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

The occurrence of this mirror of the later Han dynasty¹ in this place is of special
importance, as it is one of the few datable objects known from here. As well as the
coins and the silk found by Stein it was imported from China proper. Stein,
however, discovered four Kharoshthi documents among the stupa ruins, documents
written by some Indian, i. e. a foreigner. And in one of the graves he found a small
glass tumbler with cut ovals, undoubtedly an importation from far off Syria
(Ying III. 3. 06). This mixture of Chinese, Indian and Near Eastern objects makes
Ying-p'an a typical representative of the Lou-lan culture.

The lacquered wooden vase Ying. III. 3. 07 (Stein 1928, Pl. CX), is of the same
type as the one found by Hedin outside the coffin in Grave 35 (Pl. 27: 6).

The geographical position of Ying-p'an predestinates it to be a station on the part
of the Silk Road running between Lou-lan and Korla. The part lying east of Ying-
p'an has been abandoned, most likely, for 1600 years, the western part from Ying-
p'an to Korla was still used in the T'ang period. It is marked by a line of Han
dynasty watch-towers, ten in all, traced by Hedin in 1896 and 1900, and subse-
quently examined by Stein. I have visited a few of them; in Pl. XIV b-c are seen
Stein's towers Y. VI and Y. VII.² When they were constructed Könche-darya may
have followed a slightly more northerly bed, water thus having been nearer to the
towers than at present. On the other hand, some of the towers are situated so far
from any present or old water-course that the necessary water supply has had to be
drawn from wells in any case.

The present road from Turfan via Tikenliq to Charkhliq passes Ying-p'an. It may
very well have existed at the time of the early settlement, but the traffic between
North and South can hardly have been heavy at that time. In 1934 I discovered a
hitherto unknown line of communication between Ying-p'an and Charkhliq follow-
ing the Qum-köl and what I have called The Small River, and probably passing
Merdek, cf. p. 100. But if any traffic coming from Turfan followed The Small River
it did not touch Ying-p'an but followed a direct line between Toghraq-bulaq and
Qum-köl.

Stein has identified the Ying-p'an site with "the town of Chu-pin" of the Ch'ien
Han-shu. Herrmann has lately proposed its identity with I-wu, though earlier he
located I-wu, as do all other authorities, at Hami. Chu-pin he places at Merdek in-
stead. I have corresponded with Prof. Herrmann regarding this problem, and in
his last letter he informs me that he has now returned to his former standpoint
and again places I-wu at Hami.

Long after the abandoning of the old Chinese "town of Chu-pin" with its circular
fortress, its shrine and stupas, and its grave yards, the place was resettled by Mo-