Mystery of the disappearing great books

All the previous records that included the character would be applied, including their references and authors, so many later scholars relied on the canon to collect lost documents, which became one of the canon's most significant aspects.

It has also provided an argument that the Venetian merchant and traveler Marco Polo (1254-1324) did indeed visit China, something that is a matter of dispute, says Yang Yinmin, a research librarian at the National Library of China.

According to The Travels of Marco Polo, after living in China for 17 years, Polo proposed returning home but was rejected by Kublai Khan, emperor of the Yuan Dynasty at the time.

However, together with his family, Polo escorted three envoys to Persia and eventually returned home.

This account and the names of the three envoys were matched against the record in the 19,418th roll of the canon, persuasive evidence that Polo had been to China, Yang says.