CHANG CHUN

chang chun, kiu (1148-1227), chinese taoist sage and traveller, was born in 1148. in 1219 he was invited by jenghiz khan, founder of the mongol empire and greatest of asiatic conquerors, to visit him. jenghiz' letter of invitation, dated the 15th of may 1219 (by present reckoning), has been preserved, and is among the curiosities of history; here the terrible warrior appears as a meek disciple of wisdom, modest and simple, almost socratic in his self-examination, alive to many of the deepest truths of life and government. chang chun obeyed this summons; and leaving his home in shantung (february 1220) journeyed first to peking. learning that jenghiz had gone far west upon fresh conquests, the sage stayed the winter in peking. in february 1221 he started again and crossed eastern mongolia to the camp of jenghiz' brother ujughen, near lake bor or buyur in the upper basin of the kerulun-amur. thence he travelled south-westward up the kerulun, crossed the karakorum region in north-central mongolia, and so came to the chinese altai, probably passing near the present uliassutai. after traversing the altai he visited bishbalig, answering to the modern urumtsi, and moved along the north side of the tian shan range to lake sairam, almalig (or kulja), and the rich valley of the ili. we then trace him to the chu, over this river to talas and the tashkent region, and over the jaxartes (or syr daria) to samarkand, where he halted for some months. finally, through the "iron gates" of termit, over the oxus, and by way of balkh and northern afghanistan, chang chun reached jenghiz' camp near the hindu kush. returning home he followed much the same course as on his outward route: certain deviations, however, occur, such as a visit to kuku-khoto. he was back in peking by the end of january 1224. from the narrative of his expedition (the _si yu ki_, written by his pupil and companion li chi chang) we derive some of the most faithful and vivid pictures ever drawn of nature and man between the great wall of china and kabul, between the aral and the yellow sea: we may particularly notice the sketches of the mongols, and of the people of samarkand and its neighbourhood; the account of the fertility and products of the latter region, as of the ili valley, at or near almalig-kulja; and the description of various great mountain ranges, peaks and defiles, such as the chinese altai, the tian shan, mt bogdo-ola (?), and the iron gates of termit. there is, moreover, a noteworthy reference to a land apparently identical with the uppermost valley of the yenisei. after his return chang chun lived at peking till his death on the 23rd of july 1227. by order of jenghiz some of the former imperial garden grounds were made over to him, for the foundation of a taoist monastery. see e. bretschneider, _mediaeval researches from eastern asiatic sources_, vol. i. pp. 35-108, where a complete translation of the narrative is given, with a valuable commentary; c.r. beazley _dawn of modern geography_, iii. 539. (c. r. b.) change (derived through the fr. from the late lat. _cambium, cambiare_, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the gr. [greek: kamptein], to bend), properly the substitution of one thing for another, hence any alteration or variation, so applied to the moon's passing from one phase to another. the use of the word for a place of commercial business has usually been taken to be a shortened form of exchange (q.v.) and so is often written 'change. the _new english dictionary_ points out that "change" appears earlier than "exchange" in this sense. "change" is particularly used of coins of lower denomination given in substitution for those of larger denomination or for a note, cheque, &c., and also for the balance of a sum paid larger than that which is due. a further application is that in bell-ringing, of the variations in order in which a peal of bells may be rung. the term usually excludes the ringing of the bells according to the diatonic scale in which they are hung (see bell). it is from a combination of these two meanings that the thieves' slang phrase "ringing the changes" arises; it denotes the various methods by which wrong change may be given or extracted, or counterfeit coin passed.