Buddhist records of the Western world (Xuanzang)
by Samuel Beal | 1884 | 224,928 words | ISBN-10: 8120811070
This is the English translation of the travel records of Xuanzang (or, Hiuen Tsiang): a Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled to India during the seventh century. This book recounts his documents his visit to India and neighboring countries, and reflects the condition of those countries during his time, including temples, culture, traditions and fest...
Chapter 16 - Country of Ki-shwang-na (Kesh)
Note: Hwui-lih also gives Ki-shwang-na as the name of this country (conf. V. St. Martin, Mémoire, p. 283, n. 3.
This kingdom is about 1400 or 1500 li in circuit; in customs and produce it resembles the kingdom of Sa-mo-kien.
From this place going south-west 200 li or so, we enter the mountains; the mountain road is steep and precipitous, and the passage along the defiles dangerous and difficult. There are no people or villages, and little water or vegetation. Going along the mountains 300 li or so south-east, we enter the Iron Gates.[1] The pass so called is bordered on the right and left by mountains. These mountains are of prodigious height. The road is narrow, which adds to the difficulty and danger. On both sides there is a rocky wall of an iron colour. Here there are set up double wooden doors, strengthened with iron and furnished with many bells hung up. Because of the protection afforded to the pass by these doors, when closed, the name of iron gates is given.
Passing through the Iron Gates we arrive at the country of the Tu-ho-lo.[2] This country, from north to south, is about 1000 li or so in extent, from east to west 3000 li or so. On the east it is bounded by the T'sung-ling mountains, on the west it touches on Po-li-sse (Persia), on the south are the great Snowy Mountains. on the north the Iron Gates.[3] The great river Oxus flows through the midst of this country in a westerly direction. For many centuries past the royal race has been extinct. The several chieftains have by force contended for their possessions, and each held their own independently, only relying upon the natural divisions of the country. Thus they have constituted twenty-seven states,[4] divided by natural boundaries, yet as a whole dependent on the Tuh-kiueh tribes (Turks). The climate of this country is warm and damp, and consequently epidemics prevail.
At the end of winter and the beginning of spring rain falls without intermission; therefore from the south of this country, and to the north of Lamghān (Lān-po), diseases from moisture (moist-heat) are common. Hence the priests retire to their rest (rain-rest) on the sixteenth day of the twelfth month, and give up their retirement on the fifteenth day of the third month. This is in consequence of the quantity of rain, and they arrange their instructions accordingly. With regard to the character of the people, it is mean and cowardly;[5] their appearance is low and rustic. Their knowledge of good faith and rectitude extends so far as relates to their dealings one with another. Their language differs somewhat from that of other countries. The number of radical letters in their language is twenty-five; by combining these they express all objects (things) around them. Their writing is across the page, and they read from left to right. Their literary records have increased gradually, and exceed those of the people of Su-li. Most of the people use fine cotton for their dress; some use wool. In commercial transactions they use gold and silver alike. The coins are different in pattern from those of other countries.
Following the course of the Oxus as it flows down from the north, there is the country of Ta-mi.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
The iron gates, Kohlūgha or Kalugah (Mong. "a barrier"), a mountain pass about 90 miles south-south-east from Samarkand, 50 miles south-south-east from Kesh, and 8 miles west of Derbent, in lat. 38°11' N., long. 66°54' E. The distance and bearing from Kesh given in the text is south-west 200 li + south-east 300 li, which would give about the right distance in a straight line. These Iron Gates are marked on the Chinese maps; they are called tieh men to, i. e., the iron-gate-island (or eminence) from which the Muh-ho (Amu) flows. There has been some confusion between this place and the iron gates at Derbend on the Caspian, called by the Turks Demīr Kāpi; compare Yule's Marco Polo (book i. cap. iv.), vol. i. pp. 52 and notes, pp. 55-58; and vol. ii. pp. 494, 495, 537. M. V. de St. Martin (Mémoire, p. 284) says that the pilgrim "indicates the beginning of the mountains at 200 li to the south-east of Ki-shwang-na, and the defile properly so called at 300 li farther on, in the same direction." But this is not so; the first bearing is south-west, then through the mountains in a south-east direction. For a notice of the Irongate pass, in connection with Chenghiz Khān, see Douglas, u. s., p. 66. Conf. Baber's Mem., pp. xxxvi. 132; Gaubil, Hist. de Gentchiscan, p. 257; P. de la Croix, Hist. de Timurbec, tom. i. pp. 33, 62, etc..; édrisi, tom. i. p. 484; Wood's Oxus, Yule's int., p. lxi.; Markham's Cla. vijo, p. 122; Bretschneider, Chin. Med. Trav., p. 41 and n.; Med. Geog., p.61.
[2]:
Formerly written by mistake To-fo-lo.
[3]:
The country here described as Tu-ho-lo is the Tukhāra of Sanskrit, and the Tokhāristān of the Arabian geographers. It corresponds with the Ta-hia of Sze-ma-t'sien. Ta-hia is generally identified with Baktria, but the limits of Baktria are not defined, except that it is separated from Sogdhiana by the Oxus. No doubt this land of Tukhāra was that inhabited by the Tokhari, who were neighbours to the Dahæ, both of them mountain tribes (see the question discussed Jour. R. As. Soc., N.S., vol. vi. pp. 95, 96). Mr. Kingsmill has given the substance of Sze-ma-t'sien's account of Ta-hia and the sorrounding tribes (Jour. R. As. Soc., N.S., vol. xiv. pp. 77 ff). It is to be observed, however, that Hiuen Tsiang, when speaking of the Turks, i. e., the Yueh-chi and Ye-tha, who had overrun this part of Central Asia, uses different symbols from those employed here. In the first case the people are called Tuh-kiueh; in this case the country is called Tu-ho-lo. The land of the Tokhāri (Tokhāristān) need not be connected with the people called Tuh-kiueh—the Hiung-nū or Karanirūs—although it was afterwards overrun by them. See n. 62 supra. For notices of the Tokhāri (v. l. Takhari) consult Strabo, Geog., lib. xi. cap. 8. 2 (p. 511); Pliny, lib. vi. c. 17, 20; Amm. Marcell., xxiii. 6, 57; Ptol., Geog., lib. vi. c. 11, 6; Justin, xlii. 2; Lassen, Ind. Alt. (2d ed.), vol. i. pp. 1019, 1023; Ritter, Asien, vol. v. p. 701, vii. p. 697; Jour. R. As. Soc., vol. xix. p. 151; Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. iv. pp. 45, 46; Bretschneider, Med. Geog., p. 170. Tushāra (snowy, frigid) and Tushkāra are used as equivalents of Tukhāra; Wilson, Vishṇu Pur. (Hall), vol. ii. p. 186, vol. iv. p. 203; Mahābhārata, ii. 1850, iii. 1991, 12, 350, vi. 3652; Harivaṃśa, v. 311, xiv. 784, cxiii. 6441; Bṛhat Saṃhitā, xiv. 22, xvi. 6; Jour. R. Geog. Soc., vol. xlii. p. 498. Tu-ho-lo might phonetically represent Tūr, and so indicate the origin of Turān, the region to which Wilford assigned the Tukhāras.
[4]:
So also the Greeks when they took possession of Baktria divided it into satrapies, two of which, Aspionia and Turiva, the Parthians wrested from Eukratides.—Strabo, lib. xi. c. 11, 2 (p. 517). The numerous coins belonging to the Greek period in Baktria probably relate to these satrapies, and not to an undivided Baktrian kingdom. See Ariana Antiqua, p. 160.
[5]:
So Sze-ma-t'sien describes the people of Ta-hia: "There was no supreme ruler; each city and town elected its own chief. Its soldiers were weak and cowards in battle, fit only for traders." (Kingsmill, loc. cit.)