Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/152

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ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANISATION

At the end of the seventeenth century the Chinese, after subduing almost the whole of this country, allowed its separate organisation to remain unchanged; only introducing a more efficient system of administration; and while maintaining the independence of its princes in local affairs, they placed them under the strict supervision of the Government of Peking. All the business connected with Mongoliа is transacted by the Foreign Office (Li-fan-yuen), matters of high importance being referred to the Emperor. It is governed on the basis of a military colony; its chief divisions or principalities are called aimaks,^[1] each comprising one or more koshungs, i.e. banners which are subdivided into regiments, squadrons, and tens. The aimaks and koshungs are governed by hereditary princes, who acknowledge

Its southern boundary, however, is south of the Great Wall, in the basin of lake Koko-nor, where the frontier takes a deep bend to the south.

↑ Northern Mongolia, i.e. the Khalka country, is composed of 4 aimaks and 86 koshungs; Inner and Eastern Mongolia, with Ordos, of 25 aimaks, divided into 51 koshungs; the country of the Chakhars into 8 banners; Ala-shan forms 1 aimak, with 3 koshungs; Koko-nor and Tsaidam, 5 aimaks, and 29 koshungs. Western Mongolia, so-called Dzungaria, comprises 4 aimaks, and 32 koshungs; but as the numbers of its Mongol inhabitants were small in comparison with the Chinese immigrants before the insurrection, it was divided into seven military circuits. The aimak of Uriankhai includes 17 koshungs. Full details on the administrative divisions of Mongolia may be found in Hyacinthe's 'Statistical Description of the Chinese Empire,' part ii. p. 88-112; and in 'Timkowsky's Travels' (English translation, edited by Klaproth, London, 1827, vol. ii. p. 223-292). From these two sources I have derived my information on the territorial divisions and government of Mongolia. [Aimak is properly a division of persons, not of territory, though it may have acquired a localised sense. Originally all the organisation of Mongol authority had reference to persons, who might be on the Volga one year, on the Amur another. — Y.]

[1] Northern Mongolia, i.e. the Khalka country, is composed of 4 aimaks and 86 koshungs; Inner and Eastern Mongolia, with Ordos, of 25 aimaks, divided into 51 koshungs; the country of the Chakhars into 8 banners; Ala-shan forms 1 aimak, with 3 koshungs; Koko-nor and Tsaidam, 5 aimaks, and 29 koshungs. Western Mongolia, so-called Dzungaria, comprises 4 aimaks, and 32 koshungs; but as the numbers of its Mongol inhabitants were small in comparison with the Chinese immigrants before the insurrection, it was divided into seven military circuits. The aimak of Uriankhai includes 17 koshungs. Full details on the administrative divisions of Mongolia may be found in Hyacinthe's 'Statistical Description of the Chinese Empire,' part ii. p. 88-112; and in 'Timkowsky's Travels' (English translation, edited by Klaproth, London, 1827, vol. ii. p. 223-292). From these two sources I have derived my information on the territorial divisions and government of Mongolia. [Aimak is properly a division of persons, not of territory, though it may have acquired a localised sense. Originally all the organisation of Mongol authority had reference to persons, who might be on the Volga one year, on the Amur another. — Y.]

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