84 AIJMLYIS TRA Г1 VE ORG A NISA TION 



At the end of the seventeenth century the Chin- 

 ese, after subduing almost the whole of this country, 

 allowed its separate organisation to remain un- 

 changed ; only introducing a more efficient system 

 of administration ; and while maintaining the inde- 

 pendence of its princes in local affairs, they placed 

 them under the strict supervision of the Government 

 of Pekinof. All the business connected with Monofo- 

 На is transacted by the Foreign Office [Li-fan-yiten), 

 matters of high importance being referred to the 

 Emperor. It is governed on the basis of a military 

 colony ; its chief divisions or principalities are called 

 aimaks} each comprising one or more koslmngs, 

 i.e. banners which are subdivided into regiments, 

 squadrons, and tens. The aimaks and koshungs 

 are governed by hereditary princes, who acknowledge 



Its southern boundary, however, is south of the Great Wall, in the 

 basin of lake Koko-nor, where the frontier takes a deep bend to the 

 south. 



^ Northern Mongolia, i.e. the Khalka country, is composed of 4 

 aimaks and 86 koshungs ; Inner and Eastern Mongolia, with Ordos, 

 of 25 aimaks, divided into 51 koshungs ; the country of the Chakhars 

 into 8 banners ; Ala-shan forms i aimak, with 3 koshungs ; Koko-nor 

 and Tsaidam, 5 aimaks, and 29 koshungs. Western Mongolia, so- 

 called Dzungaria, comprises 4 aimaks, and 32 koshungs ; but as the 

 numbers of its Mongol inhabitants were small in comparison with the 

 Chinese immigrants before the insurrection, it was divided into seven 

 military circuits. The aimak of Uriankhai includes 17 koshungs. 

 Full details on the administrative divisions of Mongolia may be found 

 in Hyacinthe's 'Statistical Description of the Chinese Empire,' part ii. 

 p. 88-1 [2 ; and in ' Timkowsky's Travels ' (English translation, edited 

 by Klaproth, London, 1827, vol. ii. p. 223-292). From these two 

 sources 1 have derived my information on the territorial divisions and 

 government of Mongolia. \Aimak is properly a division of persons, 

 not of territory, though it may have acquired a localised sense. 

 Originally all the organisation of Mongol authority had reference to 

 persons^ who might be on the Volga one year, on the Amur another. — 

 Y.] 



