THE TA HSIANG LING
There is a small unsettled controversy regarding the name of the Ta Hsiang Ling. It is possible that the mountain owes its name not to the legend of P'u Hsien's elephant, but to the famous general Chu-ko Liang (see [note 1]). Devout Buddhists are bound to hold that the name means "The Great Elephant," and this is the view taken in all Buddhistic accounts of western Ssuch'uan and in the maps issued by the monks of Mount Omei. But other authorities—including the official Topography and the Shêng Wu Chi (5th chüan)—give the central character not as 象 (hsiang, elephant) but as 相 (hsiang, minister of state), thereby changing the mountain's name into "The Great Mountain of the Minister." This minister is none other than Chu-ko Liang, who is said to have crossed the mountain during his western campaigns. The "Small Elephant Pass" in the Chien-ch'ang Valley is similarly metamorphosed into "The Small Mountain of the Minister," and for a like reason. This latter mountain, however, is also known officially as the Nan Shan or South Mountain. (寕遠府南山土名小相嶺皆以武候經過得名: Shêng Wu Chi, loc. cit.)
This note will throw a light on a passage that occurs in Mr Archibald Little's Mount Omi and Beyond (pp. 204-205) and exonerate Captain Gill from the charge of inaccuracy.
It may be worth mentioning that a neighbouring mountain bears the officially-recognised name of Shih-tzŭ Shan, or Lion Hill, but the T'ung Chih explicitly states that this is owing to its peculiar shape. There is nothing in the contour of the Ta Hsiang Ling to suggest an elephant.
NOTE 15 ([p. 120])
CH'ING-CH'I-HSIEN
This little town has had a variety of names during its long and chequered history, and it frequently changed hands. Its position was for centuries somewhat analogous to that of Berwick-on-Tweed during the Anglo-Scottish border wars. The T'ung Chih states that it passed into the hands of the Chinese after one of the numerous "pacifications of the West," in the 30th year of Han Wu Ti (111 B.C.), but it was lost to China many times after that. Its present name and status as a magistracy date from the eighth year of Yung Chêng (1730). This was an epoch in which a series of able Chinese emperors were making determined and, on the whole, successful efforts to reduce the Wild West to obedience.
NOTE 16 ([p. 121])
THE LIU SHA RIVER
The Liu Sha is also known as the Han Shui or Chinese water. It is said to rise in the "Fairy's Cave" (hsien jên tung) in the Fei Yüeh range. Thence it flows to the Shih Chien Shan or Trial-of-the-Sword Hill and joins the Chien Shui (澗水) and thereafter enters the Ta Tu. According to the Huan Yü Chi (寰宇記) an evil miasma arises from this river every winter and spring, causing fever.