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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Chavannes and Herrmann are of the opinion that the capital of the Lou-lan
kingdom was removed from the northern region of the Lop desert to Charkhliq in
B. C. 77. The premiss for this supposition is a paragraph in the Wei-lio. Stein on
the other hand believes that the capital was situated in the southern part of the basin
the whole time. According to Giles Miran was the old capital and Charkhliq the new
one. Cf. p. 224 f.

I feel inclined to agree with the argument set forth by Chavannes and Herr-
mann. The old capital may possibly have been more of a camp than a permanent
residence, but on the other hand it seems most likely that the Lou-lan station was
the main centre even before the arrival of the Chinese garrison.

Herrmann has tentatively marked the site of the old Lou-lan capital on a map
(Herrmann 1931, p. 57) 20 km. NNW of the Lou-lan station. This is certainly
rather daring even with the wording "Hauptstadt? (unerforscht)".

This part of the desert has now been traversed by so many that all ruins of any
importance are certainly known. Many other parts of the Lop desert, however,
have never been visited and still less searched for ancient remains, and the discove-
ry of such an imposing site as "Ördek's necropolis" hints at the possibility of find-
ing still more remains.

In the literature the name Lou-lan has been mostly used to denote the largest of
the ruins found by Hedin in 1900—1901. In this treatise I have followed Stein
in consistently referring to this ruin as the Lou-lan station in order to distinguish
it from the Lou-lan kingdom.

Stein has already pointed out how the establishment of a Chinese military colony
in the Lou-lan kingdom is foreshadowed in a proposal to the Imperial Council by
General Pan Yung, the son of the famous Pan Ch'ao, about A. D. 119. I quote
the whole passage in the masterly translation of Chavannes, as the text is very
typical and contains several details of interest (Chavannes 1906, p. 248 f.).

"Autrefois, dans la commanderie de Touen-houang il y avait une garnison de
trois cents hommes; il faut maintenant la rétablir et instituer à nouveau un hiao-
wei en second, protecteur des contrées d'Occident, qui résidera à Touen-houang,
comme cela était autrefois pendant la période yong-yuan (89—104 p. C.); d'autre
part, il faut envoyer un tchang-che des pays d'Occident, à la tête de cinq cents
hommes, organiser une colonie militaire à Leou-lan; du côté de l'Ouest, (cet offi-
cier) dominera les chemins qui mènent à Yen-k'i (Karachar) et à K'ieou-tseu
(Koutcha); du côté du Sud, il fortifiera le courage de Chan-chan et de Yu-t'ien
(Khoten); du côté du Nord, il tiendra en respect les Hiong-nou; du côté de l'Est, il
sera voisin de Touen-houang. Voilà ce qui est vraiment avantageux.

Un chang-chou demanda à (Pan) Yong: 'Si maintenant on établit un hiao-wei en
second, quel en sera l'avantage? Si en outre on nomme un tchang-che pour faire
une colonie militaire à Leou-lan, quel en sera le profit?' (Pan) Yong répondit:
'Autrefois, à la fin de la période yong-p'ing (58—75 p. C.), on entra pour la premi-

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