On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c23.s22.5

v2.c23.s22.5

The *Na-fo-p'o* of this passage we are told in the text was the old *Lou-lan*. This country, once powerful and flourishing, lay about 1500 *li* to the east of Khoten.² In the year B. C. 77 its prince was treacherously murdered by the Chinese envoy, and on this occasion the new name *Shen-shan* was given to the country. The common way of writing this is 鄯善 but the first syllable is also written 禪, and the name is pronounced *Ch'an* (or *Shan*)-shan. At one time the capital of the country was *Han-ni* (扞泥),³ and another important city in it was *I-sun* (伊循) at which there was a Chinese settlement.¹ Now *isun* is a Tartar word for nine, and *nava* is the Sanskrit word for nine, so our pilgrim's *Na-fo-p'o* may possibly be for a word like *Nava-bhāga*. But this Sanskrit name, probably used only in the Buddhist monasteries, was never employed by the ordinary Chinese who continued to call the country Shan-shan as long as it existed. Its modern representative is found by recent Chinese writers in Mahai-Gobi and Pijan.² In the *Ta-fang-têng-ta-chi-ching* the name used is the old and common Chinese designation *Shan-shan*.³