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0047 Innermost Asia : vol.2
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doi: 10.20676/00000187
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Sec. in   TURFAN FROM LATER HAN TO TANG TIMES   575

The Annals of the Chin dynasty afford direct evidence that, during the later portion of the

period covered by its reigns (A. D. 265-419), the chiefs of the Chang   family, who had set up
a local dynasty which for centuries ruled the Kan-su marches from Liang-chou, repeatedly made extensive conquests in the ` Western countries '. Thus the expedition sent by Chang Chün, which in A.D. 345 secured Yen-ch`i (Kara-shahr) from the east, obviously presupposes the previous submission of Turfan.15 The same is equally certain of the great expedition of Lü Kuang 2 ye, which was sent in A. D. 383 by Chang Chün's son, Chang Chung-hua, and which reduced the whole of the Tarim basin.1° In the case of this expedition we are explicitly told that Lü Kuang was guided

by Mi-chih   ', king of Anterior Chü-shih, and by Hsiu-mi-t`o - 'At ER, king of Shan-shan
or the Lop tract.17 Of effective Chinese influence, if not of direct political control, exercised during parts at least of the Chin epoch in the east and south of the Tarim basin, we have conclusive archaeological evidence in the Chinese documents recovered at the Niya Site and at the Lou-lan station L.A. Considering the position of Turfan, it is difficult to believe that the same influence did .not extend simultaneously to this territory also 18

For the period extending from the beginning of the fifth century to its end some interesting notices concerning Turfan are extracted from Chinese historical sources, especially the Pei shih, and lucidly discussed, in Professor O. Franke's important paper ` Eine chinesische Tempelinschrift aus

Idikutsahri bei Turfan '.19 Mêng hsün   , a descendant of the old Chü-ch`ü ;jggg family,
of Hsiung-nu origin, had by A. D. 401 established himself as ruler of an independent state in Kan-su, calling himself ` Ruler of Ho-hsi '. By 421 he had extended his power as far as Tun-huang and had apparently also brought some Turkestan territories, among them Kao-ch`ang, into some kind

of dependence.20 His son Mao-ch`ien   a, who succeeded him in A. D. 433, was unable to maintain
himself against the Wei Emperor T`ai Wu-ti. After his submission in 439, Wu-hui fit p , governor of Chiu-ch`üan (Su-chou) and also of the Chü-ch`ü family, vainly endeavoured to make himself independent, and by 442 retired to Shan-shan with a small force in the hope of securing for himself a new dominion in the west 21 After having been appealed to for help by Kan Shuang a Chinese officer who had set himself up as a petty ruler over Kao-ch`ang, he treacherously managed to make himself master of this town and its territory, while Kan Shuang took refuge with the powerful Juan-juan or Avars in the north.22

Wu-hui died in 444 and was succeeded by his brother An-chou A' fl, who ruled over Kaoch`ang, and from 45o onwards over the whole Turfan territory, until 46o. In the former year he succeeded with the help of the Juan-juan in also annexing the petty state of Chiao-ho, the former

Conquests of Chang family of Liang-chou.

Turfan secured by Wu-hui.

Turfan ruled by An-chou.

15 See Chavannes, Anc. Khotan, i. pp. 543 sq.

16 Cf. ibid., i. p. 544.

17 See ibid., i. p. 544, note 8.

18 Cf. Anc. Khotan, i. pp. 37o sqq. ; Chavannes, ibid., i. pp. 537 sqq. ; Serindia, i. pp. 406 sqq. ; Chavannes, Documents, pp. 155 sqq. ; Conrady, Funde Sven Hedins, pp. 77 sqq.

It may here be noted that soldiers from Kao-ch`ang are several times mentioned in the Lou-lan documents ; cf. Chavannes, Documents, p. 194, and Conrady, Funde Sven Hedins, pp. 135, 139.

19 In Franke, Abhandlungen der Kin .PreussischenAkademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1907, pp. 7 sqq.

20 See ibid., pp. II sq., 15.

21 Cf. ibid., pp. 17 sq. I regret not to have noticed in Serindia, i. pp. 323 sqq. the interesting reference made to Shan-shan in the texts quoted by Prof. Franke, p. 18. Wu-hui had sent his brother An-chou ahead to Shan-shan.

Its chief Pi-lung attempted to resist in compliance with injunctions from the Wei Emperor, and An-chou was obliged to retire to the ` eastern town '. In this must be recognized, as already duly noted by Prof. Franke, the ` old eastern town ' which Li Tao-yiian's commentary on the Shui thing (Chavannes, Toung-pao, 1905, p. 569) identifies with Yü-ni, the old capital of Shan-shan, and which, I think, must be located at the ruined site of Miran ; see Serindia, i. pp. 326 sq.

The subsequent statement that Wu-hui's attack upon Kao-ch`ang was made via Yen-ch`i or Kara-shahr is also of interest, as it shows that the most direct route across the Lop Desert and the Kuruk-tagh was no longer available owing to the drying up of the Kuruk-darya and the abandonment of Lou-lan.

22 Cf. Franke, Inschrift aus Idikutsahri, pp. 19 sqq.

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