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0223 Serindia : vol.2
Serindia : vol.2 / Page 223 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000183
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Sec. iv]   MILITARY AGRICULTURAL COLONIES   745

were almost all found at T. vi. b, enlighten us even less about the subjects dealt with.'; One of them, No. 206, however, is of interest because it conveys a response direct from the Emperor to some report submitted probably by the Tun-huang authorities. ' The imperial decree is : " Approved.' " The formula is the traditional one of the imperial 'chancellerie in Han times. But, considering that the writing material used is a common slip of tamarisk wood, it seems to me far more likely to be a copy made at Tnn-huang than an original document from the capital.

SECTION V.—OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE LIMES

In our synopsis of the documents illustrating the organization and routine of the Tun-huang Higher Limes it will be convenient to start from those in which we find references to the higher adminis- authorities trative divisions and authorities ; for in their case we can utilize also the data that M. Chavannes of Limes.

has rendered accessible from historical records of the Han period. The mention which No. 450 from the'site of T. xv. a makes of a high dignitary, apparently controlling at the time of Wang Mang the four commands from Tun-huang to Liang-chou, is too fragmentary to permit of any closer determination of his position in the official hierarchy. The same applies to the order addressed in No. 424 to those who administer the command of Chiu-ch`üan (Su-chou)'. But there

can be no doubt that the ` governor ', rai-shou   -`'i-, of the Tun-huang command whom several
documents mention was the chief local authority charged with the administration of the westernmost portion of the Limes.' Next to the governor ranked apparently his assistants, whom several documents refer to under the title of chan; -shih, as attested by the Former Han Annals.2

Within the command of the governor of Tun-huang we find the administration of different sections of the Limes entrusted to ` military commandants ', tu-wei gis 114, in exact conformity with the organization which the Former Han Annals indicate.3 That one of these sections, or pu~, was that of the Yu-mên barrier is quite certain from the several documents which mention the

` military commandant, tu-wei, of Yü-mên '.* Besides him we find references to the ` tu-wei of

Tun-huang '5 and to the ` tu-wei of Yi-ho ', a section which is elsewhere referred to as the ` Yi-ho barrier '.6 We have already seen that this Yi-ho section of the Limes, repeatedly mentioned in

documents from T. xxvii, must be located to the north-east of the Tun-huang oasis.? In Doc. No. 136 we have an order issued by a certain officer who was the assistant cli`êng ;Ar of a chang-shill under the Tun-huang governor, notifying his own appointment as ` military commandant' (tu-wei)

Governor of Tun-huang command.

Coln-mandants of Limes sections.

15 No. 230, a mere shaving' and incomplete, mentions the vast Western regions '. No. 205, incompletely preserved, acknowledges the receipt of an imperial edict addressed apparently to a certain functionary, while in Nos. 136, 138— 43, 291, 450 the reference is merely in the shape of a fixed formula enjoining compliance with the text of the imperial edict'.

' Cf. Doc. Nos. 136, 201, 497. Nos. 140, 375, 428 may also be safely assumed to refer to the governor of Tun-huang, though they do not specifically name his command.

We have already met with the governor of the Chiuch`iian (Su-chou) command ' in the imperial edict, Doc. No. 6o, concerning the establishment of an agricultural colony ; see above, p. 740.

2 Cf. Doc. Nos. 136, with M. Chavannes' note, 367, 497 ; also No. 428. It is interesting that in Chin times the title ` chang-shih of the Western countries' apparently denotes the

1374

highest Chinese political representative maintained in the Tarim Basin ; see above, pp. 408 sq., and Doc. Nos. 751, 752, 885 from Lou-lan.

In what relation the governor stood to the civil subdivisions of Tun-huang, of which the sub-prefecture of Lung-lo is repeatedly mentioned (Nos. 378, 415, 488, 540), I am unable to examine.

3 Cf. M. Chavannes' full explanation, Documents, p. 131. The sections are designated as pu OF in the Annals.

4 Cf. Doc. Nos. 137, 305, 3$1, 428, 451, 483.

See Doc. No. 341.

e Cf. Doc. Nos. 6r, 567. M. Chavannes in his note on the first document shows that the Chien Han shu specifies the Yn-ho tu-wei as a military commandant charged particularly with the organization of military colonies and as resident in the fort of K`un-tun, a locality mentioned also in No. 6i.

' Cf. above, p. 596.

5C