IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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C1rAP. XXXVII. TU JADE OF KHOTAN
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Chinese had to give to T'un-hwang the name of Shachau, viz. City of Sand. Kíriä• is called Ou-mi, under the Han, and the name of Pi-mo is found for the first time in Iliuen Tsang, that is to say, before the Tibetan invasions of the 8th century. It is not possible to admit that the incursion of the Tu-ku-hun in the 5th century could be the cause of this change of name. The hypothesis remains that Pi-mo was really the ancient name forced by the first Tibetan invaders spoken of by legend, that Ou-mi was either another name of the town, or a fancy name invented by the Chinese, like Yu-t'ien for Khotan, Su-lo for Kashgar. . . ." Sir T. D. Forsyth (J. R. G. S., XLVII., 1877, p. 3) writes : " I should say that Peim or Pima must be identical with Kiria."—H. C.]
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NOTE 2.—The Jasper and Chalcedony of our author are probably only varieties of the semi-precious mineral called by us popularly Jade, by the Chinese Yii, by the Eastern Turks Kásh, by the Persians Yashnz, which last is no doubt the same word
with iaoins, and therefore with Jasper. The Greek Jaspis was in reality, according to Mr. King, a green Chalcedony.
K The Jade of Turkestan is largely derived from water-rolled boulders fished up by
' • divers in the rivers of Khotan, but it is also got from mines in the valley of the Kará-
kásh River. " Some of the Jade," says Timkowski, " is as white as snow, some dark green, like the most beautiful emerald (?), others yellow, vermilion, and jet black. The rarest and most esteemed varieties are the white speckled with red and the green veined with gold." (I. 395.) The Jade of Khotan appears to be first mentioned by Chinese authors in the time of the Han Dynasty under Wu-ti (B. c. 140-86). In A.D. 541 an image of Buddha sculptured in Jade was sent as an offering from Khotan ; and in 632 the process of fishing for the material in the rivers of Khotan, as practised down to modern times, is mentioned. The importation of Jade or Yü from this quarter probably gave the name of Kia yü Kwan or " Jade Gate " to the fortified Pass looking in this direction on the extreme N.W. of China Proper, between Shachau and Suhchau. Since the detachment from China the Jade industry has ceased, the Musulmans having no taste for that kind .of virtù. (.H. de la V. de Khotan, 2) 17, 23 ; also see J. R. G. S. XXXVI. 165, and Cathay, 130, 564 ; Ritter, II. 213 ; Shaw's High Tartary, pp. 98, 473.)
[On the II th January, 1895, Dr. Sven Hedin visited one of the chief places wheré
'. Jade is to be found. It is to the north-east of Khotan, in the old bed of the Yurun
Kash. The bed of the river is divided into claims like gold-fields ; the workmen are Chinese for the greater part, some few are Musulmans.
Grenard (II. pp. 186-187) says that the finest Jade comes from the high Karákásh --,.(black Jade) River and Yurungkásh (white Jade) ; the Jade River is called Su-tásh. At Khotan, Jade is polished up by sixty or seventy individuals belonging to twenty. , five workshops.
" At 18 miles from Su-chau, Kia-yu-kwan, celebrated as one of the gates of China, and as the fortress guarding the extreme north-west entrance into the empire, is passed." .3 : t ( Colonel M. S. Bell, Proc. R. G. S. XII. 1890, p. 75.)
According to the Chinese characters, the name of Kia-yii Kwan does not mean
' " Jade Gate," and as Mr. Rockhill writes to me, it can only mean something like
" barrier of the pleasant Valley."—H. C.]
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' NOTE 3.—Possibly this may refer to the custom of temporary marriages which
seems to prevail in most towns of Central Asia which are the halting-places of cara' vans, and the morals of which are much on a par with those of seaport towns, from analogous causes. Thus at Meshid, Khanikoff speaks of the large population of young and pretty women ready, according to the accommodating rules of Shiah Mahomedanism, to engage in marriages which are perfectly lawful, for a month, a week, or even twenty-four hours. Kashgar is also noted in the East for its clzaukans, young women with whom the traveller may readily form an alliance for the period of his stay, be it long or short. (Khan. Mém. p. 98 ; Russ. in Central Asia, 52 ; J. A. S. B. XXVI. 262 ; Burnes, III. 195 ; Vzg-zze, II. 201.)
VOL. I.
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