On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c5.62

v1.c5.62

Now if we turn to the last section of Chuan I we learn what is meant by the "Black Range". We find that the frontier country on the route to India was Kapisa, which was surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains. One great range bounded it on the east, west, and south sides, separating it from "North India". This was called the Hei Ling, or Black Range, a name which translates the native term Siah-kōh, though it is also used to render another native term, Kara Tagh, with the same meaning. From China to the mountains of Kapisa along the pilgrim's route the inhabitants, he tells us, were all Hu. These Hu are described by some writers as the descendants of early Jung settlers. But Yuan-chuang, who uses Hu as a collective designation for all the settled nations and tribes through which he passed on his way to and from India, seems to consider the Jung as a race distinct from the Hu proper. Other writers also make this distinction, regarding the Jung as of the Tibetan stock and the Hu as of Turkic kindred. But the distinction is not generally observed, and we can only say that the Hu include the Jung, who were not supposed, however, to be found beyond the Ts'ung Ling westward. In early Chinese history, e. g. in the Yü kung of the "Shu Ching" we find Jung occupying the country about the Koko Nor. They were then pastoral tribes, rearing cattle and wearing clothing prepared from the skins of their animals. Afterwards they spread to Hami and to Turfan and the Ts'ung Ling, becoming mainly agricultural peoples.