A Journey To The West Views

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Introduction: This short abstract is all that remains of a now lost larger work written by Ye-l

At a distance of more than a thousand li, after having //[p.17] crossed the Han hai, one arrives at the city of Bu la. South of this city is the Yin shan mountain, which extends from east to west a thousand li, and from north to south 200 li. On the top of the mountain is a lake, which is seventy or eighty li in circumference. The country south of the lake is overgrown with lin k'in trees, which form such dense forests, that the sunbeams cannot penetrate. After leaving the Yin shan one arrives at the city of A-li-ma [=Almalik]. The Western people call a lin k'in (crab-apple) a-li-ma, and as all the orchards around the city abound in apple trees, the city received this name. Eight or nine other cities and towns are subject to A-li-ma: in that country grapes and pears abound. The people cultivate the five kinds of grain, as we do in China. West of A-li-ma there is a large river which is called I-lie [=Ili River, which flows into Lk. Balkesh].

Northwest of K'u-djan (Khodjend) there is the city of O-ta-la. More than ten other cities are subject to it. One time the chief of this place ordered several envoys (of Chinghiz), and several hundreds of merchants (who were with them), to be put to death, and seized upon their goods. That was the cause of the army being directed against the Western people.

//[p.23] To the west (mistake for south), near the western border of the same great river (Amu-daria), is the city of Ban [=Balkh]; and west of the latter is the city of Chuan [=T'uan?]. Farther on, direct west (mistake for south), one reaches the city of the black Yin-du. Their writing is different from that in use in the Buddhist kingdoms (Sanscrit) as regards the letters and the pronunciation. There are many idols of Buddha. The people there do not kill cows or sheep; they only drink the milk of these animals. Snow is unknown there. Every year they reap two crops. It is so hot there that a vessel of tin put in the sand melts immediately. Even by moonlight one is hurt as on a summer day (in China by sunbeams).