From Peking To Mandalay - free ebook by Reginald Fleming Johnston

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From Peking To Mandalay

Reginald Fleming Johnston

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CHAPTER I

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION The journey of which an account is given in the following pages was not undertaken in the special interests of geographical or other science nor in the service of any Government. My chief object was to gratify a long-felt desire to visit those portions of the Chinese Empire which are least known to Europeans, and to acquire some knowledge of the various tribes subject to China that inhabit the wild regions of Chinese Tibet and north-western Yunnan. Though nearly every part of the Ei

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CHAPTER II

CHAPTER II

PEKING TO ICHANG The first part of my journey was accomplished with great rapidity, and my description of it will not occupy long in the telling. I had no desire to spend a longer time than was absolutely necessary in northern China, and was glad enough to avail myself of every facility for reaching Ichang—the port on the Yangtse where steam navigation ceases—as soon as possible. The recent completion of the northern section of the great trunk railway of China has rendered it possible to travel

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CHAPTER III

CHAPTER III

ICHANG TO WAN-HSIEN, THROUGH THE YANGTSE GORGES Just before Ichang is reached, the appearance of the Yangtse valley undergoes a sudden change. The great flat plains of the Lower Yangtse are left behind, and rugged hills creep gradually up to the river's edge. Ichang owes its importance to the fact that it is situated at the eastern entrance of the great gorges of the Upper Yangtse, at the highest point of the river which is at present attainable by steamers. Its distance from the mouth of the Ya

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CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER IV

WAN-HSIEN TO CH'ÊNG-TU Wan-hsien, though one of the most beautifully situated cities on the Yangtse, is, like most Chinese towns, more pleasing at a distance than close at hand. It lies on a slope at a bend of the river 200 miles above Ichang, and 1,200 miles from the ocean. It is not yet an open port, though I was shown a spot said to have been selected by the British consular authorities as the site of the future Consulate. The only resident Europeans are a few missionaries and a postal agent.

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CHAPTER V

CHAPTER V

CH'ÊNG-TU TO OMEI-HSIEN My next objective after leaving Ch'êng-tu was the sacred summit of Mount Omei, one of the most famous of the many historic mountains of China. I left Ch'êng-tu on 1st March in a small, leaky, and most uncomfortable craft, which took me down the Min river to Chia-ting in four days, the total distance being slightly over 130 miles. The Kuan-hsien sluices having not yet been opened to give the great plain its spring flooding, there was very little water in the stream till we

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CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VI

MOUNT OMEI AND CHINESE BUDDHISM The forests and ravines of Mount Omei 23 teem with mystery and marvel, for there are legends that carry its story far back into the dim days when the threads of history meet together in the knots of myth. There is hardly a peak un-garlanded with the flowers of romance, hardly a moss-grown boulder that is not the centre of an old-world legend. The many stories of wonderful visions and wizard sounds that have come to the eyes and ears of the pilgrims to the shrines

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CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VII

MOUNT OMEI Very few of the buildings now existing on Mount Omei can boast of antiquity, for a damp climate and the ravages of fire have in the past made short work of their fragile timbers. The monasteries are humble structures, being simply one-storied bungalows of wood. Compared with the richly-carved teakwood wats of Siam and kyaungs of Burma, they are unpretentious buildings with little decoration, and what there is possesses small artistic merit. Over the doorways and under the eaves hang s

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CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER VIII

OMEI-HSIEN TO TACHIENLU An easy journey of four days from Omei-hsien brought me to the prefectural city of Ya-chou-fu. During the first day the road lay through the northern portion of the same well-cultivated plain that stretches to the south-east as far as Chia-ting. Large areas were devoted to the cultivation of the small ash-tree which is used to assist in the production of the insect-wax. The yellow blossom of the rape was everywhere in bloom, and pervaded the air with the most delicate of

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CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER IX

TACHIENLU I remained in Tachienlu, where I found excellent quarters in a Tibetan inn, from 23rd March to 15th April. During this period of more than three weeks I exchanged visits with the Chinese prefect and the Tibetan chief or "king" of Chala, and made excursions to various places of interest in the vicinity. My main object in staying so long in one place was that I might devote some attention to the Tibetan language, of which I had previously acquired a very rudimentary knowledge. With this

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CHAPTER X

CHAPTER X

TACHIENLU TO PA-U-RONG, YALUNG RIVER I set out from Tachienlu on 15th April. My caravan consisted of three mules to carry my baggage and silver 175 (very light loads which in level country might have been carried by a single mule), two riding mules for myself and my servant, and four for my escort. Half a mile beyond the city I crossed the stone bridge known locally as the Gate of Tibet, close under the walls of a gloomy lamasery, and entered the long defile that leads into the heart of the grea

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CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XI

PA-U-RONG TO MULI The Yalung river forms the western frontier of the dominions of the king of Chala. Across the river lies the country generally known as Huang Lama, which is governed by its own lama-prince. The guide whom the king had deputed to accompany me thus far, and who had proved himself a sturdy, honest fellow, had now to return to Tachienlu, leaving me to the care of the three Chinese soldiers who had been instructed to follow me all the way to the borders of the province of Yunnan. Be

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CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XII

MULI TO YUNG-NING The territory ruled over by the lama-prince of Muli 230 is to Europeans, as it is to the Chinese themselves, almost an unknown corner of the Chinese empire. One may search in vain through books of history or travel for any description of it. Even the Ssuch'uan T'ung Chih —a work that describes the province in nearly two hundred volumes—devotes to it only a single page. Baber does little more than refer to it by name. He describes it as "a country of which almost nothing is know

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CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIII

YUNG-NING TO LI-CHIANG At Yung-ning I parted with some regret from my three Chinese soldiers—including Hoggins and Bloggins—who had acted as my escort all the way from Tachienlu. They had carried out their orders to the letter in seeing me safely into Yunnan, and in many ways had rendered me faithful and valuable service. Attended by such men a traveller in the wilds of Chinese Tibet has indeed but little to complain of. They were always cheerful, obedient and respectful, never once grumbled at

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CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XIV

LI-CHIANG TO TALI-FU I was now bound for Tali-fu, having bargained with a new set of muleteers to take me there in five days. I was anxious to press on as rapidly as possible, not only because I was now on ground that had several times been traversed and described by other Europeans, but also because the rainy season was just beginning, and might seriously hamper my movements in crossing the mountains and rivers beyond Tali-fu. I had not yet decided whether to proceed to Burma by the T'êng-yüeh-

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CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XV

ETHNOLOGY OF THE CHINESE FAR WEST In the foregoing chapters I have attempted to give some account of a portion of that wild border country which constitutes the Far West of China, and most readers will perhaps agree that of all its striking features it possesses no peculiarity so remarkable and so puzzling as the number and diversity of the races by which it is peopled. At a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in 1904 a well-known Oriental scholar, Sir George Scott, K.C.I.E., made the rema

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CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVI

TALI-FU TO BHAMO At Tali-fu I found it impossible to hire mules or coolies for a journey to the Kunlon ferry, though during the cool weather the transport question would have presented no difficulty. To travel from Tali to Yün-chou, on the south of the Mekong, would have occupied, I was told, only seven days, and another twelve days' march would have brought me through the valley of the Nam Ting to the Salwen ferry at Kunlon, the boundary of British territory. From there it is but four or five e

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CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVII

BHAMO TO MANDALAY A few years ago Bhamo was regarded by Europeans as far out of the reach of the ordinary traveller, and beyond the uttermost limits of what to the complacent Western mind constitutes civilisation. Since our soldiers took "the road to Mandalay" and ended an almost bloodless campaign in 1885 365 by annexing Upper Burma and deporting its misguided monarch, the little north-eastern frontier-town of Bhamo has entered upon a new phase of its somewhat dramatic history. It is now a cons

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APPENDIX A: VOCABULARIES

APPENDIX A: VOCABULARIES

1 Literally, "The side where the sun rises." 2 Literally, "The side where the sun sets." 1 Literally, "The side where the sun rises." 2 Literally, "The side where the sun sets." 1 Literally, "The side where the sun rises." 2 Literally, "The side where the sun sets." 1 Literally, "The side where the sun rises." 2 Literally, "The side where the sun sets."...

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NOTE 1 (p. 61)

NOTE 1 (p. 61)

MOUNT OMEI AND CHOU KUNG SHAN There are vague traditions that Mount Omei was a centre of primitive nature-worship long before the days of Buddhism. There is a passage in the Shu Ching from which we learn that the semi-mythical emperor Yü (about the twenty-third century B.C. ), after the completion of some of the famous drainage and irrigation works with which his name is associated, offered sacrifices on (or to) certain hills named Ts'ai and Mêng. It is a disputed point among the commentators wh

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NOTE 2 (p. 65)

NOTE 2 (p. 65)

BODHIDARMA Bodhidarma ( 逹摩大師 ) is the original of the Ta Mo so often found in Ssuch'uanese temples. Catholic missionaries, struck by the sound of the name and the fact that Ta-Mo is sometimes found wearing an ornament shaped like a Christian cross, have clung to the idea that Ta-Mo was no other than the Apostle St Thomas. (See Croix et Swastika , by Father Gaillard, pp. 80 seq. ) Bodhidarma is regarded as the founder of the Zen sect in Japan. Japanese children know him well, for he is a conspicu

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NOTE 3 (p. 70)

NOTE 3 (p. 70)

"GODS" IN BUDDHISM On this subject may be consulted the passage on the "Eel-wrigglers" in the Brahma-gâla Suttanta, translated by Rhys Davids in the Sacred Books of the Buddhists , vol. ii. Buddhism refrains from denying, rather than distinctly affirms, the existence of the Brahmanical gods; but these gods, if existent, are regarded as neither omnipotent nor immortal. They are subject to the law of karma just as man himself is subject. The Arahat is greater than any "god" because released from a

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NOTE 4 (p. 71)

NOTE 4 (p. 71)

NIRVANA The view of Nirvana set forth in the text is that taught by Professor Rhys Davids, the veteran scholar to whom all European students of Buddhism owe so deep a debt of gratitude. (See his Buddhism , Hibbert Lectures , American Lectures , and his valuable contributions to the Sacred Books of the East . With regard to Nirvana, see especially his Questions of King Milinda , vol. i. pp. 106-108 and vol. ii. pp. 181 seq. ) As regards the tanha or "thirst" for existence, which according to the

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NOTE 5 (p. 76)

NOTE 5 (p. 76)

THE MAHAYANA For explanations of the rise of the Mahayana, see (among many other authorities) Max Mūller's India , p. 87 (1905 edn.) and his Last Essays (First Series) pp. 260 seq. (Longmans: 1901); see also p. 376 in R. Sewell's essay on Early Buddhist Symbolism (J.R.A.S., July, 1886). For the growth of the Mahayana and kindred schools in China, the works of Beal, Edkins, Eitel and Watters are among the first that should be consulted. There is still a great deal that is mysterious in the early

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NOTE 6 (p. 86)

NOTE 6 (p. 86)

ANTIQUITIES OF MOUNT OMEI As Baber's discovery of the chüan tien or spiral-shaped brick hall and the bronze elephant which it contains aroused very natural enthusiasm among persons interested in Far Eastern antiquities, and is still repeatedly referred to in connection with Chinese archæology, it is with hesitation that I suggest a doubt as to whether either the building or the elephant is as old as Baber—and others after him—have supposed. (See Supplementary Papers , R.G.S., vol. i. pp. 34-36,

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NOTE 7 (p. 86)

NOTE 7 (p. 86)

"BUDDHA'S TEETH" The most famous of the supposed teeth of Buddha is, of course, the celebrated relic preserved in Kandy. The Buddhists of Ceylon will have none of the story that the original tooth was ground into powder by a pious Portuguese archbishop of the sixteenth century, and they firmly believe that the genuine relic still reposes in Kandy at the Malagawa Vihara. China possesses, or is supposed to possess, several of the alleged Buddha's teeth, but they seem to have acquired no more than

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NOTE 8 (p. 89)

NOTE 8 (p. 89)

THE K'AI SHAN CH'U TIEN The name of this monastery shows that it claims to be one of the original religious foundations of Mount Omei. According to tradition it was here that P'u Kung, as related in Chapter VI., was gathering herbs when he came across "in a misty hollow" the tracks of the lily-footed deer that led him to the mountain-top. The monastery is supposed to have been founded in commemoration of the occurrence....

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NOTE 9 (p. 95)

NOTE 9 (p. 95)

TA SHÊNG SSŬ OR GREAT VEHICLE MONASTERY The old name of this monastery was Hua Ch'êng ( 化成 ), and the name was chosen by its founder, "a holy monk from the foreign countries of the West," who said that the scenery reminded him of his native country. Tradition says that he built the original hermitage of the bark of trees; hence the additional name Mu-p'i by which the foundation was known for centuries afterwards. One of the stories about this part of the mountain is that two hungry pilgrims were

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NOTE 11 (p. 108)

NOTE 11 (p. 108)

"THE HOLY LAMPS" Among good Chinese descriptions of this phenomenon may be mentioned those of Yüan Tzŭ Jang ( 袁子讓 ) of the Ming and Ho Shih Hêng ( 何式恒 ) of the present dynasty. Both writers have been mentioned in the preceding note. The former wrote a delightful account of his visit to Mount Omei. It is in a flowing unpedantic style, and it proves that its writer had a keenly observant eye and a great liking for old-world legends combined with a power of working them up into a graceful narrative

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NOTE 12 (p. 109)

NOTE 12 (p. 109)

THE HSIEN TSU TIEN, CHUNG FÊNG SSŬ AND TA O SSŬ The Hsien Tsu Tien represents the earliest of the Mount Omei monasteries, and is said to have been built by P'u Kung in the reign of Ming Ti of the Han dynasty after the famous episode of the lily-footed deer. Probably if the searchlight of strict historical enquiry were to be turned on the legends and records of Mount Omei, it would be found that the mountain knew nothing of Buddhism until the third or fourth centuries of our era. It is a signific

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NOTE 13 (p. 114)

NOTE 13 (p. 114)

YA-CHOU-FU The military importance of this city was very great so long as the tribal chiefs and Tibetans had not been reduced to comparative quiescence. The commander-in-chief of the military forces of the province was permanently stationed at this frontier city. ( Shêng Wu Chi , 11th chüan .)...

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NOTE 14 (p. 117)

NOTE 14 (p. 117)

THE TA HSIANG LING There is a small unsettled controversy regarding the name of the Ta Hsiang Ling. It is possible that the mountain owes its name not to the legend of P'u Hsien's elephant, but to the famous general Chu-ko Liang (see note 1 ). Devout Buddhists are bound to hold that the name means "The Great Elephant," and this is the view taken in all Buddhistic accounts of western Ssuch'uan and in the maps issued by the monks of Mount Omei. But other authorities—including the official Topograp

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NOTE 15 (p. 120)

NOTE 15 (p. 120)

CH'ING-CH'I-HSIEN This little town has had a variety of names during its long and chequered history, and it frequently changed hands. Its position was for centuries somewhat analogous to that of Berwick-on-Tweed during the Anglo-Scottish border wars. The T'ung Chih states that it passed into the hands of the Chinese after one of the numerous "pacifications of the West," in the 30th year of Han Wu Ti (111 B.C. ), but it was lost to China many times after that. Its present name and status as a mag

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NOTE 16 (p. 121)

NOTE 16 (p. 121)

THE LIU SHA RIVER The Liu Sha is also known as the Han Shui or Chinese water. It is said to rise in the "Fairy's Cave" ( hsien jên tung ) in the Fei Yüeh range. Thence it flows to the Shih Chien Shan or Trial-of-the-Sword Hill and joins the Chien Shui ( 澗水 ) and thereafter enters the Ta Tu. According to the Huan Yü Chi ( 寰宇記 ) an evil miasma arises from this river every winter and spring, causing fever. NOTE 17 ( p. 122 ) THE FEI YÜEH LING AND HUA-LIN-P'ING This great pass has for centuries been

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NOTE 18 (p. 124)

NOTE 18 (p. 124)

THE TA TU RIVER The Ta Tu (Great Ferry) is said to derive its name from the fact that it was crossed by the ubiquitous Chu-ko Liang. In the neighbourhood of Chia-ting it is commonly known as the T'ung, and above Wa Ssŭ Kou its two branches are always known as the Great and Small Chin Ch'uan. ( Shêng Wu Chi , 5th chüan .)...

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NOTE 19 (p. 126)

NOTE 19 (p. 126)

LU TING BRIDGE The Ssuch'uan T'ung Chih makes the following remark in connection with the suspension bridge at Lu Ting. "Formerly there was no bridge. The waters of the river are swift and turbulent, and boats and oars cannot be used. Travellers used to cross by hanging on to a rope stretched across the river—a dangerous proceeding." (We shall see, when we come to the Yalung, that rope bridges are still in use.) In the fortieth year of K'ang Hsi (1701) it was decided with imperial sanction to co

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NOTE 20 (p. 129)

NOTE 20 (p. 129)

TACHIENLU The Chinese characters (see Itinerary ) used for the name Tachienlu are three separate words signifying strike , arrow , forge . These characters were originally chosen merely to represent the sound of the Tibetan name Tar-rTse-Mto or Dartsendo (derived from the names of the streams that meet there), but Chinese archæologists contrived to forget this and insisted upon finding an interpretation of the word that would suit the meaning of the three Chinese characters. Accordingly they con

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NOTE 21 (p. 129)

NOTE 21 (p. 129)

SINO-TIBETAN TRADE Chinese accounts of Tachienlu as a trading centre may be found in the Hsi Tsang T'u K'ao , the Tachienlu T'ing Chih and the more easily accessible Shêng Wu Chi . In the fifth volume of the last-named work the town is aptly described as being (from the commercial point of view) the hub of a wheel—the centre at which all the spokes meet....

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NOTE 22 (p. 136)

NOTE 22 (p. 136)

THE KING OF CHALA Tachienlu is not a correct name for the state as a whole: it is strictly applicable only to the city. The state may be described as Chala or as Ming Chêng. Ming Chêng ( 明正 ) corresponds with the Chinese title of the king—Ming Chêng Ssŭ ( 明正司 )—which was conferred upon an ancestor no less than five hundred years ago. The meaning of the Chinese words—"bright" and "correct"—are of no consequence. The word "Chala" we have already discussed on page 136. The king's Chinese rank is th

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NOTE 23 (p. 155)

NOTE 23 (p. 155)

HEIGHTS OF PASSES With regard to the elevations given in this book it is very necessary to say that those referring to localities between Tachienlu and Li-chiang must be regarded as tentative and provisional only. Future travellers, better equipped with instruments than I was, will doubtless find much to correct. My readings were for the most part dependent on aneroids, which are very untrustworthy at great altitudes. Wherever possible, I have accepted the results of previous travellers, especia

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NOTE 24 (p. 157)

NOTE 24 (p. 157)

POPULATION OF YALUNG WATERSHED M. Bonin appears to have had the same experience. He states that in travelling from Chung-tien viâ Muli to Tachienlu—a journey of about a month's duration—he did not meet a single Chinese. "All the inhabitants," he says, "belong to the Tibetan race." ( Bulletin de la Soc. de Géog. , 1898, p. 393.)...

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NOTE 25 (p. 161)

NOTE 25 (p. 161)

RACE-TYPES OF YALUNG WATERSHED These people owe their tall and well-built frames to their non-Tibetan blood. It is probably the "Man-tzŭ" blood that tells. "The stature of the Tibetans of Lhasa," says Colonel Waddell, "is even less than that of the Chinese, and considerably below the European average; whilst the men from the eastern province of Kham are quite up to that standard." ( Lhasa and its Mysteries , p. 347.) Kham or Khams includes or included the greater part of Chinese Tibet....

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NOTE 26 (p. 186)

NOTE 26 (p. 186)

ATTITUDE OF MULI PEOPLE TOWARDS STRANGERS M. Bonin states that he had to spend ten days in negotiation before he was allowed, in 1895, to cross into the Muli country. He approached it from the Yunnan side. ( Bulletin de la Soc. de Géog. , 1898, p. 396.) Major Davies informs me that he also had difficulty in persuading the people of Muli to allow him to cross the Yalung in the course of his journey from Mien-ning-hsien. It was doubtless owing to the friendliness and tact shown by these travellers

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NOTE 27 (p. 187)

NOTE 27 (p. 187)

EXPLORATION OF THE TA LIANG SHAN It is reported that the country of the Independent Lolos (the Ta Liang Shan) has at last been traversed by a European. The successful traveller was a French officer named D'Ollone. (See Geographical Journal , October, 1907, p. 437.) The account of his journey should be awaited with interest....

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NOTE 28 (p. 190)

NOTE 28 (p. 190)

THE PA-U-RONG T'U PAI HU The t'u pai hu of Pa-U-Rong (Pa-U-Lung according to the Pekingese sound of the Chinese characters) is to be accounted one of the most important of all the 49 sub-chiefs of the king of Chala, if the amount of tribute paid is the test of importance. His annual tribute is 7 taels, whereas the single t'u ch'ien hu only pays a little more than 9 taels. The highest of all the tributes is that of the t'u pai hu of Rumi Cho-rong, in the northern part of the state. His payment is

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NOTE 29 (p. 191)

NOTE 29 (p. 191)

NAME OF THE YALUNG M. Bonin calls the Yalung the Rivière Noire , apparently supposing its Tibetan name to be Nag Ch'u ( ནག་ཆུ་ ) "Black Water." But I know of no authority for this. The true Tibetan name appears to he Nya(g)-ch'u ( ཉག་ཆུ་ ). The nya(g) reappears in the tribal or district name Mi-nya(g) or Miniak (Menia), མི་ཉག་ ; and the Chinese "Yalung" is an attempt to pronounce the Tibetan Nya-Rong ( ཉག་རོང་ ) or "Valley of the Nya."...

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NOTE 30 (p. 197)

NOTE 30 (p. 197)

THE CHIN SHA CHIANG It may not be generally known that according to the Chinese authorities there are two rivers bearing the name of Chin Sha Chiang. One is the Ta (Great), the other the Hsiao (Small) Chin Sha Chiang, and the "small" one is the Yangtse . In a first attempt to identify the Ta Chin Sha Chiang—which must obviously be a very great river—we are apt to be much puzzled; for we read of it as flowing from western Tibet and also as flowing through Burma into the "Southern Ocean." But the

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NOTE 31 (p. 213)

NOTE 31 (p. 213)

MULI I have adopted the spelling "Muli" instead of "Mili" on the authority of the Ssuch'uan T'ung Chih . The Chinese characters there given are 木裏 , (Mu-li), and though I have seen others used I think there can be no doubt that the T'ung Chih is the best authority to follow....

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NOTE 32 (p. 216)

NOTE 32 (p. 216)

KHON The name of the third lamasery was given to me as Khon, but I observe that Mr Amundsen calls it Kang-u, and locates it half-way between Muli and the Yalung, almost due east. Major Davies's map, again, places a lamasery named K'u-lu at almost the same spot. K'u-lu, Khon and Kang-u are probably one and the same place, and as Major Davies's route seems to have led him past it the name given by him is probably the correct one. It seems strange that the residences of the k'an-po should all be wi

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NOTE 33 (p. 217)

NOTE 33 (p. 217)

OFFICIAL TITLES IN MULI Most of these official titles are well known in connection with the administrative arrangements of all the great lamaseries of Tibet; but the authority of the Muli officials is not confined to the management of lamaseries....

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NOTE 34 (p. 219)

NOTE 34 (p. 219)

THE KING AND PEOPLE OF MULI The ruler of Muli holds the rank, vis-à-vis the Chinese suzerain, of an An Fu Ssŭ (see note 22 ). In his own territory he is a gyal-po or king, but he is also a lama, and the succession must therefore go to a collateral branch of the "royal" family. In practice, the heir is generally a nephew who has been inducted into Lamaism at an early age, and has risen high in the hierarchy. The king of Muli first became tributary to China in the seventh year of Yung Chêng (1729)

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NOTE 35 (p. 222)

NOTE 35 (p. 222)

THE LANGUAGE-TEST OF RACE The collection of hastily-compiled and doubtless very inaccurate vocabularies to be found in Appendix A need not be taken as indicating any belief in the value of such lists of words from either the philological or the ethnological point of view. They are given merely for what they are worth, as an infinitesimal addition to the small stock of general knowledge that we already possess with regard to the tribes of western China. The old faith in language as a sure test of

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NOTE 36 (p. 226)

NOTE 36 (p. 226)

HIGHEST HABITATION ON THE GLOBE The land of Muli is as wild and mountainous as that of Chala. It was between Muli and the Yalung that M. Bonin discovered what he believes to be the highest inhabited station on the globe, at a height of 16,568 feet, "a hamlet occupied in the dead of winter by a few yak-herdsmen." The mines of Tok-ya-long in western Tibet, he says, which have hitherto been considered the highest habitation in the world are 525 feet lower, and moreover are not inhabited all the yea

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NOTE 37 (p. 233)

NOTE 37 (p. 233)

FEMALE CHIEFS In the Shan States female rulers are apparently not uncommon. (See Gazetteer of Upper Burma , pt. i. vol. i. p. 262.) For an interesting note on several Tibetan "queens" (derived from native and Chinese sources) see Rockhill's Land of the Lamas , pp. 339-341. Sa-mong is better known as So-mo. A recent European visitor to this country says that the "queen" or nü-wang of So-mo is only a myth, "the real monarch being actually a man, who for some obscure reason calls himself a Queen."

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NOTE 38 (p. 246)

NOTE 38 (p. 246)

LI-CHIANG-FU An old name of Li-chiang was Sui ( 嶲 ), and its inhabitants, in the days of the Early Han dynasty, appear to have been known as the K'un Ming ( 昆明 ). Their fierceness and lawlessness were instrumental in preventing the Emperor Wu Ti, in the second century B.C., from establishing a trade route from China to India through their territory. (See T. W. Kingsmill's Intercourse of China with Eastern Turkestan , J.R.A.S. , January 1882.)...

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NOTE 39 (p. 259)

NOTE 39 (p. 259)

THE REBELLION IN YUNNAN The best account of the Mohammedan rebellion is to be found in M. Émile Rocher's La Province Chinoise du Yunnan , vol. ii. pp. 30-192. The origin of the rebellion is to be traced to a comparatively trifling dispute among miners, which took place in 1855 in a mining centre situated between Yunnan-fu and Tali-fu. The Mohammedan section of miners, who all worked together, aroused envy and hatred because they had struck richer veins of metal than the "orthodox" Chinese miners

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NOTE 40 (p. 273)

NOTE 40 (p. 273)

CHINESE OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS OF WESTERN TRIBES Several volumes of the official Provincial Annals of Yunnan are devoted to a most elaborate quasi-ethnological enquiry into the various tribal communities of that province. Unfortunately, the conscientious industry of the compilers coupled with their bland credulity and lack of critical training led them to fill their pages with a great deal of matter that is useless and misleading. The numbers and names of the tribes are quite unnecessarily multiplied

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NOTE 42 (p. 285)

NOTE 42 (p. 285)

CHANDRAGUPTA AND ASOKA Chandragupta's reign probably began in 320 B.C., and his grandson Asoka ruled from ? 264 to ? 228. The chronology is not yet absolutely fixed, but I rely with some confidence on the dates recently selected by J. F. Fleet ( J.R.A.S. , October 1906, pp. 984 seq. ) who, it may be remarked incidentally, assigns the death of the Buddha to B.C. 482....

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NOTE 43 (p. 285)

NOTE 43 (p. 285)

VESÂLI AND THE LICCHAVIS For further information regarding Vesâli and the Licchavis see W. W. Rockhill's Life of the Buddha , pp. 62 seq. , and 203 ( footnote ), Dr Rhys Davids' Buddhist India , pp. 40-41, and two articles by Mr Vincent Smith in the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal for April 1902 and January 1905. One of Mr Rockhill's Tibetan authorities connects the Licchavis with the Sakyas or Çakyas to whom the Buddha himself belonged. "The Çakyas," says this authority, were "divided into thre

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NOTE 44 (p. 289)

NOTE 44 (p. 289)

THE SERES The Seres are mentioned by Virgil, Strabo, Lucan, Pliny and Pomponius Mela. Lucan seems to have supposed that they were an African race—neighbours of the Ethiopians. Such ignorance in Nero's age may be excused when we remember the wild theories prevalent in mediæval Europe as to the local habitation of Prester John!...

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NOTE 45 (p. 332)

NOTE 45 (p. 332)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL WORK Some valuable work—of special interest to the student of Buddhism—has quite recently been carried out at Pagan by Mr I. H. Marshall and Dr Sten Konow. (See J.R.A.S. , October 1907, pp. 1003 seq. ) It is earnestly to be hoped that that Government will some day see fit to provide for the proper support of the Archæological Department, which cannot be expected to carry out good work at Pagan or elsewhere without funds. Every year's delay will render the work of excavation more di

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NOTE 46 (p. 335)

NOTE 46 (p. 335)

THE BURMESE LABOUR QUESTION One aspect of the labour question in Burma does not seem to have attracted the attention it deserves. In spite of Mr Fielding Hall's optimism, the belief that the apathetic Burman is being shouldered out of his own country by more hard-working immigrants, especially natives of India, is a very prevalent one, not only among European observers, but even among some classes of the Burmese themselves. At present no Burman dares to raise a protest against the influx of labo

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NOTE 47 (p. 384)

NOTE 47 (p. 384)

MILITARY QUALITIES OF ORIENTALS The British officers who trained and led the recently-disbanded Chinese Regiment are known to have formed a high opinion of the personal courage of the Chinese as represented by the men of that regiment. When it is remembered that the very existence of the regiment as a unit in the British Army was an anomaly, and that at Tientsin and Peking the men fought as mercenaries against their own countrymen, the fact that they behaved well under fire is all the more notew

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NOTE 48 (p. 388)

NOTE 48 (p. 388)

"THE YELLOW PERIL" With some people the antipathy to the Oriental amounts to a positive horror, inexplicable even by themselves in ordinary language, and very often based on no personal experience. "I know not," said De Quincey, "what others share in my feelings on this point; but I have often thought that if I were compelled to forego England, and to live in China, among Chinese manners and modes of life and scenery, I should go mad. The causes of my horror lie deep, and some of them must be co

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