On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c23.s16.3

v2.c23.s16.3

The *Shang-mi* (商彌) of the text of this passage has been restored by Julien as Śambhi, but the restoration does not seem to be admissible. It was apparently from our pilgrim's narrative that this name Shang-mi became known to the Chinese as denoting this country. In the Wei-Shu and other books we find mention of a district called *She-mi* (赊彌) which was at a mountain south of a country called *Po-chih* (波知), perhaps Balti, between *Po-ho* (Wakhan?) and Udyāna.¹ This *She-mi*, which was visited by Sung-yun, may have been our pilgrim's Shang-mi. Then we learn that in the T'ien-pao period of the T'ang dynasty, that is between A. D. 742 and 755, eight States of these remote regions sent embassies to the Chinese emperor. One of these states was *Ku-wei* (俱緯), and this is described as the country also called Shang-mi; and the capital at that time is given as *A-shih-yuh-shih-to*, represented as being in the Great Snow Mountain north of the river *Po-lü*.² Wu-k'ung also traversed a country called *Kou-wei* (拘緯) on his journey from *Hu-mi* (Wakhan) on towards Kashmir, and this is evidently the *Ku-wei* and *Shang-mi* of other travellers and writers.³