Section 5 –
The Kingdom of Xiye 西夜 (modern
Karghalik or Yecheng)
1. Xiye
西夜
[Hsi-yeh]
= Karghalik. Chavannes (1903), 397, n. 4, (1905), 554, n. 5, and (1907), n. 3,
identifies this kingdom with modern Yularik, south of Yarkand. However, the
directions given in the Hanshu and the population figures given in the
Hou Hanshu make it almost certain that it represents modern Karghalik, as
Aurel Stein first pointed out:
“.... we are
necessarily led to identify Hsi-yeh as Karghalik ; for only on the assumption
that this great oasis is meant can we account for the striking difference in
population which the notice of the Later Han Annals indicates by stating the
number of households as 2,500 at Hsi-yeh and only 350 at Tzu-ho. The proportion
is about the same as a modern census would be likely to reveal between the oasis
of Karghalik proper and the Beg-ship comprising Kök-yar, Yül-arik and
Ushak-bashi. The identification of Hsi-yeh with Karghalik is in striking
agreement with the statement in the Ch’ien Han shu that Hsi-yeh joined
P’i-shan on the east and So-ch’ê on the north ; for Guma and Yarkand are the
neighbours on these sides exactly as here represented.” See Stein (1921a), pp.
86-87.
My only qualification to Stein’s analysis is that he locates Zihe
子合
[Tzu-ho]
too close to Kharghalik. This was partly because he was unaware of the true
length of the Han li. He estimated it to be about 1/5 of a mile or about
322 metres (ibid. p. 735), instead of the 415.8 metres we now know it to
have been (see my Introduction under ‘Measurements’). But, even using these
figures, the text would place Zihe some 322 km from Kashgar – a figure
impossible to reconcile with his placement of Zihe not far south of Karghalik,
around Kokyar (which is only about 50 km south of Karghalik), and the tiny oasis
of Yularik, about 10 km. further east. Kokyar lies on the winter route (zamistani) between Yarkand and the
Karakoram Pass. See von Le Coq (1928), p. 153.
The text, however, states that it was in a gorge, some 1,000 li,
or about 416 km from Kashgar. This would place it just about exactly at modern
Shahidulla (or Xaidulla – Pinyin: Saitula), a strategically important centre on
the way to the Karakoram Passes on the main route south to Ladakh. This shortcut
to India via Ladakh was in regular use until the Chinese closed the borders soon
after the Communist victory in 1949.
The main obstacle on the route was the high and dangerous Karakoram Pass
(5,575 m. or 18,291 ft). Caravans would often rest and graze their animals in
the fertile valley near Shahidulla until conditions were favourable to cross the
less rigorous Sanju Pass also called the “Suget Pass’ (5,364 m. or 17,598 ft.)
and then the notorious Karakoram.
Shahidulla controlled the route north across the Sanju Pass from where
one could head northwest to Pishan and Yarkand or northeast towards Khotan.
Although the Suget is a difficult pass, it is possible to take laden yaks across
it:
“On the 5th of November, after
passing through the gorge of the Karakash River, at the foot of the walls of the
fortlet of Shaidullah, built by the Kashmirians and long since abandoned by
them, we came at Toghrusu, into the midst of the gay tumult of a Kirghiz
wedding….XishanchengOn the 7th, we
left the Karakash Daria, the valley of which is impracticable in the downward
direction, and began to ascend the gorge of one of its affluents which runs down
from the Sanju Pass. Imagine an exceedingly narrow gorge, whimsically tortuous,
deeply confined within tall peaked rocks, bare and strangely hewn and slashed
and the whole gorge obstructed by flint rubbish. On reaching the end of this
gorge, we found ourselves as though at the bottom of a well. With the assistance
of some Kirghiz oxen, we scaled one of the walls of the well and thus reached
the summit of the Sanju Pass, which is at a height of 16,800 feet. From there,
according as one turns to the north or the south, the view offers a striking
contrast. In the south is a monstrous chaos of gigantic snow mountains and
dazzling glaciers, which the rays of the sun sometimes cause to look like great
blue lakes slumbering amid a polar whiteness ; in the north, a few brown hills,
beyond which stretches something like a vast ocean wrapped in a shroud of grey
mist : this is the Kashgarian plain and its atmosphere laden with dust.XishanchengThe ascent of the pass was not
easy, but the descent was worse. The slope is so steep that, in a league of
horizontal projection, one descends 1,880 metres and, for a distance of 800
metres, the slope, at 45 degrees, is covered with a thick layer of ice. The yaks
are really wonderful animals which, descending a mountain like this, carry over
two hundred pounds on their backs without stumbling. Our horses, although
carrying no burden, did three-fourths of the road in some other way than on
their feet : one of them slipped so badly that it was hurled to the bottom of
the valley and broke its spine….XishanchengFrom the foot of the pass, one follows a deep, grassy valley, here and
there meeting the round tents of Kirghiz herdsmen. Little by little, the
mountains grow lower, the valley wider, the grass disappears, the sand shows
itself and one sees, between two dusky hills, the trees of the oasis of Sanju.
Here there are some thousand houses, scattered on every side, and a considerable
amount of ground under cultivation ; and it is easy for the traveller to procure
all that he wants provided that his wants are modest.” Grenard (1904), pp.
28-30.
Notes on Sanju Pass adapted from :
Merzliakova (2003):
“The Pass leads to Shahidula. The uplift starts in the valley of Chibra.” “The
uplift is not steep, but the terrain is rocky without any vegetation, covered
with snow in some places. It is practicable for laden animals. The way down the
Pass is steep into the deep and narrow valley.” “The ancient Lekh [sic] trade
route lead over the Pass toward Kargalyk between India and China through
Karakorum, Chuchu-Dawan, Sasser...”
Shahidulla also controlled access to a lesser-known route which headed
west, eventually passing by a settlement called Mazar and then through the
Shimshal Valley and over the Shimshal Pass into the upper Hunza Valley. This
provided an alternative to the route through Tashkurghan and Wakhan into
northern Hunza and would have been shorter and more convenient for travellers
coming from the east.
Notes on the
Shimshal Pass adapted from Merzliakova (2003): “Height: 4735 m [or 15,535 ft.]. [From another
source]: 4420 m [or 14,501 ft.]. “The route is not very difficult, it is
practicable for ponies, but goes along the precipice in 800 m over the river....
The Pass is not under permanent snow. In winter the route to the Pass goes along
the river Khunza, but in summer there is no road at all, because it is flooded.
According to Younghusband the Pass is used in summer. [At present]: "There is an overgrazed high pasture around the
Pass. The women of Shimshal graze here about 1000 yaks and 3000 sheeps and goats
in July and August.” “There is a collection
of shepherds huts in one mile from summit. There are also two small
lakes.”
In the 19th and early 20th century this route was closed as it was the
base of a band of notorious robbers who used to prey on the caravans travelling
between India and the Tarim Basin over the Karakoram Pass. See the chapter on
“The Raiders’ Stronghold,” in Younghusband (1924) pp. 127-141.
There is one additional piece of supporting evidence, however, that Zihe
was in the region of modern Shahidulla. The Hanshu remarks that “the soil
of Tzu-ho produces jade-stone.” CICA, p. 101. This is of particular
interest for, in 1868, Robert Shaw, a British trader based in India, set out on
a journey from Ladakh to Yarkand. On his way, not far from Shahidullah, on the
upper courses of the Karakash river, he passed a group of stone huts:
“We found
out afterwards that this valley had formerly been frequented by the Chinese, who
obtained jade from hence. This industry is now extinct, as the Mussulmans of
Toorkistân have no taste for ornaments of this stone. A line in the Chinese
‘Thousand Character Classic,’ enumerating various productions, says, “Jade comes
from the Kuen-lun Mountains” (which are those in question). I am indebted to Mr.
Aston, of the India Museum, for this quotation.” Shaw (1871), p. 98, n. 1.
I suspect
that Mazar (approx. 77o 0’E, 36o 26’N –
about 90 km
west of Shahidulla) was the site of the tiny ‘kingdom’ of Dere mentioned in the
text after Zihe (Shahidulla) but, unfortunately, there is not enough information
given to locate it with confidence – see note 7.1 below.
Mazar, like Shahidulla, was of strategic importance. It was at the
junction of the route via the Shimshal Valley to Hunza, and another route which
led directly north to Kokyar and Karghalik and then either northwest to Yarkand
and Kashgar, or southeast to Pishan and Khotan. Note that the name ‘Mazar’
refers to a shrine of a Muslim saint. It is commonly also applied to communities
neighbouring such a shrine, for example: the famous city of Mazar-e-Sharif
(‘Tomb of the Saint’) in northern Afghanistan, named after the reputed discovery
there of the tomb of Caliph ‘Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed.
2.
Piaosha 漂沙 [P’iao-sha]
translates literally as: ‘Drifting Sands.’ Chavannes (1907), p. 174, gives
Lu-sha, but this is a mistake copied from the T’u-shu-chi-ch‘eng,
Shanghai edition. All earlier editions give Piao-sha, as Pelliot notes
(1963), p. 880. However, Pelliot takes the form Qusha 渠沙
[Ch’ü-sha](=
‘Large Sands’ or ‘Spacious Sands’) as given in the Weilue as primary, for
he sees the Hou Hanshu owing much to the Weilue. This, however, is
very speculative. I think it is probably safer to accept the name as given in
the Hou Hanshu, as it was presumably based directly on the report of
General Ban Yong to Emperor An in 125 CE.
3.
Baicao 白草 [pei-ts’ao], literally,
‘white grass’ or ‘white herb.’ It is identified in CICA, p. 85, n. 89 as
being either the common bittersweet or woody nightshade (Solanium
dulcamara L.), or the creeper Ampelopsis serianaefolia, “identified
by the Japanese as the sorrel vine.” However, I can find no evidence that either
of these plants has ever been used to make arrow poison, although the woody
nightshade is, of course, poisonous.
“ACONITUM :– Ts’ao-w’u-t’ou 草烏頭
[Caowutou or Ts’ao-wu-tou] : – These
are the mixed tuberous roots of more than one highly poisonous species of
aconite, brought from Kiangnan and Chêkiang, and formerly used to poison arrows
for military and hunting purposes. The addition of the character tsao to the generic term wu-t’u is partly explained by the fact
that the plant, which may be the Aconitum
ferox, grows wild, or from portions of the stem or rootstock being generally
attached to the roots. The specimens vary a good deal, being sometimes ovoid,
oblong and tapering to a point, or bifid or even rounded at the extremities.
They vary from three-quarters of an inch, to one inch and a-half in length, are
covered with a smoothish or wrinkled, dark cuticle, and are very frequently
worm-eaten. Internally, they are whitish and starchy, have very little, if any,
colour, but the taste is very acrid and benumbing. Liautung is said to yield the
plant, from which a very powerful sun-dried extract is said to be prepared. The
deadly properties of this preparation have been confirmed by Dr. Cristison. A
country west of China is said to prepare an arrow poison from a species of
Aconite called Tu-po-ts’ao, 獨白草
:– All the drugs above mentioned, as obtained from certain species of aconite,
are only used in medical practice after they have been prepared in various ways,
so as to diminish the poisonous of medicinal properties of the plants. Ch’uun-wu-t’u, is not used as a medicine
here, although it is mentioned in the Pen-Ts’ao, but according to Hanbury, the
powdered root is employed as a means of producing local anaesthesia, when mixed
with Ts’ao-wu-t’u, and the flowers of
the Azalea or Hyoscyamus. Stimulant, diaphoretic, arthritic, sedative,
expectorant, deobstruent, alterative and diuretic properties are attributed to
Fu-tz’ŭ, Tien-hiung, and Fu-p’ien. They are accordingly used in
fevers, ague, apoplexy, rheumatism, leprosy, neuralgia, headache, dysuria,
dropsy, cholera, and dysmenorrhoea. Some of the uses are identical with those of
the Aconitum hetrophyllum of the Indian Pharmacopoeia. (See Wolfsbane)” Mesny ( 1905), pp.
32-33.
Aconite species (also known in English as ‘monkshood’ or ‘wolfsbane’)
that are commonly found across Europe and Asia. They are known to have been used
as arrow poisons right up until modern times amongst the Ainu in northern Japan,
and the Minaro in Ladakh (Peissel, Michel, 1984: 99-100). They were also used as
a poison in the region of Lake Issyk-kol in modern Kyrgyzstan. St. George
(1974), pp. 167, 170.
The Chinese were quick to make use of their knowledge of arrow poison. We
find in the Biography of Geng Gong in Chapter 49 of the Hou Hanshu that
in 75 CE:
“The Xiongnu
then conquered and killed Ande, the king of the Further Tribe. Then they
attacked the town of Qinpu (near Guchen). (Geng) Gong climbed onto the ramparts,
and led his soldiers into battle. He coated his arrows with a poison, and spread
the rumour among the Xiongnu that the Han had sacred arrows, and the wounds of
those who were hit would certainly be extraordinary. Then he used powerful
crossbows to shoot these arrows. The barbarians who were hit noticed that their
wounds were all frothing up. They were very frightened then.
At this moment, a hurricane of wind
and rain broke loose. (Geng Gong and the others) took advantage of the rain to
attack the enemy. They killed and wounded a very large number. The terrified
Xiongnu said to each other: “The Han soldiers are supernatural. Truly they are
to be feared.” They disbanded then and retreated.” Adapted from the French
translation of Édouard Chavannes (1906), pp. 226-227.
The
baicao of the Hou Hanshu must surely refer to one of the wild
species of aconite which were used to prepare arrow poisons and are reported as
being abundant in the mountains surrounding the Tarim Basin. The following
Chinese account from the 17th century briefly describes how they were prepared:
“In making
poison arrows for shooting wild beasts, the tubers of wild aconitum are
boiled in water. The resulting liquid, being highly viscous and poisonous, is
smeared on the sharp edges of arrowheads. These treated arrowheads are effective
in the quick killing of both human beings and animals, even though the victim
may shed only a trace of blood.” Sung (1637), p. 267.
See also
note 19.3 below.
4. For a translation of this passage from the Hanshu see CICA, pp. 100-101.