Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 229 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0229	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

and his companions were on their arrival at Khotan at once met by Li Shêng-t'ien's demand
for a treaty. Its conclusion explains the renewed presentations of tribute which are recorded
for the next few decades, however limited the practical advantages which Khotan could derive
from the distant empire.

The report of the mission represents king Li Shêng-t'ien as wearing clothes and headdress
resembling those used in China. His palace, called Chin-ts'ê-tien, had all its structures facing
eastwards, and among them a pavilion called that of 'the Seven Phoenixes'. We are next told
of the grape wine of Yü-t'ien and of two other 'wines', violet and blue in colour, which Kao
Chü-hui did not know the composition of, but found much to his taste. Rice prepared with
honey, and millet cooked with cream were among the local dainties. The inhabitants wore
clothes of linen and silk, and cultivated flowering trees in their gardens. They paid worship
to the spirits, but most of all to Buddha. Li Shêng-t'ien in his palace was always surrounded
by fifty monks wearing violet robes. The year of his reign corresponding to 940 A. D. was
designated as the 29th year T'ung-ch'ing—a remark which manifestly relates to the use of
some local era. Neither this nor the names Yin chou, Lu chou, Meê chou, noted as local
designations for the south-eastern portion of his territory, can at present be elucidated ⁸.

The jade district was placed in the mountains 1,300 li to the south of Yü-t'ien, a location
which would not be far wrong if the jade mines of the upper Kara-kāsh valley are meant. The
statement that the Huang-ho rises in the Khotan mountains, is due to that piece of mythical
geography still current in China, which supposes a subterraneous connexion between the Lop-Nor
and the headwaters of the great river. Regarding the jade-carrying rivers of Khotan, we have
a statement in which fiction and exact topography are curiously mixed. One river coming from
the jade mountains is said to divide itself at Yü-t'ien into three branches. The easternmost
was called the river of White Jade, the one to the west the river of Green Jade, and the
westernmost the river of Black Jade, each according to the colour of the jade it was supposed
to carry. It is clear that we have in the first and the last designations the exact equivalents
of the present Turkī river-names Yurung-kāsh and Kara-kāsh, while the second was manifestly
applied to the eastern branch of the Kara-kāsh, now known as 'Yangi-Daryā' ⁹.

Another and evidently fuller extract from the report of the same mission, which Rémusat
has reproduced from the portion of the Pien i tien containing 'anecdotes on Yü-t'ien', supple-
ments the description of the jade river and its three branches by some interesting details ¹⁰.
We read there that the jade river rises in the Kun-lun mountains, and after flowing westwards
for 1,300 li enters the confines of Yü-t'ien near 'the mountain of the Ox-head'. The latter
designation, as we shall see below, was borne by the Kohmāri Hill, the site of a famous
sanctuary on the right bank of the Kara-kāsh where it enters the plains. The 'river of White
Jade' is placed by this extract 30 li to the east of the city of Yü-t'ien, the 'Green Jade
River' 20 li to the west of the latter, and the 'Black Jade River' 7 li further to the west.
The distances indicated prove to be remarkably exact if referred to Yōtkan, and afford useful
evidence for the location at the latter site of the ancient capital of Khotan. We are also told
of the custom which precluded the people from searching for jade after the summer floods until
the king in the autumn had personally visited the dry bed of the river and thus formally
opened what was called 'the jade harvest'.

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ