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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

374. UNCIAN

*nociam* VA *uachiam* TA³ *vacian* TA¹
*nociam* FB *uaciam* LT *vnciam* LT, P
*notiam* VA *uociam* LT, VA *vociam* LT, P, VA; R
*notian* VL *uocian* F, FA, VA, Z *vocian* FB, L
*ozian, uazian, vonoran* VB *uotian, votian* FA *votion, vtian* VB

The name here referred to is 永 昌 Yung-ch'ang. To the readings of the Mss. of Polo, we may add « Aociam » of the Catalan Map (*Y*¹, I, 302; CORDIER, *L'Extrême-Orient dans l'Atlas Catalan*, 22), and « Uocă » (= « Uocan ») of Fra Mauro (cf. HALLBERG, 557). Without being positive about it, I think that the true reading is probably « Vncian » = « Uncian », or even « Oncian », which has the occasional support of LT and P.

Yung-ch'ang, as the name of a « commanderie » (*chün*), goes back to the Han. The town had been rebuilt under the Nan-chao (in 743 ?) and was one of their six main administrative centres; the itineraries of the end of the 8th cent. duly place it between the Mekong and the Salween, as it is now (cf. *BEFEO*, IV, 370-371). But the place must have been in ruins when the Mongols reached it. It was rebuilt in 1278 by 段 阿 慶 Tuan A-ch'ing (*Hsü-Yün-nan t'ung-chih kao*, 25, 7 *b*). The Yüan first made of Yung-ch'ang a *chou* in 1274, and raised it to a *fu* in 1278; it was dependent on Ta-li (YS, 61, 11 *b*).

Polo says that « Uncian » was the main city of the province of Zar-dandān (see « Çardandan »). This may not be technically quite correct, since the real territory of the Chin-ch'ih, or « Gold Teeth » (Zar-dandān), must have been much more to the south-west. But it is true that the « Directing Commissariat of Chin-ch'ih » and the « Directing Commissariat of Ta-li » had been merged, on September 23, 1286, into one « Directing Commissariat of Ta-li, Chin-ch'ih, and other places », the seat of which was established at Yung-ch'ang (cf. my discussion of this under « Çardandan »). In 1343, a « Comforting Commissariat (*hsüan-wei-ssŭ*) of Yung-ch'ang and other places » was established (*YS*, 41, 1 *b*; 92, 6 *a-b*), and this is taken by WANG Hui-tsu², 26, 2 *b*, to refer to our Yung-ch'ang, but I am not certain that the place intended is not Yung-ch'ang near Liang-chou in Kan-su. After the fall of the Mongol dynasty, the Ming had for a time at Yung-ch'ang a Chin-ch'ih-[衛]wei, « Garrison of Chin-ch'ih ». According to the *Ti-ming ta tzŭ-tien*, 547 and 1134, the original seat of the Commissariat was on the territory of 景 東 Ching-tung, that is to say, far to the south-east of Yung-ch'ang and east of the Mekong. I do not know the origin of this information, which cannot be reconciled with the text of *YS*, 61, 12 *b*, quoted under « Çardandan ».

In the Chinese and Pai-i Vocabulary of the Ming dynasty, the Pai-i name of the Chin-ch'ih is Wan-chang; on the other hand the Burmese form of Yung-ch'ang is said to be « Wun-zen ». YULE-CORDIER (*Y*, II, 89) and F. W. K. MÜLLER (*TP*, 1892, 17, 20) seem to have considered that these forms « Wan-chang » and « Wun-zen » were more correct spellings than the Ch. Yung-ch'ang.