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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
158. CINGHIS 309
death two dates between which we cannot decide, and that Rasid's date, being that of the arrival of the coffin at the ordo, has nothing to do with either, the whole difficulty remains, since three days (August 25-August 28) or even ten days (August 18-August 28) seem to be too short for the carriage of the remains of the deceased sovereign from the supposed place of death to the ordo in Mongolia. But that is another very intricate problem.
Before passing on from the statements relating to the date of the death, I may add, however, that the Altan tobei also says that Chinghiz-khan died in 1227 (read « ding-pig » instead of « bingpig », which cannot exist; cf. infra), « the fifteenth of the month » (GoMaoEV ed., 401; the day of the month has been accidentally omitted in the translation, 146). Since the month itself is not mentioned, we may have there merely the result of a belief that all important events should take place when the moon is full (generally just after the full moon, on the sixteenth day, in the Secret History). The coincidence with Rand is, however, striking. At any rate, it would tend to suggest that even in the case of Rand, the date of the « fifteenth » day of the intercalary month may be of religious, and not historical origin.
THE PLACE OF CHINGHIZ-KHAN'S DEATH. — According to YS (I, 9 a-b), Chinghiz-khan, returning from his six years' campaign against the Mussulmans in the West, arrived at his T7 hsing-kung (in Chinese « temporary Imperial residence », but here « royal encampment », = Mong. ordu > ordo) of Mongolia in the first month of 1225. The ordo is said in the Secret History, § 264, to have been that of the « Black Forest of the Tula », which was probably outside the southeastern angle of the southern bend of that river. According to Rasidu-'d-Din, Chinghiz remained for some time at *Buga-suiziqu before reaching his ordo (Ber, III, 94; Pers. text, 141). This may be the doubtful name *Buga-[s]ucigai (? « [Place where] the bull was frightened ») which occurs on the famous « stone of Chinghiz-khan » preserved in the Asiatic Museum of Leningrad. Yäsünggä ( Yäsüngä) is said to have won a shooting contest when the Mongol leaders had assembled there on Chinghiz-khan's return from the Mohammedan countries (cf. BANZAROV, Cërnaya véra, 92-93; I. KLUKIN [KLYUKIN], Drevneïsaya mongol'skaya nadpis', in Trudy gosudarst. Dal'nevostocn. Universiteta, Series vI, No. 5, 26 ss., with a different decipherment of this passage). But whatever reading we may adopt, it is difficult to account for the region where the « stone of Chinghiz-khan» was found, presumably in situ : the stone was discovered in the basin of the Argun, i. e. far to the east of the track which Chinghiz followed on his way back from the Iii region to his ordo. I have no solution to proffer for this question, which former inquirers have ignored.
In the first month of 1226, Chinghiz-khan decided personally to lead an expedition against
the Hsi-Hsia. « In the second month (February 28-March 29), he took the city of - „ Hei-shui
(« Black Water »; = Qara-Moto; see « Eçina »), together with several others. In the summer, he
'escaped the heat' ( *) at the i* [[] Hun-ch'ui-shan and seized the chou of Kan (= Kan-chou)
and Su (= Su-chou). (Hun-ch'ui Mountain; possibly *Quncui Mountain, «Mountain of the Princess », is unidentified; its location north of Su-chou in Hsi-Hsia shu-shih, 42, 8 b, or south of Liang-chou in T'u Chi, 3, 30b, is mere guesswork; TING Ch'ien's attempt [Yuan pi-shih ti-li k'ao-chêng,
14, 2 b] to change Hun-ch'ui to *Ch'ui-hun is a failure; CHARIGNON'S NI Hun-ch'u-shan [Ch
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