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NOVEMBER, 1903.)
NOTES ON THE INDO-SCYTHIANS.
419
When Tchang-k'ien, after his long captivity among the Hioung-nou, finally arrived among the Yue-tchi," the widow of the king slain by the Hioung-nou [13] had succeeded him, and they had subju"gated the Ta-hia." Tchang-k'ien's report to the emperor marks still more clearly the series of facts. Ezpelled from their territory by the Hioung-nou (165 B. C.), the Yue-tehi had invaded the country of the Oa-suenn, their neighbours to the west, and had slain their king Nan-teou-mi ; then, continuing their march towards the west, they had attacked the king of the Se (Sakal), and the Se had fled very far away to the south, abandoning their lands to the Yue-tchi. But Nan-teon-mi's son Koenn-mouo, an orphan from the cradle, had beea miraculously nourished by a wolf, and afterwards sheltered by the king of the Hioung-nou; when he became a man, he attacked the Yue-tchi, who fled away to the west, and went to settle themselves upon the territory of the Ta-hia. This involves an interval of at least twenty years between the defeat of the Ou-suenn and the submission of the Ta-hia; the first event took place a little after 165; the second was therefore about 140 B. O., and was a pretty long time before Tchang-k'ien's arrival among the Yue-tchi. If the accession of the Kushana dynasty follows the submission of the Ta-hia by about a century, it must be placed about the middle of the first century B. C. . The names of the two first Kashana kings mentioned in the History of the Second Han Dynasty cannot be identified with certitude. Cunningham (in Coins of the Tochari, kusháns or Yue-ti, in Numismatic Chronicle, 1889, 268 311) has proposed [14] to identify Kieou-tsieon-kio, . founder of the dynasty, with the Kajulakad phisēs or Kozolakadaphēs of the coins, who struck them first with the Greek king Hermaios, and afterwards alone, and who uses on both series the title Kushana. Hemakad phisēs would in this case correspond to Yen-kao [tchenn]. The identity of these two names is admissible, for the character yen is frequently used to transcribe the Sanskrit syllable yam. The second Chinese document now about to be examined confirms and completes these data.
The Compendium of the Weï, in a curious notice of Buddhism which the San-kos-tchi has preserved for n8, mentions the Yue tchi, Panthier (Examen méthodique des faits qui concernant le Thian-tchu, 14) found this passage reproduced in the Account of India in the Pien-i-lien, and translated it thus: “The first year Youan-tcheou of Ai-ti of the Han (2 years before our era), “King-lou, disciple of learned scholar, received from the king of the Great Yue-tchi an envoy "named I-tenn-keou; he received at the same time a Buddhist book which said: "He who "shall be established again, it is this man!!" Specht (Note sur les Yue-tchi, in J. A., Jan.-June, 1890, 180-. 5) bas learnedly discussed this translation; he has gone back to the primitive text, has collected the variants introduced by compilers, and has formed an eclectic text in order to arrive at the following translation : "[In Central India there was a holy man called Cha-lin-si]. In the first of the years “ Youan-tcheon of Ai-ti of the Han (2 years before our era), King-lou, disciple [16] of this teacher, * received from the king of the Great Yue-tchi an envoy named I-tsun-keou, and gave him a Buddhist book which said: "In the kingdom, he who shall be raised again (upon the throne), it is this man!"" [16] Thus, according to Specht, King-lou is not [17] á Chinaman, but an Indian ; the Yue-tchi's envoy does not hand over a Buddhist text ; he receives one. The text is undoubtedly difficult, but Specht's modifications cannot be accepted. Omitting other objections to them, we need only dwell on two essential points. [18] King-lou is certainly a Chinaman; his name shews it; his title removes all doubt. He is styled pouo-chen ti-tzer ; Pauthier translates this literally: disciple of a learned scholar." But the title is not a vague one, as this translation seems to imply. The pouo-chen ti-tseu are the titular-students of the imperial college founded under Ou-ti, one of tbe First Han Dynasty in 124 B.O. The emperor Ou-ti, who had so gloriously extended the dominion of the Han, and who had sent Tchang-k'ien to explore the countries of the west, had wished to insure the establishment of . nursery of officer-stndents," nominated according to their merit, and promoted regularly by means
of examination." The foundation edict assigned to them, among other employments, the office of
So the special note, " King-lon and the supposed I-taun-keon," on page 494 below.
