the earlier one having been much farther to the south-west. The central part of the Sungari, from Kirin to Petuna, was christened by the Cathayans Hun-t'ung, which is stated to mean "Blackwater" in their language, and by this name it is still known from Petuna, where it turns north-west, it was sometimes called Hun-t'ung and sometimes “Black Dragon." There are other Kara-muren and Kara-su or "Blackwaters" in Mongolia, and the Amur is always called Hehlung, or "Black Dragon." Hence the middle part of the Sungari is often confused with its upper and lower stretches. In any case, the northern Manchus had for many centuries been known as " Blackwaters" before their alternative name of Nüchen or Juchen-first mentioned in the seventh century-came into general use in the tenth. The Cathayans divided the northern Manchus--that is, the Juchen or Blackwaters, as distinguished from the Bohaiinto the "ripe" and the "raw," accordingly as they were registered and enrolled Cathayan subjects, or entirely under their own chiefs; and during the eleventh century they directed that the term Juchih should replace that of Juchen, as the syllable chen had become an imperial tabu. Hence I am disposed to conjecture that the final n in "Kitan" and "Nüchên" must be simply a sign of the plural; or possibly it may be the final t that marks the plural.

Amongst the Manchu tribes on the Corean frontier was one called Wanyen, which word was said to have the same meaning as the Chinese word wang, a "king," or "royal," and may possibly be a corruption of it. (In modern Corean the nominative case of the same Chinese word becomes wangi.) At that time the old Corean state of Kokorai, broken up by Chinese invasions, had given place to one called Shinra, separated by the Ever-White Mountains from Bohai; and the new state of Korai had not yet been founded. Hence, when we are told that "a Shinra man named Hanpu, or Khanfu, came from Corea and was allowed to take residence with the Wanyen tribe, although his elder brother Akunai preferred to remain in Corea," we shall be prob

up

his

ably correct in assuming that one of the Manchus settled in that border region which once had been and which soon was again to be called Corea, had decided to rejoin a border Manchu tribe now more or less independent of both Corea (Shinra) and Bohai (conquered by the Cathayans). After a period of test residence, during which Hanpu, a man of noble figure, did good service in assuaging tribal quarrels, the Wanyen tribe gave him a wife, and permanent social admittance into the clan. Amongst other things, Hanpu introduced a system of weregild, paid in slaves and cattle, in place of continual brawls and feuds. The wife in question was a fairly old woman, and apparently only grudgingly given; but none the less she bore him two sons and a daughter. The grandson of Olu the eldest son migrated further north, and took up his residence on the Anch'uhu River, where for the first time he introduced ideas of settled homes into the minds of the rude tribe. This river is easily proved to be the Altchuk of to-day, and the tribal name appears as far back as the fifth century in the form Anch'eku, and again in the eighth century as Anküku. It means "golden," and in its Chinese form Kin-yüan ("goldsource," or "source of the Altchuk") gives official name to the Kin dynasty of Nüchens or Early Manchus, who drove out the Cathayans, and were in turn driven out over a century later by Genghiz and Ogdai Khans, of the Mongol horde. No dates are given for the four reigns. from Hanpu to his great grandson, but it is easy to see that they must cover the tenth century.

The next, or fifth chief, received from the Cathayans the gubernatorial title of tiyin or teliyan; but it is distinctly stated that the Juchen or Nüchens had then no calendar or exact dates, no letters of any kind, and no organized official hierarchy. The sixth chief, Ukunai, or Hulai, was born in 1021-our first definite date-and performed valuable services for his masters the Cathayans by keeping in order the recalcitrant tribes near and beyond the modern Sansing, then called "Five State Town": the names of these five

Lower Amur states are known, but shed no light. For this he was rewarded with the Chinese title (the Cathayans having already adopted many Chinese ways) of "Commander-inchief over the Raw Nüchens"; but his policy always was to avoid "registration;" to keep the Cathayans at arm's length by preventing them from exercising any direct influence to his north-east; and to force them to act in their relations with the "Five States" through his mediative He died in 1074. agency. His son Heli (or Helipo) during a nineteen years' reign carried strictly out a similar jealous policy, but at the same time on various occasions rendered valuable aid to the Cathayans, whose principal interest in the Lower Amur and coast region was to secure from the more uncivilized Tungusic tribes a steady supply of hawks and falcons for purposes of sport. Notwithstanding this loyal and politic external behaviour, the Nüchens secretly longed to shake themselves free of the. Cathayan yoke, and accordingly on his death-bed Heli solemnly said: "My second son Akuta is the only man capable of settling once for all this Cathayan question." Akuta (or Akutañ) was then (1091) twenty-three years of age, and two brothers besides their nephew the eldest son of Heli had, in pursuance of previous arrangements, to reign before he got his chance. Meanwhile there were the usual difficulties with greedy and overbearing Cathayan taxmasters, or special hawk commissioners; but all throughout this critical period the diplomatic Nüchen rulers succeeded in "fooling" their masters by pleading that "we only can keep the further tribes in order if you leave us a free hand; any direct interference of yours may lead to a rising and a massacre." The modern Manchus have inherited this capacity to play a waiting game. Now for the first time communications were opened with the new State of Korai, founded in 908, which must therefore be the approximate date of Hanpu's arrival from Shinra, which name totally disappears by 928. Heli's eldest son Uyashu was the first to establish discipline in the Nüchen armies, which now

were the proud possessors of a thousand cuirasses, given to them, as a reward for services, by the Cathayans. The refusal of the Cathayans to surrender a Nüchen deserter named Asu had already caused the nascent germs of illfeeling to grow apace, so that when Akuta or Ogudã succeeded his cousin in 1113, everything was ripe for a revolt, which at last broke out in active form at a fishing durbar held by the Cathayan Emperor on the Sungari.

All Nüchen officials were styled pekire, or pögile, with various other prefixes to denote rank. Thus, the kulun pekire is easily identified with the modern Manchu kurun peile, or "royal duke," it having evidently been the practice in Nüchen-Manchu, as in the Mongol word "Mongol" or "Moal," to slur over the medial guttural. (The Mongol historian who compiled Nüchen history is styled both Tucta and Tuta, or Toto.) Accordingly, when Akuta succeeded to the throne, his native title was tu, or "chief," pekire. His first step was to gain over to his cause the "registered" Nichens living along the right bank of that part of the Sungari (near modern Kirin City) which was under direct Cathayan control. The next thing was to persuade the partly Chinesified natives of the Bohai viceroyalty, which, as above explained, had once been almost a genuine Manchu kingdom, that they originally belonged to the same race as himself, and then to assemble his combined forces upon the River Larin, where he gained his first victory. He now crossed the Sungari. A great battle was fought on another and southern or left bank tributary of the Sungari (not identified) called the Ya-tsz, or “Duck," River, when over 100,000 Cathayans were routed. The modern Mukden, Liao-yang, etc., fell one after the other. At the advice of his cousin Sakai, and of his own brother Ukimai, Akuta now assumed the imperial title, and consequently his official reign begins in 1117, though some authorities advance it to 1115. He had marched (they say) against the Cathayan imperial city of Hwang-lung Fu, the site of which (having in 1020 been moved north-east from its

original site, modern K'ai-yüan) appears to have been nearly identical with the place marked on the maps as Ch'ang-ch'un (Kwan-ch'êng-tsz). One of his grievances was that this city "ought to be moved back" to its former site. The Cathayans were defeated in a second great battle fought at a place a little north-east of the present Kirin, and as one of the results a considerable number of agricultural implements fell into Nüchen hands. Ukimai was now made amban pekire, or "vizier," to his brother, whilst Sakai received the next highest title of kurun pekire. In 1116 Akuta proceeded to the conquest of Liao Tung, or the country" east of the river Liao," in consequence of which Corea grew clamorous for and was accorded certain compensations. The two versions are manifestly the same, except as to the official reign date. In 1119 he concluded an alliance with the Sung dynasty-that is, the purely Chinese dynasty governing that part of China south of the Yellow River-and before three years were out he had at least three of the five Cathayan capitals in his possession, whilst the Cathayan Emperor was in full flight from (modern) Peking. The three capitals in question correspond to the two Chagan Suburgan (lat. 43° and 44° N., long. 118° and 122° W.) and modern Liao-yang. The other two capitals, corresponding to modern Peking and Ta-t'ung Fu, were occupied in 1122. The renegade Asu was also captured. The remains of the Cathayan fighting clans valorously worked their way west as far as Kermané on the Zarafshan River, near Bokhara, and after curious vicissitudes, returning a little towards the east, founded an empire near the old Western Turk encampment of the Issik-kul region, which existed up to the time of Genghis Khan. Hence there is one more good reason why the name of Cathay should have taken so firm a hold upon Mongol-Russian imagination, as it must have represented to their minds the ruling Chinese race all the way from Persia to Corea, just as in Europe we vaguely regard as Turks" the Slavs and Greeks of Turkey. The Sung

the