sections, or the town (as one authority has it) into five quarters.[1] However this may be, the Chinese knew the country by its Turki name (which they sometimes translated into its Chinese equivalent—Wu-chêng), while they gave the city itself the Chinese style of Pei-ting, or 'Northern Court'; and subsequently (early in the fifteenth century) changed that of the whole country from 'Bishbálik' into 'Ili-bálik.'
The town of Bishbálik was situated on, or near, the site of the modern Urumtsi, and the country of which it was the chief place, extended to the westward and north-westward, as well as beyond the southern slopes of the Tian Shan. Like the rest of this part of Asia, it fell into the empire of Chingiz Khan, and, after his death, passed to his son Chaghatai. Later again, in the time of the Chinese Mings, the official historians of that dynasty described the limits of the region in such a way, as to leave no doubt that the country they termed Bishbálik was, indeed, Moghulistan. "Bie-shi-ba-li," says the Ming Shi,[2] "is a great empire in the Si Yü [countries of the west]. It is bordered on the south by Yü-tien [Khotan], on the north by the country of the Wa-la [the Oirát Kalmáks], on the west by Sa-ma-rh-han [Samarkand], and to the east it is contiguous with Huo-chou [Kara Khoja]. It is distant [probably the urdu of the Khan is meant] from Kia-Yü-Kuan in the south-east, 3700 li. It is believed that Bie-shi-ba-li occupies the same tracts as, in ancient times, Yenki or Kui-tsz."[3] As a description of the land and people, the Ming history adds:—"The country of Ili-ba-li is surrounded by deserts. It extends 3000 li from east to west and 2000 li from north to south. There are no cities or palace buildings. The people are nomads living in felt tents, and exchanging their abode, together with their herds, in accordance with the existence of water and pasture land. They are of a fierce appearance. Their common food is flesh and kumis. They are dressed in the same fashion as the Wa-la."
Many embassies are recorded in the Ming Shi as having
- ↑ See Bretschneider, i., p. 258. But Mr. Watters deriving his information, it seems, from Chinese sources, counts Bishbálik, or Urumtsi, as one of the "Five Cities," and mentions Yenki (now Karashahr) and Kuitze (the present Kuchar) as two of the others. The remaining two he does not specify. (China Review, xix., No. 2, pp. 108, 112.)
- ↑ Bretschneider, ii., pp. 225 seq.
- ↑ These were two ancient kingdoms, explained by Dr. Bretschneider to have existed before the Christian era, and to be generally identified, by the Chinese, with the modern Karashahr and Kuchar.
