On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c23.s20.3

v2.c23.s20.3

A note to the text by the native editor tells us that the *Che-ku-ka* of the passage is the old *Tsü* (or *Tsie*)-*kü* (沮渠). This latter word is found given as an official title among the Hiungnu, and we are told that it became a proper name.¹ Our pilgrim's *Che-ku-ka* is apparently the *So-kü* (莎車) of the Han period, and the *Chu-kü-p'o* (朱俱波) of later times.² *So-kü* is placed 1000 *li* west of Khoten and 900 *li* south of *Su-leh* (Kashgar), and Sung-yun makes *Chu-kü-p'o* to be five days' journey from Khoten.³ Modern Chinese authorities identify the old *So-kü* with the modern Yerkiang or Yarkand, and to some extent *Che-ku-ka* answers this identification.⁴ Yule, however, thinks that the particulars of our pilgrim's description "would seem to point to a site among the hills south of Yarkand", while the distances given from Kashgar and Khoten to *Che-ku-ka* agree with modern itineraries from the same places to Yarkand.⁵ The name used by our pilgrim was perhaps, as in the *T'ang-Shu*, that of the tribe or people by which the district was occupied.⁶ A Tibetan writer tells us that "the Sanskrit name for Yarkhan (or Yarkand) is Arghan", and that our pilgrim calls it "Su-kakai".⁷