釋氏稽古略 4.382

4.382

春西夏神宗拓跋須蕃邸立。始為大軍所攻。求援於金。金不能救。夏人乃叛金。是時大朝國勢益強。但居其故地。於燕雲置行省。命其大臣領之。所謂太師國王也。韃靼之先與女真同類。蓋皆靺鞨之後也。其國在元魏齊（北齊）周（宇文）之時稱勿吉。至隋稱靺鞨。地直長安東北六千里。東瀕海離為數十郡。有黑水白山等名。白山本臣高麗。唐滅高麗。其遺人迸入渤海。惟黑水完彊。及渤海盛靺鞨皆役屬之。後為奚契丹所攻。部族分散。其居混同江之上（遼東開元路咸平府長白山黑水發源粟米河。曰混同江）初名曰女真（一曰混同江。即高麗鴨緣水之源。蓋古肅慎之地也）乃黑水遺種其居於陰山者。自號為韃靼。在唐末及五代時常通中國。宋初各再入貢。韃靼之人皆勇悍而善戰。其近漢地者謂之熟韃靼。尚能種秫穄。以平底瓦釜煮而食之。其遠者謂之生韃靼。止以射獵為生。無器甲用骨鏃而已。蓋以地不產鐵故也。契丹雖通其和市。而鐵禁甚嚴。後金人得河東及執劉豫廢鐵錢。由是秦晉鐵錢皆歸韃靼。得之遂大作軍器。而國以益彊。方金國盛時。韃靼歲時入貢。衛王（金主）立韃靼主忒沒真（始稱皇帝）成吉思皇帝。山東兩河皆為大朝收附矣。又有朦骨國者。在女真之東北。唐謂之蒙兀部。金國謂之蒙兀。亦謂之萌骨。人不火食。夜中能視。鮫魚皮為甲。可捍流矢。自金國熙宗天眷年間始叛。都元帥宗弼用兵連年。卒不能討（宗弼即兀木所謂四太子是也）但分兵據守要害反厚賂之。其國亦自稱祖元皇帝。建立年號時為邊患。得契丹漢兒婦女而妻妾之。自是漸有火食。至是大朝乃自號大蒙古國。然二國居東西兩方。相望凡數千里。不知何以合為一名。蓋金國盛時置東北招討司。以捍禦萌骨高麗。西南招討司以統隷北方。西夏萌骨所據。蓋金主大宗創業時地二十七圍寨而北方之境。東接臨潢府。西與夏國隣。南距靜州。北抵大人國。今盡為大朝之所有矣（金志）。

In the spring, Tuoba Xufan, Shenzong of Western Xia, took the throne from his prince's estate. He was initially attacked by the Great Army and sought aid from the Jin. The Jin could not relieve him, whereupon the Xia people rebelled against the Jin. At this time, the national power of the Great Dynasty (the Mongols) grew ever stronger; remaining in their original lands, they established a branch secretariat in Yan and Yun, commanding their high official to oversee it—the so-called Grand Preceptor and Prince of State. The ancestors of the Tatars were of the same stock as the Jurchens, both being descendants of the Mohe. In the times of the Yuan-Wei, [Northern] Qi, and [Yuwen] Zhou, their land was called Wuji. By the Sui dynasty, it was called Mohe. Its territory lay six thousand li directly northeast of Chang'an, bordering the sea on the east and divided into several dozen commanderies, bearing names such as Heishui (Black Water) and Baishan (White Mountain). Baishan had originally been subject to Gaoli. When the Tang extinguished Gaoli, its remaining people fled into Bohai. Only Heishui remained whole and strong. When Bohai flourished, all the Mohe were subjected as servants to it. Later, they were attacked by the Xi and the Khitans, and their tribes scattered. Those who dwelt along the upper reaches of the Hundong River (in Kaiyuan Circuit of Liaodong, at Xianping Prefecture, Changbai Mountain's Heishui gives rise to the Sumi River, called the Hundong River) were initially called Jurchens (one source says: the Hundong River is the source of the Yalu River of Gaoli, which is the ancient land of the Sushen); they were the remnants of the Heishui. Those who dwelt at Yinshan called themselves Tatars. In the late Tang and the Five Dynasties, they frequently communicated with the Central Plains. In the early Song, each entered to pay tribute twice. The Tatar people are all valiant and skilled in warfare. Those close to Han lands were called the Cooked (Sedentary) Tatars; they were still able to cultivate glutinous millet and panicum, cooking and eating it in flat-bottomed earthenware pots. Those further away were called the Raw (Wild) Tatars; they lived solely by archery and hunting, lacking armor and weapons and using only bone arrowheads, because their land produced no iron. Although the Khitans engaged in peaceful trade with them, their embargo on iron was extremely strict. Later, the Jin obtained Hedong and captured Liu Yu, abolishing iron coins; because of this, the iron coins of Qin and Jin all went to the Tatars. Having acquired them, they manufactured military weapons on a large scale, and their state grew ever stronger. When the Jin state was at its peak, the Tatars paid tribute annually. When Prince Wei (ruler of the Jin) took the throne, the Tatar lord Temüjin (who first assumed the title of Emperor) became Genghis Khan. Shandong and the Lianghe regions were all absorbed and subjected to the Great Dynasty. There was also the Mongol State, situated northeast of the Jurchens. The Tang called them the Mengwu tribe; the Jin called them the Mengwu, and also called them Menggu. Its people ate no cooked food and could see in the dark; they used shark skin for armor, which could ward off stray arrows. From the Tianjuan reign of Emperor Xizong of the Jin, they began to rebel. The Grand Marshal Zongbi campaigned for successive years but ultimately could not subdue them (Zongbi was Wumu, the so-called Fourth Prince); he merely deployed troops to hold the strategic passes and instead bribed them generously. That state also claimed for its leader the title of Founding Emperor (Zuyuan Huangdi), established reign eras, and constantly troubled the borders. They captured Khitan and Han women to make them wives and concubines, and from then on gradually came to eat cooked food. By this time, the Great Dynasty designated itself the Great Mongol State. However, the two countries dwelt in the east and the west, separated by several thousand li; it is not known how they came to be joined under a single name. When the Jin state was at its peak, it established a Northeast Pacification Commission to ward off the Menggu and Gaoli, and a Southwest Pacification Commission to bring the northern lands under its jurisdiction. What the Western Xia and Menggu occupied were the lands of the twenty-seven encampments from the founding era of Jin Taizong. The northern frontier adjoined Linhuang Prefecture in the east, neighbored the Xia state in the west, reached Jingzhou in the south, and extended to the Daren State in the north. Now all of it has come into the possession of the Great Dynasty (Record of Jin).