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.)