Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2013

 

A New Exploration of Guochuān and the Guochuān Army in the Northwest in the Middle of the Yuan Dynasty

(Abstract)

 

Li Zhian

 

All the Yuan post roads (站道，Zhàndào) that linked to the deserts, including the Muling, the Naling, and the East and West Hamili Post Roads, had sections called 川 (chuān.) At the time, the Mongol words cül～col were given a Chinese equivalent:川勒 (chuānlè; also chuān), which refers mainly to a "stony desert or rocky plain." In the fourth year of Dade, when the envoys of the Prince of Mobei and the emperor’s son-in-law came south to report on the "military situation in the northern region", and when the army of the King of Chupai (术伯大王) was ordered to march to Mobei, they "crosssed chuān" or "entered chuān". Here chuān undoubtedly means passing through the Naling Post Road in the rocky Gobi desert north of Yijinailu Road. This was the first rocky Gobi desert crossed by the northwest army and envoys, and also one of the three Naling Post Roads (the other two being Jiandu Naling Post Road in Yunnan and the Gansu Post Road) leading to the Lingbei provinces. Around the time of Emperor Renzong, the rocky Gobi desert in the East and West Hamili, which bordered the Yuan-controlled region and the Chagatai Khanate, was a route that had to be taken by the armies of both sides, as well as envoys and merchants, whether in war or peace. In the sixth month of the second year of Yanyou of Emperor Renzong's reign, when NQm-qQli, the proposed King Bin was ordered by the Emperor to march west to attack the Chagatai Khanate, his army "entered and crossed chuān," or the second rocky Gobi desert. When, in the fourth month of the fourth year of Zhida of Emperor Wuzong's reign, the "Gansu army passed across chuān", the ‘chuān' is not Sichuān, but the rocky Gobi plain east and west of Hamili. The same is true of the chuān passed by the coffin of Korguz, the son-in-law of the Wanggu (Onghut) tribe, when it was escorted back to the east.