D., when it was abolished; and that district
was at or near Urumtsi; the presumption being that, in the seventh
century A.D., it was so named on account of old traditions, then
well known. Roughly speaking, it took the Emperor 300 days to go,
and a second 300 to get back; stoppages, feasts, functions, all
included. The total distance travelled, as specified from chief
station to chief station, is 13,300 _li_ (say 4000 miles) to
_Siwangmu_ and to the hunting grounds near but beyond it.
When 200 days out he came to the place where his feet were washed
with kumiss; this place is frequently mentioned in history; even
Confucius names it, as one of the northernmost conquests of the
Chou dynasty. The only doubt is whether it is near Lan-thou Fu in
Kan Suh province, or near the northern bend of the Yellow River.
The journey back was hurried and shorter (as we might well suppose
from Sz-ma Ts'ien's accounts above given), that is to say, only
10,000 _li_. But the total for the whole double journey of
660 days in all, including all by-trips, excursions, and hunts,
was 38,000 _li_, or about 12,000 miles--say 20 miles a day.
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