Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 233 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0233	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

their goods imposed a recurring strain on the population, an imperial decree is recorded in 1078
restricting admission to the empire to duly accredited missions.

The extremely varied list of goods which this last notice enumerates among the usual Kara-Khitai
Yü-t'ien 'tribute' is of interest as showing how many articles from the Far West then found and Mongol
their way to China through the commercial mediation of Khotan. Whether the trade relations supremacy.
thus renewed continued unbroken after the close of the Sung period (1126 A. D.), and the invasion
of Eastern Turkestān by the Kara-Khitai which almost coincided with it, does not appear from
the Chinese records so far rendered accessible ²⁶. Nothing is known to us of Khotan during
the period (circ. 1125–1208), when the Kara-Khitai held sway over Eastern Turkestān. Buddhists
though they were, there is no evidence to show that their rule impaired the position which a
century and a quarter of zealous repression must have created for Islām at Khotan. From
1218 Eastern Turkestān became part of Chingiz Khān's Mongol Empire, and Khotan may be
assumed to have benefited by the facilities for trade intercourse which the vast extent of this
empire created.

When Marco Polo visited Khotan on his way to China, between the years 1271 and 1275, Marco
the people of the oasis were flourishing, as the Venetian's previously quoted account shows ²⁷. Polo's visit
His description of the territories further east, Pein, Cherchen and Lop, which he passed through to Khotan.
before crossing 'the Great Desert' to Sha-chou, leaves no doubt that the route from Khotan
into Kan-su was in his time a regular caravan road. Marco Polo found the people of Khotan
'all worshippers of Mahommet' and the territory subject to 'the Great Kaan', i.e. Kublai,
whom by that time almost the whole of the Middle kingdom acknowledged as emperor. While
the neighbouring Yarkand owed allegiance to Kaidu, the ruler of the Chagatai dominion,
Khotan had thus once more renewed its old historical connexion with China.

The ampler flow of Muhammadan records may, perhaps, render it possible to trace some Notice of
details of Khotan history during the troubled times of the fourteenth century, which saw the Khotan in
power of the successors of Kublai in China waning and Turkestān divided between two lines Ming
of the house of Chagatai. But this period and those following lie far beyond the scope of our Annals.
historical sketch. We may, therefore, close with a brief reference to the Notice of Yü-t'ien in
the Ming Annals, the last of those extracted in the Pien i tien ²⁸. The record there given of
some 'embassies' from Yü-t'ien, which arrived during the years 1420–1424, is of interest on
account of the unreserved exposition of their true character as commercial ventures ²⁹. The
remarks imply that after a period of interruption the trade of the West towards China was once
more resuming its ancient channel through Khotan. How long this revived use of the old route
lasted we do not know. But we can still discern, perhaps, the probable cause which had led trade
back to it. In 1421 the imperial court had been visited by an embassy, this time not a sham
one, from Shāh Rukh, the Moghul prince of Herāt. When this mission, briefly referred to also
in the Ming Notice, was travelling homewards in 1422, the ambassadors, on account of troubles

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