釋氏稽古略 4.382

4.382

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).