RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author 12 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 One by one successive tribes arose Huns, Avars, Turks, Mongols, Manchus-dashed themselves against the frontiers of the Empire, and sometimes recoiling proceeded through Central Asia to Europe, sometimes breaking through the Wall, submerged for a time the whole Empire. Apart from some stone monuments found in Central Asia, few but of great importance, the record of these tribes is to be found in the Chinese Histories, with references in the Greek authors of the Byzantine Empire, whenever the tribes impinged upon the West. Interest in collecting the Scythian bronzes commenced with Peter the Great. It is natural that the Russians and the scholars of Eastern Europe should be the first to be interested in the history of the Central Asian tribes. To them is largely due the excavations in Southern Europe and Siberia, and also in Mongolia. But in English we have the massive work 'Scythians and Greeks' by E. H. Minns. The Turks also are particularly interested in these studies, which have thrown much light upon the origin of the Turkish peoples. One outcome of the struggle of the Chinese Empire with the Huns was the first extension of Chinese power in Central Asia, through the Tarim Basin, the present Sinkiang, to the Pamirs. This chapter in world history includes the fascinating account of the journey of Chang Ch'ien to the West in the second century B.C., the exploits of Pan Ch'ao in the Tarim Basin in the first century A.D., and the despatch of a Chinese envoy, Kan Ying, to the shores of the Persian Gulf, During the first and second centuries the famous silk trade arose between China and Rome, recorded by Ptolemy and the Chinese histories. For a short time the land route between China and the West was open. The road passed through the Tarim Basin, between the northern grasslands and Tibet. It also became the great highway between India and China. The Tarim Basin is one of the most remarkable geographical regions in the world, lying as it does between glaciated mountains on three sides, with a waterless desert in the centre. Around the desert, watered by streams from the mountains, are the oasis towns and villages, which form stepping stones as it were for travellers passing from east to west, or from west to east. By this thoroughfare have passed from time immemorial the travellers of Central Asia-merchants, soldiers, monks. And by this thoroughfare the great cultural influences-Indian, Persian, Greek-have passed with Buddhism from Western and Southern Asia to China. By this thoroughfare Chinese colonization spread to the Pamirs. By this route Marco Polo journeyed to China in the thirteenth century. Page 15 Page 16 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 154 NOTES AND QUERIES heard in Hong Kong also before the Chinese, and the Chinese form in which they have come down to us is merely a disguise, just as the common modern Arabic effendi, borrowed from Turkish, conceals quite effectively the high Byzantine military title of Avthentis which is itself the same word as the English authentic; and just as the modern Cantonese abusive expression for an Indian Mo-lo-cha10 disguises the honourable title of Maharaja. And who, for another example, would identify the Malay title dato in its Cantonese form na-tuk? The task of a student of comparative language in identifying words borrowed from tangential cultures is often far from easy. NOTES 1 'ama, (Arabic); 'âmâh, (Hebrew). 2 a-mraah, §, meaning father's mother, 3 Draaibhaano, A#, the head of a foreign business house, 4 Fhaabwronq, #£. That this was once used only of foreigners' gardeners is hinted by the fact that the old term frynn-dheng HT was never so used. Nowadays all gardeners are called fhaahwrong. 5 fhaann, ⭑. 6 Fhukgin-saarng, #44. 7 Gwuuradim, A. 8 jribmroo-gwor, I#4. The San On Yuen Chi lists this as a native fruit and says it is so named because it is used by women in difficult pregnancies (anti-scorbutic?). But see note 12, + 9 Irok-fhaah-sbaanq, ✯✯✯. The author of the San On Yuen Chi seems unaware that this plant was an importation, a fact he notes in several other cases. 10 Mho-lho-chaa, 44%, originally Я% · 11 Nraabdhuk, ** 12 nrenqmbung, #. However there are some facts about the lemon which are not easy to reconcile. The Britannica says it is a hybrid one of whose parents is probably a lime; and the Sanskrit for a lime is nimbu which looks a nearer relative of the modern than the ancient Chinese form. The commonest pronunciation in Cantonese is Irammbung. Also see 8. 13 sayyid, (Arabic). 14 shihnhaai, # like Madame, strictly correct only for the wives of foreigners, but in Hong Kong used now for any married woman. 15 sritrawy, $# "Boss", now used for all employers, 16 srizae, # a "house-boy" in a foreign family, Often mistakenly written 事仔, 17 Thih-thiw, NE. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 52 Now while such a statement might have been reasonable if applied to the Christian Byzantine empire in 781, it certainly did not represent the true state of affairs in Syria, which had been under Arab Moslem rule for nearly 150 years. Here the author had in mind the Christian culture of the wider Mediterranean world, and was not thinking of conditions in Syria alone. The term ching-chiao, 'brilliant teaching', was a striking and original expression, appropriate for a religion whose founder claimed to be the Light of the World. The character ching, 'brilliant', could be found in Buddhist contexts with happy connotations. It was a term which may also have particularly appealed to Persians, whose religious thought, whether Zoroastrian, Manichean, or Christian, has traditionally stressed the conflict between light and darkness. Interestingly, the Nestorians used a rare, but apparently permissible, form of the ching character. Its normal form consists of the character ching, 'great', which supplies the pronunciation, surmounted by the radical jih, 'sun', which indicates the meaning. The Nestorians transposed one horizontal stroke to convert the radical jih into the character kou, 'mouth', and to make a reciprocal change in the ching character below, which includes the character kou among its elements. At least thirteen variants of the character ching are known to have been used by Chinese calligraphers, but most, if not all, involve only minor alterations which enhance the character's basic meaning. A Yüan dynasty example of Chou Sheng-chou, for example, has an extra stroke, giving two suns. The Nestorian version, on the other hand, is not found elsewhere, and achieves an effect which goes beyond the elegant variation permitted to eminent calligraphers. The Nestorian variant is dominated by the kou radical, and its effect is to subtly subvert the impression made by the character in its normal form and to suggest that the 'brilliant teaching' is a doctrine to be spread to others, to be communicated by word of mouth. The expression ching-chiao, 'brilliant teaching', occurs several times in the Sian tablet inscription. The character ching, 'brilliant' also occurs on its own in a number of different contexts in the inscription, sometimes as an adjective meaning little more than 'bright', sometimes implying 'Christian', and occasionally, when applied to the Messiah, seeking to convey a sense of divine splendour. Christian churches are ching-ssu, 'brilliant monasteries', Christian priests ching-ssu Page 75 Page 76 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 221 Tucker establishes a framework, too, for the rise of Islam. An Arab attempt on Constantinople in 718 seems to have failed only because of outbreaks of the plague, and famine, in the Arab forces. Chillingly, Tucker argues that it was only these chance events (though famine, surely, could have been attributed to mismanagement) that gave Christianity time to strengthen its precarious hold in Europe. And, on the eastern frontier of Islam, a Chinese army was defeated by an Arab force at the River Talas in modern Kazakhstan in 751, and this meant the end to Tang hopes to control Central Asia beyond Xinjiang. Tucker argues that it was Chinese captured at the Talas River who introduced the technology of paper and silk manufacture to Damascus and Samarkand. Other books on popular reading lists about the Silk Road tend to be books of travel. Some are almost gazetteers, while others concentrate on archaeologists' researches. This book is different, focusing as it does on telling the Silk Road's history and demonstrating the links between the art forms that emerged from each era and culture. To give an idea of the scope of the book, here are the Section headings: Beginnings (three chapters: on the Silk Road's precursors; on Nomads; and on the Kushans) China (three chapters: on the introduction of Buddhism to China; on Luoyang, and on Xi'an) The Silk Road between Xi'an and Dunhuang (one chapter) The Silk Road through China beyond Dunhuang (two chapters, one each on the northern and the southern routes) The Silk Road through Central Asia (ten chapters including one on The Coming of Islam to Central Asia; one on The Mongols; one on Tamerlane and the Timurids; and the rest focusing on different routes. Persia and Beyond (nine chapters, including one on The Parthians and The Sasanians, seven on different routes, and a concluding chapter on The End of the Road: The Silk Road in Decline). The pattern, then, is to use some chapters to describe chains of events, and others to present the artistic achievements of specific periods. In addition, there are useful chronological tables on China; on the pre-Islamic States of Western and Central Asia; on the Islamic States; and on the Emperors of Byzantium. Tucker also provides a Summary of Traded Goods. ================================================================================