Mu Tianzi Zhuan - Sino-Platonic Papers

YU Taishan, “The Communication Lines between East and West as Seen in the Mu Tianzi Zhuan”
Sino-Platonic Papers, 197 (January, 2010)
“Hezong” means the Earl of He (River). There is no harm in considering that Lake Shen is the
same as the present Lake Daishan. 48
1.12“戊申,天子西征,鶩行至于陽紆之山。河伯無夷之所都居,是惟河宗氏。河宗
柏夭逆天子燕然之山。……癸丑、天子大朝于燕□之山,河水之阿”。陽紆之山,今內蒙古
陰山。 49 河宗氏,今地在內蒙古鄂爾多斯右翼,奄有河套之北岸。 50 燕然之山,陰山山脈
中某山。 51
1.12 “On the day wushen, the Son of Heaven proceeded westward, marching on as far as
Mount Yangyu, where Wuyi, the Earl of He (River), had established his family, the same as the
Hezong. Bo Yao, the Hezong people, welcomed the Son of Heaven at Mount Yanran…. On the
day guichou, the Son of Heaven gave an audience on Mount Yanran, by the River.” Mount
Yangyu is just the Yin Mountains, Nei Mongol. 49 The residence of the Hezong tribe is situated in
the right flank of Ordos, Nei Mongol, and it possessed the north bank of the Hetao area. 50 Mount
Yanran is a peak in the Yin Mountains. 51
1.13 “己未、天子大朝于黃之山”。“黃之山”,今陰山山脈中某山。 52
1.13 “On the day jiwei, the Son of Heaven gave a grand audience on Mount Yellow.”
Mount Yellow is a peak in the Yin Mountains. 52
1.14 “乙丑,天子西濟于河。□爰有溫谷樂都,河宗氏之所遊居”。穆天子所濟,當
在今河套西端之烏加河。烏加河與今黃河間,支流密佈,或卽“溫谷樂都”所在,亦河宗氏
之所遊居。 53
1.14 “On the day yichou, the Son of Heaven passed over the River to the west…. There
was in this region a valley called Ledu, which was warm in the winter and in which there was a
traveling camp of the Hezong tribe.” The locale that Mu, the Son of the Heaven, passed over
must have been the Uga River in the western end of present-day Hetao area. There are tributaries
densely covered between the Uga River and the Yellow River, which was possibly the location
of the warm valley called Ledu, which was the camp to which the He Zong traveled. 53
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