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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
i
248
MARCO POLO BOOK I.
I'
covered the whole locality, and it became impossible to identify the spot. (Q. R. 117 se7q.; Tinik. I. 115 segq., II. 475-476; San. Setz. 103, 114-115, 108-109; Gaubil,
54; Erd• 444.)
E" There are no accurate indications," says Palladius (l.c. pp. II-13), " in the documents of the Mongol period on the burial-places of Chingiz Khan and of the Khans who succeeded him. The Yuan-shi or ` History of the Mongol Dynasty in China,' in speaking of the burial of the Khans, mentions only that they used to be conveyed from Peking to the north, to their common burial-ground in the K'i-lien Valley. This name cannot have anything in common with the ancient K'i-lien of the Hiungnu, a hill situates to the west of the Mongol desert ; the K'i-lien of the Mongols is to be sought more to the east. When Khubilai marched out against Prince Nayan, and reached the modern Talnor, news was received of the occupation of the Khan's burial-ground by the rebels. They held out there very long, which exceedingly afflicted Khubilai [ Yuan shi lui pien] ; and this goes to prove that the tombs could not be situated much to the west. Some more positive information on this subject is found in the diary of the campaign in Mongolia in 141o, of the Ming Emperor Yung-lo [Pe cring lu]. He reached the Kerulen at the place where this river, after running south, takes an easterly direction. The author of the diary notes, that from a place one march and a half before reaching the Kerulen, a very large mountain was visible to the north-east, and at its foot a solitary high and pointed hillock, covered with stones. The author says, that the sovereigns of the house of Yuan used to be buried near this hill. It may therefore be plausibly supposed that the tombs of the Mongol Khans were near the Kerulen, and that the ` K'i-lien' of the Yuan shi is to be applied to this locality ; it seems to me even, that K'i-lien is an abbreviation, customary to Chinese authors, of Kerulen. The way of burying the Mongol Khans is described in the Yuan shi (eh. ` On the national religious rites of the Mongols '), as well as in the Ch'ue keno- lu, 'Memoirs of the time of the Yuan Dynasty.' When burying, the greatest care was taken to conceal from outside people the knowledge of the locality of the tomb. With this object in view, after the tomb was closed, a drove of horses was driven over it, and by this means the ground was, for a considerable distance, trampled down and levelled. It is added to this (probably from hearsay) in the Ts'ao mu tze Memoirs (also of the time of the Yuan Dynasty), that a young camel used to be killed (in the presence of its mother) on the tomb of the deceased Khan; afterwards, when the time of the usual offerings of the tomb approached, the mother of this immolated camel was set at liberty, and she came crying to the place where it was killed; the locality of the tomb was ascertained in this way."
The Archimandrite Palladius adds in a footnote : " Our well-known Mongolist N. Golovkin has told us, that according to a story actually current among the Mongols, the tombs of the former Mongol Khans are situated near Tas-ola Hill, equally in the vicinity of the Kerulen. He states also that even now the Mongols are accustomed to assemble on that hill on the seventh day of the seventh moon (according to an ancient custom), in order to adore Chingiz Khan's tomb. Altan tobchi (translated into Russian by Galsan Gomboeff), in relating the history of the Mongols after their expulsion from China, and speaking of the Khans' tombs, calls them Naiman tzagan ,gher, i.e. ` Eight White Tents ' (according to the number of chambers for the souls of the chief deceased Khans in Peking), and sometimes simply Tzas an gher, ` the White Tent,' which, according to the translator's explanation, denotes only Chingiz Khan's tomb."
" According to the Chinese Annals ( kien kang mu), quoted by Dr. E. Bret-
schneider (Med. Ices. I. p. 157), Chinghiz died near the Liu p'an sham in 1227, after having subdued the Taugut empire. On modern Chinese maps Liu fan shan is marked south of the city of Ku yiian chou, department of P'ing Bans, in Kan suh. The Yiian shí, however, implies that he died in Northern Mongolia. We read there, in the annals, s.a. 1227, that in the fifth intercalary month the Emperor moved to the mountain Liu p'an shan in order to avoid the heat of the summer. In the sixth
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