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.
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