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CHAVANNES and HERRMANN are of the opinion that the capital of the Lou-lan kingdom was removed from the northern region of the Lop desert to Charkhliq in B. C. 77. The premiss for this supposition is a paragraph in the Wei-lio. STEIN on the other hand believes that the capital was situated in the southern part of the basin the whole time. According to GILES Miran was the old capital and Charkhliq the new one. Cf. p. 224 f.

I feel inclined to agree with the argument set forth by CHAVANNES and HERRMANN. The old capital may possibly have been more of a camp than a permanent residence, but on the other hand it seems most likely that the Lou-lan station was the main centre even before the arrival of the Chinese garrison.

HERRMANN has tentatively marked the site of the old Lou-lan capital on a map (Herrmann 1931, p. 57) 20 km. NNW of the Lou-lan station. This is certainly rather daring even with the wording "Hauptstadt? (unerforscht)".

This part of the desert has now been traversed by so many that all ruins of any importance are certainly known. Many other parts of the Lop desert, however, have never been visited and still less searched for ancient remains, and the discovery of such an imposing site as "ÖRDEK'S necropolis" hints at the possibility of finding still more remains.

In the literature the name Lou-lan has been mostly used to denote the largest of the ruins found by HEDIN in 1900-1901. In this treatise I have followed STEIN in consistently referring to this ruin as the Lou-lan station in order to distinguish it from the Lou-lan kingdom.

STEIN has already pointed out how the establishment of a Chinese military colony in the Lou-lan kingdom is foreshadowed in a proposal to the Imperial Council by General PAN YUNG, the son of the famous PAN CH'AO, about A. D. 119. I quote the whole passage in the masterly translation of CHAVANNES, as the text is very typical and contains several details of interest (Chavannes 1906, p. 248 f.).

"Autrefois, dans la commanderie de Touen-houang il y avait une garnison de trois cents hommes; il faut maintenant la rétablir et instituer à nouveau un hiaowei en second, protecteur des contrées d'Occident, qui résidera à Touen-houang, comme cela était autrefois pendant la période yong-yuan (89-104 p. C.) ; d'autre part, il faut envoyer un tchang-che des pays d'Occident, à la tête de cinq cents hommes, organiser une colonie militaire à Leou-lan; du côté de l'Ouest, (cet off icier) dominera les chemins qui mènent à Yen-k'i (Karachar) et à K'ieou-tseu (Koutcha) ; du côté du Sud, il fortifiera le courage de Chan-chan et de Yu-t'ien (Khoten) ; du côté du Nord, il tiendra en respect les Hiong-nou; du côté de l'Est, il sera voisin de Touen-houang. Voilà ce qui est vraiment avantageux.

Un chang-chou demanda à (Pan) Yong: `Si maintenant on établit un hiao-wei en second, quel en sera l'avantage ? Si en outre on nomme un tchang-che pour faire une colonie militaire à Leou-lan, quel en sera le profit ?' (Pan) Yong répondit : 'Autrefois, à la fin de la période yong-p'ing (58-75 p. C.), on entra pour la premi-

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