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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

vagueness and even inaccuracy in the bearings if we remember that, for instance, both *T'ang his-
tories* locate Nepal to the west of Tibet and that, according to the *Chiu T'ang shu*, India (T'ien-
chu) lay north-west (*sic*) of the Onion Range. BUSHELL has located the Kingdom of Women of
the *Sui shu* in « Eastern Tibet », and ROCKHILL says in a note on Ts'ung-ling that, from a text of
the *T'ang shu*, « we learn that by this is to be understood that the Nü kuo embraced all northern
Tibet ». It would seem, however, that the source of the *Sui shu* and the *T'ung tien* meant this
Kingdom of Women to lie to the north-west of Tibet proper and perhaps not so very far from the
Kingdom of Women located « west of Po-lü » in Wan Chieh's romantic account (cf. *supra*, p. 679).
But this may be a delusive appearance. That confusions have been made, particularly in the *Hsin
T'ang shu*, has been pointed out more than once, either in China or in Europe; the pro-
blem, however, is most entangled and, even at the end of a somewhat lengthy discussion,
we lack the necessary elements for reaching a satisfactory solution of all the difficulties
involved.

The question is not merely one of sinology. A Strīrajya, « Kingdom of Women », is mentioned
more than once in Indian texts among the countries to the extreme north-west of India (*Mahābhā-
rata*, III, 1991; XII, 114; *Bṛhat-saṃhitā*, XIV, 22; XVI, 2; *Harṣacarita*, ch. 7; transl., p. 210;
*Rājataraṅgiṇī*, IV, 173, 185, 586, 665; cf. *Mémorial Sylvain Lévi*, 422; THOMAS, *Tibetan literary
texts and documents*, I, 152); it also occurs, as a nation of the north-west, in Al-Bīrūnī's lists based
on the *Vāyupurāṇa* : « Strīrajya, *i. e.* women amongst whom no man dwells longer than half a year »
(SACHAU, *Alberuni's India*, I, 302). In the Chinese version of the *Tathāyataguhya* (one of the
*sūtra* of the *Ratnakūṭa*), made by Chu Fa-hu in 288 A. D., a curious list of nations mentions the
女 人 處 國 Nü-jên ch'u kuo, or « Kingdom of the Place of Women » (?*Strīsthāna*; cf. S. LÉVI,
in *BEFEO*, V, 289). The same list, in Chu Fa-hu's translation, contains a kingdom of 金 本 Chin-
pên, « Gold-origin », in which LÉVI (*ibid*., 290) was tempted to recognize the Kingdom of Suvar-
nagotra, « Gold clan », about which more will be said anon. But the equation is not quite certain.
In a list which occurs in the translation of the *Candragarbha* made in 566 by Narendrayaśas, a
Kingdom of 金 姓 Chin-hsing, « Gold-surname » (« Gold nature » in *BEFEO*, V, 274, is LÉVI's slip,
through an inadvertent confusion between 姓 *hsing* and 性 *hsing*), and this is certainly Suvarṇa-
gotra. But with the Kingdom of Chin-hsing (*ibid*., 274, 283) there is a kingdom of 蘇 跋 拏
Su-pa-na (*Suo-b'uât-nja*), the name of which has been hypothetically restored by LÉVI into
« Suvana? », but is certainly Suvarṇa, « Gold » (or Sauvarṇa, « Golden »), and may represent the same
name as the kingdom of « Gold-origin » (Sauvarṇa, Sauvarṇya?). A country Suvarṇabhū, « Land
of Gold », occurs in the *Bṛhat-saṃhitā* among the countries to the north-east.

The mention of a Kingdom of Women to the north-west of India has been sometimes ascribed
to very early Chinese texts, owing to what I believe to be a series of misapprehensions. According
to O. FRANKE (*Zur Kenntnis der Türkvölker*, Anhang to *Abh. d. k. Pr. Ak. d. W.* for 1904, 37),
Chang Shou-chieh in his commentary on the *Shih chi* written in 736 cites (123, 3 *a-b*) a passage from
a work 大 覽 西 鏡 *Ta-huang hsi-ching*, apparently already lost in his time, in which it was said :
« The 弱 水 Jo-shui (« Weak River ») has two springs, which flow north of the Kingdom of Women
and south of the A-nou-ta Mountain (Anavatapta), and have their confluence in the Kingdom of
Women ». Then HERRMANN boldly asserted (in S. Hedin's *Southern Tibet*, VIII, 247-248) that