国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

54   DUTREUIL DE RHINS.

n'indique surtout vue ce qui a été réellement vu; et les traductions, malheureusement bien incomplètes, de la géographie chinoise révèlent un travail non moins consciencieux où tout ce qui est douteux est signalé.» He accepts the Chinese text and he is persuaded that the Ta-ch'ing map has given the Tarkou tchou as really, although roughly, surveyed. And he adds: »il est impossible d'admettre l'exactitude du renseignement donné à Nain Singh et de faire du Hota tsan po ou du Tarkou tchou un affluent du Kyaring tso». If such a river as the Hota Sangpo exists at all, it must be, he says, situated further north and nearer Nain Sing's itinerary than the Pundit believed.

We learn from this discussion that de Rhins had greater confidence in the Chinese geographers than in the Pundits sent out from India, and in this view he is generally perfectly correct. We have seen an example when comparing Nain Sing's

description with that of the Ta-ch'ing-i-/'nng-chili. But in the present case, regarding the Hota Sangpo and the Tarkou tchou the situation is different. For there both parts are absolutely wrong. On my crossing in 1907 from Ngangtse-tso to Ye on the Tsangpo, I proved that neither Doba Doba Cho and its river, nor Hota Sangpo existed at all in this region. And if the Ta-ch'ing map had been right I should have crossed the Tarkou tchou instead. But there was no sign of such a river either. So in this case the Chinese map is not a bit better than Nain Sing's, it is even incomparably worse, for Nain Sing's map, along his route and so far as he could see, is very good and reliable, but on the Chinese map there is not even a shade of likeness with the reality. It is all fantasy. No surveyor ever seems to have put his foot in the country. Those who may have been in the neighbourhood seem to have crossed Bongba somewhere, perhaps along the Buptsangtsangpo down to Tarok-tso and Tabie-tsaka. But as far as the country east and west of Buptsang-tsangpo is concerned they contented themselves with asking questions and then they have tried to arrange on their map the information they got from the natives.'

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I Compare Colonel Gore's experiences told after Ryder's paper: »But for the few (Pundits) that the Geographical Society knows of, there have been many who have been hopeless failures.» Colonel Gore gives two examples of simple fraud. Geographical Journal Vol. XXVI, 1905, P. 394•

2 I have spoken above (Vol. I, p. 264 et seq.) of the Lama surveyors and their work. The new map which was drawn from their information, was delivered to the Emperor in 1717. Amiot has the following communication concerning what seems to be another exploring mission despatched by

Emperor Kang Hi :

La cinquante-sixième année de Kang-hi (1717), l'Empereur voulant se procurer des connoissances sur le Thibet, plus exactes que celles qu'on avoit eues jusqu'alors, envoya de Péking des Géographes de sa nation, A. la tête desquels il mit un homme Cheng-tchou, Mandarin dans le Tribunal des Affaires etrangeres, pour leur procurer sur la route tous les secours dont ils pourroient avoir besoin; & nomma deux Lama pour leur assurer la tranquillité, & la liberté de faire leurs opérations dans des pays où l'on est plein de respect pour ces Prêtres de Fo. Ces Géographes eurent ordre de mesurer la hauteur des montagnes, & de déterminer la véritable position du Thibet, des côtes du Si-hai, & de tout ce qu'on appelle le Si-tsang. Ils s'acquitterent de leur commission; & en remettant au Tribunal qui est chargé du dépôt des cartes, celles qu'ils avoient dressées des lieux que je viens de nommer, ils en donnerent par ecrit une explication fort ample, dont on trouve un abrégé, corrigé depuis sur les observations des Lama, dans le nouvel Y-toung-tche. — Mémoires concernant l'Histoire, etc. des Chinois. Tome quatorzième, Paris 1789, p. 154, 155. The same information is given by Klaproth, though not so detailed. Magazin Asiatique, Tome II, N° IV, Paris 1828, p. 235.