国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

HUANG WEN-PI's WORK

A day's journey to the north of Beli-miao, together with the digger CHUANG, HUANG WEN-PI came across a deserted town dating from 135o. He brought into camp a whole box full of specimens of the pottery and architectonic decorative art, and dreamed of returning to make a map of the streets and houses.

He told us that this deserted town was in Chinese sources known as Ching-chow, while the Mongols referred to it as Norun-sume. He had first heard speak of the place in Beli-miao, had travelled in the direction indicated, and actually found it.'

On engraved stone slabs, of which he took rubbings, was written the seventh year of the reign of the last Yüan emperor, which is the equivalent of 1367 A. D. On the same site he also found copper coins from T'ang and Sung times, which were still current in the days of the Yüan dynasty.

On July 16th he returned to camp with a little caravan of ten horses from another archaeological excursion. He had ridden about forty li to the south to the old »Great Wall », following it in both directions for a distance of twenty li. He spoke of three sections of walls built in the fourth and third centuries B. C., and joined by the Ch'in kingdom to form a continuous wall. A rounded earthen mound about a couple of feet high was now all that remained of this. Here and there he found bits of burnt brick, but otherwise the wall seemed to have had a framework of wood with straw binding. It was as much as fourteen feet in breadth and had been provided with a moat on its outer, northern side.

On one of his excursions HUANG followed the remains of an ancient wall situated fifty li to the south of Beli-miao and stretching westwards south of the Khujirtugol. We were later to cross this wall on our way to the Edsen-gol. According to HUANG it is identical with one of the walls which each of the kingdoms Yen, Chao and Chin built in the fourth century B. C.

In another place and near a village, HUANG had found a town that was stated to date from early Han time. Of houses and streets there was not a trace, but the town-wall was distinctly marked, and it was easy to show where the western town-gate had been. The farmers at Cha-sha-miao2 called this town »Chong-ku-leao ». Here HUANG found a number of burnt bricks with zig-zag ornaments, specimens of which he brought into camp. The former town had been situated at the northern foot of the Yin-shan (the female mountain) — the Yang-shan (the male mountain) is a ridge farther to the north.

1 That in the course of this tour he visited the ruined town Olon (or Yisun)-sumein-tor, known from Russian maps and situated about 45 kilometers N. N. E. of Beli-miao, appears from an article in Monumenta Serica, Vol. 3, pp. 250 ff. (Peiping 1938). The latter town contains Nestorian monuments as first discovered by OWEN LArrIMORE. It is probable that Olon-sumein-tor is precisely the town that is referred to above, although HUANG gives another name and is slightly out in the direction. F. B.

2 Probably = Jasak-miao, which most likely corresponds to Chaghan-obo-sume in Mu-mingghan. F. B.

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