The Shiwei室韋

The state of Shiwei lies a thousand li north of Wuji, and six thousand li from Luoyang. The character "Shi (室)" is also written "Shi (失)." They are much the same kind as the Khitan: those in the south are the Khitan, and those in the north are called Shiwei. The road runs out from Helong for more than a thousand li and enters the land of the Khitan. Ten days more to the north is the Chuo River. Three days more to the north is the Shan River. Three days more to the north is Mount Duliao, a mountain high and great, three hundred li around. More than three hundred li more to the north is a great river named the Quli. Three days more to the north is the Ren River. Five days more to the north one comes to their country. A great river flows down from the north, more than four li wide, named the Nai River (㮈水). The land of the country is low and damp, and their speech is the same as that of the Kumo Xi, the Khitan, and the state of Doumolou. They have a fair amount of millet, barley, and panic grass. In summer they live in walled towns, and in winter they follow the water and the grass. They take many sable pelts. The men let their hair hang loose and use horn bows, and their arrows are very long. The women bind their hair into two forked topknots. There is little thieving in that country: for one thing stolen, three are exacted, and one who kills a man is fined three hundred horses. Men and women all wear jackets and trousers of white deerskin. They have leaven and brew liquor. Their custom is to love red beads, which they make into ornaments for the women, stringing them and hanging them at the neck. The more of them, the more honored, and a woman who cannot get them may not even marry. When a father or mother dies, the men and women wail together for three years, and the body is laid up in the trees of the forest.

In the fourth month of the second year of Wuding they first sent Zhang Wudoufa and others as envoys to present the products of their land, and tribute envoys followed one after another until the end of the Wuding years. When Qi received the abdication of the Eastern Wei, they also came to court and paid their respects with the seasons.

Afterward they split into five tribes that did not answer to one another. These were the Southern Shiwei, the Northern Shiwei, the Bo Shiwei, the Shenmoda Shiwei, and the Great Shiwei, and none of them had a lord. The people were poor and weak, and the Tujue always kept three tudun over them to govern them all.

The Southern Shiwei lie three thousand li north of the Khitan. Their land is low and damp, and in summer they move north. The two mountains Daibo and Qiandui have many grasses and trees and abundant birds and beasts, but there are also many mosquitoes, so the people all build their houses up in the trees to escape that trouble. Little by little they divided into twenty-five tribes, and each tribe has a yumofu manduo, which is like a chieftain. When he dies a son or younger brother takes his place, and when the line fails they choose a man of worth and boldness and set him up. In their custom the men all let their hair hang loose and the women coil theirs, and their clothing is the same as that of the Khitan. They ride ox carts and roof them with rush mats, in the shape of the felt carts of the Tujue. To cross water they bind brushwood into rafts, and some make boats of hide. For their horses they weave grass into saddle pads and knot cord into bridles. For sleeping they bend wood into a shelter and cover it over with rush mats, and when they move they load it and carry it along. They use pigskin for mats and plaited wood for bedding, and the women all sit with their arms around their knees. The climate is much of it cold, and the yield of the fields is very thin. They have no sheep and few horses, and many pigs and oxen. Their customs are the same as those of the Malgal. As for their way of marrying, once the two families have given their word, the bride is at once carried off by stealth. Only then are oxen and horses sent as the betrothal gift, and the bride is taken back to her own home again, where they wait until she is with child and then return together to the husband's house. A woman does not marry a second time, for they hold that it is hard to live with the wife of a dead man. The village builds a great scaffold in common, and when a person dies the body is laid upon it. They keep mourning for three years, but wail only four times a year. Their country has no iron and takes its supply from Goryeo. There are many sable.

Going north from the Southern Shiwei eleven days one comes to the Northern Shiwei, who are divided into nine villages and live ringed about Mount Tuhe. The head of a village is called geyin mohaduo, and each tribe has three mohefu to second him. The climate is the coldest of all, and the snow is deep enough to bury a horse. In winter they go into the mountains and live in earthen holes, and many of their beasts freeze to death. Roe deer and deer are plentiful, and they make hunting their work, eating the flesh and wearing the hides. They break the ice and go down into the water, and take fish and turtles with nets. The ground holds deep snow, and for fear of falling into pits they go about riding on wood. All of them make catching sable their trade. They cap themselves with fox and sable, and clothe themselves in fish skin.

Going a thousand li farther north one comes to the Bo Shiwei, who live against Mount Hubu. They are more numerous than the Northern Shiwei, and how many villages they have is not known. They roof their houses with birch bark, and in all else they are the same as the Northern Shiwei.

Going southwest from the Bo Shiwei four days one comes to the Shenmoda Shiwei, who are named after a river. In the winter months they live in caves to escape the bitter cold.

Going several thousand li farther to the northwest one comes to the Great Shiwei. The way is steep and blocked, and their speech is not understood. Sable and gray squirrel (靑鼠) are more plentiful still.

The Northern Shiwei sent envoys from time to time to present tribute. Of the rest, none came.