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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

230. FEMELES (ISLAND OF WOMEN)   705

going across the Bridge of Creepers (0 ff,f T'êng-ch'iao), after 100 li one arrives at the Stage of

Lieh (   Lieh-i; this is the « Lieh hostelry of the [T'u]-fan »,   Z #rJ fg of Chiu T'ang shu,
196 B, 11 a; cf. BEFEO, III, 230-231; HAENISCH's correction of KLAPROTH[?]'s version in S. HEDIN, Southern Tibet, ix4, 46, is not acceptable). This bridge of creepers, or? bridge made of twisted rattan, had been built across the So-i (*SA-i) River, identified with the Weak River (% A r J g

Z agi .t). It was a bow-shot long and had taken a year to build (fj -- ;" ;fac z

~j A); and was cut down by -tp1    Kao Hsien-chih in his expedition against the N-W
tribes in 747. Cf. Chiu T'ang shu, 104, 1 b; T'ang shu, 135, 4; E. H. WILLON, A Naturalist in W.

China, I, 118-119, 121, 164-165, 171 (bamboo bridges). Then one passes the k   Shih-t'ang

(« Feeding Hall »), the nf   4f T'u-fan ts'un (« Village of the Tibetans »), and the tk   Chieh-
chih ch'iao (« Bridge of Chieh-chih », *Dz`iet-t'sie), where two rocks face each other on the north and south, and then passing the Chieh-chih Valley (ch'uan), after 440 li one arrives at the Stage of ! P'o (P'o-i). Then one crosses the y Lo Bridge (*LA; I do not see why BUSHELL translated

« Bridge of creepers ») of the JJ   i7 Ta-yüeh-ho (« Great Moon River »; the Ta-yüeh-ho is also

mentioned in Man shu, 9 a), passes the 5:t   T'an-ch'ih (« Vast Lake »?) and the Ii   Yü-ch'ih

(« Fish Lake »), and, after 530 li, arrives at the Stage of 6 P   Hsi-no-lo. Then, crossing the

Bridge of the   Ch'i-liang-ning (*K`jet-hang-nieng) River, and the Bridge of the jC

Ta-su River, « Great Swift River »? (or a transcription, *D`âi-suk), after 320 li, one arrives at the stage of LiHu-mang (*xuat-mang). When T'ang envoys entered T'u-fan territory, the 1~ _ Kung-chu (Chinese princess, married to the Tibetan sovereign) always sent people there to welcome and comfort them. Then for over ten li one crosses the Hu-mang Gorge (Hu-mang-hsia) where two opposite mountain precipices are spanned by a small bridge, and three waterfalls flow as if poured out from jars, and below all is like smoke and mist, and after 100 li, one arrives at the Stage of the Wild Horses (W. A Yeh-ma)... » This itinerary is of importance in the present inquiry, because it gives precise information on the location of the To-mi and, indirectly, of the Su-p'i, the western boundary of the latter being, as we have seen in a previous text, at the Hu-mang Gorge. When discussing further on the question of the Great and Lesser Yang-t'ung, I shall adduce another T'ang itinerary in which the names of the To-mi and Su-p'i also occur. In the T'ung tien (190, 3 b), T'ai-p'ing huan-yü chi (185, 3 a), T'ang hui-yao (97, 2 a); and in the corresponding passage in T'ung chih (197, 17 b) and Wên-hsien t'ung-k'ao (334, 5 a), it is said that, from Shan-chou (east of Hsi-ning) to Tibet, one travels through the countries of the T'u-yü-hun, the To-mi, the Su-p'i and the Po-lan. But the order of the enumeration, although going back to a source of T'ang times, is erroneous, and the Po-lan ought to come immediately after the T'u-yü-hun.

The Su-p'i are also mentioned by the Hsin T'ang shu in the notice on the Tibetans (216 A, 8 a) : « Two years later (i. e. in 755), the son [of the ruler] of the Su-p'i, 6 vü. Hsi-no-Io, came

   to make his submission; he received the investiture (fag) as Prince Huai-i (« Who cherishes
justice ») and was granted the surname Li (i. e. that of the Imperial family). The Su-p'i are a power-fui tribe. » The report of Ko-shu Han on Mo-ling-tsan's death and Hsi-no-lo's submission has been preserved in Ts'ê fu yuan-kuei, 977, 21 b. But it is clear that only some of the Su-p'i tribes had fled to China in 755, since the Su-p'i still played an important part at a later period of the Tibetan empire; and, in the middle of the 9th cent., a Tibetan leader assembled no less than 80,000 soldiers