The Pulisangin River and Lugou Bridge (From the “Book of Marco Polo”): The History of Scholarship and a New Explanation

This article discusses problems connected with study of the 105th chapter of the “Book of Marco Polo”. The author focuses on the mysterious toponym “Pulisangin,” which, along with the Lugouqiao Bridge, became a central issue in the interpretation of the text. Attempts to decipher this toponym stretch back more than three hundred years. According to Khan Kublai’s entourage, it was based on the probable borrowing the Persian word “pul-i-sankin”. This idea formed the basis of most interpretations. Many well-known orientalists and sinologists (V. Marsden, G. Potier, G. Yul, P. Pellio, Feng Chenjun, Yu Qianfan, F. Wood, S. Hou) took it into account to a greater or lesser extent in their arguments and conclusions. After analyzing these accounts, the author presents his own conclusion, referring to Chinese historical materials. He argues that the mysterious toponym “Pulisangin” was a Chinese combination of proper names that reflected the specific realities of China of the thirteenth-century Yuan Era.