11-13), "In
The Documents Of The Mongol Period On The Burial-Places Of Chingiz Khan
And Of The Khans Who Succeeded Him.
The Yuan-shi or 'History of the
Mongol Dynasty in China,' in speaking of the burial of the Khans, mentions
only that they used to be conveyed from Peking to the north, to their
common burial-ground in the K'i-lien Valley.
This name cannot have
anything in common with the ancient K'i-lien of the Hiung-nu, a hill
situated to the west of the Mongol desert; the K'i-lien of the Mongols
is to be sought more to the east. When Khubilai marched out against Prince
Nayan, and reached the modern Talnor, news was received of the occupation
of the Khan's burial-ground by the rebels. They held out there very long,
which exceedingly afflicted Khubilai [Yuan shi lui pien]; and this goes
to prove that the tombs could not be situated much to the west. Some more
positive information on this subject is found in the diary of the campaign
in Mongolia in 1410, of the Ming Emperor Yung-lo [Pe ching lu]. He
reached the Kerulen at the place where this river, after running south,
takes an easterly direction. The author of the diary notes, that from a
place one march and a half before reaching the Kerulen, a very large
mountain was visible to the north-east, and at its foot a solitary high
and pointed hillock, covered with stones. The author says, that the
sovereigns of the house of Yuan used to be buried near this hill. It may
therefore be plausibly supposed that the tombs of the Mongol Khans were
near the Kerulen, and that the 'K'i-lien' of the Yuan shi is to be
applied to this locality; it seems to me even, that K'i-lien is an
abbreviation, customary to Chinese authors, of Kerulen. The way of burying
the Mongol Khans is described in the Yuan shi (ch. 'On the national
religious rites of the Mongols'), as well as in the Ch'ue keng lu,
'Memoirs of the time of the Yuan Dynasty.' When burying, the greatest care
was taken to conceal from outside people the knowledge of the locality of
the tomb. With this object in view, after the tomb was closed, a drove of
horses was driven over it, and by this means the ground was, for a
considerable distance, trampled down and levelled. It is added to this
(probably from hearsay) in the Ts'ao mu tze Memoirs (also of the time of
the Yuan Dynasty), that a young camel used to be killed (in the presence
of its mother) on the tomb of the deceased Khan; afterwards, when the time
of the usual offerings of the tomb approached, the mother of this
immolated camel was set at liberty, and she came crying to the place where
it was killed; the locality of the tomb was ascertained in this way."
The Archimandrite Palladius adds in a footnote: "Our well-known Mongolist
N. Golovkin has told us, that according to a story actually current among
the Mongols, the tombs of the former Mongol Khans are situated near
Tasola Hill, equally in the vicinity of the Kerulen. He states also that
even now the Mongols are accustomed to assemble on that hill on the seventh
day of the seventh moon (according to an ancient custom), in order to adore
Chingiz Khan's tomb. Altan tobchi (translated into Russian by Galsan
Gomboeff), in relating the history of the Mongols after their expulsion
from China, and speaking of the Khans' tombs, calls them Naiman tzagan
gher, i.e. 'Eight White Tents' (according to the number of chambers for
the souls of the chief deceased Khans in Peking), and sometimes simply
Tzagan gher, 'the White Tent,' which, according to the translator's
explanation, denotes only Chingiz Khan's tomb."
"According to the Chinese Annals (T'ung kien kang mu), quoted by Dr. E.
Bretschneider (Med. Res. I. p. 157), Chinghiz died near the Liu p'an
shan in 1227, after having subdued the Tangut empire. On modern Chinese
maps Liu p'an shan is marked south of the city of Ku yuean chou,
department of P'ing liang, in Kan suh. The Yuean shi however, implies
that he died in Northern Mongolia. We read there, in the annals, s.a.
1227, that in the fifth intercalary month the Emperor moved to the
mountain Liu p'an shan in order to avoid the heat of the summer. In the
sixth month the empire of the Hia (Tangut) submitted. Chinghiz rested on
the river Si Kiang in the district of Ts'ing shui (in Kansuh; it has
still the same name). In autumn, in the seventh month (August), on the day
jen wu, the Emperor fell ill, and eight days later died in his palace
Ha-lao-t'u on the River Sa-li. This river Sali is repeatedly mentioned
in the Yuean shi, viz. in the first chapter, in connection with the first
military doings of Chinghiz. Rashid reports (D'Ohsson, I. 58) that
Chinghiz in 1199 retired to his residence Sari Kihar. The Yuean chao pi
shi (Palladius' transl., 81) writes the same name Saari Keher (Keher
in modern Mongol means 'a plain'). On the ancient map of Mongolia found in
the Yuean shi lei pien, Sa-li K'ie-rh is marked south of the river
Wa-nan (the Onon of our maps), and close to Sa-li K'ie-rh we read:
'Here was the original abode of the Yuean' (Mongols). Thus it seems the
passage in the Yuean history translated above intimates that Chinghiz died
in Mongolia, and not near the Liu p'an shan, as is generally believed.
The Yuean ch'ao pi shi (Palladius' transl., 152) and the 'Ts'in cheng lu
(Palladius' transl., 195) both agree in stating that, after subduing the
Tangut empire, Chinghiz returned home, and then died. Colonel Yule, in his
Marco Polo (I. 245), states 'that Rashid calls the place of Chinghiz'
death Leung shan, which appears to be the mountain range still so-called
in the heart of Shensi.' I am not aware from what translation of Rashid,
Yule's statement is derived, but d'Ohsson (I. 375, note) seems to quote the
same passage in translating from Rashid:
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