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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
320 158. CINGHIS
(< Turk. say ri) > Kaim. sâr', sdr9, Manchu sarin, means « loins ». It is generally used as the designation of the hide of the croup of a horse or donkey; hence our « shagreen » (see « Camut »); but, in the only case where it occurs in the Secret History (§ 140), it refers to the loins of a man. The word WO, which also means « loins », is sometimes used in the figurative sense of a rounded
« hill » (cf. infra). I think that in the same manner, Sa'ari-kä'är, lit. « Loin Steppe », actually
means « Hilly Steppe ». In Chinese texts, the place name is rendered ag Sa-li-ho, « Sali
River » (YS, I, 2 a, 3 b; Shêng-wu ch'in-chêng lu, 3 a, 20 a), aE. ) I ( Sa-li-ch'uan, « Sa-li Valley »
(Shêng-wu ch'in-chêng lu,18 a), iff g Q Sa-li-ch'ieh-êrh (YS, 31, 4a; t jj 45( Chin Yu-tzû's
:IL Tip Pei-chêng hou-lu, Ku-chin shuo-hai ed., 4 b). The Persian transcription is 5)L,
Säri-kähär (Ber, II, 92, 115, 118; III, 107). BILURIN's « Saligol » (loc. cit. 137), reflected in the
« Sali Kol » of Oh, I, 378, the « Sari goof » of Pa, 183, and the « Sari gol » of TP, 1905, 3, does not exist.
It may be, although I am inclined to doubt it, that there were two Sa'ari-kä'är, one in the upper basin of the Kerulen, the other more to the west. At any rate, we are only concerned here with the first one, lying in the region where Chinghiz-khan first asserted himself as a great leader.
It cannot be doubted that this Sa'ari-kä'är was located in the upper basin of the Kerulen.
Chinghiz-khan's traditional birthplace (Secret History, § 59) was at « Däli'ün-boldaq of the Onan (> Onon) », near the source of the latter river; on the other hand, the Burgan-gaidun Mountain, where both the Onon and the Kerulen take their rise, plays a great part in the history of Chinghizkhan. As mention is made in the Shêng-wu ch'in-chêng lu (20 a) of Ong-khan's stay at « the Pu-lu-ku Cliff of the Sa-li River » ( IN TO.A. a), WANG Kuo-wei (3 a) was of the opinion that Pu-lu-ku was another transcription of Burgan, and that, consequently, the Sa'ari-kä'är should be located in the neighbourhood of the Burqan-qaldun. But there is in fact no connection between the two names; the « Pu-lu-ku Cliff» is not the Burqan-qaldun, but the Bürgi-ärgi, « Bürgi Cliff », of the Secret History, §§ 96, 177, the exact location of which is unknown (it lay in the neighbourhood of the source of the Kerulen; but the Secret History, safer than the much briefer Shêngwu ch'in-chêng lu, does not connect it with Sa'ari-kä'är).
We have, however, other means of ascertaining the location of Sa'ari-kä'är. In 1328, while
waiting for the arrival of his elder brother fu , IJ Ho-shih-la (, { f it Hu-shih-la in the Dian
tien chang; *Kusala; « Ko-sa-la » in HIRTH, Gesch. des Buddhismus, II, 36-37, 166; canonized as Ming-tsung), who was in Mongolia, Ijt a j# T'u-t'ieh-mu-êrh (Tuy-Tämür; « T'og-t'e-mur » in HIRTH, ibid.; cf. TP, 1930, 57-61; not « Tup Timur » as in GILES, Biogr. Dict., Nos 663 and 2110 ; canonized as Wên-tsung) had provisionally ascended the throne in Northern China. *Ku§ala, alias Ming-tsung, was himself enthroned north of Qara-Qorum on February 27, 1329.
On March 31, he halted in the region (I) of M Vig. Chieh-chien-ch'a-han, *Gagän-êayân,
the « Brilliant White » (over 70 li north of Qara-Qorum; cf. YS, 58, 18 a) and a few days later decided to proceed to Shang-tu; the YS (31, 2 a-4 b) gives the stages of his progress to the east
(cf. also Hsi-yü shui tao chi chino pu, Ch'ên fêng-ko ts'ung-shu ed., 10-11; T'u Chi, 3, 33 a).
«On May 29, he halted (* tz'û) in the region (ti) of To-pai-chên (Dörbäljin, a common
name for quadrangular enclosures) ... On June 1, he halted « east of the Wo-êrh-han-mu » v* *; the text is here certainly corrupt; T'u Chi [3, 33 a; 14, 4 b] tacitly corrected it to
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