On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s1.5

v1.c8.s1.5

Let us now examine in detail Yuan-chuang's statements about the terms he quotes as used in China to denote India and the history of these terms. The old name, as he tells us, is that which he, following precedent, writes Shên-tu (身毒) as the characters are now pronounced. This word emerges in Chinese history in the account which the famous envoy Chang Ch'ien (Kien) gives of his experiences in the Ta-hsia country (Bactria). In that we read that when Chang returned from his mission to the West he reported to Han Wu Ti (apparently about B. C. 123) that when in Ta-hsia he had seen bamboo poles and cloth from a district which is now comprised in the Province of Ssŭchuan. He had been told, he relates, that these commodities had been obtained at Shên-tu, as the name of the place is given in the ordinary texts of his report to the Emperor. Now Chinese writers tell us, and Western scholars have adopted and repeated the statements, that the Shên-tu of this story was India, and that all the other designations for that country in Chinese books such as Hsien-tou, Hsien-tu, Kan-tu, Küan (or Yuan)-tu, T'ien-chu, T'ien-tu, and Yin-tu are only phonetic corruptions of Shên-tu. These opinions seem to have been lightly formed and heedlessly followed, and it may be useful for us to enquire whether they have a good basis.