On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c7.s4: Che-Shih (Tashkend)
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c7.s4
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Che-Shih (Tashkend)
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The pilgrim goes on to state that from Nu-chih-kan going west above 200 *li* he came to the *Che-shih* country. This was above 1000 *li* in circuit, reaching on the west to the *She* (or *Ye*) river, being greater in extent from north to south than from east to west: in natural products and climate it was like Nu-chih-kan: its cities and towns were some tens in number, each with its own chief magistrate and without any general chief, but all subject to the Turks.
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The country here described has been long ago correctly identified with the modern Tashkend. Our pilgrim calls it *Che-shih* (赭時), as we are told to read the characters, or Chesh. This is evidently the *Che-she* (者舌)² of earlier writers with its capital *Che-chih* (赭支): the latter, Dr Hirth's "Tjadj," is also used to designate the country.³ The name is also written *Che-chih* (柘支) and its capital *Che-che* (柘折), and some western writers call the capital "Seket." The river of this country is here called *She* or *Ye* (葉) short for *Ye-ye* or *Ye-she*, the Jaxartes. Another transcription is Yao-sha (藥殺), and the river is also known as the Sihon and the Syr-daria. On entering China, we read in one treatise, it is called Chên-chu (眞珠), but another account makes Chên-chu to be a river of Tashkend alone.¹
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² T'ung-chien-kang-mu, *ch.* 25: Ma T. 1. *ch.* 338 and 339.
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³ Nachworte op. c. S. 70.
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¹ T'ang-shu, ch. 221.
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A note to our text tells us that the Chinese for Chesh kuo was Shih(石)-kuo. The fact that the word Tash and its equivalent Shih mean a stone or stone has led to some rather fanciful writing about this country. Thus Alberuni, who makes the philosophic remark that names of countries "change rapidly, when, for instance, a foreign nation with a different language occupies a country," adds—"Their tongues frequently mangle the words, and thus transfer them into their own language, as is, *e. g.* the custom of the Greeks. Or they keep the original meaning of the names and try a sort of translation, but then they undergo certain changes. So the city of Shāsh, which has its name from the Turkish language, where it is called Tāsh-kand, i. e., Stone-city, is called Stone-tower in the book γεωγραφία."² The Geography here mentioned is that by Ptolemy (about A. D. 150) who tells of a "stone tower" on the road of the caravans between India and Serica: but other writers place the tower at the starting point of the caravans proceeding to the country of the Seres. M. St. Martin considers that this identification of Tashkend with Ptolemy's "Stone tower," the Turris lapidea of later geographers, is not "sans beaucoup de probabilité." But serious objections have been made to this identification and probably it is now abandoned. The Turris lapidea as it appears in old maps is far to the south or south-east of Tashkend, the district of Old Tashkend. Moreover, not to mention any more objections, Tashkend, as has been pointed out by others, is always a city or district, never a fort or tower.³ M. St. Martin repeats the statement that Tashkend means “stone castle,” while Dr Bretschneider says it means “stone city,”¹ and gives “stony country” as the translation of our Chesh. But there does not seem to be anything in the accounts of the city and district to justify the use of the epithets “stone” or “stony.” The land was noted for its fertility and its grain crops made it the granary of the country: among its products are enumerated cotton, silk, woollen stuffs and articles of leather. In Old Tashkend the dwelling-houses are all made of mud, and the mosques and other stone buildings are built of what we may call second-hand stones.¹ The names given to the city and district have a different explanation, and represent a proper name. This was the personal name of one of the nine members of a powerful family of the Ge-ti or Yue-chih (月支) nation. The head of the family, the eldest brother, was chief of the clan the members of which were known by their territorial designation Shao-wu (昭武), that being the name of their original home north of the K'i-lien or Celestial Mountains. When conquered by the Hiung-nu (or, as some writers tell us, by the Turks), and driven away from their native region, they descended to the country between the Ts'ung-Ling and the river Oxus, occupying Kang-kü (Samarkand) and all the surrounding country. The head of the clan ruled in Samarkand and the other chiefs had principalities round about the metropolitan State, Shih or Chesh or Tash being the personal name of the brother who ruled over the district bearing this name. We even find Che-she described as Kang-kü or as a part of that country. In the 6th and 7th centuries also we find this district called the An (安) Country, An being the name of another of the Shao-wu brothers, but this did not supplant the other name. Thus Shih-kuo and Tashkend denote the country or domain of Shih or Tash.³
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² Vol. I. p. 298.
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³ See Paquier op. c. p. 24.
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¹ Julien III. p. 276: Med. Res. Vol. II. pag. 55 et al.
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² Hellwald's Centralasien S. 341, 351, 397: Baber Intr. p. XL. See also Schuyler's Turkistan ch. 3.
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³ T'ang-shu l. c.: Sui-shu, ch. 83: Ma T. l. l. c. In the Sui-shu
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BETWEEN TASHKEND AND SAMARKAND.
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We now come to a part of the pilgrim's narrative which presents some serious difficulties. He relates that—
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"From this (i. e. the Old Tashkend country) to the *Fei-han* country south-east is above 1000 *li*." This country, which was above 4000 *li* in circuit, was surrounded by mountains on all sides: it had a rich productive soil with flowers and fruits in great quantity, and it produced sheep and horses: it was windy and cold and the people were stout-hearted: in speech they differed from other countries, and they were ill-featured. For some tens of years the county had been without a sovereign, and the local chiefs struggled for superiority: their districts and cities were determined by rivers (川) and natural defences.
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The country which Yuan-chuang here calls *Fei-han* has been identified with Ferghana, corresponding in some measure to the present Khanate of Khokand. Ferghana became known to the Chinese in the second century B. C. by the name *Ta-yuan* (大宛) its capital being *Kuei-shan* (貴山), probably pronounced *Kusan*.¹ Another old name for the country was *Kü-so* (渠搜) but this is perhaps only the name of the capital slightly altered.² In later times we find the country called *Po-han* (撥汗) or (金發汗) and *Pa-han-na* (拔汗那), and *Po-lo-na* (破洛那), and in A.D. 744 the Chinese imposed on it the designation *Ning-yuan* (寧遠).³ The modern Chinese name is *Huo-han* (霍罕), in Cantonese *Fok-han*, which apparently represents the word Ferghana.⁴
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¹ Shih-chi, *ch.* 123. In this work Kangkü is placed 2000 *li* north-west from Ta-yuan. Ch'ien Han-shu *ch.* 96.
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² Ma T. l. *ch.* 338.
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³ T'ang-shu, *ch.* 221 : T'ang-chien-kang-mu *ch.* 20, 42, and 43.
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⁴ Ta-ch'ing-i-t'ung-chih, *ch.* 351: Li-ko-yen-piao, *ch.* 3.
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Now the pilgrim does not expressly state that he actually visited *Fei-han*, but some readers of the Records have understood him as describing it from personal observation, while others regard him as writing from hearsay. There
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and the Wei-shu *ch.* 102 the surname of the king of this country is Shi or stone, but he does not belong to the Shao-wu clan.
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are several circumstances in the narrative which seem to indicate that he did not visit the country called Ferghana. Thus he makes Fei-han to be 1000 *li* south-east from Tashkend, and this is double the distance, given in the T'ang-shu and other works, of Ferghana from Tashkend. Then he describes his Fei-han as having mountains on all sides, but Ferghana was free from mountains on the west side. Moreover he represents the country as having been for above a score of years in a state of anarchy, an active rivalry for chieftainship going on among the various cities. But we know from Chinese history that within a few years of the pilgrim's visit to this region there was a king of Ferghana, that the king was murdered by the West Turks, and that he was succeeded on the throne by his son.¹ The royal family belonged to the great Shao-wu clan. Thus we are apparently justified in regarding Yuan-chuang's account of the country as information derived from persons living outside of the district described.
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¹ T'ang-shu l. c.: Ma T. l. l. c.
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The narrative proceeds—
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From this (i. e. Fei-han) going west above 1000 *li* one comes (or, the pilgrim came) to the Su-tu-li-se-na country. This he describes as being 1400 *li* in circuit with the *She* (Jaxartes) river on its east. The *She* river rises in the north end of the Ts'ung-Ling and flows north-west a great muddy rapid stream. In natural products and popular ways Su-tu-li-se-na resembled Tashkend; there was a king but he was under the Turks.
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The name of the country here transcribed Su-tu-li-se-na (窣堵利瑟那) was perhaps a Sanskrit word like Sutushan meaning "happy," "easily satisfied," or Sutrishna which means "dry," "thirsty." It is apparently the same name which is transcribed Su-tu-shih-ni (蘇都識匿), Su-tui-sha-na, and Soh-tu-sha-na. Another name for the district was Ka-pu-tan-na (劫布呾那), and it was called by the Chinese the "Tung Ts'ao (東曹) Country," Ts'ao being one of the Shao-wu brothers.² This is evidently the "Setroushteh" of Ibn Haukal who says the country has no navigable river but has "running streams and fountains and meadows and groves" with mines of gold, silver, copperas, and sal-ammoniac. "It is a mountainous region, bounded on the east by part of Ferghana; on the west by the borders of Samarkand: on the north by Chaje (i. e. Tashkend); on the south it lies near Kish."¹ M. St. Martin identifies the district with the Osrushna or Satrushna of Musulman writers, the modern Uratupe or Uratépé, the Ura-Tube of our maps.² The identification is evidently practically correct, and the distance and direction of Ura-Tube agree with the pilgrim’s account. But the Life, which does not mention Fei-han, makes Yuan-chuang go from Tashkend direct to Sutrishan which it places 1000 *li* west from Tashkend. Here there is evidently a mistake due apparently to the accidental omission of Fei-han. In some Chinese works Sutrishan is placed 500 *li*,³ and in some 400 *li*⁴ to the west of Ferghana and adjacent to Tashkend on the north.
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² T'ang-shu, l. c.: Ma T. l. l. c.
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¹ Oriental Geography (tr. Ouseley) ps. 261. 263.
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² Julien III. p. 278.
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³ T'ung-chih-liao l. c.
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⁴ T'ang-shu, l. c.
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The narrative in the Records proceeds—
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North-west from the Sutrishan country you enter a great desert destitute of water and vegetation, a vast blank where only by following the mountains and observing the skeletons can the course be directed. Going above 500 *li* you reach the Sa-mei-kan country.
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The Life agrees with this account in representing the pilgrim as going north-west from Sutrishan 500 *li* through a great sandy desert to the Sa-mei(or mo)-kan country. This is, as has been shown long ago, the Samarkand of history. Now it is quite true that there is a great sandy desert to the north-west of the Ura-Tube country, but one could not reach Samarkand going north-west from that country. M. St. Martin does not help us here for he carelessly makes the pilgrim put Samarkand to the south of Sutrishan or Ura-Tube. His words on this subject are—“D’Auratépé ou Asrouchna à Samarkand la distance est d’environs 45 lieues au sud-sudouest: Hiouen-thsang marque 500 (37 lieues) de Sou-tou-li-se-na à Sa-mo-kien en marchant au sud.”¹ In a note to the passage with which we are now engaged Julien apparently makes a mistake in stating that M. St. Martin would substitute south-west for the north-west of the text. Bretschneider quotes this note and declares the change to be unnecessary. He, however, gets over the difficulty of the text by cutting out the important but puzzling words “going above 500 li you come to the Sa-mei-kan country.” A traveller proceeding to Samarkand from Ura-Tube would perhaps go north-west as far as Jizak and then turn south-west, performing a journey of about 120 miles. The fact that Yuan-chuang does not seem to have known of the springs of bad brackish water in the northern part of the desert he describes might lead one to think that if he made the journey between the two places he skirted the southern side of the desert. This inference would be strengthened by the mention of mountains and of course by the direction mentioned, viz. north-west.
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¹ Julien III. p. 279.
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But taking all circumstances into consideration we must rather decide to regard the whole passage beginning with—“From this above 1000 li to Feihan,” and ending with “going above 500 li you come to Sa-mei-kan” to be an account obtained from others, and not the result of a personal visit. We should, accordingly, perhaps regard the pilgrim as going direct from Tashkend to Samarkand. From this point of view our text must be regarded here as defective, and the last clause of our passage should read—“From Tashkend going above 500 li south-west he came to the Sa-mei-kan country.” The distance seems to be too short, but we find that it agrees with accounts given in other Chinese works.²
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² e. g. in the T’ang-shu l. c.