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Ta-Chin‘in P‘o-lo-Men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

It is now more than 50 years since Paul Pelliot studied, in Deux ītinéraires de Chine en Inde, a work which, together with Le Fou-nan, laid the foundations for much of the subsequent development of South East Asian studies, certain itineraries between China and the West. These itineraries had been compiled by Chia Tan (A.D. 730–805) and date from the period A.D. 785–805, but, the original compilation having been lost, they are extant only in the summaries preserved in the Hsin T‘ang shu. Among the routes included is one from Yunnan to India which crosses Upper Burma by alternative ways, bifurcating at Chu-ko Liang and rejoining in Eastern India whence it leads to Magadha.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1957

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References

page 159 note 1 BEFEO, iv. 1904, 131414 Google Scholar, especially pp. 169–81. Cited as Pelliot.

page 159 note 2 Hsin T'ang shu, Ssu pu ts'ung k'an edition, ch. 43 (b), 17b–18a.

page 160 note 1 Luce, G.H.,‘The ancient Pyu’, JBRS, XXXVII, 1937, 239–53.Google Scholar Cited as Luce.

page 160 note 2 Luce, 248.

page 160 note 3 Luce, 248–9.

page 160 note 4 The quotation is slightly modified from Takakusu, J., A record of the Buddhist religion, Oxford, 1896, 9.Google Scholar

page 162 note 1 HTS, loc. cit., 18a.

page 162 note 2 Barua, B.K., Early geography of Assam, Nowgong, 1952, 1011 Google Scholar. See also his A cultural history of Assam, Nowgong, 1951.Google Scholar

page 162 note 3 Place-names are from Davies, H.R., Map of Yun-nan (1908 edition).Google Scholar

page 163 note 1 HTS, loc. cit., 18a.

page 163 note 2 Pelliot, 371.

page 163 note 3 This is true, even if one uses the Tazu Gap, which would tend to lead the traveller rather the north of Manipur. Mr. Luce, in lectures at the School of Oriental and African Studies, claimed that the Kabaw Valley route was followed, but this, in addition to involving an even greater deviation to the south, does not avoid a noticeable crossing of the frontier range.

page 163 note 4 Hsi Yü chi, reprinted, Pekin, 1955, ch. 10, 7a.

page 163 note 5 Man shu, Wu-ying-tien edition, ch. 2, 4b. Cf. Pelliot, 171.

page 163 note 6 Man shu, ch. 10, 3a.

page 164 note 1 Man shu, ch. 10, 2b. I am indebted to my friend Dr. D. C. Twitchett for help with this passage, and for discussions of the whole subject of this paper.

page 164 note 2 Pelliot, 179.

page 164 note 3 Pelliot, 179, n. 5.

page 164 note 4 Pelliot, 143.

page 164 note 5 Pelliot, 149, n. 6.

page 164 note 6 Mahābhārata, Udyoga, XVIH, 584–5.

page 165 note 1 Chavannes, E., Mémoire … sur les religieux éminents …, Paris, 1894, 83.Google Scholar

page 165 note 2 This story is to be found in Hsi Yü chi, ch. 5. It is interesting to speculate upon a further allusion. As is well known, it was in the course of their endeavours to find allies to the west that the Chinese had undertaken their explorations of Central Asia and had heard of Ta Ch'in (the Roman Orient). The search for routes through Yunnan derived from the same enterprise, and it possible even that these brahmins were also noted as the first encountered on the way to Ta Ch'in by this route.