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

Wei-hsü
absorbed in
Yen-ch'i.

After the 'Epoch of the Three Kingdoms', from which the Wei lio's information dates, Wei-hsü
seems to disappear from Chinese historical records as a separate petty state. The Chin dynasty's
Annals make Yen-ch'i conterminous on the south with Wei-li.⁷ᵃ We find the same statement also
in the T'ang Annals' description of Yen-ch'i.⁸ It may hence be concluded with some probability that
Wei-hsü in Chin times became absorbed in Yen-ch'i, just as Korla at the present day is included in
the Kara-shahr district, or hsien.

Site of
Uzgen-
bulak.

In an area so abundantly watered as the Korla tract not much could be hoped for in the way of
ruins of early date. In the course of my local inquiries I could learn of only three 'old towns', and
at none of them were any datable remains traceable. Uzgen-bulak, the largest of them, proved to
be a large oblong enclosure, situated about three-quarters of a mile from the south-west corner of
the crumbling wall which Yāqūb Bēg built round Korla town. The earth ramparts of Uzgen-bulak
form roughly a rectangle, measuring about 380 yards from north to south and about 250 yards
across. They rise from 12 to 15 feet above the water-logged ground. Towards the north-west
corner a large shapeless mound of stamped clay rises to a height of about 18–20 feet. Outside the
south-east corner and near by lies a Ziārat with some Muhammadan tombs, suggesting the survival
of local worship from earlier times.

Walled
enclosures
of Yantak-
shahr, Shāh
Kalandar.

Yantak-shahr is the name of a smaller walled enclosure of the same type, lying among fields
about 1½ miles to the south-south-east of Korla town. It forms a square of about 140 yards near
the south-east corner of which the remains of stamped clay walls are still recognizable. Elsewhere
they have decayed into mere earth-mounds now partly occupied by farm dwellings. 'Shāh Kalandar
town', the third köne-shahr, lies about 3½ miles to the south-west from Korla, also amidst cultivation
and close to a stream fed by springs. It is enclosed by much-decayed circular walls of earth, about
510 yards in circumference and measuring 30 to 40 feet across at their base. They rise 12 to 15
feet above the level of the interior, which contains a mound in the centre but is elsewhere marsh
ground. On the north-west a much-frequented Muhammadan shrine adjoins the circumvallation,
which by its shape suggests antiquity.

Local re-
ports of
ruined town.

The satisfaction I felt at having once more reached the vicinity of the Taklamakān, my own
favourite working-ground, acted as a special inducement for testing the persistent reports about an
'old town' which Korla people declared that they had seen, half-buried amidst the dunes in the
desert south-westwards. Such information about this local kötek-shahri as had reached us while at
'Ming-oi' from the fear-bound tongues of Korla labourers had sounded rather vague and romantic.
It assumed, however, a more substantial form when Tāhir Bēg, whom the prefect of Kara-shahr had
deputed to act as my local factotum, avowed knowledge of this 'old town'. His own cousin Mūsā,
the 'Hāji', a well-to-do farmer from the village of Tazken, he declared, had some five years before
come upon the ruins, while on a hunting expedition, in the desert west of the Konche-daryā. When
subsequently the discoverer himself was produced at Korla, he described the place he had seen as
a small ruined fort with a conspicuous gate. The details he gave seemed matter of fact and at
any rate to agree in essential points with the previously communicated report. Mūsā Hāji averred
that he had not seen the ruins again since a big dust-storm immediately after the discovery had pre-
vented return, but was prepared to guide me to the site. His statement appeared circumstantial
enough to deserve to be followed up on the spot, especially as the existence of some ruined gumbaz,
or domed structures, in the belt of riverine jungle near the Inchike-daryā was attested independently
by several Korla people, and had also been reported to Dr. Hedin on his way from Shahyār to
Korla in 1896.⁹