国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

Sec. i] GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF LOWER SU-LO HO BASIN   579

Fortunately no such difficulty arises about the treatment of the main geographical facts which Geographihave had a determining influence on the history of the Tun-huang tract, and in particular explain

aboutfacts

importance as the advanced base for the first expansion of Chinese political and military power huang.

westwards. Of these geographical facts I propose to present here a brief general survey based on

what my own observations showed me. In regard to them, too, there were limitations imposed

which may appropriately receive mention here. Owing to the extent of the desert ground which

had to be explored for the sake of tracing the remains of the ancient Chinese Limes, the greater

portion of the time I could devote to the Tun-huang region, three months in all, had to be spent far

away from its inhabited parts. Most of the remainder was subsequently claimed by antiquarian

tasks of absorbing interest and importance, which detained me for more than three weeks at the

cave temples of Ch`ien fo-tung or the ` Thousand Buddhas ', in the solitude of a true Thebaid.

Thus, apart from the topographical facts which our surveys, as recorded in Map No. 78, supplied,

I had little opportunity to examine closely the economic conditions of the cultivated area, its

resources in population, irrigable land, water-supply, etc.

But besides the limited time available there were other difficulties to contend with. A very Difficulties

serious one was created by the secretive reticence of the Chinese population, which invariably denied of observa-

vation.

any and every answer to questions that could possibly be supposed to have a bearing on local interests, directly or indirectly. This attitude of suspicious reserve was even more pronounced in Tun-huang than elsewhere in Kan-su. It was probably fostered also by the strong particularist feeling which seemed to pervade the local population, and which made these descendants of the quondam guardians of the empire's western outpost distinctly difficult to handle. The confidential information on this subject which we received from Wang Ta-lao-yeh, the well-meaning and scholarly district magistrate, to whom I was indebted for much help, was borne out only too well by the outbreak of which he himself subsequently became the victim.3

Another grave impediment to correct conclusions on these subjects arose directly from the results Devastation

of the most recent of the historical cataclysms to which Tun-huang appears to have been always rebellion.

an

exposed, and from more than one quarter. Like most of the Kan-su tracts eastward, Tun-huang

is but slowly recovering now from the effects of the terrible devastations which accompanied the

last great rebellion of the Tungans, or Muhammadan Chinese, and which between the years

1862-73 in the Tun-huang region destroyed the greater part of the original population. The

extensive ruins of abandoned homesteads and walled villages which were to be met with throughout

the length and breadth of the oasis bore silent, but only too eloquent, evidence to the extent of the

destruction wrought by that succession of murderous inroads. From the point of view of the

historical student this evidence was instructive enough. But it is obvious that impressions,

gathered after such a prolonged time of upheaval and unchecked by reliable local 'information, could

not form an adequate base for gauging the present resources of the Tun-huang oasis, and still less

those which it may have offered during earlier periods.

These economic resources of Tun-huang must have had an important bearing upon the rôle Route down

which the oasis has played in the history of China's relations with Central Asia, and with the Suin Ho

Tarim Basin in particular. But essentially that rôle was determined by broad geographical facts

connected with the position of Tun-huang in the great valley of the Su-lo Ho. By looking at any

general map- which shows Kan-su as well as the Central-Asian territories comprised in Chinese

Turkestan 4 it is easy to realize that the wide valley drained by the lower course of the Su-lo Ho

3 Cf. Desert Cathay, ii. pp. 35 sq., 41, 233, 294.   vol. iii of the Report on Captain Roborovsky's expedition ;

4 See e. g. the map on scale r : 4,200,000, reproduced in   also Stieler, Atlas, Map No. 64.

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