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0149 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 149 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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100. CALACIAN   133

Ha-Ia-ha-ch'a-êrh, and as the name of a region, not of a city. Wu Kuang-ch'êng printed his Hsi-Hsia shu shih in 1825 (prefaces were added in 1826), and he certainly took his Ha-is-hach'a-êrh from the biography of A-shu-Iu (? *Af ul; on him, cf. WANG Hui-tsu 1, 17, 10 b; on the name, see « Agiul ») in YS, 123, 2 b. The name appears to be Mongolian, perhaps (in spite of some phonetical difficulties) it is *Qara-yafar, «Black earth » (more likely than *Qara-gayir, «Black bridle », adopted in Ch'in-ting Yüan-shih yü-chieh, 7, 7 a), and its form cannot be reconciled with those used by Polo and Raid, which end in -n. If the two names are to be connected, we ought at least to think of a Mongol adaptation of the original Hsi-Hsia name. But the case remains doubtful.

I am still less convinced that the region (ft ti) of Ha-la-ha-ch'a-êrh can be « Calacian» if «Caiacian» was the (c temporary )) residence of the Hsi-Hsia kings 60 li west of Ning-hsia. In the winter of 1226-1227, the Mongol armies took Ling-chou, on the eastern side of the Huang-ho, and

proceeded further south-east into the valley of qk 4+1   Yen-chou-ch'uan, nowt ~    Hua-ma-
ch'ih; they then turned back to the west to attack Chung-hsing-fu, i.e. Ning-hsia, and it was to stop them that the Hsi-Hsia sovereign is said to have quartered troops in « the region of Ha-la-ha-ch'a-

êrh ». yK   CHANG Chien (1768-1846), in his A" A fe   7. * Hsi-Hsia chi-shih pên-mo
(ed. 1884, 36, 8 a), also writes Ha-la-ha-ch'a-êrh, and brings the battle that took place there down to July 1227. Although the details of the campaign have not been studied critically, the natural surmise, if the Hsi-Hsia shu shih be correct, would be that the «region of Ha-la-ha-ch'a-êrh » lay in the neighbourhood of Ning-hsia south-east of this place, and not due west and at the foot of the Alashan mountains, as must have been the case with the « temporary residence » spoken of by PALLADIUS (and still less west of the Alashan mountains as in HERRMANN). But I am far from positive on so slender a basis as the single passage taken by Wu Kuang-ch'êng from a biography in the YS, which is, moreover, difficult to reconcile with the other accounts of the campaign.

Leaving aside the question of Ha-la-ha-ch'a-êrh, I agree with PALLADIUS on the probable identi-

fication of «Calacian» with the « temporary residence », or la g li-kung, built by Li Yüan-hao in 1047 on the Ho-lan-shan (on this last name, see below); cf. Hsi-Hsia shu shih, 18, 11 b. The Ta-Ch'ing i-t'ung chih (204, 2 a) still quotes a passage from an older compilation saying that on the Ho-ian-shan, 60 li west of Ning-hsia, there are remains of over a hundred temples, and also of Li Yüan-hao's ancient palace.

I think PALLADIUS is also right when he sees in «Calacian» the Alasai, or Alagai-nuntuq,

«Camp of Alasai », which appears four times in the Secret History of 1240, § 265, with the Chinese

translation   Ho-lan-shan (« Ho-lan mountains »). This last is the Chinese name of the

mountain now called by the Mongols (   A-Ia-shan mountains, our « Alashan » (Alagan).

The form Alagai of the Secret History is confirmed by Rasgidu-'d-Din, who speaks of the mountain running along the Hsi-Hsia country, and gives it a name which has been read sLJI Alasai by ERDMANN, ,,,1:..<1 Ingsan by BEREZIN (on account of the same wrong idea which made him read the name of the Yin-shan mountains where Raid speaks of the city of «Eçina », q. v., and cf. JA, 1920, i, 182), but which is certainly slw.il Alasai (cf. ERDMANN, Vollständ. Uebersicht, 62; Ber, r, 119).

The geographical equivalence of Alagai and Ho-lan raises another problem.