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0137 Ancient Khotan : vol.1
Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / Page 137 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000182
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Sec. iv]   KARGHALIK IN CHINESE RECORDS   93

confirming the essential points in Sung Yün's account, it informs us that the people all worshipped Buddha, and that they were subject to the Yeh-ta or Hephthalites.

Of the political relations of the territory the Chinese Annals furnish some further information. In another passage of the Pei shih, which mentions the district by the name of Hsi-chü-pan (Si-kiuian), and to which reference has already been made in a note above 23, we find it recorded that an embassy from there arrived at the Imperial court at the commencement of the tai-yen period (435-439 A. D.), and that tribute was subsequently received without interruption. The previously mentioned notices of the Chien Han shu show that the small hill states, which later on became absorbed in Chu-chü-po, all acknowledged the authority of the Governor-General of the Western Regions during the period of the Han supremacy. The subsequent subjection of Chu-chü-Van to the power of the Hephthalites is attested also by the Annals of the Liang dynasty, covering the period 502-556 A. D. 24

When the Western Turks succeeded the Hephthalites as the paramount power in Central Asia, Chu-chü-po undoubtedly was among the many states subject to their sovereignty. In consequence we find it included, along with Kucha, Khotan, Kashgar, and Sarikol, in the region which the Emperor T`ai-tsung demanded in 646 from Shê-kuei, Kagan of the Western Turks, in exchange for the hand of a Chinese princess 26. But already, in the year 639, the ruler of Chu-chü-po, in accord with the ruler of Kashgar, had deemed it advisable to dispatch an embassy with products of his territory to the Imperial court when the victorious advance of Tai-tsung's troops towards Turfan foreshadowed the Chinese conquest of the Tarim Basin 26. This conquest was actually completed in 659, when the rising of the Turkish chief Tu-man, who had attached to himself the states of Kashgar, Karghalik (Chu-chü-po), and Sarikol, was subdued". Thus we find the kingdom of Chu-chu-pan mentioned among the units of the administrative organization which the Chinese in the same year established for the region controlled by the ` Four Garrisons' 28. No further reference to this territory is made in the Chinese records accessible to me ; nor did my short stay at Karghalik acquaint me with any ancient remains which could throw light on its history.

Political Relations of Chu-chü-po.

23 See above, p. 91, note 15. 2' See Turcs occid., p. 224.

'6 Compare Turcs occid., pp. 32, 59, 266 ; also above,

P. 59.

26 See Turcs occid., p. I 2I ; and above, p. 61.

27 See Turcs occid., pp. 72 sq.; above, p. 6o.

28 Compare Turcs occid., pp. 141, 268 ; above, pp. 59 sq.