National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

identical with *Wu-sha* as it, after the Sui dynasty, is no longer mentioned by special
names in the Annals. Together with its older name *So-chü* it had certainly also lost its
political importance, and, according to Hsüan-chuang, sunk to a state of dependence under
the alpine kingdom of *Sarikol*.

That *Wu-sha* is the same as the present *Yarkand* is further proved by the following
statements regarding Hsüan-chuang's route. From *Kashgar* 500 li are calculated as the
distance not only to *Yarkand*, but also to the *Hsi-to* (Sita), *i. e.* the Yarkand-darya. When
the great pilgrim on his march to Kashgar turned to the north, where he had to cross
stony and desolate country, he could have travelled the ordinary, N. W. running road
viâ Kizil and Yangi-hisar. He must have preferred the road northward which crosses the
desert districts of Terem and Achik.

To get a definite idea of Hsüan-chuang's *Ts'ung-ling*, it finally remains to consider
his itinerary from *Ch'ia-sha* (Kashgar) to *Chê-chü-chia* and thence to *Chü-sa-ta-na* (Kustana,
Khotan), so much the more as the identifications so far have not given a satisfactory
result. The only reason for the uncertainty was that the scholars found it necessary to
identify the station Chê-chü-chia with the present *Karghalik*, though the *Chu-chü-po* of
nearly equivalent sound; or the *Tzü-ho*, according to the statements of the Pei-shih and
the pilgrims Fa-hien and Sung Yün, only corresponds to *Kök-yar* at a distance of 120 km
farther south.¹ As a matter of fact the itinerary of Hsüan-chuang also admits only of re-
cognizing Kök-yar as a station. For it is expressly said:

Il . . . . passa la rivière Si-to (Sita), franchit un grand passage de montagne couvert de sable,
et arriva au royaume de Tcho-keou-kia . . . . La population est nombreuse; les montagnes et les
collines se touchent. De vastes plages sont couvertes de sable et de pierre. Ce royaume est voisin
de deux fleuves.²

This passage proves beyond doubt that it cannot be correct to think of the road
to *Karghalik*, as M. A. Stein has done, for the latter road only partly touches very low
hills while most of it crosses level country. The road has rather to be removed to the
south and into the very mountains, that is to say, either viâ Kachung on the Yarkand-darya,
Inish, Uslush or viâ Posgam up into the Tizn-ab valley, and then viâ Uslush, from where
the last mountain passage goes down to *Kök-yar*. The description of *Chê-chü-chia* as
well answers perfectly to the fertile valley of Kök-yar. The two rivers mentioned as
flowing in the vicinity, are Tizn-ab and one of the several brooks in the neighbourhood.
It is remarkable that Hsüan-chuang here speaks of high mountains on the southern
boundary, where the vegetation is checked in its growth by reason of the great cold.
He means the Kwenlun ranges which Fa-hien 240 years earlier had crossed in *Chiragh-
saldi davan*. We have found that, according to Fa-hien the *Ts'ung-ling* already begins
in this pass. Hsüan-chuang, on the other hand, does not mention the Ts'ung-ling.

From Chê-chü-chia Hsüan-chuang had again to cross »de hauts passages de montagnes«,
before he reached *Chü-sa-ta-na* (Kustana, Khotan) viâ *P'o-chia-i*. Stein did not know
what to do with this expression, as according to his supposition the only road in question
was the one which from *Karghalik* crosses the level desert viâ Guma.² But if we, by
the reason mentioned above, remove Chê-chü-chia southward to *Kök-yar* it appears in the
most natural way, that the last portion of the road now and again had to proceed up