| In this dissertation the section on the Western Barbarians in Tu Yu's early 9th century encyclopedic T'ung Tien is translated into English and annotated. The period from the Han Dynasty through the early T'ang is covered, with emphasis on the latter; geographically, Tu Yu's fullest treatment has been given to the Tarim Basin, Sogdiana, and what is now Afghanistan. Most of the entries concern small principalities, but there are also notices, some of them quite lengthy, of various nomadic tribes and of mythical lands (and of semi-mythical ones such as the Kingdom of Women), as well as of Kushans, Hephthalities, Sasanians, Arabs, and the very first notices of Tibet anywhere. The extensive annotations make full use of Chinese dynastic histories and other original sources as well as works of modern (particularly Russian) scholarship, and are intended both to summarize and to bring up to date what information we possess of the ancient tribes and civilizations that lined the caravan routes between China and the West that are often collectively termed the "Silk Road". Textual difficulties, obscurities, alternate translations, etc., are fully dealt with in footnotes. The 87-page Preliminary Essay, which includes an historical summary, has been written to supplement information given in the main body of the work (i.e. the 826 pages of translation and annotations) with additional information that was deemed important but which did not lend itself to footnotes. Tangential problems such as Hsuan-tu and the Ants' Gold are covered in 49 pages of appendices. Simple maps, the complete Chinese text (28 pages of small print; photocopied), and a comprehensive bibliography are included. |
