- H.C.] A Small Lake
Is Marked By D'Anville, Close To Kien-Ch'ang, Under The Name Of
Gechoui-Tang.
The large quantities of gold derived from the Kin-sha
Kiang, and the abundance of musk in that vicinity, are testified to by
Martini.
The Lake mentioned by Polo as existing in the territory of Yachi
is no doubt the Tien-chi, the Great Lake on the shore of which the city
of Yun-nan stands, and from which boats make their way by canals along the
walls and streets. Its circumference, according to Martini, is 500 li.
The cut (p. 68), from Garnier, shows this lake as seen from a villa on its
banks. [Deveria (p. 129) quotes this passage from the Yuen-shi-lei pien:
"Yachi, of which the U-man or Black Barbarians made their capital, is
surrounded by Lake Tien-chi on three sides." Tien-chi is one of the names
of Lake Kwen-ming, on the shore of which is built Yun-nan fu. - H.C.]
Returning now to the Karajang of the Mongols, or Carajan, as Polo writes
it, we shall find that the latter distinguishes this great province, which
formerly, he says, included seven kingdoms, into two Mongol Governments,
the seat of one being at Yachi, which we have seen to be Yun-nan fu, and
that of the other at a city to which he gives the name of the Province,
and which we shall find to be the existing Ta-li fu. Great confusion has
been created in most of the editions by a distinction in the form of the
name as applied to these two governments. Thus Ramusio prints the province
under Yachi as Carajan, and that under Ta-li as Carazan, whilst
Marsden, following out his system for the conversion of Ramusio's
orthography, makes the former Karaian and the latter Karazan. Pauthier
prints Caraian all through, a fact so far valuable as showing that his
texts make no distinction between the names of the two governments, but
the form impedes the recognition of the old Mongol nomenclature. I have no
doubt that the name all through should be read Carajan, and on this I
have acted. In the Geog. Text we find the name given at the end of ch.
xlvii. Caragian, in ch. xlviii. as Carajan, in ch. xlix. as Caraian,
thus just reversing the distinction made by Marsden. The Crusca has
Charagia(n) all through.
The name then was Kara-jang, in which the first element was the Mongol
or Turki Kara, "Black." For we find in another passage of Rashid the
following information:[3] - "To the south-west of Cathay is the country
called by the Chinese Dailiu or 'Great Realm,' and by the Mongols
Karajang, in the language of India and Kashmir Kandar, and by us
Kandahar. This country, which is of vast extent, is bounded on one side
by Tibet and Tangut, and on others by Mongolia, Cathay, and the country of
the Gold-Teeth. The King of Karajang uses the title of Mahara, i.e.
Great King. The capital is called Yachi, and there the Council of
Administration is established. Among the inhabitants of this country some
are black, and others are white; these latter are called by the Mongols
Chaghan-Jang ('White Jang')." Jang has not been explained; but
probably it may have been a Tibetan term adopted by the Mongols, and the
colours may have applied to their clothing. The dominant race at the
Mongol invasion seems to have been Shans;[4] and black jackets are the
characteristic dress of the Shans whom one sees in Burma in modern times.
The Kara-jang and Chaghan-jang appear to correspond also to the U-man
and Pe-man, or Black Barbarians and White Barbarians, who are mentioned
by Chinese authorities as conquered by the Mongols. It would seem from one
of Pauthier's Chinese quotations (p. 388), that the Chaghan-jang were
found in the vicinity of Li-kiang fu. (D'Ohsson, II. 317; J. R. Geog.
Soc. III. 294.) [Dr. Bretschneider (Med. Res. I. p. 184) says that in
the description of Yun-nan, in the Yuen-shi, "Cara-jang and
Chagan-jang are rendered by Wu-man and Po-man (Black and White
Barbarians). But in the biographies of Djao-a-k'o-p'an, A-r-szelan
(Yuen-shi, ch. cxxiii.), and others, these tribes are mentioned under the
names of Ha-la-djang and Ch'a-han-djang, as the Mongols used to call
them; and in the biography of Wu-liang-ho t'ai. [Uriang kadai], the
conqueror of Yun-nan, it is stated that the capital of the Black Barbarians
was called Yach'i. It is described there as a city surrounded by lakes
from three sides." - H.C.]
[Illustration: A Saracen of Carajan, being a portrait of a Mahomedan
Mullah in Western Yun-nan. (From Garnier's Work.)
"Les sunt des plosors maineres, car il hi a jens qe aorent Maomet." ]
Regarding Rashiduddin's application of the name Kandahar or Gandhara to
Yun-nan, and curious points connected therewith, I must refer to a paper
of mine in the J.R.A.Society (N.S. IV. 356). But I may mention that
in the ecclesiastical translation of the classical localities of Indian
Buddhism to Indo-China, which is current in Burma, Yun-nan represents
Gandhara,[5] and is still so styled in state documents (Gandalarit).
What has been said of the supposed name Caraian disposes, I trust, of
the fancies which have connected the origin of the Karens of Burma with
it. More groundless still is M. Pauthier's deduction of the Talains of
Pegu (as the Burmese call them) from the people of Ta-li, who fled from
Kublai's invasion.
NOTE 2. - The existence of Nestorians in this remote province is very
notable [see Bonin, J. As. XV. 1900, pp. 589-590. - H.C.] and also
the early prevalence of Mahomedanism, which Rashiduddin intimates in
stronger terms. "All the inhabitants of Yachi," he says, "are Mahomedans."
This was no doubt an exaggeration, but the Mahomedans seem always to have
continued to be an important body in Yun-nan up to our own day.
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