Daughter of Xanadu (37 page)

S
UREN
: Fictional eldest son of Chimkin, born the same year as Emmajin.

T
ARA
: Buddhist goddess of compassion, revered by Tibetans and Mongolians.

T
ARTARS
: A word used by Europeans, especially Russians, to describe Mongols.

T
EMUR
: Son of Chimkin, who later became the sixth Great Khan, ruling from 1294 to 1307. The year of his birth is uncertain; it is either 1261 or 1265.

T
ENGRI
: Mongolian for “Eternal Heaven,” or “God.”

T
OLUI
: Chinggis Khan’s fourth son, father of Khubilai Khan.

V
ENEZIA
: Italian spelling of Venice.

X
ANADU
: Alternative spelling of Shangdu, the site of Khubilai Khan’s summer palace, due north of Khanbalik/Beijing. The name Shangdu means “Upper Capital” in Chinese. Today it is in ruins, located near the town of Duolun in Inner Mongolia. Marco Polo described it in great detail; various translations of his book spell the name “Chandu” and “Xandu.” In the famous poem “Kubla Khan,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, it was spelled “Xanadu,” which is the name most widely used in English.

Y
ANGTZE
R
IVER
: Main river in central China, known today as Chang Jiang (“Long River”). The Mongols called it Brius, or “Gold River,” for its upper reaches, the Jinsha River.

Y
ELLOW
R
IVER
: Main river in northern China. The Mongols called it Caramoran, meaning “Black River.”

Y
UAN DYNASTY
: An era of Chinese history when China was ruled by the Mongols. Khubilai Khan declared the Yuan dynasty in 1271, eleven years after he became Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. His heirs followed as emperors until the Yuan dynasty fell in 1368.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

After the long process of researching and writing this book, I have many people to thank, starting with my husband, Paul Yang, who suggested that I write a novel about Marco Polo. Week after week, I received great input and advice from my writing coach and teacher, Brenda Peterson, and the many in her class who read and commented on the book as it progressed, especially Leslie Helm, Susan Little, John Runyan, Mary Matsuda Gruenewald, Donna Sandstrom, Jennifer Haupt, Leigh Calvez, Trip Quillman, J. Kingston Pierce, Liz Gruenfeld, Liz Adams, Laurie Greig, Dan Keusal, Leska Fore, Susan Knox, and Sara Yamasaki.

For support and encouragement, I also want to thank my daughters, Emily and Serena, and my friends Rita Vesper, Katy Ehrlich, and Kathy Renner, as well as my fellow Mongolia explorers Jeanne DeMund, and Elton, Bonnie, and Erin Welke. Jeanne and I managed to locate the abandoned ruins of Xanadu, as well as the earlier capital of the Mongol Empire, Karakorum, and the mausoleum of Chinggis Khan. I am also grateful to Steven Yang, who created the map. Many other
friends and relatives encouraged me along the way, commented on early drafts, and endured long monologues about why the Mongol Empire mattered so much in history and why we can be confident that Marco Polo really did go to China.

I particularly want to thank my wonder-working agent, Michael Bourret, as well as Jane Dystel and Miriam Goderich of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, and my terrific editors, Michelle Poploff and Rebecca Short of Delacorte Press, who appreciated and enriched my vision for this book.

For information about the Mongol Empire, I read many books, the most useful of which was
Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times
, by Morris Rossabi. By and large, I have followed the spellings he prefers. Mongolian words and names are notoriously difficult for English speakers to pronounce correctly, so feel free to pronounce them as you wish! Both Emmajin and Suren are fictional, but many other characters in this book were real people. I tried to imagine and re-create them as accurately as historical records would allow. Any mistakes that remain are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dori Jones Yang sought out faraway places to research this book. In Mongolia, she drank
airag
in a
ger
, rode camels, and practiced archery. She located the almost-impossible-to-find ruins of Xanadu and investigated the site of Khubilai Khan’s palace at Khanbalik, now the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Originally from Ohio, she explored Asia as a foreign correspondent for
BusinessWeek
magazine, based in Hong Kong, for eight years. She studied history at Princeton, international relations at Johns Hopkins, and Mandarin Chinese in Singapore. Her first book, about Starbucks Coffee Company, was translated into ten languages, and her second book,
The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang
, which reveals the inner life of an immigrant girl from China, won two awards. She lives near Seattle with her Chinese husband, Paul Yang, who inspired this story of cross-cultural love.

Find out more at her website,
dorijonesyang.com
.