Yecheng

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This article is about the city in Xinjiang. For the ancient Chinese capital, see Ye, China.

Yecheng (modern Chinese name 叶城), pinyin: Yèchéng, also known as Kargilik, Karghilik, and Chokkuka; 37°51′N 77°30′E.

Yecheng is the name of both the oasis and the town, and is situated on the southern rim of the Taklamakan desert is about halfway between Pishan and Yarkand on the southern route around the Tarim Basin. The rich loess terraces of the oasis are watered by the Tiznaf river and several smaller streams. They are joined to the north by a belt of cultivated land stretching about 40 km from the town of Yecheng to the Yarkand River.

In earlier times it was important as the usual starting-point for caravans to India, through the Pamirs, via Tashkurghan, or through Ladakh by the Karakoram passes.

Today there is a small town with a market, some shops and a bank. The Yecheng oasis is one of 11 counties included in the Kashgar Prefecture.

During the Former Han period it was described as having 350 households, 4,000 people, and 1,000 men able to bear arms, while in the Later Han period it is recorded (in the Hou Hanshu - circa 125 CE) as having 2,500 households, more than 10,000 people, and 3,000 men able to bear arms. The people were said to make an arrow poison from a local bush (probably a species of aconite).

The Chinese pilgrim monk, Song Yun, passed through the kingdom ("Zhujuban") on his way from Khotan in 519 CE. He described it as being 5 days' journey around, and that it produced lots of cereals. The inhabitants only ate animals which had died a natural death. Many of them lived in the mountains. They resembled the people of Khotan in their language and customs while their writing was like that of the Brahmans from India.

Xuanzang, travelling through the country in 644 CE, described it as being very fertile, with abundant grapes, pears and plums. He said it was more than 1,000 li in circuit, with a capital city measuring more than 10 li around. The writing was like that of Khotan but the spoken language was different. Although he says the people were sincere Buddhists, they had little culture or education and he found them rude and deceitful. Many monasteries were in ruins and the 100 or so monks left were of the Mahayana school. He added that the Mahayana canonical texts were more numerous here than in any other country Buddhism had reached.

It apparently sent an embassy to China at the beginning of the Taiyan period (435-439 CE) and tribute was sent regularly after that. It later fell under the power of the Hephthalites and then the Western Turks. In 639 the ruler sent an embassy to the Chinese court and by 659 was included as part of the region called the "Four Garrisons" by the Chinese after their defeat of the Turkish chief, Duman.

The population were presumably converted to Islam soon after the new reigion arrived in the Tarim Basin about 1006 CE.

[edit] References

Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu." 2nd Draft Edition. [1]
Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation. [2]
Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E. J. Brill, Leiden.
Legge, James 1886. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Oxford, Clarendon Press. Reprint: New York, Paragon Book Reprint Corp. 1965.
Mallory, J. P. and Mair, Victor H. 2000. The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. Thames & Hudson. London. 2000.
Stein, Aurel M. 1907. Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford. [3]
Watters, Thomas 1904-1905. On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India. London. Royal Asiatic Society. Reprint: Delhi. Mushiram Manoharlal. 1973.