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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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the mountains over relatively easy passes to the valley of the Ta-tung River, a tributary of the
Huang Ho. It constitutes the only line of communication across the Nan-shan ranges west of
Liang-chou which could ever have been of any practical utility to the Chinese holding Kan-su.
Finally it may be noted that, whereas both Su-chou and Liang-chou must always have been parti-
cularly exposed to trouble from nomad aggression owing to their accessibility by routes from
the barbarian north,² Kan-chou is protected from any direct attack on that side by the rugged
hill range previously mentioned and the extreme barrenness of the desert plains which extend
beyond it.
Chang-yih There are no ancient remains above ground which would enable us to determine whether the
of Han
times. present city occupies more or less the site where the Chang-yih 張掖 of Han times, corresponding to
the later Kan-chou, was established. What indications on this point may be contained in Chinese
historical records I am not in a position to ascertain. There seems, however, good reason for the
belief that the city has not materially changed its position since mediaeval times. Marco Polo, who
with his uncle Maffeo ' dwelt a whole year in this city when on a mission', describes Campichu as
Idols men- ' the capital and place of government of the whole province of Tangut '.³ He particularly mentions
tioned by
Marco Polo. the ' many minsters and abbeys ' of the Idolaters. ' In these they have an enormous number of
idols, both small and great, certain of the latter being a good ten paces in stature ; some of them
being of wood, others of clay, and others yet of stone. They are all highly polished, and then
covered with gold. The great idols of which I speak lie at length.' Sir Henry Yule has already
called attention to the fact that the colossal figures representing Buddha in Nirvāna, to which Marco
Polo obviously refers, are also mentioned in the descriptions of Kan-chou given by Shāh Rukh's
embassy and Ḥājī Muḥammad, the Persian trader, interviewed by Ramusio about 1550.⁴ There
can be little doubt that the colossal images meant in all three accounts are those still to be seen, of
course with inevitable restorations, etc., in the great Buddhist temple of Kan-chou known as the
Ta-fo-ssŭ.⁵
Ruined site My return journey to Su-chou, as far as it lay along the high road, touched only at one point
of Hei-
shui-kuo. a site of some antiquarian interest. At a direct distance of about six miles to the north-west of the
western main gate of Kan-chou, and just beyond the village lands of Yai-tzŭ, the road passes into
a wide belt of waste ground, supporting but scanty scrub and partially covered with low dunes.⁶ For
more than three miles from north to south and for about two miles across there extends an area
showing effects of wind-erosion and covered with small débris of pottery, hard bricks, and the like,
just in the manner of a Turkestān 'Tati'. The site is known by the name of Hei-shui-kuo, and had
already been mentioned to me at An-hsi by my antiquarian friend Mr. Li ⁷ as a place from which
antiques of different sorts are sometimes brought to collectors at Kan-chou. Along the eastern
edge of the area the dunes lie heaped up to 25-30 feet in height, covering completely any remains
that may survive on the ground. But beyond this belt of high drift-sand small erosion terraces from
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671
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