<P> Wood accused Marco Polo of taking other people's accounts in his book, retelling other stories as his own, or based his accounts on Persian guidebooks or other lost sources . For example, Sinologist Francis Woodman Cleaves noted that Polo's account of the voyage of the princess Kököchin from China to Persia to marry the Īl - khān in 1293 has been confirmed by a passage in the 15th - century Chinese work Yongle Encyclopedia and by the Persian historian Rashid - al - Din Hamadani in his work Jami' al - tawarikh . However neither of these accounts mentions Polo or indeed any European as part of the bridal party, and Wood used the lack of mention of Polo in these works as an example of Polo's "retelling of a well - known tale". Morgan, in Polo's defence, noted that even the princess herself was not mentioned in the Chinese source, and that it would have been surprising if Polo had been mentioned by Rashid - al - Din . Historian Igor de Rachewiltz argued that Marco Polo's account in fact allows the Persian and Chinese sources to be reconciled--by relaying the information that two of the three envoys sent (mentioned in the Chinese source and whose names accord with those given by Polo) had died during the voyage, it explains why only the third who survived, Coja / Khoja, was mentioned by Rashìd al - Dìn . Polo had therefore completed the story by providing information not found in either source . He also noted that the only Persian source that mentions the princess was not completed until 1310 - 11, therefore Marco Polo could not have learned the information from any Persian book . According to de Rachewiltz, the concordance of Polo's detailed account of the princess with other independent sources that gave only incomplete information is proof of the veracity of Polo's story and his presence in China . </P> <P> Morgan writes that since much of what The Book of Marvels has to say about China is "demonstrably correct" that to claim that Polo did not go to China "creates far more problems than it solves" and so that the "balance of probabilities" strongly suggests that Polo really did go to China, even if he exaggerated somewhat his importance in China . Haw dismisses the various anachronistic criticisms of Polo's accounts that started in the 17th century, and highlights Polo's accuracy in great part of his accounts, for example on the lay of the land such as the Grand Canal of China . "If Marco was a liar," Haw writes, "then he must have been an implausibly meticulous one ." </P> <P> In 2012, the University of Tübingen Sinologist and historian Hans Ulrich Vogel released a detailed analysis of Polo's description of currencies, salt production and revenues, and argued that the evidence supports his presence in China because he included details which he could not have otherwise known . Vogel noted that no other Western, Arab, or Persian sources have given such accurate and unique details about the currencies of China, for example, the shape and size of the paper, the use of seals, the various denominations of paper money as well as variations in currency usage in different regions of China, such as the use of cowry shells in Yunnan, details supported by archaeological evidence and Chinese sources compiled long after Polo's had left China . His accounts of salt production and revenues from the salt monopoly are also accurate, and accord with Chinese documents of the Yuan era . Economic historian Mark Elvin, in his preface to Vogel's 2013 monograph, concludes that Vogel "demonstrates by specific example after specific example the ultimately overwhelming probability of the broad authenticity" of Polo's account . Many problems were caused by the oral transmission of the original text and the proliferation of significantly different hand - copied manuscripts . For instance, did Polo exert "political authority" (seignora) in Yangzhou or merely "sojourn" (sejourna) there . Elvin concludes that "those who doubted, although mistaken, were not always being casual or foolish," but "the case as a whole had now been closed": the book is, "in essence, authentic, and, when used with care, in broad terms to be trusted as a serious though obviously not always final, witness ." </P> <P> Other lesser - known European explorers had already travelled to China, such as Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, but Polo's book meant that his journey was the first to be widely known . Christopher Columbus was inspired enough by Polo's description of the Far East to want to visit those lands for himself; a copy of the book was among his belongings, with handwritten annotations . Bento de Góis, inspired by Polo's writings of a Christian kingdom in the east, travelled 4,000 miles (6,400 km) in three years across Central Asia . He never found the kingdom but ended his travels at the Great Wall of China in 1605, proving that Cathay was what Matteo Ricci (1552--1610) called "China". </P>

Write a paragraph describing the impact the mongols had on the continent of asia