Note from the Author
For those who would like to read more about Marco Polo’s journey to Asia, Marco Polo, From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen is a very readable history. Also, two books by John Man, Xanadu, Marco Polo and Europe’s discovery of the East, and Marco Polo, the Journey that Changed the World are a mixture of travel writing and history, giving a rich personal account of the author following Polo’s footsteps across Asia.
A 16th century Chinese novel called, Fengshen Yanyi, (usually translated as Investiture of the Gods) recounts of the last days of the Shang dynasty and the war that resulted in the overthrow of King Zhou Xin. The novel is quite lengthy, about a hundred chapters, and a great deal of it involves the battles that led to the establishment of the Chou dynast
