1. In the original text, Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai refers to himself by his Taoist and literary name, Chan-jan chü-shih (Lay Scholar of Profound Clarity). He also included his Buddhist name, Ts'ung-yüan (Following the Source), on the title page.

2. "Yen" refers here to Yen-ching in the southwest of modern Peking, which had been the capital of the Liao dynasty and the Central Capital of the Chin.

3. The Tomb of Eternal Peace (Yung-an-ling) was the burial place of Yehlü's relative the Northern Liao emperor Hsüan-tsung (r. 1122), located in modern Hsiang-shan, northwest of Peking. Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai's home was in the area. Chü-yung Pass (Chü-yung-kuan) through the Great Wall is located farther to the northwest of Peking. Wu-ch'uan is modern Hsüan-hua, Ho-pei; Yün-chung refers to modern Ta-t'ung, Shan-hsi. The Celestial Mountains (T'ien-shan), now known as the Dark Mountains (Yin-shan), are north of modern Hu-ho-hao-t'e, Inner Mongolia. The Desert (Sha-mo) referred to here is the Gobi.

4. The precise location of Chinggis Khan's court at that time in Mongolia is unclear, for the city of Karakoram had not yet been established. One main camp was located near the Kerulen River. The other was in the Black Forest (Hei-lin) south of the Tola River near modern Ulan Bator. See Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai, Hsi-yu lu , ed. Hsiang Ta (Peking, 1981), p. 5.

5. The Western Campaign of Chinggis Khan conquered the state of Khwarazm (Hua-la-tzu-mo) in 1219-1220. Khwarazm, with its capital at Samarkand, was a rich kingdom ruled by Shan Mohammed II (d. 1220) and stretching from modern Iran to Afghanistan and northward to Transoxiana and the Aral Sea. The shan had previously rejected Chinggis Khan's offers of an alliance and murdered his emissaries, thus provoking Mongol revenge.

6. The Golden Mountains (Chin-shan) are the modern Altai range forming the border of modern Hsin-chiang, Mongolia, and Uzbekistan. Altai means "golden" in the Turkic T'u-chüeh language.

7. The city of Beshbalik (Pieh-shih-pa), meaning "Five Cities" in T'u-chüeh, stood at modern Chi-mu-sa-er, east of Wu-lu-mu-ch'i (Urumchi), Hsinchiang.

8. The "Desert-Ocean" (Han-hai) is the Gobi Desert that stretched northwest of Beshbalik to the Golden Mountains. The Desert-Ocean Army commemorated by the stele was stationed in Beshbalik (then called Chin-man in Chinese) in 702 during the reign of Empress Wu.

9. The district of Bugur (Lun-t'ai-hsien) was perhaps located in modern Mich'üan, north of Wu-lu-mu-ch'i. Another view places it in modern Fu-k'ang, Hsin-chiang. See Yeh-lü, Hsi-yu lu , p. 6.

10. Qoco (also Khoco; Chinese: Ho-chou) was Kao-ch'ang, located at modern Ha-la-ho-cho (Karakhoja) in the southeast of the district of T'u-lu-fan (Turfan), Hsin-chiang. It was the capital of the Uighur Kingdom during the Sung and Yüan dynasties. Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai is mistaken in identifying it with "I Prefecture" (I-chou), modern Ha-mi, Hsin-chiang.

11. Khotan (Chinese: Wu-tuan-ch'eng; also Yü-t'ien; also Ho-t'ien) was located west of modern Ho-t'ien, Hsin-chiang.

12. The Black Jade River (Karakash; Chinese: Wu-yü-ho, modern K'o-la-k'oshih) and the White Jade River (Yurungkash; Chinese: Pai-yü-ho, modern Yülung-k'o-shih) were for centuries major sources of nephrite jade exported to China. Both rivers are tributaries of the modern Ho-t'ien River (Ho-t'ien-ho).

13. The city of Bolat (Pu-la) was in modern Po-le, Hsin-chiang.

14. During the Yüan dynasty, the present-day Celestial Mountains (T'ienshan) in Hsin-chiang were known as the Dark Mountains (Yin-shan).

15. Round Lake (Yüan-ch'ih), also known as Celestial Lake (T'ien-ch'ih) and Lake Sairam (Sai-li-mu-hu), lies high in the mountains north of modern Ining, Hsin-chiang.

16. Almalik (A-li-ma) was located east of modern Huo-ch'eng (Khorgos), Hsin-chiang. The name means "Apple City" in the local dialect.

17. There are various lists of the five kinds of grain ( wu-ku ), which include hemp, millet, panicled millet, wheat, and beans.

18. The I-lieh is the modern Ill River (I-li-ho), which flows west for over eight hundred miles from the Celestial Mountains in modern Uighur Autonomous Region, Hsin-chiang, into Lake Balkhash in modern Kazakhstan.

19. Gus Ordo (also Balasagun; Chinese: Hu-szu-wo-lu-to), capital of the Western Liao dynasty, was located northwest of modern Lake Issyk Kul in Kirghizstan. About three miles northwest of Gus Ordo stood the T'ang city of Tokmak mentioned by Hsüan-tsang (see chapter 7 above, including note 8). The Western Liao, also known as the Black Khitans (Karakhitai), effectively came to an end in 1211 when the last ruler was deposed in all but name by his son-in-law Küchlüg. The Mongols were not able to assert their authority and annex the territory until they defeated Küchlüg in 1218. Only then did Chingghis Khan feel the time had come to conquer neighboring Khwarazm.

20. Talas (T'a-la-szu), modern Dzhambul, Kazakhstan, was recorded by Hsüan-tsang in Record of the Western Region as "T'an-lo-su." It remained an important city in the area. See Hsüan-tsang, Ta-T'ang Hsi-yü chi , pp. 77-78.

21. Pap (also Bab; Chinese: Pa-p'u) was located 630 miles west of Khojend (K'u-chan; modern Leninabad, Tadzhikistan), and Pa-lan lay between them. Kasan (K'o-san) was located northwest of modern Namanghan, Uzbekistan. These cities were in the Ferghana Basin near the Syr Darya River (Hsi-er-ho). "Pa-lan" was the sinicization of a Persian word for a kind of apricot.

22. The city of Otrar (O-ta-la) was located east of the Syr Darya River near modern Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The governor of this city, Inalchuq, with the permission of his overlord, Shan Mohammed II of Khwarazm, executed Chinggis Khan's ambassador as well as other members of the embassy on the pretext of an insult and confiscated the rich cargo of the caravan with which they were traveling. When another emissary, sent to protest this act, was also murdered by the shan, the already strained relations between the Mongols and Khwarazm collapsed. This was the pretext for the Western Campaign, although the Mongols would probably have conquered Khwarazm in any event. Chinggis Khan attacked and destroyed the city of Otrar in June 1219.

23. Chinggis Khan attacked the city of Samarkand (Hsün-szu-kan; modern Samarkand, Uzbekistan) in June 1220. It is actually located southwest of Otrar.

24. Ho-chung, which literally means "in the river," was located near a branch of the Ainu Darya River (Oxus; Chinese: A-mu-ho). It had served as the Western Capital of the Western Liao.

25. There are varying lists of the eight kinds of grain ( pa-ku ), which include rice, millet, barley, wheat, soybeans, beans, maize, and hemp. As in the case of the "five kinds of grain" above, the enumeration is rhetorical.

26. Chung-shan was an ancient commandery in the area of modern Ting and T'ang Districts, Ho-pei. The "Nine Fermentations Wine" ( Chiu-yün ) of Chung-shan was a full-bodied wine mentioned in literature as early as the Western Han dynasty.

27. Bokhara (P'u-hua), now located in Uzbekistan, was another residence of Shan Mohammed II, in addition to Samarkand.

28. The Moslems referred to here are the inhabitants of Khwarazm. Bokhara had been conquered by Chinggis Khan in March 1220.

29. The Amu Darya River flows into the Aral Sea (Hsien-hai), a 26,000-square-mile lake located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

30. Urgenj (Wu-li-chien) was located south of the Aral Sea along both sides of the Amu Darya. It was conquered by Chinggis Khan in the autumn of 1221.

31. Bactria (also Bahlika; Chinese: Pan-ch'eng) is modern Balkh in northern Afghanistan. The location of this city is south of the Amu Darya, so "west" in Yeh-lü's text is probably a misprint. The inhabitants of Bactria were deported and slaughtered by the Mongols in 1222. When Ch'iu Ch'u-chi passed through it afterward, only the sounds of dogs barking could be heard. Yeh-lü must have visited it before this time, since he describes it as a rich city.

32. T'uan may be the fortified city of T'uan-pa-la, west of Bactria.

33. Black India (Hei-se yin-tu) remains unidentified. Here, the direction is probably south rather than west. The "great river" later referred to may be the Indus. Black India may be the place recorded by historians as "East India" (Tung-yin-tu-kuo), which Chinggis Khan visited on his return journey in 1224, after summering north of what is now Kabul, Afghanistan.

34. The people of Kipchak (K'o-fu-ch'a) were a branch of the T'u-chüeh. In the eleventh century, they expanded their territory from the Amu Darya to north of the Black Sea. Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai did not actually travel to this vast and distant area, but rather based his account on other sources.

35. See Hsin T'ang shu 217:6144 (Peking, 1975 ed.), which similarly records long days and short nights in Quriqan (Ku-li-kan) near modern Lake Baikal, Russia. This phenomenon, however, is due to Quriqan's closer proximity to the north pole. The two kingdoms are in fact unrelated.

36. Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai's estimations of these distances are inaccurate.

37. The Hsi-Hsia Kingdom was established by the Tangut tribe in 1032 and extended over modern Ning-hsia, Shaan-hsi, Kan-su, Ch'ing-hai, and Inner Mongolia, with its capital at Hsing-ch'ing (modern Yin-ch'uan, Ning-hsia). The Hsi-Hsia king, a Mongol vassal after 1210, had angered the Mongols by not contributing soldiers to the Western Campaign, and in 1225 he had formed an alliance with the Chin. Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai was in attendence at this campaign in 1226-1227 and was credited with dissuading Chinggis from exterminating the Tangut people.

38. Sha Prefecture (Sha-chou) was the administrative designation of the area around modern Tun-huang, Kan-su. Originally established as Tun-huang Commandery in III B.C., it was renamed "Sha Prefecture" in 633 during the T'ang. Kua Prefecture (Kua-chou) designated the area around modern An-hsi, Kan-su. It was actually established Dater, during the Northern Wei.

39. Su Prefecture (Su-chou), established in the Sui dynasty, designated the area around modern Chiu-ch'üan, Kan-su. However, "Shan-shan" referred to Lou-lan in the area of modern P'u-ch'ang, Hsin-chiang.

40. Kan Prefecture (Kan-chou) was established in the Western Wei dynasty. Chang-yeh is modern Chang-yeh, Kan-su; it was conquered by Chinggis Khan in the summer of 1226.

41. Ling Prefecture (Ling-chou) was established by the Northern Wei. Lingwu is modern Ling-wu, Ning-hsia; it was conquered by Chinggis Khan in November 1226 in the campaign against the Hsi-Hsia, and he died here in August 1227.

42. Translated from Yeh-lü, Hsi-yu lu , pp. 1-11.