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0368 Serindia : vol.1
Serindia : vol.1 / Page 368 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000183
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296   FROM CHARCHAN TO CHARKHLIK   [Chap. VIII

of Ching-chueh, located above on the Niya River, lies to the west of Chu-mo, though the distance shown as 2,000 li is grossly exaggerated.12 Chu-mo, with its capital of the same name, is described as a petty ` kingdom ', containing ` 23o families, comprising i,6io persons, with 32o trained soldiers, a Guardian Marquis, a Right General, a Left General, and an Interpreter-in-chief. The city is distant from the seat of the Governor-General on the north-west 2,258 li. The country joins Hwuy-le on the north, and it is about three days' journey to the kingdom of Little Wan on the south. Grapes and other fruits are produced. The kingdom of Tsing-tseué (Ching-chiieh) on the west is 2,000 li distant.'

By Hwuy-le, i.e. Wu-lei ,,, I*, is meant the vicinity of Châdir, between Korla and Kuchâ, on the great route north of the Tarim, which served under the Former Han dynasty as headquarters for the Protector-General of the Western Regions.' A reference to the map shows that the bearing here recorded is accurate enough, Charchan being situated in 85° 35' long. according to our surveys (see Map No. 46), while Dr. Hassenstein's map places Châdir in circ. 84° 50'.14 As to the still smaller ` kingdom of Little Wan ' or Hsiao yiian, which lay about three days' journey to the south of Chu-mo, and of which a brief account is given in the succeeding notice of the Hsi yü chuan, it is certain that it must be identified with the small settlements of cultivators and herdsmen which are scattered along the foot of the Kun-lun south and south-west of Charchan, from Achchan to the debouchure of the Mölcha and Endere Rivers (see Maps Nos. 43, 47). To judge from the distance indicated, the ` capital ' of this tract, the ` city ' of Yti-ling, may be placed about Dalai-kurghân, as suggested by Dr. Herrmann." The population recorded for Hsiao yiian, 15o families, throws light on the modest resources of this hill tract. It is correctly described as ' lying out of the way of the high road ' and adjoining on the east the territory of the nomadic Jo Chiang, who held the high plateaus south of the flltin-tâgh, including Tsaidam.

The annals of the Later Han duly mention Chu-mo IL 2k in its proper place between the territories of Shan-shan and Ching-chiieh, on the great southern route from Yü-mên to Khotan.'6 Also the Wei lio (composed A. D. 239-265) notes it, along with Hsiao-yuan and Ching-chiieh, among the territories dependent on Shan-span." No details are furnished by these records, nor does Char-chan appear otherwise to receive any special notice in the Annals of the dynasties which intervened between the Han and Tang periods.

But we have direct and authentic evidence that Charchan was still inhabited and probably a separate chiefship towards the end of the third century A. D. in the Chinese tablet from the Niya Site, N. xiv. iii. 1o, which mentions a present offered to a Royal consort from Chü-mo.18 There is also reason to believe that Charchan is meant by Calnzadana, mentioned in a Kharosthi tablet from the same site as the locality from which a messenger is dispatched to Khotana, i. e. Khotan,

Neighbouring territory of Hsiaoj'Üan.

Charchan in later Annals.

Calmadana in Niya

K harosthi tablet.

12 See above, pp. 219 sq. ; cf. also Hermann, Seidenstrassen,

p. 99, where an endeavour is made to account for this palpable exaggeration. Seeing that the position of Chü-mo and Ching-chiieh are quite certain, this great error in distance serves as a warning against placing too great reliance on the distance estimates •in the Han Annals' survey of the Western Regions.

16 Cf. Wylie, J. Anlhrop. Inst., xi. p. 95 ; Herrmann, Seidenstrassen, pp. 38, 86. See also below, Chap. xxx, sec. ii, note 8.

14 I must leave it undecided how this bearing to the north of Chü-mo is to be reconciled with the statement immediately preceding about the seat of the Governor-General, i.e.

Wu-lei, being to the north-west. Considering the vast distance, almost all impassable desert, which in the direct line separates Charchan from the small oasis north of the Taklamakân, either location is sufficiently correct and suggests the use of some map by the compiler of the ' Notes on the Western Regions'.

15 See Herrmann, Seidenstrassen, p. 99.

16 Cf. Chavannes, T'oung-pao, 1907, p. 170.

17 See ibid., 1905, pp. 535 sqq. The Wei lio by a

graphic error shows the name as 11.   Chit-chih instead of

18 See above, p. 218 ; Chavannes, Documents, p. 203.