He carefully
watched the officers in his charge, and would tolerate no extortion of the
people. After droughts, famines or floods, he would enquire into the
condition of the people and liberally supply their needs, thus starting
them in life again. Polo ascribes all these virtues to the Khan himself.
Doubtless he possessed them in greater or less degree, but father and son
were one in all these benevolent enterprises." - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - The Chinese Annals, according to Pauthier and Gaubil, give only
ten sons to Kublai, at least by his legitimate wives; Hammer's Table
gives twelve. It is very probable that xxii. was an early clerical error
in the texts of Polo for xii. Dodeci indeed occurs in one MS. (No. 37 of
our Appendix F), though not one of much weight.
Of these legitimate sons Polo mentions, in different parts of his work,
five by name. The following is the list from Hammer and D'Ohsson, with the
Chinese forms from Pauthier in parentheses. The seven whose names are in
capitals had the title of Wang or "King" of particular territories, as
M. Pauthier has shown from the Chinese Annals, thus confirming Marco's
accuracy on that point.
I. Jurji or Dorje (Torchi). II. CHIMKIN or CHINGKIM (Yu Tsung, King of
Yen, i.e. Old Peking). III.
