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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1908.
Han and the western watershed of the Pamirs had entirely ceased. Earlier still, the emperor Youan-ti (4833 B. C.) had given up the idea of avenging the insult paid to his ambassador by the king of Ki-pin "because the country was impassable, and communications by the Hindu Kush were "cut off." His successor, Tch'eng-ti (32-7 B. C.) also refused to renew relations with Ki-pin, because "these criminal tribes were separated from China by impracticable [8] passes" (see A. Wylie: Notes on the Western Regions, translated from the Tsien-Han-chou, book 96, part 1: in Journal Anthropological Inst., 1880, 20-73: account of Ki-pin). Ki-pin on the north-west bordered on the Yue-tchi; thus, from that moment, the same obstacles isolated them from China, and their destinies consequently ceased to interest the imperial court. An argument a silentio, applied to the chronology of that period, is therefore out of place. But, as a matter of fact, the History of the First Han Dynasty mentions the conquest of the Ta-hia by the Yue-tchi several times. The account of the Yue-tchi, translated by Specht, says expressly: "The Yue-tchi went very far away, passed "beyond Ta-wan, fonght the Ta-hia in the West, and subdued them. Their chief then fixed his "residence north of the river Wei (Oxus)." And it adds almost immediately after: "The Ta-hia "had no sovereign or chief magistrate; each city (ville), each small town (bourgade), was governed "by its magistrate. The people were weak, and afraid of war. When the Yue-tchi arrived, they "submitted to them" (Études, 322).
It is useless to try to distinguish two successive phases of the occupation, first submission, then complete conquest. The History of the Second Han Dynasty, which deals with the most prosperous period of the Yue-tchi, names Lan-cheu3 as their capital; and so does the History of the First Han Dynasty. [9] We know also from the testimony of Seu-ma Ts'ien, based upon Tchang-k'ien's report, that Lanchen was the capital of the Ta-hia's territory. Therefore the Yue-tchi must have become masters of that territory. Lastly, the History of the Second Han Dynasty, which reproduces and expressly corrects the division of the Yue-tchi into five principalities, as indicated in the History of the First Han Dynasty, states in addition that the division was accomplished at the expense of the Ta-hia. "They went among the Ta-hia and divided their kingdom into five principalities. ." Thus the History of the First Han Dynasty expressly mentions the submission of the Ta-hia, and attests the annexation of their territory to the dominion of the Yue-tchi. The subjugation of the [10] Ta-hia by the Yue-tchi is again formally recalled in the account of Ki-pin: "Formerly when the Hioung-nou subjugated "the Ta Yue-tchi, these emigrated to the West, conquered the Ta-hia; whereupon the king of "the Se [Sakas]3 went to the south and reigned over [11] Ki-pin" (see Wylie, loc. cit.). This event, therefore, took place [12] before the end of the First Han Dynasty, and doubtless at the epoch when frequent communications with the Si-yu (West) enabled its vicissitudes to be followed. We are even able to fix the time more closely. Seu-ma Ts'ien, who composed his historical Memoirs about a hundred years before the Christian era, inserted in them, chapter 123, a long account of Tchangk'ien's journeys: his information regarding the Yue-tchi and Ta-hia almost literally agrees with the account in the History of the Han, and shews an identical origin; the two historians have faithfully reproduced Tchang-k'ien's account. Seu-ma Ts'ien says: "The Ta-hia had no sove"reign; each city, each town elected its chief. The soldiers were weak and cowardly in battle, only "good for carrying on trade. The Yue-tchi came from the West, attacked them, defeated them, and "established their sovereignty" (see Kingsmill: The Intercourse of China with Eastern Turkestan and the Adjacent Countries in the Second Century B. C., in J. R. A. S., N. 8., XIV. (1882), 82. Seu-ma-Ts'ien's text is almost entirely identical with the Tsien-Han-chou).
Thus the submission of the Ta-hia was an accomplished fact by the time of Tchang-k'ien's journey about 125 B. C. These data are confirmed and specified more distinctly in Tchang-k'ien's biography contained in the History of the First Han Dynasty (Tsien-Han-chou, book 61; trans. Wylie: loc. cit. Appendix).
2 See the special note, "Lan-cheu; Pushkalavati," on page 422 below.
5 See the special note, "the identity of the Se and the Sakas," on page 423 below.
