CONCERNING THE GREAT PROVINCE OF TANGUT.
After you have travelled thirty days through the Desert, as I have
described, you come to a city called SACHIU, lying between north-east
and east; it belongs to the Great Kaan, and is in a province called
TANGUT.{1} The people are for the most part Idolaters, but there
are also some Nestorian Christians and some Saracens. The Idolaters
have a peculiar language, and are no traders, but live by their
agriculture.{2} They have a great many abbeys and minsters full of
idols of sundry fashions, to which they pay great honour and reverence,
worshipping them and sacrificing to them with much ado. For example,
such as have children will feed up a sheep in honour of the idol, and
at the New Year, or on the day of the Idol’s Feast, they will take
their children and the sheep along with them into the presence of the
idol with great ceremony. Then they will have the sheep slaughtered
and cooked, and again present it before the idol with like reverence,
and leave it there before him, whilst they are reciting the offices
of their worship and their prayers for the idol’s blessing on their
children. And, if you will believe them, the idol feeds on the meat
that is set before it! After these ceremonies they take up the flesh
and carry it home, and call together all their kindred to eat it with
them in great festivity [the idol-priests receiving for their portion
the head, feet, entrails, and skin, with some part of the meat]. After
they have eaten, they collect the bones that are left and store them
carefully in a hutch.{3}
And you must know that all the Idolaters in the world burn their dead.
And when they are going to carry a body to the burning, the kinsfolk
build a wooden house on the way to the spot, and drape it with cloths
of silk and gold. When the body is going past this building they call
a halt and set before it wine and meat and other eatables; and this
they do with the assurance that the defunct will be received with the
like attentions in the other world. All the minstrelsy in the town goes
playing before the body; and when it reaches the burning-place the
kinsfolk are prepared with figures cut out of parchment and paper in
the shape of men and horses and camels, and also with round pieces of
paper like gold coins, and all these they burn along with the corpse.
For they say that in the other world the defunct will be provided with
slaves and cattle and money, just in proportion to the amount of such
pieces of paper that has been burnt along with him.{4}
But they never burn their dead until they have [sent for the
astrologers, and told them the year, the day, and the hour of the
deceased person’s birth, and when the astrologers have ascertained
under what constellation, planet, and sign he was born, they declare
the day on which, by the rules of their art, he ought to be burnt].
And till that day arrive they keep the body, so that ’tis sometimes a
matter of six months, more or less, before it comes to be burnt.{5}
Now the way they keep the body in the house is this: They make a
coffin first of a good span in thickness, very carefully joined and
daintily painted. This they fill up with camphor and spices, to keep
off corruption [stopping the joints with pitch and lime], and then they
cover it with a fine cloth. Every day as long as the body is kept, they
set a table before the dead covered with food; and they will have it
that the soul comes and eats and drinks: wherefore they leave the food
there as long as would be necessary in order that one should partake.
Thus they do daily. And worse still! Sometimes those soothsayers shall
tell them that ’tis not good luck to carry out the corpse by the door,
so they have to break a hole in the wall, and to draw it out that way
when it is taken to the burning.{6} And these, I assure you, are the
practices of all the Idolaters of those countries.
However, we will quit this subject, and I will tell you of another city
which lies towards the north-west at the extremity of the desert.
NOTE 1.—[The Natives of this country were called by the Chinese
_T’ang-hiang_, and by the Mongols _T’angu_ or _T’ang-wu_, and with
the plural suffix _Tangut_. The kingdom of Tangut, or in Chinese,
_Si Hia_ (Western Hia), or _Ho si_ (West of the Yellow River), was
declared independent in 982 by Li Chi Ch’ien, who had the dynastic
title or _Miao Hao_ of Tai Tsu. “The rulers of Tangut,” says Dr.
Bushell, “were scions of the Toba race, who reigned over North
China as the Wei Dynasty (A.D. 386–557), as well as in some of
the minor dynasties which succeeded. Claiming descent from the
ancient Chinese Hsia Dynasty of the second millennium B.C., they
adopted the title of _Ta Hsia_ (‘Great Hsia’), and the dynasty is
generally called by the Chinese Hsi Hsia, or Western Hsia.” This is
a list of the Tangut sovereigns, with the date of their accession
to the throne: Tai Tsu (982), Tai Tsung (1002), Ching Tsung (1032),
Yi Tsung (1049), Hui Tsung (1068), Ch’ung Tsung (1087), Jen Tsung
(1140), Huan Tsung (1194), Hsiang Tsung (1206), Shên Tsung (1213),
Hien Tsung (1223), Mo Chu (1227). In fact, the real founder of
the Dynasty was Li Yuan-hao, who conquered in 1031, the cities
of Kanchau and Suhchau from the Uighúr Turks, declaring himself
independent in 1032, and who adopted in 1036 a special script of
which we spoke when mentioning the archway at Kiuyung Kwan. His
capital was Hia chau, now Ning hia, on the Yellow River. Chinghiz
invaded Tangut three times, in 1206, 1217, and at last in 1225;
the final struggle took place the following year, when Kanchau,
Liangchau, and Suhchau fell into the hands of the Mongols. After
the death of Chinghiz (1227), the last ruler of Tangut, Li H’ien,
who surrendered the same year to Okkodaï, son of the conqueror,
was killed. The dominions of Tangut in the middle of the 11th
century, according to the _Si Hia Chi Shih Pên Mo_, quoted by Dr.
Bushell, “were bounded, according to the map, by the Sung Empire
on the south and east, by the Liao (Khitan) on the north-east, the
Tartars (Tata) on the north, the Uighúr Turks (Hui-hu) on the west,
and the Tibetans on the south-west. The Alashan Mountains stretch
along the northern frontier, and the western extends to the Jade
Gate (Yü Mên Kwan) on the border of the Desert of Gobi.” Under the
Mongol Dynasty, Kan Suh was the official name of one of the twelve
provinces of the Empire, and the popular name was Tangut.
(Dr. S. W. Bushell: _Inscriptions in the Juchen and Allied Scripts_
and _The Hsi Hsia Dynasty of Tangut_. See above, p. 29.)
“The word Tangutan applied by the Chinese and by Colonel Prjevalsky
to a Tibetan-speaking people around the Koko-nor has been explained
to me in a variety of ways by native Tangutans. A very learned lama
from the Gserdkog monastery, south-east of the Koko-nor, told me
that Tangutan, Amdoans, and Sifan were interchangeable terms, but I
fear his geographical knowledge was a little vague. The following
explanation of the term Tangut is taken from the _Hsi-tsang-fu_.
‘The Tangutans are descendants of the _Tang-tu-chüeh_. The origin
of this name is as follows: In early days, the Tangutans lived in
the Central Asian Chin-shan, where they were workers of iron. They
made a model of the Chin-shan, which, in shape, resembled an iron
helmet. Now, in their language, “iron helmet” is _Tang-küeh_, hence
the name of the country. To the present day, the Tangutans of the
Koko-nor wear a hat shaped like a pot, high crowned and narrow,
rimmed with red fringe sewn on it, so that it looks like an iron
helmet, and this is a proof of [the accuracy of the derivation].’
Although the proof is not very satisfactory, it is as good as we
are often offered by authors with greater pretension to learning.
“If I remember rightly, Prjevalsky derives the name from two words
meaning ‘black tents.’” (_W. W. Rockhill, China Br. R. As. Soc._,
XX. pp. 278–279.)
“Chinese authorities tell us that the name [Tangut] was originally
borne by a people living in the Altaï, and that the word is
Turkish.... The population of Tangut was a mixture of Tibetans,
Turks, Uighúrs, Tukuhuns, Chinese, etc.” (_Rockhill_, _Rubruck_, p.
150, note.—H. C.)]
_Sachiu_ is SHACHAU, “Sand-district,” an outpost of China Proper,
at the eastern verge of the worst part of the Sandy Desert. It is
recorded to have been fortified in the 1st century as a barrier
against the Hiongnu.
[The name of Shachau dates from A.D. 622, when it was founded by
the first emperor of the T’ang Dynasty. Formerly, Shachau was one
of the Chinese colonies established by the Han, at the expense of
the Hiongnu; it was called T’ung hoang (B.C. 111), a name still
given to Shachau; the other colonies were Kiu-kaan (Suhchau, B.C.
121) and Chang-yé (Kanchau, B.C. 111). (See _Bretschneider, Med.
Res._ II. 18.)
“Sha-chow, the present _Tun-hwang-hien_ (a few _li_ east of the
ancient town).... In 1820, or about that time, an attempt was made
to re-establish the ancient direct way between Sha-chow and Khotan.
With this object in view, an exploring party of ten men was sent
from Khotan towards Sha-chow; this party wandered in the desert
over a month, and found neither dwellings nor roads, but pastures
and water everywhere. M. Polo omits to mention a remarkable place
at Sha-chow, a sandy hillock (a short distance south of this town)
known under the name of _Ming-sha shan_—the ‘rumbling sandhill.’
The sand, in rolling down the hill, produces a particular sound,
similar to that of distant thunder. In M. Polo’s time (1292),
Khubilaï removed the inhabitants of Sha-chow to the interior of
China; fearing, probably, the aggression of the seditious princes;
and his successor, in 1303, placed there a garrison of ten thousand
men.” (_Palladius_, _l.c._ p. 5.)
“Sha-chau is one of the best oases of Central Asia. It is situated
at the foot of the Nan-shan range, at a height of 3700 feet above
the sea, and occupies an area of about 200 square miles, the whole
of which is thickly inhabited by Chinese. Sha-chau is interesting
as the meeting-place of three expeditions started independently
from Russia, India, and China. Just two months before Prjevalsky
reached this town, it was visited by Count Szechényi [April, 1879],
and eighteen months afterwards Pundit A-k, whose report of it
agrees fairly well with that of our traveller, also stayed here.
Both Prejevalsky and Szechényi remark on some curious caves in a
valley near Sha-chau containing Buddhistic clay idols.[1] These
caves were in Marco Polo’s time the resort of numerous worshippers,
and are said to date back to the Han Dynasty.” (_Prejevalsky’s
Journeys_ ... by E. Delmar Morgan, _Proc. R. G. S._ IX. 1887, pp.
217–218.)—H. C.]
(_Ritter_, II. 205; _Neumann_, p. 616; _Cathay_, 269, 274;
_Erdmann_, 155; _Erman_, II. 267; _Mag. Asiat._ II. 213.)
NOTE 2.—By _Idolaters_, Polo here means Buddhists, as generally.
We do not know whether the Buddhism here was a recent introduction
from Tibet, or a relic of the old Buddhism of Khotan and other
Central Asian kingdoms, but most probably it was the former, and
the “peculiar language” ascribed to them may have been, as Neumann
supposes, Tibetan. This language in modern Mongolia answers to the
Latin of the Mass Book, indeed with a curious exactness, for in
both cases the holy tongue is not that of the original propagators
of the respective religions, but that of the hierarchy which has
assumed their government. In the Lamaitic convents of China and
Manchuria also the Tibetan only is used in worship, except at one
privileged temple at Peking. (_Koeppen_, II. 288.) The language
intended by Polo may, however, have been a Chinese dialect. (See
notes 1 and 4.) The Nestorians must have been tolerably numerous in
Tangut, for it formed a metropolitan province of their Church.
NOTE 3.—A practice resembling this is mentioned by Pallas as
existing among the Buddhist Kalmaks, a relic of their old Shaman
superstitions, which the Lamas profess to decry, but sometimes
take part in. “Rich Kalmaks select from their flock a ram for
dedication, which gets the name of _Tengri Tockho_, ‘Heaven’s Ram.’
It must be a white one with a yellow head. He must never be shorn
or sold, but when he gets old, and the owner chooses to dedicate
a fresh one, then the old one must be sacrificed. This is usually
done in autumn, when the sheep are fattest, and the neighbours are
called together to eat the sacrifice. A fortunate day is selected,
and the ram is slaughtered amid the cries of the sorcerer directed
towards the sunrise, and the diligent sprinkling of milk for the
benefit of the Spirits of the Air. The flesh is eaten, but the
skeleton with a part of the fat is burnt on a turf altar erected on
four pillars of an ell and a half high, and the skin, with the head
and feet, is then hung up in the way practised by the Buraets.”
(_Sammlungen_, II. 346.)
NOTE 4.—Several of the customs of Tangut mentioned in this chapter
are essentially Chinese, and are perhaps introduced here because
it was on entering Tangut that the traveller first came in contact
with Chinese peculiarities. This is true of the manner of forming
coffins, and keeping them with the body in the house, serving food
before the coffin whilst it is so kept, the burning of paper
and papier-maché figures of slaves, horses, etc., at the tomb.
Chinese settlers were very numerous at Shachau and the neighbouring
Kwachau, even in the 10th century. (_Ritter_, II. 213.) [“Keeping
a body unburied for a considerable time is called _khǹg koan_,
‘to conceal or store away a coffin,’ or _thîng koan_, ‘to detain
a coffin.’ It is, of course, a matter of necessity in such cases
to have the cracks and fissures, and especially the seam where
the case and the lid join, hermetically caulked. This is done by
means of a mixture of chunam and oil. The seams, sometimes even the
whole coffin, are pasted over with linen, and finally everything is
varnished black, or, in case of a mandarin of rank, red. In process
of time, the varnishing is repeated as many times as the family
think desirable or necessary. And in order to protect the coffin
still better against dust and moisture, it is generally covered
with sheets of oiled paper, over which comes a white pall.” (_De
Groot_, I. 106.)—H. C.] Even as regards the South of China many
of the circumstances mentioned here are strictly applicable, as
may be seen in _Doolittle’s Social Life of the Chinese_. (See, for
example, p. 135; also _Astley_, IV. 93–95, or Marsden’s quotations
from _Duhalde_.) The custom of burning the dead has been for
several centuries disused in China, but we shall see hereafter that
Polo represents it as general in his time. On the custom of burning
gilt paper in the form of gold coin, as well as of paper clothing,
paper houses, furniture, slaves, etc., see also _Medhurst_, p.
213, and _Kidd_, 177–178. No one who has read Père Huc will forget
his ludicrous account of the Lama’s charitable distribution of
paper horses for the good of disabled travellers. The manufacture
of mock money is a large business in Chinese cities. In Fuchau
there are more than thirty large establishments where it is kept
for sale. (_Doolittle_, 541.) [The Chinese believe that sheets
of paper, partly tinned over on one side, are, “according to the
prevailing conviction, turned by the process of fire into real
silver currency available in the world of darkness, and sent there
through the smoke to the soul; they are called _gûn-tsoá_, ‘silver
paper.’ Most families prefer to previously fold every sheet in
the shape of a hollow ingot, a ‘silver ingot,’ _gûn-khò_, as they
call it. This requires a great amount of labour and time, but
increases the value of the treasure immensely.” (_De Groot_, I.
25.) “Presenting paper money when paying a visit of condolence
is a custom firmly established, and accordingly complied with by
everybody with great strictness.... The paper is designed for
the equipment of the coffin, and, accordingly, always denoted by
the term _koan-thaô-tsoá_, ‘coffin paper.’ But as the receptacle
of the dead is, of course, not spacious enough to hold the whole
mass offered by so many friends, it is regularly burned by lots by
the side of the corpse, the ashes being carefully collected to be
afterwards wrapped in paper and placed in the coffin, or at the
side of the coffin, in the tomb.” (_De Groot_, I. 31–32.)—H. C.]
There can be little doubt that these latter customs are symbols of
the ancient sacrifices of human beings and valuable property on
such occasions; so Manetho states that the Egyptians in days of
yore used human sacrifices, but a certain King Amosis abolished
them and substituted images of wax. Even when the present Manchu
Dynasty first occupied the throne of China, they still retained
the practice of human sacrifice. At the death of Kanghi’s mother,
however, in 1718, when four young girls offered themselves for
sacrifice on the tomb of their mistress, the emperor would not
allow it, and prohibited for the future the sacrifice of life or
the destruction of valuables on such occasions. (_Deguignes, Voy._
I. 304.)
NOTE 5.—Even among the Tibetans and Mongols burning is only one
of the modes of disposing of the dead. “They sometimes bury their
dead: often they leave them exposed in their coffins, or cover them
with stones, paying regard to the sign under which the deceased
was born, his age, the day and hour of his death, which determine
the mode in which he is to be interred (or otherwise disposed
of). For this purpose they consult some books which are explained
to them by the Lamas.” (_Timk._ II. 312.) The extraordinary and
complex absurdities of the books in question are given in detail by
Pallas, and curiously illustrate the paragraph in the text. (See
_Sammlungen_, II. 254 _seqq._) [“The first seven days, including
that on which the demise has taken place, are generally deemed to
be lucky for the burial, especially the odd ones. But when they
have elapsed, it becomes requisite to apply to a day-professor....
The popular almanac which chiefly wields sway in Amoy and the
surrounding country, regularly stigmatises a certain number of
days as _tîng-sng jít_: ‘days of reduplication of death,’ because
encoffining or burying a dead person on such a day will entail
another loss in the family shortly afterwards.” (_De Groot_, I.
103, 99–100.)—H. C.]
NOTE 6.—The Chinese have also, according to Duhalde, a custom of
making a new opening in the wall of a house by which to carry
out the dead; and in their prisons a special hole in the wall
is provided for this office. This same custom exists among the
Esquimaux, as well as, according to Sonnerat, in Southern India,
and it used to exist in certain parts both of Holland and of
Central Italy. In the “clean village of Broek,” near Amsterdam,
those special doors may still be seen. And in certain towns of
Umbria, such as Perugia, Assisi, and Gubbio, this opening was
common, elevated some feet above the ground, and known as the “Door
of the Dead.”
I find in a list, printed by Liebrecht, of popular French
superstitions, amounting to 479 in number, condemned by Maupas du
Tour, Bishop of Evreux in 1664, the following: “When a woman lies
in of a dead child, it must not be taken out by the door of the
chamber but by the window, for if it were taken out by the door the
woman would never lie in of any but dead children.” The Samoyedes
have the superstition mentioned in the text, and act exactly as
Polo describes.
[“The body [of the Queen of Bali, 17th century] was drawn out of a
large aperture made in the wall to the right hand side of the door,
in the absurd opinion of _cheating the devil_, whom these islanders
believe to lie in wait in the ordinary passage.” (_John Crawford,
Hist. of the Indian Archipelago_, II. p. 245.)—H. C.]
And the Rev. Mr. Jaeschke writes to me from Lahaul, in British
Tibet: “Our Lama (from Central Tibet) tells us that the owner of
a house and the members of his family when they die are carried
through the house-door; but if another person dies in the house his
body is removed by some other aperture, such as a window, or the
smokehole in the roof, or a hole in the wall dug expressly for the
purpose. Or a wooden frame is made, fitting into the doorway, and
the body is then carried through; it being considered that by this
contrivance the evil consequences are escaped that might ensue,
were it carried through the ordinary, and, so to say, _undisguised_
house-door! Here, in Lahaul and the neighbouring countries, we have
not heard of such a custom.”
(_Duhalde_, quoted by Marsden; _Semedo_, p. 175; _Mr. Sala_ in
_N. and Q._, 2nd S. XI. 322; _Lubbock_, p. 500; _Sonnerat_ I. 86;
_Liebrecht’s Gervasius of Tilbury_, Hanover, 1856, p. 224; _Mag.
Asiat._ II. 93.)
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[1] M. Bonin visited in 1899 these caves which he calls “Grottoes of
Thousand Buddhas” (_Tsien Fo tung_). (_La Géographie_, 15th March,
1901, p. 171.) He found a stèle dated 1348, bearing a Buddhist
prayer in six different scripts like the inscription at Kiu Yung
Kwan. (_Rev. Hist. des Religions_, 1901, p. 393.)—H. C.