Qiu Chuji, known as Changchun, was an elderly Daoist master from Shandong and head of the Quanzhen school. Genghis Khan sent for him in 1219, hoping to learn how to prolong life. Changchun set out in 1220, met the Khan in May 1222 and was back in Beijing in January 1224, and his disciple Li Zhichang wrote down the journey.
Changchun was living here when the Khan's envoy arrived in the winter of 1219 to 1220 with the letter of invitation. He agreed to go and set out for the north with nineteen disciples.
2April to May 1220
Yanjing
Beijing, China
Changchun reached the former Jin capital about the start of April 1220 and learned that the Khan had gone far to the west. He left the city in May, spent the summer and the winter at Dexing to the north-west, and started for Mongolia in February 1221.
north-east of Dali Lake (Dalai Nur), Inner Mongolia, China · rough position
Leaving a fishing lake on 29 March, the party rode north-east into nomad country. Every home was a black cart or a white tent, and no tree was in sight.
Editorial contextA few days beyond the fishing lake of Yu-rh-li, the travellers entered true nomad country, where every dwelling was a black cart or a white tent and the people moved with the water and grass. Bretschneider's note takes the carts to be the felt-covered 'tents on wheels' described by Marco Polo and Rubruck, a practice he says had died out in Mongolia by his own day. Farther on, beside the Kerulun, the diarist adds that the Mongols used the tall riverside willows 'for making their tents' (p.51).
All around we saw habitations, consisting of black carts and white tents. The people here are nomades, and change their abode according to the prevalence of water and pasture. No tree could be seen, and we met only yellow clouds (of dust) and decayed grass.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
The diarist does not say the tents stood on the carts; that reading is Bretschneider's.
423 April to 9 May 1221
Prince Otchigin's camp
near Lake Buir and the Khalkha River, eastern Mongolia · rough position
The party reached the camp of Otchigin, the Khan's youngest brother, during a wedding. Thousands of carts and tents stood in rows, and on 29 April the prince asked the master how to prolong life.
Editorial contextThe party reached the camp of the prince Otchigin, Chinggis's youngest brother, who governed Mongolia while the Khan was at war in the west. A wedding was under way and Mongol chiefs had come bringing mare's milk, and the diarist counted the prince's town of carts and felt tents in the thousands, set out in long rows. The prince's first question to the sage, like his brother's a year later, was how to prolong life.
At that time the ice was only beginning to melt, and the first green was seen on the ground. There was a wedding being celebrated, and many Mongol chiefs had arrived with mare's milk. We saw several thousands of black carts and felt tents standing in long rows. On the 7th (April 29) the master was presented to the prince, who asked him about the means of prolonging life.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
Editorial contextAt noon on 23 May 1221, on the south bank of the Kerulun, the sun went dark enough for the stars to show. Bretschneider notes that the astronomer Alexander Wylie calculated a solar eclipse on exactly that day and that Chinese astronomical annals record it on the same date, 'a stamp of authenticity to the whole narrative'. In Samarkand that winter a local astronomer told Changchun it had reached six-tenths there, and the sage concluded that the same eclipse looks different from place to place (p.79).
On the 1st of the fifth month (May 23), at noon, an eclipse of the sun happened, while we were on the southern bank of the river. It was so dark that the stars could be seen, but soon it brightened up again.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
West of the Kerulen the country was full of carts and tents. The diarist describes Mongol dress, the tall headdress of married women and the lack of writing, and the party passed a ruined city said to be the work of the Khitan.
Editorial contextWest of the Kerulun bend the country was crowded with carts and tents, and the people raised cattle, hunted, wore furs and skins and lived on milk and meat. Married women wore a two-foot headdress of tree bark covered in wool or, among the rich, red silk, with a long 'tail' called yu-yu that looked like a goose or duck, and they entered tents backwards with heads bent so as not to knock it (next page). Bretschneider matches it with the tall headdress described by Carpini and by Rubruck, who calls it bocca. On the same page, Mongols who had waited a year for the sage brought him millet and were amazed by the jujubes he gave them, a fruit they had never seen.
They dress in furs and skins, and live upon milk and flesh-meat. The men and unmarried young women plait their hair so that it hangs down over their ears. The married women put on their heads a thing made of the bark of trees, two feet high, which they sometimes cover with woollen cloth, or, as the rich used to do, with red silk stuff.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
Editorial contextThe diarist was struck that the Mongols he met used no writing: they settled business by word of mouth and recorded contracts by cutting marks on wood. He praises them as never disobeying orders and never breaking their word, people who had 'preserved the customs of the early ages'. The first sentence finishes his description of the married women's tall headdress.
Therefore, when entering a tent, they are accustomed to go backward, inclining their heads. These people (the Mongols) have no writing. They settle their matters by verbal convention, and when they enter into contracts they cut certain marks on wood. They are never disobedient to orders, and never break their word. They have preserved the customs of the early ages.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
'(the Mongols)' is Bretschneider's insertion. His note (after Palladius) says the Uighur script reached the Mongols a few years later, but most modern historians date its adoption at Chinggis's court to about 1204, so the diarist is describing ordinary herders rather than the Khan's chancery.
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.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
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'.
718 to 29 July 1221
The Empress's camp
probably on the Ider River, upper Selenga basin, Mongolia · rough position
After days in the forested Khangai mountains the party came to the camp of one of the Khan's chief wives. More than a thousand carts and tents stood by a river, and flour came by camel from beyond the Tian Shan.
Editorial contextBeyond the Khangai forests the party reached the ordo of one of Chinggis Khan's principal wives, where more than a thousand carts and tents stood along a river and the captive Jin and Tangut princesses sent gifts of millet and silver. Flour was dear because 'Western barbarians' brought it by camel from beyond the Tian Shan, and the diarist notes that the Mongol word (wu-li-do, ordo) is rendered in Chinese as hing kung, which Bretschneider translates 'movable palace'. He found the carts and tents grander than anything the ancient Xiongnu rulers (shan yu) had possessed.
On the southern bank of the river there were more than a thousand carts and tents. … At this place eighty kin of flour cost fifty liang; for the flour is brought from beyond the Yin shan, a distance of more than 2000 li, on camels, by the Western barbarians. … Carts and tents had all a magnificent appearance, such as was unknown to the ancient Shan yü.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
About Mongol court of one of Chinggis Khan's chief wives, with captive Jin and Tangut princesses
Keep in mind
Bretschneider (after Potanin) places this ordo on the Eter, a headwater of the Selenga; the site is a guess. He reckons a liang of silver at about six shillings.
8mid to late August 1221
Chinqai's town
probably in Govi-Altai province, western Mongolia · rough position
Near this granary town run by the Khan's officer Chinqai, Chinese craftsmen came out to welcome the master. Chinqai joined the party as escort, and nine disciples stayed behind in a monastery built for them.
Editorial contextNorth of the snowy mountains lay T'ien Chen-hai ba-la-ho-sun (balgasun, the diarist explains, means city), a granary town nicknamed 'the head of the magazines', where Chinese artisans and two concubines of the Jin emperor Zhangzong turned out to greet the sage, and Changchun was surprised to see farming in the desert. Bretschneider's note, from the Yuan shi, says Chinggis had founded a military colony and built a city here, settling over 300 families from Western Asia to weave gold brocade and 300 from Kaifeng to make woollen cloth, under Chen-hai, the chancellor Chinqai whom Carpini later met. Before moving on, the sage's followers built a monastery there in under a month, 'the rich with money and the workmen with their labour' (p.61).
a number of Chinamen, artisans and workmen, who lived there … came in procession to see the master. They were all ravished; met him with exclamations of joy, bowed before him, and accompanied him with variegated umbrellas and fragrant flowers. There were also two concubines of the Kin emperor, Chang tsung, and the mother of a Chinese princess, who met the master with exclamations and tears.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
About Chinese artisans and captives under Chinqai, Chinggis's official
Keep in mind
The numbers of brocade weavers and cloth makers come from Bretschneider's note citing the Yuan shi, not from the diary. The town's site is uncertain.
9early September 1221
Altai Mountains
Mongolian Altai · rough position
On the way to the Altai, Chinqai and a servant told stories of goblins in these mountains. The escort hauled the two carts over on a road made by the Khan's third son, Ogedei.
Editorial contextAs the party headed for the Altai, one of Chen-hai's servants said these mountains were notorious for goblins and that one had pulled him by the hair, and Chen-hai added that a Naiman khan passing through had been bewitched and forced to offer the goblin a sacrifice. Changchun said nothing. Crossing the desert beyond, the escort rubbed blood on their horses' heads against goblins, and the sage smiled that goblins flee from a good man (p.64); earlier the diarist had seen traces of sacrifices to mountain spirits on a peak, and many grave mounds below (p.58).
One of the servants of Chen-hai reported that these mountains had a bad fame for their goblins, and that once a goblin pulled him by the hair. Chen-hai narrated further, that once it occurred also to the Khan of the Naiman … to be charmed by a goblin, and that he was obliged to offer a sacrifice to him. The master did not make any remark on these tales.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
Dzungarian desert, Xinjiang, China · rough position
South of the Altai, Chinqai warned of a desert battlefield where crossing by day could kill man and horse. The party marched through the night and reached a small town the next morning.
Editorial contextSouth of the Altai, Chen-hai warned that the road crossed the 'field of white bones', a plain strewn with black stones where a whole army had once died of exhaustion and where the Naiman army had lately been destroyed (by Chinggis, Bretschneider notes). Anyone who crossed by day in the sun would die with his horse, so the party marched all night, past more than a hundred great sand hills that 'seemed to swim like big ships in the midst of the waves', and reached a small Hui-ho (Muslim) town the next morning.
Chen-hai replied: "That is an old battlefield … a field of death. At one time a whole army perished there by exhaustion; no one escaped. A short time ago, at the same place, the army of the Nai-man was destroyed. Whoever crosses the desert in the daytime and in clear weather (i.e., exposed to the sun) will die from fatigue, and his horse also."
Chen-hai (Chinqai), as reported by Li Zhichang (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
The story of the older lost army is Chen-hai's hearsay; the diarist saw only the desert.
OCR normalized; a dash in the printed text shown as ….
11about 12 October 1221
Sayram Lake and the Talki pass
Xinjiang, China
After following the north side of the Tian Shan west, the party came to a mountain lake and went down a gorge. The road and its forty-eight wooden bridges had been built by the Khan's second son, Chagatai, when the army marched west.
Editorial contextBelow the mountain lake that Changchun named the Lake of Heaven (Sayram Lake), the road ran down a gorge of birch and pine, and the diarist credits Chinggis's second son Chagatai with cutting it through the rocks and building forty-eight timber bridges wide enough for two carts abreast. Earlier the cart road over the Altai had likewise been 'planned and constructed' by the third son, Ogedei, where the escort hauled the carts up with ropes and dragged the wheels going down (p.62). Here the Mongols appear as builders of roads and wooden bridges for their armies.
The second prince, who was with the emperor at the time he went to the west (in 1219), first made a way through these mountains, cut through the rocks, and built forty-eight bridges with the wood cut on the mountains. The bridges are so wide that two carts can pass side by side.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
About Mongol army under Chagatai, Chinggis Khan's second son
Keep in mind
'(in 1219)' is Bretschneider's insertion. The diarist saw the bridges but was told who built them, and he does not say whose labour the prince used.
1214 October 1221
Almaliq
near Huocheng in the Ili valley, Xinjiang, China
The local Muslim ruler and the Mongol governor came out together to meet the master. The party rested in an orchard west of the city, which was named for its fruit.
Editorial contextAt Almaliq in the Ili valley the local Muslim ruler and the Mongol governor (darughachi, Bretschneider explains) rode out together to greet the sage, a glimpse of how the Mongols ruled a town through its old prince. The city was named for its apples (alma in Turkic). The travellers bought cloth woven from 'vegetable wool', cotton, then little known in China, saw people carrying water in jars on their heads, and heard the locals praise the Chinese as 'very able men' when they saw a Chinese well-bucket (pp.70-71).
The ruler of the realm of P'u-su-man came out of the city, together with the Mongol ta-lu-hua-chi, to meet the master. We stopped at a fruit orchard west (of the city). The people here call a fruit a-li-ma; and as the place is famed for its fruits, the city received the above name.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
About Muslim ruler of the P'u-su-man; Mongol darughachi
Keep in mind
P'u-su-man (Muslims) and darughachi are Bretschneider's readings of the Chinese transcriptions; he places Almaliq near modern Kuldja.
13about 10 November 1221
Talas valley
near Taraz, Kazakhstan · rough position
Riding west along the mountains, the travellers saw a city of red stone, traces of an old army camp and great grave mounds. They went on over a stone bridge.
A city of red stone and mounds like the Big Dipper
Editorial contextRiding west along the mountains beyond the old Karakhitai lands, the travellers saw a city built of red stone and the traces of an ancient military camp. To the west stood great grave mounds arranged like the stars of the Big Dipper, and they went on over a stone bridge. The diarist names no builders and does not say whether the city was lived in.
After seven or eight days' journey, the mountains suddenly turned to the south. We saw a city built of red stones, and there were the traces of an ancient military encampment. To the west we saw great grave-mounds, which resembled the tou sing (the constellation of Ursa major).
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
The site is uncertain: Schuyler took the red city for Talas (Taraz), but Bretschneider rejects his evidence. The diarist does not say who built the city or raised the mounds.
Changchun arrived on 3 December 1221 and spent the winter here, lodged in the former Sultan's palace. The diarist found only a quarter of the city's people left after the Mongol conquest.
Samarkand after the conquest: a quarter of its people left
Editorial contextSamarkand, taken by the Mongols in 1220, was laid out along canals that carried river water down every street to every house. The diarist says it had held over 100,000 families before the Sultan of Khwarazm fell but only a quarter remained, that Muslim landowners could not dispose of their fields and had to manage them jointly with Khitan, Chinese and Tangut (Ho si) men, and that Chinese workmen lived everywhere. Changchun lodged in the Sultan's new palace on a mound about a hundred feet high, which the governor (probably Yelu Chucai, says Bretschneider) had left because robbers made that quarter unsafe.
the city of Samarkand had a population of more than a hundred thousand families, but after the occupation only the fourth part remained behind. Most of the fields and gardens belong to the Mohammedans, but they are not allowed to dispose of them. They are obliged to manage their properties in conjunction with K'i-tan (i.e., Karakhitai), Chinese, and men from Ho si. Chinese workmen are living everywhere.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
About Muslim townspeople under Mongol rule, with Khitan, Chinese and Tangut overseers
Keep in mind
The population figures are what the diarist was told. Bretschneider notes it cannot be proved that the city Chinggis took in 1220 stood on the site of modern Samarkand rather than the Afrasiab ruins to the north.
south of the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan · rough position
Changchun left Samarkand in late April 1222, crossed the Amu Darya and reached the Khan's camp in mid May. Asked for a medicine of immortality, he said there was none, and the Khan praised his honesty.
Editorial contextAt his first audience, in the Khan's camp south of the Hindu Kush, Chinggis welcomed the sage, fed him and asked outright for an elixir of immortality; Changchun answered that there were ways to preserve life but no medicine for immortality, and the Khan praised his honesty. At a later audience the sage firmly refused to drink the tung lo set before him, which Bretschneider explains as kumiss or other fermented milk (p.94). His teaching was translated into Mongol by the councillor A-hai and written down in both Chinese and Mongol (p.95).
After this he asked: "Sainted man, you have come from a great distance. Have you a medicine of immortality?" The master replied: "There are means for preserving life, but no medicines for immortality." Chinghiz lauded him for his sincerity and candour. By imperial order two tents were pitched for the master east of the emperor's tents.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
After a summer back in Samarkand, Changchun rode south again to rejoin the Khan and passed Balkh by night. The people had fled and only dogs were heard. He took leave of the Khan in April 1223, east of the Syr Darya, and was back in Beijing in January 1224.
Editorial contextTravelling by night after crossing the Amu Darya on the way to Chinggis's camp, the party passed Balkh, a very large city whose people had recently revolted and fled, and all they heard inside was the barking of dogs. Bretschneider's note adds, from Rashid al-Din, that Balkh fell to Chinggis in 1221 and most of its people were massacred.
travelling during the night, we passed Ban-li a very large city, the inhabitants of which had revolted not long ago, and fled. We heard the barking of the dogs in the city.
Li Zhichang, disciple of Changchun, in the Si yu ki (translated by E. Bretschneider, 1888)
How sure is the line? Almaliq, Samarkand and Balkh are well fixed, but the camps and halts in Mongolia, the site of Chinqai's town, the red stone city near the Talas and the Khan's camp near the Hindu Kush are rough positions, and the return road is not drawn. The line joins the stops. It is not the exact road.
What is still uncertain (16 notes)
The two 1219 items are the Khan's letter of invitation (pages 37 to 39, before the diary starts), not the diary. The envoy brought it to Changchun at Laizhou in the winter of 1219 to 1220, so it could arguably be shown at Laizhou as the cause of the journey, but under the rule on other speakers it is left out.
The date of the letter is uncertain by a month. Bretschneider converts the first day of the fifth month of 1219 to 15 May, but Waley says that month began on 14 June 1219. The atlas labels these two items May 1219 after Bretschneider.
Day dates follow Bretschneider's conversions. Waley's translation differs by a day or two in places (for example 28 April against 26 April 1222 for leaving Samarkand), so exact days could be a day or two off. The eclipse of 23 May 1221 is independently confirmed.
Bretschneider's book names only Shandong as the starting point. Laizhou comes from the fuller text as translated by Waley. The exact day of leaving Laizhou in early 1220 was not confirmed.
The wintering place of 1220 to 1221 is given as the Longyang temple at Dexing, north-west of Beijing. Waley's fuller text also puts Changchun at nearby Xuande in early 1221, so the exact point of the final start in February 1221 is not certain.
The fishing lake is taken as Dali Lake (Dalai Nur) in Inner Mongolia, following Bretschneider. The stop is a rough point north-east of it.
Otchigin's camp is not fixed. Palladius put it on the Khalkha River, and Bretschneider thought it lay farther north. The point given is by Lake Buir.
The eclipse spot is an estimate: about nine days' ride up the Kerulen from the lake where the party first met the river.
The ruined Khitan city is not securely identified. Scholars have looked for it on the Tuul, on its tributary the Kharukha, or on the Orkhon. The stop that holds it is a rough midpoint for a stretch of several weeks' travel, so the three passages there were not all written at one spot.
The Empress's camp is placed on the Ider River after Potanin's suggestion, which Bretschneider accepts. It is a guess from the narrative.
The site of Chinqai's town was long disputed. The coordinates follow the modern identification with ruins in Sharga district, Govi-Altai province. Bretschneider and Potanin placed it elsewhere in western Mongolia.
The pass used to cross the Altai is unknown, and the Field of White Bones is only known to lie in the desert between the Altai and the Tian Shan. Both points are estimates. The diary gives no day for the night march, only that it fell between 2 and 14 September 1221.
The town reached after the night march is called a Hui-ho town. Bretschneider reads that as Muslim and Waley as Uighur, so the stop just says a small town.
The red stone city is placed at Taraz, following Bretschneider's view that the party crossed the Talas there. The diary does not name the city, its account of this stretch is confused, and Bretschneider rejected one identification of the ruins.
The Khan's camp of May 1222 is only known to have been south of the Hindu Kush. Bretschneider says near Kabul. The point given (near Parwan, north of Kabul) is approximate.
The Balkh passage (September 1222, page 93) follows the first audience (May 1222, page 86) because Changchun returned to Samarkand for the summer between the two. The camp where he rejoined the Khan a few days past Balkh, the second stay in Samarkand and the whole return journey of 1223 to 1224 are described in the text but not drawn as stops.