Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 547 ページ（カラー画像）

0547	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

the Bāzārs by 'treasure-seekers'. But only three small objects of uncertain origin had been
secured (see below Ker. 001–003). Among them was the small intaglio, Ker. 003 (Plate XLIX),
showing the figures of a man and a running deer, and the bronze finial, Ker. 001 (see Plate LI),
which in its decorative motif so closely resembles the styles used in Indian sūrmadāns of the
present day as to suggest doubts as to its antiquity. The scarcity of these acquisitions seemed
to me an indication that the Tatis, which I had heard reported at Kara-khān, to the north-
west of Keriya town, and at Tokhtal, near the western edge of the oasis, and to the south of
the Khotan road, could not be of great extent or importance. For visits to them I was unable
to spare time.

Keriya town itself is not believed by the people to be a place of great age, and has Age of
probably acquired importance only since it was made the head quarters of the separate district Keriya
of Keriya, newly created after Yāqūb Bēg's rebellion, and now officially styled Yü-t'ien. The town.
oasis itself is, no doubt, of ancient date; but there is nothing to indicate that it was in
old times larger or more important than the string of oases which still extend in an almost
unbroken line from Chīra to Kara-kīr, and are linked with Keriya by ground that, as the
subsequent observations will show, is for a large part capable of cultivation. I am unable to
trace any distinct reference to Keriya in the early Chinese texts accessible to me in translations.

The territory of Yü-mi 扜彌, which is mentioned by the Ch'ien Han shu among the small Ancient
states to the east of Khotan, and subsequently referred to under the slightly different and probably territory of
more correct form of Han-mi 扜彌 in the Wei lio and T'ang Annals, has indeed been identified Yü-mi
by a modern Chinese writer with Keriya¹. But the topographical indications furnished by (Han-mi).
the historical texts make it appear far more probable that this territory comprised the whole
of the oases between Chīra and Keriya, thus corresponding roughly to Marco Polo's 'Province
of Pein', and the tract of which Hsüan-tsang's P'i-mo was the chief place. In the Han Annals'
notice Yü-mi, then independent of Khotan, is described as being 390 li to the east of the
latter². This, assuming that as elsewhere the measurement is taken from capital to capital,
points to a location about Gulakhma-Domoko rather than near the town of Keriya. The T'ang
Annals, which, as we have seen, enumerate Han-mi among the small territories annexed to
Yü-t'ien³, place it to the east of the river of Chien-tê-li⁴. The latter itself, being placed 300 li
east of Yü-t'ien, can only be the river of Chīra, the distance of which from Yotkan, about 60
miles, exactly corresponds to the above measurement. We are not told by the notice of the
T'ang Annals where in particular was the position of the town of Ta-tê-li, its chief place,
also known as Chü-mi, or earlier as Ning-mi. But seeing what we have ascertained above as
to the long-continued importance of the town which Sung Yün called Han-mo and Hsüan-tsang
P'i-mo, the location of Ta-tê-li at the same site seems distinctly more probable than at the
modern Keriya.

On April 2 I started back to Khotan by forced marches. The first, which brought me to Return
Kara-kīr, gave me ample opportunity to observe the abundance of spring water which feeds the journey to
numerous marshes skirted by the road between the western edge of the Keriya oasis and the Khotan.
Kara-kīr stream, and which further on runs to waste in the Shīvul Daryā and its terminal swamps.
My companions from Keriya, among them the local official whom the attentive Amban had
deputed to escort me, declared that the springs were perennial, and believed that with the

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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

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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