On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c6.s2.3

v1.c6.s2.3

The Chinese annotator here tells us that the old name of Ku-chih (屈支) was Ku-tse (龜茲), as we are told to pronounce these characters. This is not only the old name but also the only one by which the country was known to the Chinese until a comparatively modern time.¹ A Sanskrit-Chinese Vocabulary gives Kuchina (俱支那) as its Sanskrit designation; but the word does not seem to be otherwise known. There are various transcriptions of the sound Ku-tse, but Wu-k'ung tells us that Ku-chih is the correct form of the name.² The modern Chinese official name of the district and its capital is *K'u-ch'ê* (庫車), the Kuchah and Kocha of our maps. This term is explained as meaning the "Dry well of K'u", but the etymology cannot be accepted.³ In modern Tibetan books the name is given as Khu-chhu or Khu-the. This country was known to the Chinese from the early Han time, and in A. D. 435 it became a vassal to China.¹ The old Kutse embraced, not only the district now called K‘u-ch‘ê, but also that of the present Sairam and other territory. It was an ancient state, and its extent varied at different periods. In a translation of a Buddhist book we find it mentioned as one of the parts of his great empire which Asoka proposed to give over to his son Kunāla.² The capital of Kutse was at one time (in the 1st cent. A. D.) the Yen (延) city, and afterwards it was Yi-lo-lu (伊 羅 盧).³ In the Yuan period it was a constituent part of the Bishbalik territory, and it was also called I-li-pa-li or Il-balik.⁴ We find it described as being 200 or 170 li south of the Ak-tagh or White Mountains which emitted fire and smoke and yielded sal-ammoniac.⁵