A dated eyewitness itinerary across the steppe and the Tarim twenty years after 1200: the Kereyit country and the Ongud frontier, the Naiman mountains, the Uyghur towns of Beshbaliq and the Tarim with their Buddhist and Christian communities, Almaliq of the Qarluq, and Samarkand. For 1200 it does not give events, but it is the best description of the roads, the peoples and the way of life in Mongolia, Dzungaria and the Uyghur kingdom, written by a learned observer and reliable on distances and dates.
About this source
- Title
- Changchun zhenren xiyou ji (長春真人西遊記)
- Author
- Li Zhichang (李志常)
- Author's dates
- 1193 to 1256
- Written
- about 1228, from the journey of 1220 to 1224
- Language
- Chinese
- Covers
- the journey of the Daoist master Qiu Chuji from Shandong through Mongolia and the Tarim to Chinggis Khan's camp near Samarkand and back, 1220 to 1224
- Kind
- Travel account
Waley's 1931 translation is still under copyright in most countries. Bretschneider's 1888 version is free and adequate. The Wikipedia article is on the traveller, not the text.
Where to read it
Editions
- Wang Guowei (ed.), Changchun zhenren xiyou ji zhu (1926) (not freely online)
Translations
- E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, vol. 1 (London, 1888), English translation 'Si Yu Ki: Travels to the West of Kiu Ch'ang Ch'un', at the Internet Archive
- A. Waley, The Travels of an Alchemist (London, 1931), English (not freely online)
Read it online
About the source
Realms this source covers in 1200
- The other Mongol clans
- The Kereyit of Toghrul, Ong Khan
- The Naiman of Tayang and Buyiruq
- The Ongud, wardens of the Jin march
- The Uyghur kingdom of Qocho and Beshbaliq
- The oasis lordships of the Tarim, vassals of the Qara Khitai
- The Qarluq and the nomads of the Ili, the Zhetysu and Dzungaria
- The Jin empire of Zhangzong
- Samarkand: the Western Qarakhanids