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: 'Liu-p'an-shan was situated on
the frontiers of the Churche (empire of the Kin), Nangias (empire of
the Sung) and Tangut;' which statement is quite correct."
We now come to the Mongol tradition, which places the tomb of Chinghiz in
the country of the Ordos, in the great bend of the Yellow River.
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