The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2): A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its InhabitantsWilliams, S. Wells (Samuel Wells)
History
The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2): A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants
Williams, S. Wells (Samuel Wells)
China
INNER MONGOLIA, or _Nui Mungku_, is bounded north by Tsitsihar, the
Tsetsen khanate, and Gobi, their frontiers being almost undefinable;
east by Kirin and Shingking; south by Chihlí and Shansí; and west by
Kansuh. Wherever it runs the Wall is popularly regarded as the boundary
between China and Mongolia. The country is divided into six _ming_ or
_chalkans_, like our corps, and twenty-four _aimaks_[106] (tribes),
which are again placed under forty-nine standards or _khochoun_, each
of which generally includes about two thousand families, commanded by
hereditary princes, or dsassaks. The principal tribes are the Kortchin
and Ortous. The large tribe of the Tsakhars, which occupies the region
north of the Wall, is governed by a _tutung_, or general, residing at
Kalgan, and their pasture grounds are now nominally included in the
province of Chihlí. The province of Shansí in like manner includes
the lands occupied by the Toumets, who are under the control of a
general stationed at Suiyuen, beyond the Yellow River. In the pastures
northwest from Kalgan, in the vicinity of Lakes Chazau and Ichí, and
reaching more than a hundred miles from the Great Wall, lie the tracts
appropriated to raising horses for the “Yellow Banner Corps.” Excepting
such grazing lands or the vast hunting grounds near Jeh-ho, reserved
in like manner by the government, small settlements of Chinese are
continually squatting over the plains of Inner Mongolia, from whence
they have already succeeded in driving many of the aboriginal Mongol
tribes off to the north. Those natives who will not retire are fain to
save themselves from starvation or absorption by cultivating the soil
after the fashion of their neighbors, the Chinese immigrants. It was,
indeed, this influx of settlers which led Kanghí to erect the southern
portion of Inner Mongolia into prefectures and districts like China
Proper. This alteration of habits among its population seems destined,
ere long, to modify the aspect of the country.
Most of the smaller tribes, except the Ortous, live between the western
frontiers of Manchuria, and the steppes reaching north to the Sialkoi
range, and south to Chahar. These tribes are peculiarly favored by the
Manchus, from their having joined them in their conquest of China,
and their leading men are often promoted to high stations in the
government of the country.
~OUTER MONGOLIA.~
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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