Chapter 24 Section 1 Determination of the source of the Yellow River

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, envoys were sent to Tibet many times. One of them, a monk named Zongle (le Le), passed by the source of the Yellow River when he returned from Tibet in the fifteenth year of Hongwu (AD 1382).He noted in his poem "Looking at the Source of the River": The source of the river comes from Chiba Mountain in Mobili. Fan people call the Yellow River the place of Mobi and the Yak River the place of Bili.Chiba also divides the boundary, the water from the south of the mountain flows into the Yak River, and the water from the northeast is the source of the river.

Mabili Chiba Mountain is the Bayan Har Mountain, and the Yak River is the Tongtian River (the upper reaches of the Yangtze River), which shows that the local Tibetans understand that the Bayan Har Mountain is the watershed between the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. The Yellow River originates in the northeast of the Bayan Har Mountain. It also shows that the Yellow River was called "Mochu" (that is, the modern translation of Maqu) at that time. In the second half of the 16th century, with the spread of Lamaism among the Mongolians, the relationship between Mongolia and Tibet became very close. In 1642 (the 15th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty), Gushi Khan, the leader of the Mongolian Heshuo Special Department, led his army into Tibet to assist the Dalai Lama in ruling Tibet, and jointly sent envoys to meet the Qing emperor.During these exchanges, people learned that there are "Gurban Solomo" on the source of the Yellow River, that is, three tributary rivers.In order to confirm this situation, in the 43rd year of Kangxi (AD 1704), Emperor Kangxi sent Laxi and Shulan to Heyuan to explore.Laxi and others arrived at Eling Lake and Zhaling Lake in June of that year, and then made an investigation in the west of Xingxiu Sea.They drew the result as "The Map of the Origin of the Stars and Rivers", and Shu Lan wrote it as "The Story of the Origin of the River". "Xingxiu River Source Map" draws three rivers to the west of Zhalingnuoer (Zhaling Lake), the middle one is the longest, and it is marked: "The source of the Yellow River is three rivers, named Gurban Solma."

In the process of surveying and mapping the national map, in the fifty-sixth year of Kangxi (AD 1717), the Lama Chuerqin Zangbulan Muzhamba and the head of the Lifan Academy Shengzhu were sent to the Heyuan area to survey and map the map.In the national map "Huangyu Quanpan Map" drawn up the following year, three tributaries of the source of the Yellow River were drawn, and the middle one was marked as Altampira, which was obviously based on the results of actual measurements. In the twenty-sixth year of Qianlong (AD 1761), Qi Zhaonan wrote the "Outline of Waterways", which used the "Huangyu Quanpan Tu" as the main source of information.Among them, the discussion about the source of the Yellow River is written as follows:

The source of the Yellow River is Xingxiu Haixi and the eastern foot of Bayan Hara Mountain. The two springs flow for several miles and merge to the southeast. It is called the Altan River...then flows east for tens of miles, turns northeast and flows hundreds of miles to Etun Tala, which is the ancient Xingxiu. Hai, "Yuanshi" so-called Huodunnaoer also.It has been three hundred miles from the source of the river... There are springs in the northeast of Altan, a water flowing from the southwest of Balhab Mountain in the north, and water flowing from the north of Haradaerhan Mountain in the south. Solmar), which flows southeast into the Charing Sea.

This shows that since 1704, China's Heyuan investigation has achieved correct results: the three branches of Heyuan, the northern branch is Zhaqu, the southwest branch is Kariqu, and the west branch is Yueguzongliequ.This is consistent with the results of modern investigations, except that the "Outline of Water Courses" defines Yueguzongliequ (Altan River) as the source of the Yellow River. In the forty-sixth year of Qianlong (1781 A.D.), the Yellow River burst in Jiangsu and Henan.At that time, it was believed that the reason for the flooding of the Yellow River was that the real source of the river was not found for sacrifices, so Qianlong sent Amida to explore the source of the river again the following year.The result of Amida's investigation is: there is a river in the southwest of Xingxiu Sea, named Altan Gol. In Mongolian, Altan means gold, and Gol means river.This river is actually the upper source of the Yellow River. Its water is yellow, and it circles for three hundred miles and penetrates into the Xingxiu Sea.This river is Kariqu, which shows that Amida has reaffirmed that Kariqu is the source of the Yellow River.However, because Emperor Qianlong insisted on the dogma of the Yellow River's heavy source and subterranean flow (more than one source, which flows underground for a long distance and then flows out of the ground), Ji Yun [yunyun] still insisted on compiling the "Heyuan Jilue" when he compiled the Heyuan investigation data. The Tarim River and Lop Nur are said to be the real source of the Yellow River. After the underground flow, the Kariqu reappeared, and the yellow color of the Kariqu water was used to prove that "the great river Lingdu has not changed its nature even though it has been buried for thousands of miles."The results of scientific investigations were forcibly incorporated into the fallacious system of idealism, reflecting the evil results of the combination of autocratic rule and Confucian dogma.