Former Commentators Differed Very Widely As To The Position Of Pein, And
As To The Direction Of Polo's Route From Khotan.
The information acquired
of late years leaves the latter no longer open to doubt.
It must have been
nearly coincident with that of Hiuen Tsang.
The perusal of Johnson's Report of his journey to Khotan, and the
Itineraries attached to it, enabled me to feel tolerable certainty as to
the position of Charchan (see next chapter), and as to the fact that Marco
followed a direct route from Khotan to the vicinity of Lake Lop. Pein,
then, was identical with PIMA,[1] which was the first city reached by
Hiuen Tsang on his return to China after quitting Khotan, and which lay
330 li east of the latter city.[2] Other notices of Pima appear in
Remusat's history of Khotan; some of these agree exactly as to the
distance from the capital, adding that it stood on the banks of a river
flowing from the East and entering the sandy Desert; whilst one account
seems to place it at 500 li from Khotan. And in the Turkish map of
Central Asia, printed in the Jahan Numa, as we learn from Sir H.
Rawlinson, the town of Pim is placed a little way north of Khotan.
Johnson found Khotan rife with stories of former cities overwhelmed by the
shifting sands of the Desert, and these sands appear to have been
advancing for ages; for far to the north-east of Pima, even in the 7th
century, were to be found the deserted and ruined cities of the ancient
kingdoms of Tuholo and Shemathona. "Where anciently were the seats of
flourishing cities and prosperous communities," says a Chinese author
speaking of this region, "is nothing now to be seen but a vast desert; all
has been buried in the sands, and the wild camel is hunted on those arid
plains."
Pima cannot have been very far from Kiria, visited by Johnson. This is a
town of 7000 houses, lying east of Ilchi, and about 69 miles distant from
it. The road for the most part lies through a highly cultivated and
irrigated country, flanked by the sandy desert at three or four miles to
the left. After passing eastward by Kiria it is said to make a great
elbow, turning north; and within this elbow lie the sands that have buried
cities and fertile country. Here Mr. Shaw supposes Pima lay (perhaps upon
the river of Kiria). At Pima itself, in A. D. 644, there was a story of
the destruction of a city lying further north, a judgment on the luxury
and impiety of the people and their king, who, shocked at the eccentric
aspect of a holy man, had caused him to be buried in sand up to the mouth.
(N. et E. XIV. 477; H. de la Ville de Khotan, 63-66; Klap. Tabl.
Historiques, p. 182; Proc. R. G. S. XVI. 243.)
[Dutreuil de Rhins and Grenard took the road from Khotan to Charchan; they
left Khotan on the 4th May, 1893, passed Kiria, Nia, and instead of going
direct to Charchan through the desert, they passed Kara Say at the foot of
the Altyn tagh, a route three days longer than the other, but one which
was less warm, and where water, meat, milk, and barley could be found.
Having passed Kapa, they crossed the Karamuren, and went up from Achan due
north to Charchan, where they stayed three months.
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