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Notes on Marco Polo : vol.2 |
702 230. FEMELES (ISLAND OF WOMEN)
king of the kingdom of j 4 Nan-shui (« Southern River »), # Hsieh Shang-hsi-nang,
the king of the kingdom of Jo-shui (« Weak River »), RI Tung Pi-ho, the king of the kingdom
of Hsi-tung (*Sjét-tung), { T'ang Hsi-tsan, the king of the kingdom of i` 4 Ch'ing-
yüan (a purely Chinese name; unidentified), gi 1h. a Su T'ang-mo, and the king of the kingdom
of fit[ A Cho-pa (*Tsjwät-pa), , ` ; Tung Miao-p'êng, every one of them leading his own tribe,
arrived in J([ Hsi-ch'uan of fq j Chien-nan (i. e. the north-western quarter of the modern
Ssû-ch'uan) to join the Empire (IAj nei-fu). These kingdoms of Ko-lin and others all lived
scattered in the valleys of the mountains. The king of the Weak River is the same as the Weak River tribe of the Kingdom of Women (Nü-kuo) of the beginning of the dynasty. The kingdom of Hsi-tung is to the west of the Weak River; so [its king] was also called « King of Hsi-tung west of the Weak River ». Formerly all these tribes had been individually under the jurisdiction of the frontier commanderies (pien-chün), and their grandfathers and fathers had been regularly given the official rank of Chiang-chün, chung-lang, kuo-i, etc. ; the fact is that many had come from Chinese territory, but all had been reduced to vassaldom by the Tibetans. The principal tribes (NS pu-lo) did not exceed 2 000 to 3 000 families; in every one of them [the Tibetans] had established district magistrates (hsien-ling), ten and more men, to govern them. The land produced silk floss, which every year they paid as a tribute to the Tibetans. At this time (i. e. in 793), [T'ang] Hsi-Ii (such is the correct reading in T'ang hui-yao, 99, 10 b; the Chiu T'ang shu is corrupt) came with all of them to the agreement that, leading together [their tribes], they would join the Empire, and they brought and presented the diplomas of investiture which had been granted in t'ien pao (742-755) by the Chinese dynasty, 39 in all. The Imperial Commissioner (chieh-tu-shih) of Hsi-ch'uan,1, Wei Kao (cf. GILES, Biogr. Dict., No. 2280) established these tribes in the chou of Nt Wei, , q Pa and I Pao (all in western Ssû-ch'uan), and gave them grain for sowing and oxen for tilling, so that all enjoyed their daily work ». A long list follows of titles which the Emperor granted to the various chieftains and to a number of their relatives, including several people of the ' Kingdom of Women '. In the same year, more than 20,000 families of the Ch'iang of Sung-chou (in north-western Ssûch'uan) also entered Chinese territory to join the Empire. All these barbarians who had joined China in 793 were left in hereditary command of their tribes, with Chinese titles; « secretly, however, they had intercourse with the Tibetans, and for that reason were called ' Double-faced Ch'iang '
( (~ Liang-mien Ch'iang). »
The first part of this text, down to « mix them with gold dust and bury them » also occurs, with some omissions and many corrupt readings, in T'ai p'ing kuang-chi, 481, 3-4, as taken from
the A aL Shên-i chi. This is generally an alternative title for the book of mirabilia entitled
Shên-i ching, a forgery erroneously given as a work written under the Han by Tung-fang Sho;
but this contains no such passage. A Shên-i chi written by Wang Fu is cited in T'ai-p'ing
yü-lan, ch. 867, and, without any name of author, in T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi, ch. 410, 440, 480, 481. But Wang Fu was a man of the Chin dynasty, and most of the quotations from the Shen-i chi (and some from the Shên-i ching) in the T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi cannot be earlier than the T'ang dynasty. My impression is that, in all these cases, the title is misquoted for that of the Shên-i [;] lu, also quoted several times in the T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi (ch. 137, 164, 375, 396, 410, 440, 463, 464, 479, 480, 482). This collection of mirabilia, anonymous and unknown to bibliographers, cannot
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