was the fourth son of Tuli, who was the youngest of Chinghiz's four sons by his favourite wife Burté Fujin. (See Demailla, IX. 255, &c.).

NOTE 3.-This is not literally true; for soon after his accession (in 1261) Kublai led an army against his brother and rival Arikbuga, and defeated him. And again in his old age, if we credit the Chinese annalist, in 1289, when his grandson Kanmala (or Kambala) was beaten on the northern frontier by Kaidu, Kublai took the field himself, though on his approach the rebels disappeared.

Kublai and his brother Hulaku, young as they were, commenced their military career on Chinghiz's last expedition (1226-27). notable campaign was the conquest of Yunnan in 1253-54. IX. 298, 441.)

His most (Demailla,

NOTE 4.-NAYAN was no uncle" of Kublai's, but a cousin in a junior generation. For Kublai was the grandson of Chinghiz, and Nayan was the great-great-grandson of Chinghiz's brother Uchegin, called in the Chinese annals Pilgutai. On this brother, the great-uncle of Kublai, and the commander of the latter's forces against Arikbuga in the beginning of the reign, both Chinghiz and Kublai had bestowed large territories in Eastern Tartary towards the frontier of Corea, and north of Leaotong towards the Manchu country. Nayan had added to his inherited territory, and become very powerful. Kaidu had gained influence over Nayan, and persuaded him to rise against Kublai. A number of the other Mongol princes took part with him. Kublai was much disquieted at the rumours, and sent his great lieutenant BAYAN to reconnoitre. Bayan was nearly captured, but escaped to court and reported to his master the great armament that Nayan was preparing. Kublai succeeded by diplomacy in detaching some of the princes from the enterprise, and resolved to march in person to the scene of action, whilst despatching Bayan to the Karakorum frontier to intercept Kaidu. This was in the summer of 1287. What followed will be found in a subsequent note (chap. iv. note 6). For Nayan's descent, see the Genealogical Table in the Appendix (A).