1270, second moon. Kublai inspects a court pageant
prepared by Puh-lo and others.
B. Chap. 7, p. 6-1/2: 1270, twelfth moon. The yue-shi chung-ch'eng
(censor) Puh-lo made also President of the Ta-sz-nung department. One of
the ministers protested that there was no precedent for a censor holding
this second post. Kublai insisted.
C. Chap. 8, p. 16-1/2: 1275, second moon. Puh-lo and another sent to look
into the Customs taxation question in Tangut.
D. Chap. 8, p. 22-1/2: 1275, fourth moon. The Ta-sz-nung and yue-shi
chung-ch'eng Puh-lo promoted to be yue-shi ta-fu.
E. Chap. 9, p. 11-2/2: 1276, seventh moon. The Imperial Prince Puh-lo
given a seal.
F. Chap. 9, p. 16-2/2: 1277, second moon. The Ta-sz-nung and yue-shi
ta-fu, Puh-lo, being also suean-wei-shi and Court Chamberlain, promoted
to be shu-mih fu-shi, and also suean-hwei-shi and Court Chamberlain.
"The words shu-mih fu-shi the Chinese characters for which are given on
p. 569 of M. Cordier's second volume, precisely mean 'Second-class
Commissioner attached to the Privy Council,' and hence it is clear that
Pauthier was totally mistaken in supposing the censor of 1270 to have been
Marco. Of course the Imperial Prince Puh-lo is not the same person as the
censor, nor is it clear who the (1) pageant and (2) Tangut Puh-los were,
except that neither could possibly have been Marco, who only arrived in
May - the third moon - at the very earliest.
