Serindia : vol.3 / 58 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0058	Serindia : vol.3
セリンディア : vol.3

Explanation
of double
walls in
Hao-shān-
k'ou defile.

It is only left for me to recur to the curious detail previously noted about Hao-shan-k'ou, the
two walls facing each other across the middle of the gorge. In the lower and later wall, with its
parapet facing south-west, we obviously have an outwork of the Chia-yü kuan 'barrier' wall,
rendering the portion outside Huang-ts'ao-ying more secure. As regards the upper and older wall
facing to the north-east, the most likely explanation appears to me to be that it was built for the
purpose of protecting the high road to the west of the Chia-yü-kuan Gate from attacks of robbers
and the like. It is very improbable that the Chinese, even during the period of seclusion in Ming
times, could have left the great route westwards without such protection as advanced stations would
assure. The account of Shāh Rukh's embassy distinctly mentions its reception by Chinese officials ¹³
at several points 'in the desert' before reaching the Chinese frontier at Chia-yü kuan. On the other
hand, we see from Benedict Goës' narrative how much need there was for such protection in view of
the general insecurity prevailing in his time on the route from Hāmi to Su-chou.¹⁴ In addition
there is the exact analogy of the advanced watch-towers which were maintained in Han times beyond
the point where the Lou-lan route left the Tun-huang Limes,¹⁵ and of those which Hsüan-tsang had
to pass after going outside the Yü-mên of early T'ang times.¹⁶ If the Hao-shan-k'ou gorge was thus
closed during Ming times by a wall preventing access to the high road, the latter was rendered safe,
at any rate against attacks from the north, for some distance beyond the Chia-yü kuan gate; for
the very precipitous range on the north is crossed by no practicable track until we come to the
gorge through which the Po-yang Ho has cut its way towards the small basin of Hu-hai-tzŭ
(Map No. 86. D. 1).

Early
notices of
Chia-yü
kuan Gate.

Having now completed our survey of Chia-yü kuan and cleared up the origin of its walls, we
may turn to the notices which early travellers from the West have left us of this famous gate into
China. That Marco Polo, who must have passed the defile of Chia-yü kuan on his way from Sha-
chou to Su-chou, makes no reference to the site is easily understood in the light of the preceding
explanations. At the time of his passage the walls closing Chia-yü kuan and bending round the
westernmost border of Ho-hsi were not yet built. It is true that the Chinese mission to Khotan of
A.D. 938 mentions a defile called the 'Gate of Heaven' in a position a hundred li to the west
of Su-chou, which manifestly corresponds to that of Chia-yü kuan.¹⁷ But even if a watch-station
was maintained here after the Mongol conquest of China, it could not have been of any special
importance in the days when the great Kublai Khān's reign kept China open to intercourse with
the West.

Karaul
passed by
Shāh
Rukh's em-
bassy.

Conditions had completely changed when the embassy sent by Shāh Rukh passed here in
A.D. 1420.¹⁸ The envoys, accompanied by many merchants, spent twenty-five days on their way
through the Great Desert from Hāmi. On the last few marches 'near the frontier of China Proper'
they were fêted in great style by Chinese officers who had come to meet them. 'On their arrival
at a strong castle called Karaul, in a mountain defile, through the middle of which the road passed,¹⁹
the whole party was counted and their names registered before they were allowed to proceed. They

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