Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 256 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0256	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

Abundance
of antiques.
It does not require much reflection to realize that it is just the limited extent of the
Yōtkan site which makes the abundance of antiques yielded up by it all the more striking.
And this very abundance, as well as the character of the remains, supplies strong evidence in
support of the assumption that the site is indeed that of the ancient Khotan capital. Only
at the site of a town that possessed a wealthy population and rich public buildings and shrines
is it possible to account for débris-layers such as those of Yōtkan, which even the systematic
digging operations of more than thirty years have failed to clear of their gold and other
valuable contents. The culture-strata of Yōtkan are shown by unmistakable evidence to
contain the débris accumulations of a thousand years, if not more. Where else but at the
capital are conditions of affluence likely to have continued unchanged for so long a period?

Buildings of
ancient
capital.
The available Chinese records tell us little about the capital of ancient Yü-t'ien, but it is
characteristic that almost all of these notices contain some reference to buildings of consider-
able magnificence. The most interesting among them is a passage of the Yin-i, composed by
Hui-lin in the eighth or ninth century, which M. S. Lévi has brought to light, and to which we have
had already occasion to refer in connexion with Mount Gośrṅga ¹¹. It shows that the famous temple
of Vaiśravaṇa, which the legends related by Hsüan-tsang and the Annals of Li-yul represent
as the oldest shrine of the kingdom ¹², stood in the city of Yü-t'ien, and that it was 'a tower
built in wood seven stories high'. The god was supposed to reside on the summit. Hsüan-
tsang particularly extols the richness of the temple as it existed in his time. It is evident that
we must think here of a structure imposing in its architecture notwithstanding its perishable
materials, like the great temples and Stūpas built of wood which the Chinese pilgrims admired
at Puruṣapura and elsewhere in the north-western borderland of India ¹³.

As regards the royal palace we learn from the account of the Chinese mission sent in
938 that it comprised a number of buildings all facing to the east, and among them a pavilion
called that of the seven Phoenixes ¹⁴. An earlier notice, found in the Liang Annals, specially
mentions the frescoes adorning the king's palace ¹⁵. That the city was enclosed by walls we
know from Hsüan-tsang. He adds that they were of no great height, though the capital passed
for never having been taken by force ¹⁶. The ancient fortifications still existing at the sites
of Endere, Kara-dong, Ak-sipil show that we may safely assume those walls to have consisted
mainly of ramparts of stamped loess. At the gate of the city there used to take place the
solemn reception by the king and the ladies of his court of the procession of great image cars
of which Fa-hsien has left us so vivid a description ¹⁷.

Character of
ancient
remains.
The culture-strata of Yōtkan do not help us to reconstruct a picture of the city which
once occupied the site. But in view of the observations detailed above we have no difficulty

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