Semenov-Tian-Shansky Searches for Chigu
Just as Mecca eternally beckons Muslims, Chigu attracted almost all researchers of the Preissykul region.
The scientific quest for the real or mythical Chigu has a clearly defined starting date. On a warm evening of June 14, 1857, a young Russian scientist-traveler, arriving from distant St. Petersburg to Issyk-Kul in search of the origins of the Tian Shan mountains, stood on the cape of Kara-Bulun, at the watershed of the rivers Tyup and Dzhergalan, gazing into the rippled mirror of the bay, vainly trying to see the whimsical ruins of an underwater palace in the rays of the setting sun. The local Kyrgyz surrounding him told him that it was here that they retrieved bricks from the bottom of the lake for their mausoleums — gumbes, and that here, on the cape, the raging waves occasionally washed ancient artifacts ashore! — "gifts of the lake." Not long before, for example, a "very ancient large copper cauldron and several copper tools" had been found here, which the scientist dated (incorrectly) to the Bronze Age.
The scientist not only collected strictly scientific facts. He listened attentively to Kyrgyz legends about how the lake was formed. The essence of the legend was that there had once been a vast plain with populous and rich cities where the lake now lies. In the main square of one of the cities stood a well, which was covered at night with a golden lid. One day, a lovesick girl (in another version, three travelers) forgot to do this. The water that rose in the well flooded the sleeping city. In one night, the lake Issyk-Kul was formed.
The most impressive version of the legend, recorded later and published by the son of the famous local historian Y. I. Korolkov, Boris, was the romantic one.
In ancient times, there existed a city, over which a castle rose on the top of a steep mountain. It belonged to an old khan who was known for his cruelty. Despite his old age, the khan was a glutton. One day, he heard a rumor that in a poor nomadic family there was a girl of fairy-tale beauty. Not one brave warrior lost his life in a duel for the beauty, but she always replied to proposals of marriage that she loved another. Yet she herself did not know her beloved. One day, whether in reality or in a dream, a handsome warrior appeared before her on a white horse, took a ring from his finger, put it on hers, and said, "I will return soon. Never take off the ring, and as long as you have it, no misfortune will touch you."
When the khan's messengers came to her with rich gifts and offered her marriage, the girl secretly fled to the mountains in hopes of meeting the wonderful rider again. Only then did she notice that the ring had disappeared from her finger.
She decided to return for it. Before the fugitive could reach home, she was captured by armed horsemen.
The khan surrounded her with unheard-of luxury, but no gifts could sway the girl to accept his proposal.
Finally, the khan decided to stop being polite and take by force what he had fruitlessly sought with gifts. He came to her again, promising everything for her love, even freedom. The beauty remained unyielding. The khan rushed at the girl, but she quickly found herself at an open window and jumped into the abyss of the gorge over which the palace stood. At that moment, the walls trembled, the vaults collapsed, the gloomy castle of the old khan fell, and water gushed from all the gorges. It kept rising until it flooded the vast valley.
P.P. Semenov decided to verify the stories of the Issyk-Kul Kyrgyz about the structures that had disappeared underwater. The place where the ruins were said to be visible, in his opinion, was an underwater continuation of the Kara-Bulun cape, at least in the eastern shallow part of the lake. The archaeological finds he examined, washed ashore by the waves in this place, he attributed not to the Usun period, but to a later — Mongolian — period, to the 14th-15th centuries. And he was right. He indeed had finds that belonged to the Mongol-Timurid times. But here he also discovered items from an earlier — Saka-Usun period, as the scientist himself defined.
Having noted all this, Semenov poses the question: where could the Usun capital, which Chinese chroniclers called Chigucheng, i.e., "City of the Red Valley," be located? The Usun, in his opinion, "remained the indisputable owners of the Issyk-Kul basin" (at least for five centuries) and left "the oldest items among those washed ashore by the waves of Issyk-Kul."
Thus, writes P. P. Semenov, the land of the Usun, according to the Chinese, was cold and abundant in rain, with excellent pastures, and the mountains were covered with coniferous and deciduous forests. The Usun had numerous herds and were particularly engaged in horse breeding. The Chinese emperors sought an alliance with the Usun rulers, seeing in them potential allies against the Huns. One of the methods used for this was dynastic marriages. In 107 B.C., the Chinese court gave its princess in marriage to the Usun ruler. A palace was built for her in the ruler's camp. This residence was what the Chinese called the "City of the Red Valley." Semenov believed that the "Red Valley" could only be the valley of the Dzhergalan River. He thought that next to the camp of the nomadic lord, rich pastures were needed rather than an abundance of water, and therefore the Chigu camp was not on the shore of Issyk-Kul.
This argument may be taken into account, but it does not completely convince. After all, it could well be that the camp was located directly on the shore of the lake, while the herds grazed on the rich foothill meadows of the same Dzhergalan valley.
Be that as it may, P. P. Semenov, convinced that Chigu is located in Eastern Preissykul, did not even suppose to find it directly on the shore. As an objective, impartial scientist, he still noted instances of finds on the shore and underwater items that he attributed to the Usun circle.
The dominance of the Usun in Tian Shan ceased around the 6th century A.D. They mixed with the Turkic tribes that came here. However, as P. P. Semenov rightly believed, the Usun did not disappear from the face of the earth. Their remnants should be sought among the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, in the tribal divisions of which the name "Usun" has survived, in particular, this is how one of the clans of the large Kyrgyz tribe Sarybagysh was named. Among the Sarybagysh, the scientist occasionally encountered blue-eyed and fair-haired individuals, who stood out against the general background of the Mongoloid black-haired and black-eyed population. It should be noted that Semenov was right here too. Modern science has convincingly proven that ancient Usun tribes played a direct role in the ethnogenesis of both the Kazakh and Kyrgyz peoples.
Zhang Qian - "The Asian Columbus"