Indian Antiquary Vol 50

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 24

20
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JAN., 1921
average. That the road to Hami after leaving the river leads steadily in a north-westerly direction is shown by a look at the map. Finally, the 80 li which Hsüan-tsang is said to have covered from the river-crossing to the first watch-tower agree in a striking fashion with the 16 miles or so which the map shows between the above-mentioned old bed and the first halting-place, Pei-tan-tzů, with its spring, on the present caravan road.
As to the exact position of the Yu-mên Barrier, as located at the time of Hsüan-tsang's departure, I am unable to state anything definite ; nor does it affect his itinerary with which we are concerned here. The discoveries made in the course of my explorations of 1907 along the ancient Chinese Limes have solved the question as to the original position and remains of this famous frontier station of the "Jade Gate," once far away to the west of Tun-huang, 10 and there is strong antiquarian reason to believe that even in Hsüan-tsang's times its transfer to the north of Kua-chou could not have been of old date. 11 To the strict watch over ail trans-border traffic which was kept in ancient times at this western main gate through the original Great Wall, and which had its close analogy in the procedure observed down to recent times at the Chia-yü-kuan Gate west of Su-chou, I have had repeated occasions to refer elsewhere (see Desert Cathay,' 2, pp. 148, 154, 282; 'Serindia,' chap. xxvii., secs. i, ii).
It will help us better to appreciate the conditions under which Hsüan-tsang's desertcrossing was effected, if we cast & rapid glance at the general aspects of the route as it exists now and at the topographical features distinguishing certain of its stages. To the Chinese, with their strongly fixed notions of civilized existence, this desert route must have at all times been distinctly deterrent, whether they had to face it as soldiers, traders or casual travellers. It was easy to realize this as we moved along from one wretched little roadside station to another, each established with its refuse-filled mud hovels and tiny post of soldiers at a point where some shallow depression offers a scanty supply of water in spring or well. Only here and there do they offer patches of equally scanty grazing on scrub or reeds. The conditions of traffic I was able to observe while moving across the utterly barren wastes of gravel, crumbling rock or drift-sand which extend between these miserable haltingplaces could certainly have changed but little since ancient times.
The difficulties about securing a sufficiency of reed straw and water for animals, together with the equally great dearth of fuel, must have at all periods seriously hampered the use of the route whether for trade or troop movements. The very trying climatic conditions of the central Pei-shan, with its dreaded north-east blizzards frequent in the winter and spring and with its parching heat and dust-storms in the summer, were always bound to imply grave risks for individual travellers. There is danger for them now too, if unguided, of straying from the track along certain portions, and obviously this risk must have been far greater still during periods when the political seclusion of China prevented all regular traffic.
Uniformly barren and dreary as the ground crossed by the route is, it yet divides itself into oertain distinct sections ; in the detailed map-sheets accompanying 'Serindia' we can easily make them out, and even the map of 'Desert Cathay 'suffices to mark their limita.
10 How long th. "Jade Gate Barrier" remained near Kua-chou, and when and how the present Yuman-haien, between Su-chou and An-hsi came by its designation derived from the ancient frontier station of Han times, is another question which must be left for future investigation (of, Desert Cathay,' 2, pp 115 899.; 'Serindia,' chapter xix., secs. i-iii).
11 A passage of the T'ang Annals referring to the despatch in 610 A.D. of the famous Chinese Commissioner Pei Cho to Yü-men-kuan, distinctly places this frontier" Barrier " at the town of Chin-ch'ane (cf. Chavannen, ' Doouments sur les Turcs oocidentaux, p. 18). Chinese antiquarians and local tradi. tions of An-hsi seem to agree in considering Chin-chang as a sub-prefecture dependent on Kua-chou and situated to the east of the present An-hai. But its exact position still remains to be determined