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0297 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
中央アジア踏査記 : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / 297 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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CHAPTER XI

FINDS ALONG THE ANCIENT CHINESE LIMES

Before proceeding to describe finds of special interest
among the ruins of the Chinese Limes reference may con-
veniently be made here to the historical facts, already
briefly mentioned in the second chapter, which throw light
on the construction of this border line and explain its main
purpose. When the great Emperor Wu-ti had ousted the
Huns from their grazing-grounds at the northern foot of the
Nan-shan in the year 121 B.C., military colonies were at
once established in that passage land which was to serve his
'forward policy' towards Central Asia. The Han Annals tell
us that at the same time the construction of a wall was
started westwards in extension of the earlier 'Great Wall'
of China. There can be no doubt that its main purpose was
to protect the great highway thus opened for trade and
political expansion into the Tarim basin.
As the Huns were still hovering all over the desert tracts
to the north, it was obviously essential to make this long
line of communication safe both for trade and troop move-
ments. The wall of the Emperor Wu-ti, intended to serve
as the instrument of China's expansion westwards, thus
offers a striking analogy to the earlier Limes systems of the
Roman Empire; for we know now that the lines of the
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