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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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mountain road it is expressly said, that it passes the Great and Little Headache Mountain (Sanju-davan?), the Red Country, the Fever Bank and the Hanging Passage, while, on the other hand, the Tsung-ling is nowhere mentioned. From the station of Wu-chi a, which Wylie thinks may be found somewhere about Sarikol, it is said:

To the west is the Hanging Passage .... The Hanging Passage is a rocky mountain range. There are gorges and valleys with no connecting road, but having ropes and chains thrown across,

by means of which the passage is effected.=

Hanging Passage, therefore, does not seem to be included in the term Tsung-ling, but is regarded as forming a special orographical point.

HERRMANN shows that it is the difficult passage through Kanjut to the south of the Kilik Pass. CHAVANNES believes that Hanging Passage is a term indicating the road of Bolo', the Little Pu-lu of the Tang-shu, of the valley of Yasin 2, but that valley is the country of Nan-tou, which, according to the Chinese data, must be situated beyond the Hanging Passage. Even nowadays the wanderer in Kanjut comes across paths where he has to walk along narrow galleries carried in parts over branches of trees forced into fissures of the rock and covered with small stones or supported by iron-rods.3

Both Chinese and European commentators have identified the graphic description of the Pilgrim FA-HIEN from the year 405 with this Hanging Passage.

The way was difficult and rugged (running along) a bank exceedingly precipitous .... When one approached the edge of it, his eyes became unsteady .... In former times men had chiselled paths along the rocks, and distributed ladders on the face of them, to the number altogether of 700, at the bottom of which there was a suspension bridge of ropes, by which the river was crossed ....4

Fa-hien's description is quoted in the commentary of the Shui-ching, where the following words , partly taken from the Cheien Han-shu, are added 5:

Ich habe die Aufzeichnungen aller Chronisten hierüber geprüft, und dies ist es , was sie sagen: An der Grenze von Ki-pin gibt es einen aus Felsenplatten hergestellten Saumpfad, der nur etwas über einen Fuß breit ist. Die Wanderer gehen hier Schritt für Schritt und halten einander fest, Brücken aus Tauen schließen sich aneinander über 20 Li lang, bis man nach Hien-tu (d. h. ,hängende Passage') kommt. Die Schwierigkeiten, Gefahren und Schrecken sind hier so groß, daß man sie nicht beschreiben kann. Kuo yi kung sagt: ,Westlich von Wu-chea ist das Land Hien-tu. Es ist eine unzugängliche Bergschlucht, auf aneinandergefügten Tauen passiert (tu) man hinüber, daher hat das Land seinen Namen' .... Dieses Hien-tu ist es, von dem auch der Buddhist Fa-hien sagt, daß er dort den Fluß (Indus) überschritt, bevor er nach Udyåna kam.

Especially these last words prove that Fa-hien does not mean the difficulties in Kanjut, but speaks of those at a great distance farther south, viz., in the transverse valley

of the Indus.

THE TS` UNG-LING IN ANTIQUITY.

I Ibidem, p. 31. Here WYLIE, erroneously translates the Chinese Hsüan-tu (better than Hsien-tu, Hien-tu) It or Hanging Passage to Hindu Kush. Regarding the ancient Wu-ch` a see PI. I a.

2 Toung pao, Serie II, Vol. VI, 1905, p. 529.

3 Cf. M. A. STEIN, Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, London 1903, p. 41.

4 JAMES LEGGE, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms etc., Oxford 1886, p. 26. As Beal and Watters Legge here quotes Cunningham's description of the Indus gorge in this region: »Yet even in these inaccessible places has daring and ingenious man triumphed over opposing nature. The yawning abyss is spanned by frail rope bridges, and far narrow ledges of rock are connected by ladders to form a giddy pathway overhanging the seething cauldron below.» — Ladäk, Physical, Statistical, and Historical, London 1854, p. 89.

5 0. FRANKE, Beiträge aus chinesischen Quellen zur Kenntnis der Türkvölker and Skythen Zentralasiens. Abhandlungen der Königl. Preuß. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 1904. Philos. and histor. Abhandl. I, p. 58.