In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan (review)

Abstract

84 China Review International: Vol. ?, No. ?, Spring 1994 John DeFrancis. In the Footsteps ofGenghis Khan Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993. ix, 284 pp. $29.95. John DeFrancis' book is a delightful throwback to the 1920s and 1930s when the kind ofadventurous voyage he describes was not only in vogue but also possible. In 1935, DeFrancis and his fellow traveler (in the literal, not the metaphorical, sense of the phrase) H. Desmond Martin journeyed through treacherous terrain in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Gansu during a six-month, 4,000-mile excursion simultaneously fraught with danger and yet enlivened by observations of rapturously beautiful sites. DeFrancis relished the adventure, but he also intended to explore and learn about the lives ofordinary Mongols and Muslim Turks as well as their traditionally hostile Chinese neighbors. He fulfilled his desire for excitement as he rode unruly camels, almost drowned rafting down the western reaches of the Yellow River, and battled thirst, hunger, and other deprivations. His zest for learning led to a fine scholarly career in East Asian studies. DeFrancis followed in a line of distinguished, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuryAmerican, not to mention European, Russian, and Japanese, travelers, adventurers, and explorers of Central Asia and Mongolia. The Englishman (though of Hungarian extraction) M. Aurei Stein, the Germans A. von LeCoq and A. Grünwedel, the Japanese Baron Otani, the Russian Kozlov, and the Frenchman Pelliot (whose exploits are colorfully described in Peter Hopkirk's Foreign Devils on the Silk Road [London, 1980] ) had already swept into Chinese Central Asia to excavate and export treasure troves of sculptures, paintings, textiles , and written texts which are now housed in the British Museum, the Hermitage , and the Musée Guimet. A decade or so before DeFrancis' journey, Roy Chapman Andrews, who could easilybe a prototype for the fictional Indiana Jones, had led an expedition to seemingly desolate stretches of the Gobi desert and had uncovered the remains of a Baluchitherium, the largest known land mammal, and the first dinosaur eggs ever found. Also, Owen Lattimore had begun his distinguished career by writing his Deserr Road to Turkestan, a highly popular account ofhis travels with a caravan along the old Silk Roads. Unlike some of these predecessors, DeFrancis did not intend to amass native artifacts copyright\994which might then be shipped to the U.S. Instead he yearned for adventure and by University ofsought an understanding of the peoples he encountered and the lands through Hawai'i Presswhich he traveled. Reviews 85 I must confess that, in addition to my own scholarly interest in the areas of DeFrancis'journey, I have a personal interest as well. The trip my father-in-law, John A. Herrmann, took in 1928 resembled DeFrancis' voyage. Like DeFrancis, he graduated from Yale with a wanderlust. Upon graduation, he and a close friend, Cecil Borg, agreed to meet in Delhi at a specific hotel on a specific day, with one traveling east from NewYork and the other west. Amazingly enough, they each arrived at the Delhi hotel on the appointed day at the appointed time. They then bought a car and were the first to travel through some ofthe most isolated regions ofAfghanistan in an automobile. The account of their journey, Rediscovering Genghis Khan (NewYork, 1937) is as charming as DeFrancis' work though not as well informed about the indigenous cultures and peoples. Sadly, Mr. Herrmann died in an airplane crash, and I, having written a biography of Khubilai Khan, never met a father-in-law who had "retraced" the steps of Genghis, Khubilai's grandfather. Unlike DeFrancis, Herrmann did not use his remarkable experience as a springboard for a career devoted to the study and understanding of the lands he visited as a young man. On the other hand, both DeFrancis and his traveling companion H. D. Martin have contributed to scholarship ,with DeFrancis focusing on the Chinese language and Martin writing The Rise ofChingis Khan and His ConquestofNorth China (Baltimore, 1950), a useful account ofearly Mongol militaryhistory and abook certainly enriched by the author's journey in 1935. Unlike his predecessors, DeFrancis reveals a social conscience and a concern for the people, not merely the objects,-of the region. He...