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From “Shule” to “Kashgar”

　

The regions Including Kashgar Prefecture From the north of Yengisar County in present day and the almost region of present Kizilsu Kirghiz autonomous prefecture was called “Shule state”. From Wei to Song Dynasty, south Shache and Guma county all belonged to “Shule country”. In Western Han Dynasty, the capital of Shule country is called “Shule city”, i.e. today’s Kashi city.
In ancient western regions, the phenomenon of calling a city or a regional political power “country” went on into the Ming Dynasty, just as records in the “The Record of Western region of Ming Dynasty”: “Places with large territory is called country, while small ones are called state”, in form it equates to vassals conferred by the king in ancient China, which was different from today’s country but similar to 800 vassals in Zhou period and seven states in Warring period which were all local political power under the charge of the central government.

As for the name “Shule”, we can find the record of “Shale”, which was the anamorphosis of Shule. At first it was the name of a central city and gradually it became the name of a region or a country, which was a common rule in the evolution of the ancient place names. According to “The Record of Western Regions of Tang Dynasty”: “the old Shule came from the name of the capital city, whose right pronunciation is shiliqiliduodi.” Which means Shule was only the capital name at the beginning, and the right prononciation was shiliqiliduodi.

According to some, “shili” in shiliqiliduodi was the proper pronunciation of Shule; and the phrase means the country of shulers, “qi” means “people of”, just as in Turkish people of Hotan were called “Hutanqi”, when Tang Xuan zang came to Shule, the majority people there spoke Turkish. Although Xuanzang did not explain what the place name meant, it can be inferred that Shule was the city name at first and then became the name of a country.

As for town and commanding office established in Tang Dynasty, and the direct prefecture in Qing Dynasty (l884), as well as counties of present-day and Republic of China were derivations from “Shule” at that time. Although after Qing Dynasty Shule and today’s Kashgar cities are different names in different places, the origin is the same.

What worth mention is that apart from present-day Kashgar, there are several places in other parts of China called Shule, which was rare in place names of Xinjiang.

In Qitai County of north Xinjiang there is an ancient Shule city, which was called Shichengzi by the locals. According to historical record, an official named Wei Genggong in A.D. 75 in the East Han dynasty stationed there, leaving behind him a much-told story of ” Baiquan defeated Hsiungnu”.
Another Shule city is located in the territory of today’s Anxi county of Gansu province, which was called “Gulu city” in the past and got the name Shule from its location. An expert of Qing period said that it seemed as if it was Shule state, although there were not any traces but the river was called Shule River.

The above two Shule cities have fall into oblivion, but Shule river is still there. On the north of Qinghai Province is another place called Shule - Mt. Shule, headwaters of Shule River. So many places used Shule as their names indicated the fact that the name is very influential in Chinese history.

Could it be some clan or tribe in the ancient times left the name there while they migrated south along the Gansu Corridor? This is a reasonable supposition, but still an unsolved mystery at present.
If we want to determine the exact meaning of Shule, the key point is to clarify from which clan or tribe did it come and what kind of dialect did they hold, but it is no easy task. At present, there are many explanations. The following are most typical.

First, according to the research of a Japanese expert, “Today’s Kashgar was Shule of the Han Dynasty. In Turkish ‘ water ‘ was called shu, “have water” was called Suluk (pronounce as’ Su Zhike ‘). Kashgar boasts rich water resources and lush grass, thus got the name. Baiwukuji thought Shule was the Chinese version of Suluk, which means “a place with water”

Second, it is thought to be Soghd language of the Indo-European language family in ancient Middle East. Soghd people lived in present-day central Asia, simultaneously speaking two dialects. One of them is “L” dialect, which was mainly used among Soghd businessmen who did their business in Xinjiang. In “L” dialect, the last syllable “d” was read as “L”, such as Soghd is written as Soghl. Around 128 .C., when Zhangqian went to the western regions, he imitated the sound of suohele in Soghd and translated it into shule in Chinese. In other words, Shule was a tribe’s name used for place name.

Third, Qianboquan wrote in the note of “Research of Seves”, “Shule” was from ancient Hsiungnu language, which means “yellow”. He thought the Selengge river basin in today’s Mongolian Plateau was the cradle of Hsiungnu; “Seleng ge” was translated into yellow in the ancient Chinese books. “Selengge” pronounced almost the same with shule. Before Zhang Qian went to the western regions, Hsiungnu had governed areas around Tianshan for many years, but the Hsiungnu saw ” The soil layer is thick. When the ice melt in the spring, river water is also yellow”, therefore the area is called ” Selenge” - shule.

Others thought the big Rouzhi people who moved westward from the Gansu Corridor left the name around 176 B.C. Still others thought Sai people gave the name after they were defeated by the big Rouzhi and migrated there. This was merely supposition Geographic name is the product of language. From linguists’ point, the origin of the word is worth studying. But two premises must be clarified. First, this name had existed when Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty went to the western regions, i.e. before 128 B.C., such as “Cao nu” in the “Journey of Zhou Muwang”, could be the earliest Chinese record of “shule “. Then, only indigenous clan and tribe migrated here earlier had the possibility of using the name. Second, certain language is always closely related to certain nations. If we do not make clear which clan or tribe lived there before 128 B.C., it is impossible for us to tell what kind of languages this clan and tribe spoke. Thus, as for its source and meaning is hard to clarify.

There is more or less some unexplainable points in the above explanations,

First, let’s look at the explanation of “has water”. It is well known that the gradual formation of Tujue in the northwest of our country was after Wei and Jin period. It is hard to imagine West Turkish conceived a name 600 or 700 before they migrated to Shule. This kind of explanation is thus groundless.

Next, let’s look at the statement of Soghd. Soghd people lived in Central Asia, who had highly developed language and writing, once exerted strong influences over the northwest ancient Chinese Turkish and Huihu. Moreover, according to the “Turkish Dictionary” by Mahhmud Kashgali, there were lots of Soghd people living near Kashgar, whose language was also very popular there. But the ancester of Soghd was in the center of central Asia. Although Soghd was well known for being good at doing business, large-scale business crossing the Pamir and settling down in shule were activities conducted by them after 2 century A.D., which can be proved by the Soghd document unearthened. So the statement is also groundless.

On the other hand, the Soghd businessmen only called themselves “Cuili” or “cuilike”, which was translated as “suli” or ”Xiuli” in Chinese historical books. But it is only similar to shule in pronunciation.

As for the version of coming from Hsiungnu language is also not appropriate. According to the historical record, Hsiungnu once conquered western regions, but Hsiungnu lived on herding in Mongolia plateau, “follow the grass”, drifting from one place to another. They would never get used to the lifestyles of the shule people who lived in oasis. Furthermore, they appeared there as conquerors. The area, which they wanted to conquer, was often lived by a certain group of people who had their own language. It was almost impossible for them to impose the name on them. Moreover, the name existed before Hsiungnu went to the Tianshan Mountain.
So, it is hard to clarify its origin and meaning.

It was generally believed that the substitution of “Kashgar” for “Kashi ” began after Song and Yuan period. Actually, the initial use of “Kashgar” should be traced back to the 6th century, when Turkish went to western regions in large qualities. By song dynasty in the 10th century, it was still called shule in historical record by custom.

The way we call Kashgar as Kashi actually brings back its initial use. At the beginning of 4 centuries in “Brief Record of Wei”, started to call it “jieshi”, but the name was probably only used by officials. The name “shule” was still widely used.

In 644 A.D., when Tang Xuanzang reached here, he recorded it as “Qieshaguo”. Because Xuan Zang often wrote the place names in Sanskrit, the name was neglected.

There are records of “Khasa” in the Buddhist classical works “Kong Que Wang Zhou Jing”, which was translated as “jiashe” in Sengjiapoluo’s version. It indicates that Buddhists noticed the changes of place names in Kashgar earlier that officials.

But, from Tang Dynasty, officials began to pay attention to the changes. Although Tang Dynasty still named here according to the name of Western Han Dynasty “Shule town” or “Shule Frontier Command”, and conferred the highest official “shule king”. But in both the new and old “Record of Tang Dynasty”, there is explicit record of shule “the king lives in jiashi city”. The capital city was called ” jiashi” (certainly not today’s jiashi county, but today’s Kashi city), which was obviously the supplement of “Jieshi”, “jiashe” and”qusha”

The above several pronunciations can still be heard today: the archetype of today’s Kashgar city (the oldest residential area and one of the four major streets in present-day Kashgar city) is called “qiasa”, sometimes “qia Si”.

Please read the following names: jieshi - jashi- qusha- jiashi - qiasi (Sa) – Kashi. There are some internal relationships between them. These names are all anamorphosis of Kashi. Therefore, after Republic of China, “Kashgar” was read as “Kashi” is an unaware restoration of the original pronunciation.

Attaches “ Gar” to the end of “Kashi” are the afte-matter. After 8 century A.D., the famous monk Huichao “” started to record the place as ” jiashidili “; while another monk Peihui born in Shule in the bright temple of Tang Dynasty in his famous work “recorded his hometown as “jiashi jiejieli”,
“Jiashidili” and “jiashijieli”, although different in written form but had same pronunciation. Kaxqar (Kashgar) was the initial translation of Kashgar. After the 6th century, the large-scale merging of northwest nationalities attributed to various pronunciations of the same name. By he end of the 8th century, when Kalahan kingdom established its capital there, it was read as Kaxqir, which was almost the same with the “jiashiqiki” and close to today’s pronunciation. Later it was more and more similar to the formalized version in Qing Dynasty ” Kashi Gar”, such as “Qisihar”, “keshihar” in Yuan Dynasty; “hashihar ” or “hashiha” in Ming Dynasty.

‘Kashgar’, means ’ jade’ in Tujue, in page 208 of the 3rd volume of “Turkish Dictionary” (modern Uyghur version). But suffix “Gar”, means region and state (“Notes of The Record of the Western Regions in Tang Dynasty” by Ji Xianling). Sai people were an ancient tribe lived in Shule before Zhang Qian went to Western Regions, according to documents unearthed near Bachu County. Therefore, it was not strange for Sai language to appear in place names. After the Tujue clan and tribe flushed into the western regions, backing up by the powerful military force, it was completely possible for them to turkilize the locals.

But the locals were not willing to give up their own language, “gar” was added by them at the end of the Turkish word “kashi”. Thereupon the word “Kashgar” appeared which derived from two languages, and are often explained as “country of jade”, “place rich in jade”, “Yushan” or “the jade city”. In a word, its name was more or less related to “jade”.

But, in present-day Kashi city and its neighboring area, there are no records of producing jade. Then, why the name is so closely related to jade?

The following two explanations here sound quite convincing. First, we can interpret it from esthetic angle. In the ancient times, nearly all nationalities regarded jade as chaste product. As a result, they esteemed it, used jade containers to offer sacrifice to heaven or god, and took pride in wearing jade decorations. “Silk Road” was called “road of jade” in north part of Chinese prairie and central Asia. It is very likely that ancient people equated Chinese silk to jade.

On the other hand, Kashgar was a beautiful and rich place. For many years it was political and cultural center in the Western Regions, out of love and reverence it was named “jade”. If “Kashgar” is interpreted as “Place like jade” or ” sacred or riche place” would be more appropriate.

Second, it was after Shache country was out of existence in the western regions that the word “Kashi” from Turkish language appeared. Since late Eastern Han Dynasty Shache was annexed by shule country, and became a powerful nation in western regions. Although shule does not produce jade, but MilDai Mountain in Shache had long been known as a place rich in jade (as early as Shang and Zhou period). Shule can boast rich jade resource after it annexed Mil Dai Mountain. Therefore, it is not surprising the city was called a place of jade.

As for which one is more appropriate, there is still no conclusion at present. Next, let’s look at the evolution process of the name.

In many overseas works about western regions, the word “Kashgar” frequently appeared. What worth mentioning is that it usually refers to entire south Tianshan area, such as “Kashgar” mentioned in “Kashgar” written by a Russian General Kuluopatejin.

“Whenever foreigners speak of Huizi (Xinjiang Muslims), they would mention Huizi in Kashgar ” (the second volume of “Journay to the Western Regions” by Chunyuan in Qing Dynasty). The name is so famous that whenever people living in south Tianshan area went abroad, they’d say they were people from Kashgar. Finally, foreigners had the impression that Kashgar referred to the entire south mountain area. In Qing Dynasty, the Qing government had appointed minister to administer eight cities in south Tianshan area and handle foreign affairs in west Pamir regions. Thereupon, the impression was reinforced.

This was a mistake indeed. In late 19th century, in order to correct this mistake, the overseas historical circle started to call Kashgar city and its adjacent area “Kashgar”. When refer to south Tianshan region, they use- “Kashgaliya “. It showed the fact that how important Kashgar is in the south Tianshan area.

What also needs to mention is that after “Kashgar” had substituted “shule”, the word “shule” did not disappear.

In 1828, in order to better govern the city, the Qing government built a new city in the southeast of the old city that served as residential area for Manchus and Han serviceman and civilians. Therefore, today there are the distinctions between the two cities- the old city (today’s Kashgar city, which was called hui cheng) and the new city (today’s shule county). .

After Xinjiang province was founded in 1884 A.D., Kashgar became a prefecture. And the new city took the name used in Han Dynasty and was called Shule County. The attached area was changed for Shufu County.

After Republic China, Shule was changed for county, which had an equal status with Shufu County. Both counties belonged to Kashgar Dao, Kashgar Gongshu and, Kashgar Zhuanshu (all three names refers to Kashgar prefecture, but were used in different period).

On May 23, 1952, the states administrative council of China decided that Shufu County and Shule County were under the jurisdiction of Kashgar prefecture. Thereupon, the original “Kashgar” was developed into four place names-Kashgar prefecture, Kashi city, Shufu county and Shule county