National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

704   230. FEMELES (ISLAND OF WOMEN)

and titles in the T'ang period. So I am, in principle, in favour of the Tibetan character of this onomastic.

In Chao Ju-kua's Chu fan chih (1, 33), there is a paragraph on the Kingdoms of Women (HR, 151-152). The first part of it, copied from the Ling-wai tai-ta, concerns the Kingdom of Women

of Indonesia, and will be dealt with further on. As to the second part, it is said to speak of a Kingdom of Women in the Western Sea; but HIRTH and RocKHILL have not seen that Chao Ju-kua had seriously blundered. In fact, his text, disfigured by bad mistakes in the last sentence, is merely copied from the above-mentioned notice of the Kingdom of Women in the T'ung tien (193, 7 b) ; it

describes the Central Asiatic Kingdom of Women, and has nothing to do with the one in the Western Sea.

We have seen (p. 694) that the Sui shu gave Su-p'i as the surname (hsing) of the queen of the Kingdom of Women which is located south of the Onion Range. The same name Su-p'i occurs more than once in the Hsin T'ang shu, though it is not connected there with the Kingdom of Women. A first passage says (221 B, 6 b; cf. CHAVANNES, Doc. sur les Tou-kiue, 169) : « The Su-p'i originally were a clan of western Ch'iang. They were annexed by the Tibetans (T'u-fan), and [then] were

called TA   Sun-po; it is the greatest among the various tribes. To the east, they border on To-mi,

and to the west they reach fi(';   Hu-mang-hsia (« the Hu-mang Gorge »). There are 30,000

families. In the t'ien pao years (742-755), their king is/et   Mo-ling-tsan, who wished to join

the [Chinese] Empire with all his people, was killed by the Tibetans. His son ts p1 Hsi-no,

leading his chieftains (   "p shou-ling), fled to Lung-yu (= Kan-su). The Imperial commissioner

(chieh-tu-shih)   Ko-shu Han sent him with an escort to the Imperial Palace, and Hsüan-tsung

treated him with great honour. The To-mi too are a clan of western Ch'iang; they became vassals

of the Tibetans (T'u-fan), and then were called pt   Nan-mo; they live on the banks of the Yak
River (V. [read At ] ` 7 Li-niu ho = the Murus usu, or upper Yang-tzû). The land has much gold. In the sixth chêng-kuan year (632), they sent an envoy to render homage to the Court and offer tribute; he was sent back with presents. »

In ch. 40, 6 b, of the Hsin T'ang shu, there is an itinerary from the Hsi-ning River in Kan-su to south of Lhasa, which has been translated by BUSHELL (JRAS, 1880, 538-541). BUSHELL dates it between 734 and 741, but the year 749 is mentioned in it. As a matter of fact, it is certainly a

fragment of   IPA: Chia Tan's itineraries to foreign countries, and to be dated about the end of
the 8th cent. From the hsien ofß A Shan-ch'êng (the modern Hsi-ning), after 207 li WSW,

one reached the Red Range (or Red Pass, j   Ch'ih-ling, where a boundary stone had been erected
in 734; cf. BUSHELL, JRAS, 466, 468, 531; CHAVANNES, in BEFEO, III, 388-389; my remarks in TP, 1929, 235; BUSHELL'S indication [p. 531] that the Ch'ih-ling was « 320 li from the modern Hsiningfu » is not in agreement with the very itinerary he translates; probably BUSHELL mistook the old centre of the region, Shan-chou, 120 li east of Hsi-ning, for Hsi-ning itself). Advancing 370 li further, one reached the Stage (i) of »[5 j. Na-lu (*NA-IAwok), which was the western frontier of the T'u-yü-hun. The Yellow River (Huang-ho) was crossed after a further 440 li. « Then,

after 470 li, one arrives at the Stage of the Dragons (   !) Chung-lung-i). Then, crossing

the 14   Hsi-yiieh-ho (« Western Moon River »), after 210 li, one arrives at the western frontier

of the Kingdom of To-mi. Then, crossing the   4 r7 Li-niu-ho (Yak River, Murus usu), and