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0386	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

Hsüan-
tsang's
description
of Shih-
ch'ih-ni.

Hsüan-tsang's account of Shughnān closely agrees with this record.⁸ The pilgrim describes
the territory in connexion with his passage through Wakhān, but did not personally visit it. He
tells us that 'after crossing the high mountains of that kingdom [of Ta-mo-hsi-t'ieh-ti] one arrives
to the north in the kingdom of Shih-ch'ih-ni 尸棄尼. It is about 2,000 li in circuit, its capital
5 or 6 li in circumference. It comprises a succession of mountain ranges and valleys, and of plains
covered with sand and stones. There is plenty of pulse and wheat, but little of other crops. Trees
are rare, and there are few flowers and fruits. The climate is very cold. The people are fierce
and intrepid. They murder in cold blood and are given to theft and pillage. They do not recognize
social duties and cannot distinguish right from wrong. They do not know misery and happiness
of the future and fear the misfortunes of the present. Their appearance is coarse ; they wear skins
and woollen stuffs. The characters of their writing resemble those of the Tu-hu-lo (Tokhāra)
country, but their spoken language is different.'

Later
Chinese
references,
A.D. 741,
747.

The description here given reflects the physical features of the country correctly enough. The
account of its people obviously agrees with the reputation for both bravery and violence that they
still enjoy among their meeker neighbours to the south and west. Notwithstanding the trouble-
some character of the people, Shughnān is likely to have seen some of the traffic passing between
Badakhshān and the Tārīm basin during the periods when Chinese political control extended
across the Pāmīrs. This may account for the references to the route through Shughnān that are
contained in the itineraries of two later Buddhist travellers to and from India. Thus we learn
of the Indian monk Dharmacandra having travelled in A. D. 741, on his way back to his native
country, from Kāshgar to the kingdom of Shih-ni 式匿. But as on arrival at the fortified town
of Chi-lien 吉連 on Mount Fa-lo 乏囉 he found the country disturbed by an insurrection, he
turned back to Kāshgar to die in the end at Khotan.⁹ No safe location can be suggested at present
for the town and mountain here mentioned. That Kao Hsien-chih's great expedition of 747 across
the Pāmīrs extended to the 'valley of T'ê-lei-man 特勒滿, which is the same as the kingdom
of the five Shih-ni 識匿', I have had occasion to mention before.⁹ᵃ

Wu-k'ung's
visits to
Shughnān.

Wu-k'ung passed twice through Shughnān, both on his way from Kāshgar to India in A. D. 752
and on his return some time towards A. D. 786. But, laconic as always, the pilgrim contents himself
in his narrative with the mere mention of the kingdom of 'the five Ch'ih-ni 赤尼 also called Shih-ni
式尼 of the valley of Po-mi 播密 (Pāmīr)'. On his way he reached it across the Onion
Mountains and the passes of Yang-yü 楊與, i. e. through Sarīkol and one of the passes thence
giving access to the Pāmīrs, and then proceeded to Hu-mi or Wakhān.¹⁰ On his return journey
coming from Tokhāristān he passed, among many difficulties and dangers, through the kingdoms
of Chü-mi-chih 拘密支 and Ni-sê-chih 慈懿知, of which the former is identical with Kara-
tegīn and the latter uncertain, before arriving in Shih-ni. This route probably took him through
Darwāz and up the Oxus. From Shih-ni he then gained Kāshgar.¹¹

Tradition of
Chinese
control.

What references to Shughnān may be found in medieval Muhammadan geographers' works
I am not able to trace at present.¹¹ᵃ But it is certain that after the reconquest of the 'New Dominion'

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