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SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 186 March, 2009 The Special Status of Turfan by Doug Hitch Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair. The purpose of the series is to make available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including Romanized Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino-Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. The only style-sheet we honor is that of consistency. Where possible, we prefer the usages of the Journal of Asian Studies. Sinographs (hanzi, also called tetragraphs [fangkuaizi]) and other unusual symbols should be kept to an absolute minimum. Sino-Platonic Papers emphasizes substance over form. Submissions are regularly sent out to be refereed and extensive editorial suggestions for revision may be offered. Manuscripts should be double-spaced with wide margins and submitted in duplicate. A set of "Instructions for Authors" may be obtained by contacting the editor. Ideally, the final draft should be a neat, clear camera-ready copy with high black- and-white contrast. Sino-Platonic Papers is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Please note: When the editor goes on an expedition or research trip, all operations (including filling orders) may temporarily cease for up to two or three months at a time. In such circumstances, those who wish to purchase various issues of SPP are requested to wait patiently until he returns. If issues are urgently needed while the editor is away, they may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. N.B.: Beginning with issue no. 171, Sino-Platonic Papers has been published electronically on the Web. Issues from no. 1 to no. 170, however, will continue to be sold as paper copies until our stock runs out, after which they too will be made available on the Web at www.sino-platonic.org. _______________________________________________ Doug Hitch, “The Special Status of Turfan,” Sino-Platonic Papers, 186 (March, 2009) Table of Contents PHILOLOGICAL BOUNTY...................................................................................................1 RELIGIOUS AND ARTISTIC DIVERSITY ...............................................................................2 OTHER TARIM SITES ........................................................................................................3 ORIGINAL MEDIEVAL TURFANIAN LANGUAGE? ................................................................3 Kucha and Kuchean.....................................................................................................3 Khotan and Khotanese.................................................................................................4 Tumshuq and Tumshuqese ..........................................................................................4 Kroraina/Loulan..........................................................................................................5 Kashgar and Yarkand ..................................................................................................5 Turfan, Qarashahr and Tocharian A.............................................................................7 KAREZ .............................................................................................................................8 THE HYPOTHESIS .............................................................................................................9 ADMINISTRATIVE EVIDENCE ..........................................................................................11 Tarim Legal Traditions..............................................................................................11 Kushan Tarim Control...............................................................................................12 Loanword Evidence for Kushan Tarim Control .........................................................16 Bactrian Administrative Terms in the Tarim Languages ........................................17 Prakrit Administrative Terms in the Tarim Languages...........................................19 Contract Structure Evidence for Kushan Tarim Control.............................................20 Prakrit Contracts....................................................................................................20 Khotanese Contracts..............................................................................................23 Tumshuqese Contracts...........................................................................................24 Uyghur Contracts from Yarkand............................................................................28 Uyghur Contracts from Turfan...............................................................................30 Bactrian Contracts ................................................................................................. 32 The Contract Evidence, Summary..........................................................................36 HISTORICAL EVIDENCE ..................................................................................................37 Names for the Turfan Region in the Chinese Annals..................................................37 SHIMAZAKI on the Nomadic Jushi..............................................................................37 Ancient and Modern Populations...............................................................................39 Han to Tang Turfan Population Growth.....................................................................40 Stein Summary..........................................................................................................41 Stein on Late Islamization .........................................................................................44 ENVIRONMENTAL EVIDENCE ..........................................................................................44 Climate Change.........................................................................................................44 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION .........................................................................................48 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................52 i The Special Status of Turfan1 Doug Hitch Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada PHILOLOGICAL BOUNTY More than twenty languages are represented in the medieval documents found in Turfan, mostly in the early years of the twentieth century. Perhaps no other archeological area has offered up such linguistic bounty. Identified languages include Old Turkic, Chinese, Sanskrit, Sogdian, Middle Persian, New Persian, Parthian, Tibetan, Mongolian, Prakrit, Tumshuqese, Tocharian A and B, Bactrian, Khotanese, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Tangut, Greek and Khitan. In addition there are at least twenty scripts attested with most languages attested in more than one. For instance, Old Turkic is found in the Brāhmī, Manichean, Sogdian, Uyghur, Nestorian (Syriac), Tibetan, Runiform, Arabic and ‘Phags- pa scripts.2 For many of these languages, the documents are the oldest known samples on perishable materials. For some of these languages, the Turfan documents supply much of the information we have on them. The materials are highly valuable to several philological fields. 1 Based on a talk “More than Twenty Languages in the Medieval Turfan Silk Road Oasis. What Made It So Special?” given 20 August 2008, at the Munk Centre, University of Toronto, sponsored by Central Asian Studies and Linguistics. In the course of subsequent research, assistance was kindly lent through email by Dieter Maue, John E. Hill, Marcel Erdal, Stefan Baums, Richard Salomon, Rajeshwari Ghose, Grant Zazula, LIN Meicun, and Chris Beckwith, none of whom is responsible for my failings. The available Unicode composite characters have been used when writing special characters, with the effect that some diacritics may not conform to traditional practice, but in every case unambiguous and readily identifiable symbols are used. 2 Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Turfan Studies, p. 9. DougDoug Hitch, “TheHitch, Special Status“The of Turfan,” Special Status of Turfan,” SinoSino-Platonic-Platonic Papers Papers, , 186186 (March, (M 2009)arch, 2008) RELIGIOUS AND ARTISTIC DIVERSITY But Turfan is special in other ways as well.
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