Owing to this region having for many centuries
belonged to independent Hia or Tangut, very little exact information is
obtainable from any Chinese history; but I think it almost certain that
the great central city of Shen Chou was the modern Si-ning. Moreover,
there was a very good reason for the invention of this name, as this
Shen was the first syllable of the ancient Shen-shen State of Lob Nor
and Koko Nor, which, after its conquest by China in 609, was turned into
the Shen-shen prefecture; in fact, the Sui Emperor was himself at Kam Chou
or 'Campichu' when this very step was taken." (E.H. PARKER, Asiatic
Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 144.)
LVIII., p. 282. Alashan is not an abbreviation of Alade-Shan and has
nothing to do with the name of Eleuth, written in Mongol Oegaelaet.
Nuntuh (nuntuek) is the mediaeval Mongol form of the actual nutuk, an
encampment. (PELLIOT.)
LVIII., p. 283, n. 3.
GURUN.
Gurun = Kurun = Chinese K'u lun = Mongol Urga.
LVIII., p. 283, n. 3. The stuff sa-ha-la (= saghlat) is to be found
often in the Chinese texts of the XIVth and XVth Centuries. (PELLIOT.)
LIX., pp. 284 seq.