The Silk Road: A New History (51 page)

72.
Trombert,
Les manuscrits chinois de Koutcha
, nos. 28–30, no. 5.

73.
Trombert,
Les manuscrits chinois de Koutcha
, no. 21 (reciting sutras), no. 6 (woman writing letters), no. 19 (size of plots in an agricultural colony), no. 125 (Daoist banners), no. 117 (evaluation of an official’s performance).

74.
Trombert,
Les manuscrits chinois de Koutcha
, 35.

75.
Trombert,
Les manuscrits chinois de Koutcha
, no. 121, no. 131.

76.
Trombert,
Les manuscrits chinois de Koutcha
, no. 114 (steel), no. 129 (cloth; the reading of “1,000 feet” is tentative); no. 108 (payments to officials).

77.
Trombert,
Les manuscrits chinois de Koutcha
, no. 41. Trombert explains (
p. 35
) that
xingke
appears to denote those attached to a mobile military unit (
xingke ying
), not the long-distance merchants indicated by the term
yuanxing shangke
in Dunhuang and Turfan documents.

78.
Trombert,
Les manuscrits chinois de Koutcha
, no. 121, no. 220, no. 77 (possibly), no. 112.

79.
Trombert,
Les manuscrits chinois de Koutcha
, no. 20, no. 93 (exemptions from labor obligations), no. 24 (list of debtors).

80.
Helen Wang,
Money on the Silk Road
, 85–87, analyzes these;
p. 87
presents a helpful table giving the dates and the amount of coins in each translation. Yamamoto Tatsuro and Ikeda On,
Tun-huang and Turfan Documents Concerning Social and Economic History
, vol. 3,
Contracts
(Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 1987), 74–76, transcribes the contracts.

81.
See Hansen, “Place of Coins and their Alternatives,” for a discussion of the scholarly literature on this topic.

82.
Thierry, “Tang Coins Collected by Pelliot,” 151.

83.
Trombert,
Les manuscrits chinois de Koutcha
, 35.

CHAPTER 3

My thanks to all the members of “The Silk Road Project: Reuniting Turfan’s Scattered Treasures,” which ran from 1995 to 1998, for providing much information and research guidance since then. The findings of that project appeared in
Asia Major
11, no. 2 (1998),
Orientations
30, no. 4 (1999), and
Dunhuang Tulufan Yanjiu
4 (1999). My paper, “The Place of Coins and Their Alternatives in the Silk Road Trade,” also discusses Turfan.

1.
Yoshida Yutaka, “Appendix: Translation of the Contract for the Purchase of a Slave Girl Found at Turfan and Dated 639,”
T’oung Pao
89 (2003): 159–61.

2.
Although historians disagree about the date of Xuanzang’s departure—627? 629?—Etienne de la Vaissière makes a convincing case for 629: “Note sur la chronologie du voyage de Xuanzang,”
Journal Asiatique
298, no. 1 (2010): 157–68. See also the most detailed modern biography of Xuanzang by Kuwayama Shōshin and Hakamaya Noriaki,
Genjō
[Xuanzang] (Tokyo: Daizō, 1981), 58–82.

3.
Huili composed the first five chapters of the book, which covered the years until 649, when Xuanzang returned to China and was welcomed by the same emperor, Tang Taizong, who had issued the original edict banning foreign travel. Yancong wrote the subsequent five chapters covering the time until Xuanzang’s death in 664. See Huili and Yancong,
Da Tang Da Ci’en si Sanzang fashi zhuan
(Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2000), 11. There are two English translations: Beal’s, with some archaic phrasings and extensive annotation, and Li’s more modern one with no notes. Samuel Beal, trans.,
Life of Hiuen-Tsiang, by the Shaman Hwui Li
(London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1911); Li Rongxi, trans.,
A Biography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Ci’en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty
(Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1995).

Scholars are not certain when either Xuanzang or Huili lived. Alexander Leonhard Mayer has considered the many conflicting sources and, following the account given by Daoxuan in
Xu Gaoseng zhuan
[The lives of eminent monks, continued], concluded that Xuanzang was most likely born in 600 (other possible dates range from 596 to 602). See Alexander Leonhard Mayer and Klaus Röhrborn, eds.,
Xuanzangs Leben und Werk
, vol. 1 (Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1991), 34 (about Huili), 61 (about Xuanzang). Thanks to Friederike Assandri for providing this reference.

4.
Only one brief biography of Xuanzang, in the book
Fodao lunheng
[Balanced discourses on the Buddhist way], specifically says that Xuanzang studied Sanskrit (Kuwayama and Hakamaya,
Genjō
, 43–44).

5.
My account of and subsequent quotations from Xuanzang’s journey are based on Huili and Yancong,
Sanzang fashi zhuan
, 11–29.

6.
Stein calculated the distances as given by Xuanzang using a ratio of 5
li
to the modern mile, a figure that Stein found Xuanzang used throughout his writings. Xuanzang covered the 218 miles (351 km) from Guazhou to Hami in eleven days of walking (“marches”). Using Xuanzang’s account, he drew a map of the route he covered (
p. 268
). Aurel Stein, “The Desert Crossing of Hsüan-Tsang, 630 A.D.,”
Geographical Journal
54 (1919): 265–77.

7.
See the chart by Yoshida Yutaka and Kageyama Etsuko, “Sogdian Names in Chinese Characters,” in
Les Sogdiens en Chine
, ed. Étienne de la Vaissière and Éric Trombert (Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 2005), 305–6.

8.
Aurel Stein found the length of the journey credible because Xuanzang’s four nights and five days corresponded to the five “marches” travelers took in the early twentieth century. He estimated that Xuanzang had walked 106 miles (171 km) before reaching water. Stein noted, too, that his horses were able to go without water for four days, and he thought it quite possible that they could have gone for longer with no water. (“The Desert Crossing,” 276–77.)

9.
Kuwayama and Hakamaya,
Genjō
, 48–49.

10.
The Gaochang kings and the Western Turk kaghans were related by marriage. During a coup from 614–19, the Gaochang king Qu Boya most likely stayed with the Western Turks. Wu Zhen, “Qushi Gaochang guoshi suoyin” [A gap in the history of the Qu-family Gaochang kingdom],
Wenwu
1981, no. 1: 38–46.

11.
Arakawa Masaharu has recently linked the name of Xuanzang’s escort given by Huili with a similar name in an excavated document listing assignments for cart drivers. He suggests that Xuanzang left Turfan in one of these carts in the twelfth month. “Sogdians and the Royal House of Ch’ü in the Kao-ch’ang Kingdom,”
Acta Asiatica
94 (2008): 67–93.

12.
Ten kings ruled between 502 and the Chinese invasion of 640. See the chart of Gaochang kings in Valerie Hansen, “Introduction: Turfan as a Silk Road Community,”
Asia Major
, 3rd ser., 11, no. 2 (1998): 1–12, chart on 8. For a detailed explanation of the multiple dynasties in power before 502, see Wang Su,
Gaochang shigao, tongzhi bian
[A draft history of the Gaochang kingdom, political section] (Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 1998), 265–307.

13.
Hou Han shu
, 88:2928–29, as translated in Zhang Guangda and Rong Xinjiang, “A Concise History of the Turfan Oasis and Its Exploration,”
Asia Major
, 3rd ser., 11, no. 2 (1998): 14. Zhang and Rong’s article is the most reliable history of Turfan available in English. In Chinese, see the timelines in Wang Su,
Gaochang.

14.
Wang Binghua, “New Finds in Turfan Archaeology,”
Orientations
30, no. 4 (April 1999): 58–64.

15.
Zhang and Rong, “Concise History of the Turfan Oasis,” 14–17.

16.
Yamamoto and Ikeda,
Tun-huang and Turfan Documents
, 3A:3.

17.
Linghu,
Zhou shu
, 50:915; Yu Taishan,
Xiyu zhuan
, 510–11.

18.
Zhang Guangda, “An Outline of the Local Administration in Turfan,” available online at
http://eastasianstudies.research.yale.edu/turfan/government.html
.

19.
Valerie Hansen,
Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts, 600–1400
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 29–31.

20.
Liu Xu,
Jiu Tang shu
(Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1975), 198:5295.

21.
Li Jifu,
Yuanhe junxian tuzhi
[Maps and gazetteer of the provinces and counties in the Yuanhe period, 806–814] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1983), 40:1030.

22.
Archeologists found some paper clothes for the dead in the northern district of the Dunhuang caves: a paper shoe (from cave B48) and a paper shirt. Peng Jinzhang and Wang Jianjun,
Dunhuang Mogaoku beiqu shiku
[Report from the caves in the northern district of Dunhuang Mogao caves] (Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 2000–2004), 1:151–52; 1:177; 3:337.

23.
Tang Zhangru, ed.,
Tulufan chutu wenshu
(Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 1992–96), 1:10; Chen Guocan, personal communication, April 10, 2006. The notes cite the four-volume set of Turfan documents and photographs, which is more reliable than the earlier ten-volume set.

24.
Wang Su, “Changsha Zoumalou Sanguo Wujian yanjiu de huigu yu zhanwang” [Some remarks on the study of the slips of Wu of Three Kingdoms from Zoumalou in Changsha],
Zhongguo Lishi Wenwu
2004, no. 1: 18–34, esp. 25;
Zhou Shu
, 50:915; Yu Taishan,
Xiyu zhuan
, 510–11.

25.
Stein,
Innermost Asia
, 2:646.

26.
Frank Dikötter,
Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–1962
(New York: Walker, 2010), x.

27.
This account is based on a conversation I had with the late Wu Zhen of the Xinjiang Museum, March 29, 2006.

28.
The Xinjiang Museum published different brief excavation reports in
Wenwu
1960, no. 6: 13–21; 1972, no. 1: 8–29; 1972, no. 2: 7–12; 1973, no. 10: 7–27; 1975, no. 7: 8–26; 1978, no. 6: 1–14. A fuller report of the Astana digs appeared in a special issue of
Xinjiang Wenwu
(2000, no. 3–4).

29.
Hansen, “Turfan as a Silk Road Community,” 1.

30.
Tang Zhangru, “Xinchu Tulufan wenshu jianjie” [Recently discovered Turfan manuscripts: Presentation of texts and reediting],
Tōhō Gakuhō
54 (1982): 83–100. Most of the Turfan documents have been published in the four-volume set of Tang Zhangru,
Tulufan chutu wenshu.
See also Chen Guocan,
Sitanyin suo huo Tulufan wenshu yanjiu
[Studies in the Turfan documents obtained by Aurel Stein] (Wuchang, China: Wuhan Daxue Chubanshe, 1995); Chen Guocan,
Riben Ningle meishuguan cang Tulufan wenshu
[Turfan documents held in the Neiraku Museum, Japan] (Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 1997); Liu Hongliang,
Xinchu Tulufan wenshu ji qi yanjiu
[Newly excavated Turfan documents and studies of them] (Urumqi, China: Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1997); Rong Xinjiang, Li Xiao, and Meng Xianshi,
Xinhuo Tulufan chutu wenxian
[Newly obtained excavated documents from Turfan] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2008).

31.
Rong Xinjiang, “Kanshi Gaochang wangguo yu Rouran, Xiyu de guanxi” [The relations of the Kan-family rulers of Gaochang with the Rouran and Western Regions],
Lishi Yanjiu
2007, no. 2: 4–14; Rong et al.,
Xinhuo Tulufan chutu wenxian
, 1:163.

32.
Jonathan Karam Skaff, “Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian Silver Coins from Turfan: Their Relationship to International Trade and the Local Economy,”
Asia Major
, 3rd ser., 11, no. 2 (1998): 67–115, esp. 68.

33.
Most of the coins from Gaochang City were found in three hoards of ten, twenty, and one hundred coins. See Skaff, “Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian Silver Coins,” 71–72.

34.
Tang,
Tulufan chutu wenshu
1:143; discussed in Hansen, “The Path of Buddhism into China: The View from Turfan,”
Asia Major
, 3rd ser., 11, no. 2 (1998): 37–66, esp. 51–52.

35.
See the helpful chart in Skaff, “Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian Silver Coins,” 108–9.

36.
Yoshida, “Appendix: Translation of the Contract,” 159–61.

37.
Helen Wang,
Money on the Silk Road
, 34–36.

38.
Skaff, “Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian Silver Coins,” 68.

39.
Helen Wang,
Money on the Silk Road
, 35.

40.
Wang Binghua, personal communication, June 25, 2009; Li Yuchun, “Xinjiang Wuqia xian faxian jintiao he dapi Bosi yinbi” [Gold bars and a large deposit of Persian silver coins found in Wuqia county, Xinjiang],
Kaogu
1959, no. 9: 482–83.

41.
In 2006 Stephen Album was able to examine about a hundred of the Wuqia coins held in the Xinjiang Museum; he estimated that over one quarter were “contemporary imitations” of Sasanian silver coins, or “Peroz-style coins from Hephtalite mints.” Stephen Album, conference paper presented at the International Symposium on Ancient Coins and the Culture of the Silk Road, Shanghai Museum, December 6, 2006. See also the photographs for each coin from the Wuqia find in
Silk Roadology
19 (2003): 51–330.

42.
Valerie Hansen, “Why Bury Contracts in Tombs?”
Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie
8 (1995): 59–66.

43.
Hansen,
Negotiating Daily Life
, 35, 43.