On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c23.s4: Huoh
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c23.s4
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Huoh
v2.c23.s4.1
From Khost, the description in the Records continues, the pilgrim going north-west crossed a mountain and a valley, passed several small towns, and after a journey of over 300 *li* reached *Huoh*. This country, which was formerly Tokhara territory, was above 3000 *li* and its capital above twenty *li* in circuit; it had no separate ruler and was under Turkish government. The land was level and farming operations were regular; vegetation flourished and fruits and flowers were exceptionally abundant; the climate was genial, and the people had honest ways but were excitable; they wore garments of thick woollen material (lit. felt and serge); the majority were Buddhists, a few serving the gods. There were above ten monasteries, and some hundreds of Brethren who were attached to both "Vehicles". The king was a Turk who ruled over the small states south of the Iron Pass moving about from one to another without any permanent city of residence.
v2.c23.s4.2
The discription then continues. Eastward from this you enter the Tsung Ling (Onion Range) which is the centre of Jambudvipa; on the south this Range connects with the Great Snow Mountains (the Hindu Kūsh), on the north it reaches to the "Hot sea" and "Thousand Springs", on the west to the Huoh country, and on the east to Wu-sha (烏鎩); in each direction it is some thousands of li and it has some hundreds of cliffs and ridges in a series with sombre inaccessible defiles; here frozen snow was perpetually accumulated and cold winds blew fiercely; the soil produced numerous onions, and hence the name; but according to another opinion the name was derived from the onion-blue hue of the cliffs.
v2.c23.s4.3
The name of the country written Huoh (活) in the text of this passage, is in one passage of the C text of the Life, given as Kuah (括). These two characters were formerly both read Kuah or Kuoh, and it is probable that the name here transcribed was something like Kuoh or Guoh, perhaps the "Ghour" of M. Saint-Martin. It will be noticed that the bearing of this country from Khost agrees with the narrative in the first chuan of the Records. According to the Life the capital was on the south bank of the Po-chu or Oxus; and the T'ang-Shu treats Huoh as the name of a tribe.¹ Yule gives good reasons for rejecting previous identifications, and for finding the modern representative of our pilgrim's Huoh in the present Kunduz, the Kundez of Baber.² In the D text of the Records (and in the Fang-chih) the circuit of this country is given as 2000 li, not 3000 li as in the other texts.
v2.c23.s4.4
¹ Ch. 221.
v2.c23.s4.5
² op. c. p. 99; Baber p. 139.
v2.c23.s4.6
The Ts'ung Ling or Onion Range described in the present passage of the Records is the Bolor Tagh and Karakorum Mountains of modern geographers. To the Chinese since the second century B. C. "Ts'ung-Ling" has been the name of "the high mountain chain which separates Eastern Turkestan (Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, &c.) from Western Turkestan (Kokand and the land on the Jaxartes and Oxus)".³
v2.c23.s4.7
³ Med. Res. Vol. I, p. 27 note.