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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

in western Kan-su, and says it is Bokhara. It is true that Bokhara was known as the kingdom of
安 An c. 600 A. D., and then erroneously thought to be the kingdom of 安息 An-hsi (*·Ân-sjək) of
Han times, which was in fact the Arsacid or Parthian empire, and the name of which rendered Arsak
(I do not believe in the derivation of An-hsi from «Antiochia [Margiana]», Merv., recently advocated
by W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, 281); and in the administrative nomenclature
established in 658 through a misapplication of ancient names, Bokhara became the district of An-
hsi (*·Ân-sjək; cf. Chavannes, Doc. sur les Tou-kiue, 136-137). On the other hand, in the Chinese
translation made by Fa-ch'êng of the Prophecy of the Li country (cf. Pelliot and Haneda's edition, in
Manuscrits de Touen-houang, Kyōto, 1926, No. 2), the 'An-se of the Tibetan text is rendered by
the An-hsi (*·Ân-sjək) of the Arsacid empire. Yet, I have little doubt that Fa-ch'êng made a mistake.
If he adopted An-hsi (*·Ân-sjək), it must be on account of a literary reminiscence, because, in much
older « prophecies », the Parthian king was one of the three wicked monarchs who were to endanger
and almost ruin the Buddhist law. In the Prophecy of the Li country, the conditions, and the names are
on the contrary those of middle T'ang times, when the « An-hsi district » of Bokhara was a pseudo-
administrative designation which never came into actual use. Moreover, occlusive final consonants
were still heard in the 9th cent., and, just as Shu-lo (*Şi*o-lak) gave in Tibetan Śu-lig, An-hsi (*·Ân-
sjək) ought to be rendered not 'An-se, but *'Ân-sig. As was said by Rockhill, 'An-se actually is
安西 An-si (*·Ân-siei), but not the An-hsi of western Kan-su, an administrative name which dates
only from the Man-chu dynasty; what Rockhill alluded to, though misplacing its seat, is the
« Protectorate General of An-hsi », i. e. Kučā in Chinese Turkestan, which certainly is the 'An-tse, or
better 'An-se, of the two prophecies; Russian Turkestan is out of the question. The same may be
said of Gus-tig, for which Laufer had thought of Kučā, but which Thomas states to be « Hon-tö »
(read « Hou-tê ») of TP, 1905, 559, N. E. of Samarkand. But Hou-tê was a name of the Han period,
no more known in the 9th cent., and here again the scope of the prophecy remains within the limits
of Chinese Turkestan : Gus-tig certainly is the place situated between « Aksu » (Aq-su) and Maral-
baši (almost at Maral-baši) the name of which is written 據史德 Chü-shih-tê (*Ki*o-şi-tək) in Chia
Tan's itineraries (Hsin T'ang shu, 43 B, 14 b), 據瑟得 Chü-shê-tê (*Ki*o-şɛt-tək) in Wu-k'ung's
itinerary (cf. Chavannes and Lévi, in JA, 1895, II, 363), and, erroneously, 握瑟德 Wo-shê-tê
(*·Âk-şɛt-tək) in Kao Hsien-chih's biography (cf. Chavannes, Doc. sur les Tou-kiue, 152). Nor is Par-
mkhan « Ferghana » (Faryāna), as stated by Thomas (pp. 47, 61). It renders 播換 Po-huan (*Puât-
ɣuân); to Chavannes' texts, add Ts'ê-fu yüan-kuei, 986, 23 a, and Hsin T'ang shu, 216 A, 3a), also
written 鉢浣 Po-huan (*Puât-ɣuân; cf. Chavannes, Doc. sur les Tou-kiue, 8, 353) and 鉢換 Po-
huan (*Puât-ɣuân; cf. Ts'ê-fu yüan-kuei, 992, 7 a), which I have shown many years ago to render
the name by which what is now Aq-su (« Aksu » of our maps) was anciently known to Mussulman
writers (cf. TP, 1907, 553-556; 1923, 129-130; 1936, 362). I had started from Idrīsī's بالوان Bâḥwân;
since an Iranian form Parvân is now attested (cf. Mi, 482; Bailey, in BSOS, IX, 567-568; I have now
discarded the connection with Mo-lu [see « Cotton », p. 494-495]), Bailey has proposed to correct
Idrīsī's form, always uncertain, to بارواں *Bârwân; but the Tibetan Par-mkhan also has a -ḫ- (-kh-),
so that I am tempted to restore in Idrīsī بارخوان *Barḥwân (= *Parḥwân), as a doublet of Parvân. On
the other hand, Minorsky (Mi, 295) has suggested that Idrīsī's Bâḥwây may have to be corrected
into بارمان Bârmân, which seems to be another name of Aq-su in Kâšyarī (Brockelmann, 241). The