came into use), Turkestan, Samarcand, Bactria, Tokhara, and India. More distinctly separate embassies from the West came to China during this period than had ever come before, or have ever come since; but they were trading caravans or missionary bodies; there was no fighting, and but little of active politics.[1] In 439 the North China mission returning from India and Ki-pin with their escorts happened to meet near Lob Nor, where they were able to render valuable assistance to the ruler of that region, at the moment threatened by the civilised Scythians ruling at Liang Chou.[2] The history of the North China Tartar-governed empire known as the Wei Shu, and the Pei Shï, a work of the sixth century, treating of the period from 300 to 580,[3] tell us that in the year 507 K'a-pi-sha (Kapiça) sent complimentary envoys to China along with those of Kashgar, Samarcand, and other neighbouring states. The same history states that in 451, 453, 502, 508, and 517 Ki-pin sent similar envoys; also that in 511 Gandhâra, S'râvasti, K'a-shï-mih (Cashmere), and Pu-liu-sha (Purusapura, or Peshawur) sent missions. These exact dates prove that, so far as the Chinese historiographers knew or officially admitted, Kapiça and Cashmere, both new names to them, existed as states alongside of Ki-pin; and that Ki-pin, however much reduced by Indo-Scythian encroachments, undoubtedly existed as a separate state after its fall, just as after the collapse of Parthia, or Arsac, as the Chinese call it, a petty remnant of the old Arsac state continued to exist at or near Bokhara.[4]
The history of this Tartar dynasty (the Toba family) tells us little new of Ki-pin, and merely repeats the old descriptions of the Han dynasty given above. It adds, however—what is important in estimating topographical positions—that Ki-pin was surrounded by mountains, and that it was 300 li (100 miles) north and south by 800 li east and west in extent. In 520 the Chinese pilgrim Sung Yũn, after visiting Udyâna, proceeded to Gandhâra, whose king he found at war with Ki-pin, on the left bank of the Indus, elephants being employed in the war. Sung Yün does not mention Kapiça or Cashmere by those names.[5] Since Kápishi
- ↑ It is interesting to know that Kao-fu now bore a new Indian name, 'Yem-fu Ngai,' i.e. Djambu? Ge.
- ↑ Dr. Legge (Fah Hien's Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, ch. 4–8, Oxford, 1886) gives us an account of this strongly Buddhistic country forty years before this event. He also tells us how his Chinese pilgrim, leaving Khoten, directed his steps towards Ki-pin viâ Khargalik, Tashkurgan, and Iskardo (?), thence via Udyâna and Su-ho-to (Swât?) to Gandhâra.
- ↑ See chapters 102, 97.
- ↑ In like manner the Kushans were still called by the old name, Yüeh-chï; and the newer Kushans or Ephthalites were also alternatively called Eptal and Yüeh-chĩ until the Turks broke them up.
- ↑ Chavannes's Voyage de Song Yun (Hanoï, 1903). Chavannes's Turcs Occidentaux (Imperial Russian Academy, 1903) contains many critical observations on the comparative Chinese statements about most of the important pilgrims.
