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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
158. CINGHIS 361
members of the embassy which was sent to the Russians in 1688, and to which the Jesuits GERBILLON
and PEREIRA were also attached. He has left an account of the embassy, entitled ( Itft
f l Fêng shih 0-to-ssû hsing-ch'êng lu, which has been reprinted in several collections; I quote it from the one included in the fourth series of the I-hai chu-ch'en. As GERBILLON'S diary of the same embassy appeared in DU HALDE (iv, 87-162), we can check one with the other, and their complete agreement as to the dates and events does great credit to both.
In CHANG P'êng-ho's work, we read (fol. 14 b) the following passage regarding the departure
of the embassy from Kuei-hua-ch'êng or K'u-k'u-ho-t'un (Kökö-hoton; GERBILLON's « Quei hoa tchin » or « Hou hou hotun » in DU HALDE, IV, 102; the present Sui-yüan outside the north-eastern angle of the great bend of the Huang-ho) : « [In the fifth month ... ,] on the 21st day (June 18,
1688) we went nine li and entered the Jig X11 Ch'i-lien-shan (Ch'i-lien Mountains). [Note by
the author : These mountains too are called Ch'i-lien, (but) they are not the Ch'i-lien Mountains
of the departments (chou) of -J- Kan, fit I and Hsi (mentioned) in the -j ü , Yüan-ho chih
(that is to say, they are not the Ch'i-lien Mountains of Hsiung-nu memory, which extended from Kan-su to the north-eastern part of Chinese Turkestan).] There are remains of an earthen wall ; I suspect that it is what the inscription (an inscription dated 1320 from which CHANG P'êng-ho had
given extracts before) calls Tien-ch'êng. Looking afar, stone peaks pile up verdant; once
entered, the whole extends in flat hills. The tradition is that the Mongol Emperors and Empresses were all buried on that mountain, though no funeral mounds were erected. » There is no parallel passage in GERBILLON.
The painter and poet f : 14 Hsü Lan (early 18th cent.), who travelled extensively in eastern
Mongolia, wrote, among others, a poem entitled vii j11- Yeh Yüan-shih tsu-ling shih
(« Poem on a visit to the ancestral tombs of the house of Yüan » [not « to the tomb of Shih-tsu of the Yüan », i. e. Qubilai, as might be thought at first sight]). I have no access to the literary collection of Hsü Lan, but this poem, with its preliminary notice, is partially copied by CHANG Mu (Mêng-ku yu-mu chi, 6, 10 a), and more completely by the compiler of the Kuo-ch'ao chi-h.sien leichêng ch'u pien (429, 10 b). The text reads as follows : Preliminary notice : « The ancestral tombs
(ling) of the house of Yii .n have no mounds or trees. When hunters happen to tread upon their
site, strange phenomena (A i) of wind and rain take place. » Poem : « I have heard that when the Ming of the Chu family (= the Ming dynasty) established the rites of sacrifice, they ordered members of the [Board of] Rites to proceed to the region of Yü (the Great). From Fu-hsi down to Li-tsung of the Sung, thirty-six [Imperial] mounds were sacrificed to in succession. Only at the
Ch'i-lien since no mound had been raised, there was, in spite of the [Imperial] wishes, nowhere
to offer incense and silk. The steps were swept and the tent laid with mats in Shun-t'ien-fu (= in
the department of Peking), and [so] in spring and in autumn the green fu jung ( ch'ing fu-
jung; fu-jung usually designates the hibiscus, but the name seems to refer here to another plant) was offered to from afar. The fu-jung is quite green, harmonizing with the cloudy resting place (?), in the middle of which there are three compartments of old tiled rooms. Those who advance there see from afar the green glaze, and know that it is the 4 V r Ch'i-lien-ku (Ch'ilien Valley) of the house of Yüan. At the entrance of the valley (ku), a Tibetan (fan) monk understood Chinese characters; the ' settled guest', in his hermitage, spoke of things that were
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