The Capital Itself Held Out, Though Invested
For Two Years; The Rebels Having No Artillery.
The movement originated at
Hwachau, some 60 miles east of Si-ngan fu, now totally destroyed.
But the
chief seat of the Mahomedans is a place which they call Salar,
identified with Hochau in Kansuh, about 70 miles south-west of Lanchau-fu,
the capital of that province. [Mr. Rockhill (Land of the Lamas, p. 40)
writes: "Colonel Yule, quoting a Russian work, has it that the word Salar
is used to designate Ho-chou, but this is not absolutely accurate.
Prjevalsky (Mongolia, II. 149) makes the following complicated
statement: 'The Karatangutans outnumber the Mongols in Koko-nor, but their
chief habitations are near the sources of the Yellow River, where they are
called Salirs; they profess the Mohammedan religion, and have rebelled
against China.' I will only remark here that the Salar have absolutely no
connection with the so-called Kara-tangutans, who are Tibetans. In a note
by Archimandrite Palladius, in the same work (II. 70), he attempts to show
a connection between the Salar and a colony of Mohammedans who settled in
Western Kan-Suh in the last century, but the Ming shih (History of the
Ming Dynasty) already makes mention of the Salar, remnants of various
Turkish tribes (Hsi-ch'iang) who had settled in the districts of
Ho-chou, Huang-chou, T'ao-chou, and Min-chou, and who were a source of
endless trouble to the Empire. (See Wei Yuen, Sheng-wu-ki, vii. 35; also
Huang ch'ing shih kung t'u, v. 7.) The Russian traveller, Potanin, found
the Salar living in twenty-four villages, near Hsuen-hua t'ing, on the
south bank of the Yellow River. (See Proc.R.G.S. ix. 234.) The Annals of
the Ming Dynasty (Ming Shih, ch. 330) say that An-ting wei, 1500 li
south-west of Kan-chou, was in old times known as Sa-li Wei-wu-ehr. These
Sari Uigurs are mentioned by Du Plan Carpin, as Sari Huiur. Can Sala be
the same as Sari?"
"Mohammedans," says Mr. Rockhill (Ibid. p. 39), "here are divided into two
sects, known as 'white-capped Hui-hui,' and 'black-capped Hui-hui.' One of
the questions which separate them is the hour at which fast can be broken
during the Ramadan. Another point which divides them is that the
white-capped burn incense, as do the ordinary Chinese; and the Salar
condemn this as Paganish. The usual way by which one finds out to which
sect a Mohammedan belongs is by asking him if he burns incense. The
black-capped Hui-hui are more frequently called Salar, and are much
the more devout and fanatical. They live in the vicinity of Ho-chou,
in and around Hsuen-hua t'ing, their chief town being known as Salar
Pakun or Paken."
[Illustration: Cross on the Monument at Si-ngan fu (actual size). (From a
rubbing.)]
Ho-chou, in Western Kan-Suh, about 320 li (107 miles) from Lan-chau, has
a population of about 30,000 nearly entirely Mahomedans with 24 mosques;
it is a "hot-bed of rebellion." Salar-pa-kun means "the eight thousand
Salar families," or "the eight thousands of the Salar." The eight kiun
(Chinese t'sun?
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