ZHANG GUANGDA and RONG XINJIANG A Concise History of the ‘Turfan Oasis and Its Exploration he extraordinary combination of documents, asia, nd paintings fond at Turfan (Tuufan 848) has made the aase the subject of many specialized studies, often of individoal tems and events. Aa important casi ‘stuated on the wade route along the northern edge of he Taklamakan Desert, ‘Turfan was home to different people: the original inhabitants (whom the [Chinese called Chi-shih (7), or Kusshib 80), the Chinese seers who ‘ame in large numbers during dhe Bh and ater centres, the Sogdian waders ‘who left ran inthe seventh and eighth centuries, the Uightns who bal their ‘spite there inthe nim century, and the Mongols who conquered the oasis ia the fourteenth century. Only wo Chinese dynasties achioved direct rule over ‘Torfan: the Tang fons jo to oy and the CBing from 1756 to 1gt1. This article provides an overview of Turfan for those who ave aot fur wit ‘elther the brond outlines oft history or withthe explorers who visited the ‘oasis atthe beginning ofthis century GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING ‘The Turfan Depression i stated in the eastern part ofthe Sinan Us hur Autonomous Region of China. Encecled by the Kurn-agh, Cholagh, land ether ofshoots ofthe Tien shar Mountains, i covers an ares of 504047 square kilometers Some of the depression lies mote than ton meters below sea-level, the lowes point at 154. Thus tis the second lowest depression in che ‘world, afer the Dead Sea, The climate extremely dry, but ita arching heat Ihelps to yield fine raps Fed by melting now from the sks ofthe en shan Mountain, the seams dat run out of the valleys eave via an irrigation net ‘woek tothe oases. Thi iigation system provides the fertile soil ofthe a ‘Once naa osha in the hs of Tne, Rong Xngng 87 ‘Siac meeps mabequ sarap Su Ci ese ede Bef e IPs yet ne OTE TD asa, Shin steps, spp #68 terete ees wf conrewsh 6 cae sana hire any af hich devas ‘sebonte Turn Forel ae RB (Chung can) op. ‘Site pp skp: hn Tage BAP wah png ee Pan oe RS ip ean 8with plenty of water a primary requisite forthe cultures that have thrived there since ancient imes. The underground canal system now in use seems to have been intzoduced In modern nes. ‘Terminology, especialy places names, ean be confusing, because there are many variants of indigenous place names in Uighur and multiple tan ‘scriptions into Chineve characters (8 lis of geographical and enc names i [ven above, in the Introduction othe Volume | Turfan can reer toa region [that covered by the depression) othe medera city situate inthe center of| the depression, which lies southwest of Urumehi. Feom 00 10 64 a single ‘Kingdom ruled the Turfan oasis, and confusingly enough, it referred to as the Kao-eh'ang 2 kingdom because capital was leated in the city of| ‘Kav-cang, nove a site some forty lometer east of the modern city of Tran. Under the T'ang dynarty the oficial name forthe region, divided into five subprefectres, was Ho chou 2, Towards the end ofthe eighth eontary the ‘Chinese withdrew from this ares In the ri-ath, when the Uighus formally ‘etablihed themselves, t became customary to use the name Qocho [proba bly the local pronunciation ofthe Chinese "Kao- Ses S F can teie Wier er Po Heer scene ihm ned gs sce ene ‘Hts Path Rs. cP € Aniar ord WF Hein“ Mah Chins Tesh su ite Semin ong ce Mas et a Baie tye pe eee yp coysoe tony gn tegee WK lea {Ea -Sgple fol laguna ght as ddd Margen (Brian recta Woe use re 27‘Tusfan Collection in Berlin, were bought respectively bythe Turkish scholar Resid RahmetiArat and the Japanese abbot Deguchi Jojun #18.” To _sve another example, fragment af printed banner fom Bezekik was bought fiom Albert von le Coq by Mrs, Willa H. Moor, who sent tto Yale ava gi in 937 Itis now inthe Yale Universiy Art Gallery. Japan ‘Also in the first years ofthis century, a Japanese team quickly made its way into Sinkiang, competing with ather expeditions Motivated by a dese to learn more about the history ofthe spread of Buddhism from India to Chi nd simalated by the competitive spirit inthe race for archeological discover. ies, Count Otani Kozai 179969 (2898-1948), ewenty-second abbot ofthe [Nishihonganj Temple ofthe Jodo Shin Sha #5 sm Kyoto, organized tnd funded three separate expeditions and sent them to Sinking to collect, antiquities during 1992-ryo4, 1go8-19o9, and r9t0-r014 Such members of the expeditions as Watanabe Tesshin #2i911(5 , Hori Keaya MITECE, Ta chibana Zoicho #5888 , Nomuea Eizabuco $4%=65 , and Yoshikawa Shichi HIlls cari out successive dig in most ofthe sites in Turf snd extensively despoiled the Asana and Qarakaja graveyards of their bu {ed objects, Unlike the European expeditions, the Japanese teams were com- posed chiely of jonior monks, For example, Tachibana was only seventeen {years old when he began work. With the enterprising eethusism of yout, but without adequate specialized trainin, the members ofthe Ota expeditions were unqualified for fekd excavation, In 19148 Gnancal scandal cased by ne of is subordinates led to tans ‘eticemeat from his poblic offices. The dispersal of his collection followed close con his resignation frm the post of the abbot of Nishihonganj, We know chat the manuscripts and artifacts amassed by the Otani expeditions are catered arvong many Japanese, Chinese, and Korean public and private electors, bbc the detail of how the collection was dapersed are not clear. In brie, all of ‘he collected artfets and manuscripts fom the fist expedition were entrust © Yan Nok Ui bare day oh har gs Ter ht suis bina otal Ligue banios nua ta32 Se E aM REE EF ate oe Eicon ese dette er ore eon ahh pe ‘Kos Kg 88% ature He Torn ry Ledeen sue etsy etbmon raze rasezoe ES.2 olay ah pF Akin BU, oso sas Depth feo ‘erhan aad Degen cs SNE a TL TN, Mt Geege et tr tr hea hy Cally Ca New Hav SER ae gan “ee 28 do the Imperial Tokyo Museum [present day Tokyo National Museu) in 1926. Tis portion fell nt the hands of x callector im Tokya by the name of| Kimura Sadaoitau ‘#1 A toward dhe end of the warn 1944. After the wae the Japanese government repurchased these materials and stored them inthe (Oriental Section ofthe Tokyo National Meveum with some additional tems ofthe Otani collection bought from other individuals” “The materials collected by the second and third expeditions were largely sept at Otan's private home, the Nirakusd vison the Robko mountaia neae Kobe. In January 1916, a wealthy and inucatal businessman with extensive ‘business connections by the name of Kahara Fasanosuke 2.2289 bought ‘the Niakisd wil fram Otani nd both the villa and che archeological mater: al from the expeditions housed in it passed ito the hands of Kuhaea. Kuhara ‘wat fellow townsman and clas frend of Terauchi Maatake $4 7E 8, then {governor general of Korea, which had been snnexed by Japan in 19to. In 1916 Kubhara gave the Ota collection he had bought to Terauchi, who sored itin the Museum ofthe governor general of Korea in Seoul now dhe National (Central Musou in Seoul) Another pat ofthe Ota collection, especialy the manuscript remains, wat shipped 10 Lshun (Port Arthur}, when Otani and Tachibana teed (0 ‘eablish themselves in Tsien. But when Otani decided to goto Shanghai in 1916, he left this portion of his collection in charge ofthe Southern Manchuria Railway, « government entity in charge of the extensive railway ofthe eyion ‘Son afterwards the Southern Manchuria Ralway wansferred all ofthe Tartan ‘material in its charge tothe Exhibition Hall of Mongolian and Manchurian Product (Man-Meng wich'an kusn W7RYDIEAY) under the government of the Kanto {northeastern China) governor (aso called Museum ofthe Guan ‘dong Governor, or the Lushan Muscum) to celebrate is formal pening in April 1917. Afcr the defeat ofJapen in 1945, the Soviet Red Army occupied [Ubehun. Before the Soviet takeover ofthe Li shun Mosevin, Tachibana ran aged to ship back to Kyoto a considerable quantity ofthe materials of the (Otani collection, packed in two large boxes. These materials, including man scripts, wooden tablets and silk paintings, remained with te Oran family in [Nishihongani. They were donated by Nishihongan} aftr Otanis death to Rydkoku University for research "Tb atari alata eh malt Ohad ts tran ee REIL ISA 6 IMT a Tey: Toyo hasan hbase 7 Tcl has at bore pate inal. Varios phage an C8 pn PIE 7 eo Swe cpp 198 29“The manuscripts donated tothe Ryakoku Universy ave been catalogued under the lever “O° (4 ) and numbered from 101 to Rowe plus, with ‘many missing numbers In recent years many ny Fagen were also regis {ered as O.10901-10668, In addition, part ofthe Otani collection that Tx _hbana brought back from Litshun snd kept wh ir forbs personal research | ‘was aleo entrusted tothe Ryakoku University Library, which catalogued it unde the code “Tachibana” My. Yoshikawa Shoiches also hada colletin of| manuscripts of his own, which, alter mouating, he had bound iso volumes swith the tle Fragment fom the Moving Sond (Rye zankewse i>") and donated them aswell o the Ryakoku University Library, which catalogued them under the code O 901-9166, Manichacan text nthe Otani Turan collecton consi an important collection in quantity second only ta that of Bern. There is now a provisional catalogue ~ Cotalagu of retan Fagmeats Unearthed ix Central Asa bythe Oto Expedition and Prard at Ryaak Uaesy, compiled by K, Kuda, Y. Yosh sa, and W. Sundermans in 1998 "The part ofthe Otani collection that wa left in he Lith Museum was transferred tothe Chinese government in February 1951, alter a period of Soviet supervision. The Museum changed its name tothe Li-shan Historia snd Caleural Museum, and now i simply called the Li-shue Museum. Ths postion of the Otani collection bear the code numbers given by the Japanese, nd the research staf of the Museum are working on them, while retaining the ‘original code numbers" (Chinese Private Collections Tiansfrrad to Japan Local oficial and inhabitant in Torfan had already begun searching for “hats a term used by the explorers for “papers") and hidden treasure even before the coming of che different competing foreign explorers. Ching bu eaucrats both high and low, seized the chance to obtain anclent manuscript remains when delegated to Siakiang. Wang Shu-nan BIH, Provincial Ad ‘ministration commissioner of Sinkang, and Liang Yash 27 & (h. Sowen ‘#5, the provincial ceasuce, ook the lead im purchasing antiquities. Be cause thee bureaucrat, ike Count Otani, tested the manuscripts and art facts in theie possession a thet own personal Belongings they sometimes sent them to officials ax bribe or gave them to friends. These articles were always 2: Wang Chen je [Wang re] 58 Lahn pw haan ang Heong sku neous BMRB OS [pene 2), Anchog wen ny RE Gras Re ga spp Bi Can pp angen awe 3° hanging hand, since they were sold whenever the financial situation ofthese official families vequired. Both Wang and Liang collected « considerable Sevount of menoscrips, many of which were of tp quality. Kt seems tha all of these were completely sold by the s9os atthe latest. The majr portion of| ‘Wang's collection wes bought by Nakamura Fusetsu PAY (x865-1049) foc is Shod (Cabigrephy) Mussum in Tokyo while much of Liang’ collec: sion went to Seikado Bunko (Library) also in Tokyo Many scattered man rips separated from thee two collections found thelr wey to other Chinese dnd Jspanese academic institutions, such ae Peking Library, the Library of Peking University the Library af the Chinese Academy of Sconces, the Chu king Museu ia Srechwan, and dhe Teni Library i Japan, among others Finland From ryt 7 190M Calonel Gustav F. Mannerheim (1807—1991) went to Sinkiang, Karat, and other places in China, Asa Russian military officer, he undertook the trip withthe task of mikitry reconnaissance and geographi cal investigation under the orders ofthe Rusion imperial government. At the ame rise heals had a special enision to collect antiquities and ethnological ‘ates fr the inno Ugaian Society of Finland, He examined the old city fof Yatkhoto and vised the old ety of Turan ané other towns, collecting and purchasing » great numberof manuscripts snd ae treasures unearthed from Uhferent ates of Turfan His clleton, now stored in che Helsinki University Library, has not yet been published though it has been visited by scholee recent years!" Great Britain “Torfan did not escape the attention ofthe English explorer Mark Autel Stein (1862-1943) whovesuccetve vii to and excavations of Khotan, Nia and Ton-huang produced a wealth of writen material and arts remains, During his third expedition co Central Asia (1924-1915). Stein went om to ‘Tarfan afer hs survey of Kans, reaching Turfan by early November, rot He spent the winter, the best seston for excavating, digging atthe olf city of| ‘Qocho andthe graveyard of Astans, detaching the remaining co wall pant ngs let bythe Germans from the walla ofthe Bezekik cave shrines (some of 2 ng ae Rng igang SH a Tn an Ta foe i ei nighigharia ASW Ne Rectang Olangta noms pana veep 4k 2 Koda Ks “Chine Bei Mans for Cental A the Menem Cl IecuneYasue Taree Pectin 9 Iris Bloat! Caps of ae "Sine eet and No Tey Tob gran 1982 st‘which were fll eleven by sateen fet in site, and working ats series of sits ar Toyug? ‘The great mass of his finds, when shipped back in neat packages to En sland in 1915, was tobe partioned among the British Muses, the Govern ‘ment of India, andthe India Office on the basis ofan agreement deawn up ‘when raising funds for Sein’s third expedition. The British Museum was to receive all manuscripts in Chinese, Sogdian, Purhish ad Uighur the dia (fie al those in Khotanese, Kuchean, and Tibetan, Senshi texte writen in the Kharosthiseript were alloted to the Bath Museurn while those write i the Brahmi seript went tothe India Office. All other rele, seh a paintings ‘on sik embroidery, pane drawing, per, wooden scp, and cons, ware ‘obbe divided equally besween the Brits Museum and Central Asian Antiqu +s Muscum of lad. Ths, archeological aries alle to Engle went othe Department of Oriental Antiquities ode Bish Museum, All writen docursents ‘were given othe Section of Oriental Manuseripts and Printed Books, which wore trnslerred tothe BriishTabrary fn 1975 and are now all stored there. ‘The Brith Numbering System ‘The whole of Stein's Turan collection was cased under a single invent ry number in the British Library, "Ot. 8219," che individual items of which, together with the nds from the ether sites of Turan bear the sobmumeras 1 to 1946; In addon, each wooden or paper docusvent has i orignal archeo logleal serial number, with he following abbreviations: Ast = Astana graveyard in Tucan Kao, = old ey of Qocho ‘Toy. = cave emple of Toyug Yar.= Yaskhoto “The original serial numbers are sil retained to mark the individual at «les deposited in the British Muscum, Indian Office Library fnow incorporat fd into the British Library), and National Maseum of India in New Delhi, of which the Cental Asian Antiquities Museum has become a section. china ‘The So-Sueden sient expedition and it umbering tem ‘The Sino-Sweden Scientific Expedition, which worked in nosthtestern ‘China fom 1927. #935 ander the leadership of Sven Hedin (1805-1954) collected material of significant archeological iterest. In partinlar, Huang, r,t ie: Del pt of tipi Gel a a re iSite Bera 3° Wen pi « member ofthe Chinese team, contributed tothe state of Turan archeological collections. In both t938 and x930 Huang examined the ruined sites, excavate the grave pits ofthe ancient burial ground near Chiao-ho, and found epitaph tablet nd pottery He also bought a mumbe of msmusrips| fad atfcts uneathed from the local rane its that were forsale in the local bazaars” While preparing the iene report of his fiekwork, is election ‘blaine fcom Turfen, together with that obtained from the Tarim Basi, was housed inthe Archeological Insite ofthe Chinese Academy of Sciences in Peking. There, each item was given setal number under the invencory label +4} (Kao) the frat word in the name ofthe Inebiute. When the colleen was transfered tothe Chinese Historical Museum, where itis held today each jtem was given a Historical Museum inventory code number. The ater nam ‘ori early used becaute the collection has not yet been reorganized. Only 2 very few people have gained acces to the orginal pioces for research, Excavations undertaken by the Sinking Museum From 1959 10 1975 the Sinkiang Museurn undertook thirteen excava tions at the Astana and Qarakhoja graveyards; workers unearthed 436 tombs, ‘which yielded a great wealth of documents and artes. While the excavated ‘Chinege documents have been published in chlr entirety the arifacts found between 1959 end 1075 have been desebed only ina piecemeal way in ind dual brie! reports of he excavation, We have at our disposal photographs of| ‘only the most beautflaifacts published in few albums No complete ste report was ever published (Ofthe excavated 458 tombe, 205 contained manuscript fragment. Most 2 lang Won B28, Rak YE king Chang an hy coh nh ns Roel ta rH Pig Cong eo Wee sos 2 nang Wei; Th fon kurta USE 8 2 hin Chango Koei, sapuai Fang Reh cps Ean ang Tg a apc revintg atime tainte Wa eae Turhechotu mucin tue hi pa E88 teu chuch crear #8 HPN ty AED ara Settee es etna alsin sn cnt chomp EA, Eammmnsteste ia, wires. pe ¢resem Src ae Tne Mites ig aP ey ence plre ypiidem tap he SF 5aH a rgmen Tylon tera COS Sk den guc ng ame PRET MAT REL ons) op tuning ven gan WE TS ke We fieeTrietniiciiecloksamstin ethan oun poo eg OAS Be FREE favors yp toy om, fee Wetceh ed foun tan AT Png Wma a) 33‘ofthese fragments were oiginaly part of funeral objects paper shoes, paper hats, paper belts, paper coffins, and the like ~ macle ont of discarded docu: ments. The individual fragments are usualy too mulated to rend, but some of| ‘hem can be fited together into sections whose contents can be deciphered. Archeologists have pieced together more than 500 reconstted dociments “Apart from a small portion ofthese documents that hasbeen lef inthe local ‘Tarfan Musca, she majority of excavated material rom Turfan i now sored fn the Museum ofthe Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous Region in Uramchi ‘The numbering tem of the Siniong Mascame Each document has been given a number showing the year of excav sion, the seat which i was found, the tomb number, ad the sem For example, “73TAM;06-4/45" eles ta document no. 4/35 excavated fom tomb no. jf at Astana in 1975, Likewise,"75TKM95:y3i" refers to docs ment no. 33 feta, excavated from tomb no. gf at Karaja 4975. Starting sm r975qa research group under the guidance of the Ite professor Pang Chang ju began to prepare tis manuscript cllecuon for publicaton. Ten volumes of hand-written wanscriptions were published besween sgt and 199, and four volumes of photographic reproductions with revised transcriptions came out between stand 1996, Both ae published by the Wenwa Publishing Hows, and, coufusingly, both bear the same tie: Exemated Dacuments fom Tf fan ch a wens Hee CB ‘Two groups of unpablsied materials have piqued scholarly interest In 1958 the students ofthe fist session of x shor-ecm course in archeological traningin Sinking set out for Chiao, where they excavated inthe ol city, surrounding temples, andthe graveyard, Documents obtained from che tem ple sites were given the number 35TYD." and objects and epitaph rom the [paves were given the number "s6TYM Then in 19 an earthenware jar with Chinese and Uighur documents was anearthed from the eity of Ante, ‘Turfan, The documents found thete are marked wih the ode "B5TIN” These two Turan collections ae lho sored inthe Sinking Museum and, with the ‘exception of afew individual izes, remain unpublished. After 1979, whe sves came under the jurisdiction ofthe locality and ot the provincial author iis, the Turfan Museues (Tw latan tich'i wen aan so 8) 23805 FA) continued 49 work the ste, excavating ten coms at Astana®” arching shoe ae chan yoyo be pn RT IRIE le “Chnc ho enna yan ch Yeh eh hum chs che oo epicWmbjaesure sat Honcho wm 89 4h poco “2 Tehran ic won hung 2 SHH A od "Puen ac shi ine hele esha ular Asse he ho machen ps” 8 a In 198 and 19S the maseum cleared out the hesped-up loess and sand fiom the eave shrines of Bezelik Apart from these two excavations, there were some other acquisitions that enriched the document and etic tons in the Turfon Museu. The registration system ofthe Turan Museum ts similar to that of he Siakiang Museum, with new abbreviations for diferent sites For example, “SoTBl-0 18" refers wo therecto of document no.00t found fromthe loess accumulations infant of che eave shrines of Bezel 1080, while "76TCMs.:20" refers to docament na. 20 from tomb no. of TeabCan ipaveyard of Turfan excavated in 1975, Tn the period 1494-19985 Waseda University of Japan in collaboration with che Insite of Archeology of the Selang Academy of Siences, cared ‘uta series of excavations atthe graveyard tothe west of Yarkhoto which yielded & numberof epitsphs and other objecte. These were given the lel PTYGXM,"*" but no manuscripts or docarnents were found by ths expedition Mullan Bldege In adaition, the Shanghai Library, dhe Shanghai Museum, the Lioning Archives the Kansa Maseur, dhe Neitaku Art Museum dhe Kyoto National Tama BAITS oe SRE. gp ase “ah SUS Parana a i ecg SCPE Sable halite impetnm one Fee een hthitinch cer ogo RPMS Mera ARTE micelles gy ke ESIN SON. wi tmc a mee Hae e edt fe kgwu ae sition ae THEIR earn te na ate Epes mal ew pete ae ha SENET i hanveensaampian ee oeL w prusancaitocpinon ‘Tanga ei ony hick hina” sea eteSeaamit oackoe ast toe San BETS sate eee eye in tatenieens avn chingt den pee 208 32 60 UB Teague pope yt oe bng 0 Tg nr hen a Ne a Ea von P tise BREA Ee Pm Se ee et Sear eH Hee hatat neg ences Gae AOR RW LRN Rare see ae gana Fungi eum piyeieystnn ent aS SBOP TA crc hae RSW acs Hanshng TS lnrlan toc dot rnen ach hu Ching annie a CL AAR eee eter natn Tiina bees rink eee nomena 35Museum, the National Dit Library in Japan, and Gest Library of Princeton University also havea numberof Toran documents or arfcts in thei colle tions. Thetis probably only ane item from Tuafan ia Sweden. When Sven Hedin passed through Turfon in 1934, be bough a paper drawing dating from the Tang, now stored in the National Museum of Ethnography in Sweden, ‘The location of ethor scattered cemine from Turfan remsins unknown, bot items sl surface from ime to tie, FUTURE PROSPECTS: To be sure he obstacles to studying Turfan seem overwhelming at first sight. As described above, artfacts and document rom the ste are sored in atleast six countries (Ching, Finland Germany. Japan, Great Bri, and Rossa) ‘in over twenty diferent locations ~ each witht own numbering system ~ acd not all have ben published Electronic resources should provide some guidance. The database of “The Silk Road Project: Reuniting Tusfan's Scattered Treasuces” hisp:// ‘rw yale edu/ceas/mainchiml) has over 3,000 entries for documents and at facts, most of which have been excavated by Chinese archealogs since 1949, ‘The database translates the tle ofthe individual items into English, adit provides a set of key words in both Chinese and English) for those doing searches by topic. Thus its posible both to dently which documents and which artfcts were found in the same lomb and to understand the original contexts of documents and artifact, ‘Te Sik Road Project web-ste also contains an extensive bibliography ‘on different aspects of fein Turan. As one might expect, nsittionsl topes, such asthe equal: field system, have received the mos attention, and scholars hhave worked most extensively with Chinese language materi from the sist, seventh, and eighth centuries, rom the periods of the Kao-ch'ang kingdom and tha of direct Tang contol. As Central Asia once again becomes a area ‘of word atention, scholars ae beginning to use archeological data tila ate its early history — identifying the csleue of the indigenes peoples and determining when they were absorbed by the Chinese seers, Researchers ae alto seeking to understand the period that began around the time ofthe ‘Trang withdrawal from Central Asia, when the Uighur kingdom ruled and when Manicheanism was a slate religion forthe only ime in world bistory (One tend is certain: he dispersal of Torfan materi all over the world mess that only teams of scholars fom diferent countries working together will be able ro advance the fel. 36