The Silk Road: A New History (48 page)

Craig G .R. Benjamin surveys the evidence (the author does not read Chinese but is familiar with the extensive Russian-language literature about archeology) and notes that no archeological evidence indicates a migration out of Xinjiang and then back again.
The Yuezhi: Origin, Migration and the Conquest of Northern Bactria
(Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007). Anyone interested in this problem should start with Thierry’s article and Benjamin’s book, both of which survey the extensive secondary literature on this question.

20.
For a brief description of Stein’s Fourth Expedition, see Mirsky,
Sir Aurel Stein
, 466–69. Professor Wang Jiqing of Lanzhou University has thoroughly studied the photographs Stein took, his correspondence about the confiscated artifacts, and the significance of the artifacts. He has one article in English: “Photographs in the British Library of Documents and Manuscripts from Sir Aurel Stein’s Fourth Central Asian Expedition,”
British Library Journal
24, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 23–74. It is a shorter version of his book
Sitanyin di sici Zhongguo kaogu riji kaoshi: Yingguo Niujin daxue cang Sitanyin di sici Zhongya kaocha lüxing riji shougao zhengli yanjiu baogao
[An examination of Stein’s archeological diary in China on the Fourth Expedition: A study and reorganization of Stein’s handwritten diary on the Fourth Expedition held by Oxford University] (Lanzhou, China: Gansu Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 2004).

21.
Mirsky,
Sir Aurel Stein,
469, citing Stein’s letter of February 3, 1931, to Percy Stafford Allen in the Bodleian Library.

22.
Enoki Kazuo, “Location of the Capital of Lou-lan and the Date of the Kharoṣṭhī Inscriptions,”
Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko
22 (1963): 129n12; Hulsewé,
China in Central Asia,
10–11.

23.
Ban,
Han shu
, 96A:3875–81; Yu Taishan,
Xiyu zhuan
, 79–93; translated in Hulsewé,
China in Central Asia
, 7–94.

24.
The length of the
li
varied over time and space; during the Han dynasty, it was approximately 400 meters.
Cambridge History of China
, vol. 1,
The Ch’in and Han Empires, 221 B.C.–A.D. 220,
ed. Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986), xxxviii, gives the length of the
li
as .415 km and notes, “In certain contexts, the term
li
is used rhetorically rather than as a precise indication of distance.”

25.
Hulsewé,
China in Central Asia
, 29. The characters cannot be read from the photograph in Stein’s account. Chinese scholars read the seal as “zhao Shanshan wang”—the edict of the king of Shanshan. Meng Fanren,
Loulan Shanshan jiandu niandaixue yanjiu
[Studies and researches into the dates of bamboo slips and documents from Shanshan and Loulan] (Urumqi, China: Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1995), 261, no. 625, N.xv.345. Stein also found a seal that read “Shanshan junyin” (the seal of the Shanshan prefecture):
Ancient Khotan
, N.xxiv.iii.74.

26.
Aurel Stein,
Serindia: Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1921), 1:219; 1:415 (Rapson’s identification of Loulan as Kroraina); 1:217–81, 3: plate 9 (House 14); 1:227 (discovery by Rustam); 1:226 (size of house 24); 1:530 (painting at M5).

27.
Brough, “Comments on Third-Century Shan-shan,” 591–92.

28.
Ban,
Han shu,
96A:3878–79; Yu Taishan,
Xiyu zhuan
, 84–86; Hulsewé,
China in Central Asia
, 89–91; Brough, “Comments on Third-Century Shan-shan,” 601.

29.
Helen Wang,
Money on the Silk Road,
25–26, alerted me to this find; Aurel Stein,
Innermost Asia: Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Irān
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1928), 287–92, describes it in detail.

30.
Of the original 211 coins, fifty are now in London; they are dated between 86 to 1
BCE,
putting the date of the earliest
wuzhu
coins in modern Xinjiang before the beginning of the Common Era. Helen Wang,
Money on the Silk Road,
295–96.

31.
Stein,
Innermost Asia,
290.

32.
Documents excavated from Juyan (Ejina Banner, Inner Mongolia, 90 km northeast of Jinta County, Gansu) and Shule (near Dunhuang and Jiuquan, Gansu) confirm the significant presence of the Chinese military during the Han dynasty. Documents recording large expenditures of over 100,000 coins date to between 140
BCE
and 32
CE.
Individual soldiers were paid in coin, and they made purchases, often of clothing, using coins advanced to them by the garrison. Helen Wang,
Money on the Silk Road,
47–56, provides extensive, detailed analysis of these materials.

33.
Mariner Ezra Padwa has analyzed each house at Niya: “An Archaic Fabric: Culture and Landscape in an Early Inner Asian Oasis (3rd–4th century C.E. Niya)” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2007).

34.
The jade is called
langgan
and
meigui.
Unfortunately, the tags were not dated, but the characters were written so skillfully in clerical script that the great Sinologist Wang Guowei (1877–1927) believed that they had to date to sometime after 75
CE
but before the end of the Han dynasty in 220
CE.
Guantang jilin
[Collected writings from the Guan studio] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1959), 833–34.

Édouard Chavannes thought that they were contemporary with other materials from the site and dated them to the third and fourth centuries:
Les documents chinois découverts
par Aurel Stein dans les sables de Turkestan oriental
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1913), 199–200. The most up-to-date transcription is in Meng Fanren,
Loulan Shanshan jiandu,
269–71.

35.
N.xiv.iii; Meng Fanren,
Loulan Shanshan jiandu,
269, no. 668.

36.
N.xiv.ii.6, N.xiv.ii.19, N.xiv.ii.12.8; discussed in Wang Jiqing, “Sitanyin di sici Zhongya kaocha suohuo Hanwen wenshu” [The Chinese-language documents Stein obtained on the Fourth Central Asia Expedition],
Dunhuang Tulufan Yanjiu
3 (1998): 286.

37.
N.xiv.ii.1; discussed in Wang Jiqing, “Hanwen wenshu,” 264.

38.
Meng Fanren,
Loulan Shanshan jiandu
, 262, no. 627 (N.xv.109), no. 628 (N.xv.353), no. 629 (N.xv.314); 264, no. 639 (N.xv.152); discussed in Cheng Xilin,
Tang-dai guosuo yanjiu
[Research on the
guosuo
travel pass system of the Tang dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2000), 39–44; Wang Binghua,
Jingjue chunqiu: Niya kaogu da faxian
[History of the Jingjue Kingdom: The great archeological discovery at Niya] (Shanghai: Zhejiang Wenyi Chubanshe, 2003), 101.

39.
Stein,
Innermost Asia
, 288, 743. J .P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair’s
Tarim Mummies
provides the best survey of these finds in English.

40.
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Bowuguan Kaogudui, “Xinjiang Minfeng da shamo zhong de gudai yizhi” [Ancient remains in the Taklamakan Desert near Minfeng County [Niya Site], Xinjiang],
Kaogu
1961, no. 3: 119–22, 126, plates 1–3. At the time, the Xinjiang Museum and Archaeological Institute—now two separate institutions—formed a single unit called the Xinjiang Museum Archaeological Team (Xinjiang Bowuguan Kaogudui).

41.
Shown in Ma Chengyuan and Yue Feng,
Xinjiang Weiwuer zizhiqu Silu kaogu zhenpin/Archaeological Treasures of the Silk Road in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
(Shanghai: Shanghai Yiwen Chubanshe, 1998), 273, figure 62.

42.
Éric Trombert, “Une trajectoire d’ouest en est sur la route de la soie: La diffusion du cotton dans l’Asie centrale sinisée,” in
La Persia e l’Asia Centrale: Da Alessandro al X secolo
(Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1996), 212nn25 and n27; Li Fang, ed.,
Taiping yulan
[Imperially reviewed encyclopedia of the Taiping Tianguo reign] (Beijing: Zhongghua Shuju, 1960), 820:3652–53, entry for “baidie” (cotton).

43.
The textile inscription in Chinese reads: “
yannian yishou yi zisun
.” The mirror reads: “
jun yi gaoguan
.” “1960 Xinjiang Minfeng xian bei da shamo zhong gu yizhi muzang qu Dong Han hezang mu qingli jianbao” [A brief report on the investigation of a joint Eastern Han burial in the burial ground of the ancient site in the middle of the great desert to the north of Minfeng county, Xinjiang],
Wenwu
1960, no. 6: 9–12, plates 5–6.

44.
The Chinese text reads “
wanghou hehun qianqiu wansui yi zisun.” Xinjiang wenwu guji daguan
[A survey of artifacts and ruins in Xinjiang] (Urumqi, China: Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1999), figure 0118. For further analysis of the textiles in tombs M3 and M8, see Wang Binghua,
Jingjue chunqiu
, 111–20.

45.
Fan,
Hou Han shu
, 88:2909; Yu Taishan,
Xiyu zhuan
, 233.

46.
When Stein excavated the Yingpan site on his Third Expedition, he found some Kharoshthi documents, indicating that the site was occupied in the third and fourth centuries (
Innermost Asia
, 749–61). For a more recent find of additional Kharoshthi materials, see Lin Meicun, “Xinjiang Yinpan gumu chutu de yifeng Quluwen shuxin” [A letter in Kharoṣṭhī unearthed in an ancient tomb at Yingpan in Xinjiang],
Xiyu Yanjiu
2001, no. 3: 44–45.

47.
Zhou Xuejun and Song Weimin, eds.,
Silu kaogu zhenpin: Archaeological Treasures of the Silk Road in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
(Shanghai: Shanghai Yiwen Chubanshe, 1998), 63–74, figure 132 (photo of deceased), figure 133 (detail of face mask), figure 134 (detail of red textile).

48.
Wang Binghua, personal communication, fall 2005; Ban,
Han shu
, 96B:3912; Yu Taishan,
Xiyu zhuan
, 201.

49.
Hu Pingsheng,
Hu Pingsheng jiandu wenwu lunji
[Collected essays on letters and artifacts by Hu Pingsheng] (Taibei: Lantai Chubanshe, 2000), 190–92.

50.
Hou Can and Yang Daixin,
Loulan Hanwen jianzhi wenshu jicheng
[Collected cut paper and documents in Chinese from Loulan] (Chengdu, China: Tiandi Chubanshe, 1999).

51.
Itō Toshio, “Gi-Shinki Rōran tonju ni okeru kōeki katsudōo megutte” [A look at trading activities occurring in the military colony at Loulan during the Wei and Jin periods], in
Oda Yoshihisa hakushi kanreki kinen: Tōyōshi ronshū
(Kyoto: Ryūkoku Daigaku Tōyōshigaku Kenkyūkai, 1995), 4, 7.

52.
Yü Ying-shih, “Han Foreign Relations,” in Twichett and Loewe,
Cambridge History of China
, 1:405–42; Meng Chi, “Cong Xinjiang lishi wenwu kan Handai zai Xiyu de zhengzhi cuoshi he jingji jianshe” [Looking at Han-dynasty political measures and economic policies in the Western Regions on the basis of historical artifacts from Xinjiang],
Wenwu
1975, no. 5: 27–34.

53.
Itō Toshio, “Gi-Shinki Rōran tonju ni okeru suiri kaihatsu to nōgyō katsudō: Gi-Shinki Rōran tonju no kiso teki seiri (III)” [The development of irrigation and agricultural activity in the military colony at Loulan during the Wei and Jin periods: The basic running of the military colony at Loulan during the Wei and Jin periods, part 3],
Rekishi Kenkyū
28 (1991): 20.

54.
Stein,
Serindia
, 373–74, 432, 701 plate XXXVII.

55.
Itō, “Gi-Shinki Rōran tonju,” presents a careful transcription and study of all these documents.

56.
“Sute hu Loulan,” literally “Sogdian non-Chinese at Loulan.” Chavannes,
Documents chinois
, 886; Hou Can and Yang Daixin,
Loulan Hanwen jianzhi wenshu
, 61–62.

57.
The word for the animals is missing, but the measure word is
pi
, suggesting that the transaction involved horses. The word for the person making the payment is missing, and the identity of the people who receive the payment (
zhuren
) is not clear. While Meng Fanren and Duan Qing think it refers to merchants, Itō argues that the
zhuren
are the long-term Chinese residents of the garrison: “Gi-Shinki Rōran tonju,” 4–5. The document has been published first by August Conrady in
Die chinesischen Handschriften- und sonstigen Kleinfunde Sven Hedins in Lou-lan
(Stockholm: Generalstabens Litografiska Anstalt, 1920), Document no. 46, 124–25; more recently by Hou and Yang,
Loulan Hanwen jianzhi wenshu
, 99.

58.
Vaissière,
Sogdian Traders
, 58; explication of Endere camel purchase, 58.

59.
See chart in Meng Fanren, “Loulan jiandu de niandai” [Dates of documents from Loulan],
Xinjiang Wenwu
1 (1986): 33.

60.
Itō, “Gi-Shinki Rōran tonju,” 22–23.

61.
Brough, “Comments on Third-Century Shan-shan,” 596–602.

62.
The Sino-Japanese expedition found evidence of a king Tomgraka, who ruled before the five kings previously known, and a king Sulica, who ruled after them, from 336–359. Lin Meicun, “Niya xin faxian de Shanshan wang Tonggeluoqie jinian wenshu kao” [A study of a newly discovered Niya document dated to the reign of King Toṃgraka], in
Xiyu kaocha yu yanjiu xubian
(Urumqi, China: Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1998), 39. Various scholars have debated the dates proposed by Brough, with some arguing that the award of the
shizhong
title occurred in a different year. Meng Fanren, the leading Xinjiang archeologist at the Institute of Archaeology in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides a chart of the five kings’ reigns according to four different scholars (Brough, Enoki Kazuo, Nagasawa Kazutoshi, and Ma Yong). The earliest start date for the five reigns is 203; the latest 256. The earliest end date is 290; the latest is 343. Meng prefers 242–332.
Xinjiang kaogu yu shidi lunji
[Treatises on Xinjiang archeology, history, and geography] (Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe, 2000), 115, 117.