Chinese-style roof tiles in a marmot burrow
Editorial contextHeikel describes the mound beside the Kul Tegin monument. Marmots had dug into it, and from one of their holes he pulled a quantity of half-round roof tiles 'such as are still used in China to cover the roofs of houses', with more scattered on the hill. He concluded the mound was a fallen building, a temple put up when the monument was erected. It is a first-hand archaeological observation that fits the inscription's statement about Chinese builders.
From one of the holes made by these animals I pulled out a quantity of half-round tiles, such as are still generally used in China to cover the roofs of houses. There were several others like them scattered over the hill and round about.
Working translation
Original wording
Je retirai d'un des trous faits par ces animaux une quantité de tuiles demi-rondes, telles qu'on les emploie encore généralement en Chine pour couvrir les toits des maisons. Il y en avait plusieurs autres semblables éparpillées sur la colline et aux alentours.
About Turks (Kok Turk), with Chinese builders
A note on this quote
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Where was Karakorum? Between the Orkhon and the Tamir
Editorial contextIn the Khalkha section's list of ancient sites, the gazetteer copies the Yuan history's account of Hening (Karakorum) and then adds its own finding: according to the 'Map of the Northern Desert', the old capital stood east of the Khangai mountains, between the Orkhon and Tamir rivers. A few pages earlier the same section places the Erdene Zuu monastery on the upper Orkhon. Karakorum here is a known Mongol capital with a location, not a mystery.
According to the Map of the Northern Desert, north of Hening is the Xiluge (Selenge) river, and further north the Kokebuqa ferry; to the west are the Mi river and the Qara Qorum river; to the southwest is a hot spring; to the south the Wangji river. Note: the place lies east of the present Khangai mountains, between the Orkhon and the Tamir rivers.
Working translation
Original wording
朔漠圖和寕北有錫爾格河又北庫庫布哈渡口西有迷河哈刺和林河西南有温泉南有旺吉河按其地在今杭愛山東鄂爾坤塔米爾河之閒
About Mongols (Yuan capital)
Keep in mind
Listed under 'ancient sites' in the Khalkha section; the ruins of Karakorum lie beside Erdene Zuu on the Orkhon.
'No fixed dwelling': why the Turks refused a walled capital
Editorial contextHeikel retells the Chinese annals: Bilge Qaghan wanted to build a wall round his residence and temples to Buddha and Laozi, but his old adviser Tonyukuk warned him off. The Turks, he said, were not a hundredth of China's population and survived only because they follow grass and water, hunt, have no fixed homes and practise war; Chinese armies live in towns and are captured when beaten, and Buddhism makes men weak. Heikel concludes the khan's camp probably stayed unfortified.
'The Turk people do not amount to a hundredth part of the population of China, and if, despite their small numbers, they have been able to resist that empire, it is because the Turks, seeking only grass and water, have no interest but hunting and have no fixed dwelling, but practise only the trade of war.'
Working translation
Original wording
»Le peuple doulgase (c. a. d. les Toukioux) n'atteint pas en nombre la centième partie de la population de la Chine, et si, malgré son infériorité numérique, il a pu résister à cet empire, la raison en est que les Doulgases, ne recherchant que de l'herbe et de l'eau, n'ont d'autre intérêt que la chasse, et n'ont pas de demeure fixe, mais ne s'exercent qu'au métier de la guerre.
About Tujue (Kok Turks), called Doulgases
Keep in mind
A speech recorded by Chinese historians, retold second-hand from Father Hyacinth's Russian translations.
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The Uighurs born from a glowing hill
Editorial contextJuvaini retells the Uighurs' own origin story. Between two rivers near Karakorum grew two trees; a light from heaven came down on a hill between them, the hill grew day by day, and the Uighurs heard sweet music coming from it. At last, like a woman giving birth, it opened a door, and inside were five chambers. At the head of the Uighur chapter he says he writes down their beliefs to arouse wonder, not because he accepts them.
until, as happens to women with child when the time of delivery comes, a door opened, and inside there were five chambers.
Working translation
Original wording
تا چنانك حاملاترا وقت وضع حمل … باشد دری گشاده شد اندرون آن پنج خانه بود
About Uighurs (as told in their own books)
Keep in mind
A legend from Uighur books, which Juvaini says he writes down 'for wonder, not for belief'. The OCR is heavily garbled: 'five' restores a broken word, and one unclear word is marked with an ellipsis.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Karakorum and the older Uighur city: two sites on the Orkhon
Editorial contextHeikel quotes the Persian historian Juvaini: Ogedei founded Karakorum, and on the Orkhon were found the ruins of a city and palace that had belonged to the Uighurs, with inscribed stones before the palace gate. Heikel argues that Karakorum stood where the Erdene Zuu monastery was built about 1590, and was not the same as the older Uighur ruins of Khara Balgasun. Real cities rose and fell here, and their builders are named.
'Before the entrance of this palace lie stones covered with engraved characters, which we have seen. In the reign of the Qaan (Khan) Ogedei these stones were lifted and a pit was found, in which there was a great stone slab bearing an inscription.'
Working translation
Original wording
»Devant l'entrée de ce palais gisent des pierres couvertes de caractères gravés que nous avons vus. Sous le règne du Caan (Khan) Ogotaï on leva ces pierres, et l'on découvrit une fosse, dans laquelle il y avait une grande table de pierre, chargée d'une inscription».
About Uighurs and Mongols
Keep in mind
Juvaini is quoted through d'Ohsson's French; Heikel's placing of Karakorum at Erdene Zuu has since been confirmed by excavation.
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The Karakorum valley: Khitan ruins and irrigated fields
Editorial contextNear a large clear lake (Ugii Nuur) Zhang notes the branch road to Helin, the Chinese name for Karakorum, about a hundred li away, and a small old walled town built by the Khitans. The Orkhon plain itself was farmed: people irrigated their fields (and, the text adds, kept some vegetable gardens), though in early autumn the crops were already killed by three frosts.
From the south of the lake a branch road leads west into the city of Helin (Karakorum), about a hundred li away. Due west of the lake there is a small old walled town, also built by the Khitans... In the middle is the Helin plain. Most of the inhabitants farm, bringing water to all their fields... It was then late in the first month of autumn and the hemp and wheat had all withered; when I asked the farmers, they said there had already been three frosts.
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Original wording
自泊之南而西分道入和林城相去約百余里泊之正西有小故城亦契丹所築也…中即和林川也居人多事耕稼悉引水灌之…時孟秋下旬麻麥皆槁問之田者云巳三霜矣
About Mongols; farmers of the Orkhon valley
Keep in mind
Bretschneider (1888) thought Zhang passed near Karakorum without entering it.
A ruined Khitan city with lettered tiles
Editorial contextAfter crossing a river into a grassy plain ringed by mountains, the travellers found the ruins of an old city on both sides, where the line of the streets could still be traced, and were told it had been built (the sentence runs over from p.53) by the Khitan. They picked up a tile inscribed in Khitan script, and the diarist guessed the town was founded by Khitan warriors who had moved north rather than submit to the Jin. In the Mongol heartland, then, the ruin was credited to an earlier, known people, not to the Mongols. Bretschneider quotes Palladius that Khitan forts and towns lay in ruins on the Tuul, the Kerulun and in Manchuria.
by the K'i-tan. We found, indeed, on the soil a tile with letters of the K'i-tan. This was probably a city founded by those K'i-tan warriors who emigrated, unwilling to submit to the new dynasty.
About Khitan (Liao dynasty) builders, in Mongol-ruled land
Keep in mind
The exact site is disputed (Tuul, Orkhon or Kharukha river). The 'new dynasty' is the Jin, who overthrew the Liao in 1125.
OCR normalized; the sentence begins on the previous page (n70): 'There is a tradition that this city was built'.
The 'High Carts' people and their felt tents on wheels
Editorial contextRetelling Chinese histories, Klaproth explains that one nomadic branch of the Uighurs was called Kao-tche, 'High Carts', probably because the wheels of the carts carrying their felt tents were taller than those of other Turkic tribes. Their main camp lay between the Tula, Orkhon and Selenga rivers.
In the 3rd century of our era it bore the name Kao-tche, or High Carts, probably because the wheels of the carts that carried its felt tents were higher than those of the other Turkic tribes.
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Original wording
Elle porta, dans le IIIe siècle de notre ère, le nom de Kao tchhe ou de Chariots élevés, vraisemblablement parceque les roues des chariots, qui portaient ses tentes de feutre, étaient plus hautes que celles des autres peuplades turques.
About Gaoche (Kao-tche), a Turkic people Klaproth counts as a branch of the Uighurs
Continue in this sourceKlaproth's historical tables of Asia1805 to 1808 · 4 passagesHeadless statues and skull cups
Editorial contextHeikel found that all the carved stone figures at the first two monuments had lost their heads. He explains this by old Mongolian customs: enemies' heads were carried off as trophies, chiefs' skulls were made into drinking cups (the Irkutsk museum held one), and stones set round a grave stood for enemies killed. So attackers would naturally knock the heads off figures that stood for Turks. His explanation is a guess drawn from old accounts, not something he saw happen.
These, like all the other statues found near the first and second monuments, have no heads, which is not surprising to those who know the ancient customs of the peoples of Mongolia, among whom it was the practice to carry enemies' heads long distances as trophies. The skulls of chiefs killed in war were even made into cups.
Working translation
Original wording
Celles-là comme toutes les autres statues trouvées auprès de ce 1er monument et du 2e, n'ont pas de tête, ce qui n'a rien d'étonnant pour ceux qui connaissent les anciennes moeurs des peuples de la Mongolie, chez lesquels on avait coutume d'emporter à de longues distances les têtes des ennemis en guise de trophées. On façonnait même en coupes les crânes des chefs tués à la guerre.
About Turks and later steppe peoples
Keep in mind
The missing heads are observed; the explanation is Heikel's own guess from written sources.
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