east turkestan 3151027-1046: 5 0
1047-1066: 0 1
1067-1086: 2 14
1087-1106: 1 9
1107-1126: 0 4It can be seen that although the Western Turks excerted general
control over the Tarim Basin until the 640’s, the oasis states had no
trouble in pursuing their own relations with the Sui and T’ang. During
the Tibetan occupation from 670-692, a few missions got through to
the T’ang (from Kucha, Kashgar, and Khotan). But after the return
of the Tibetans in 790, government trade ceased altogether while
private trade of course continued. It is also clear that, incomplete
though the statistics may be for the T’ang, missions from Turfan,
Karashahr, Kucha, and Kashgar along the Northern Silk Route to
China by far outstripped those from Chu-chü-po and Khotan along
the Southern Silk Route,^42 56 for the north and 22 for the south.
In the second half of the 11th century, however, the situation was
reversed. Khotan then only competed with Kucha, and the southern
missions became far more numerous than the northern, 28 against
- From 1127, all relations between East Turkestan and the distant
Southern Sung came to an end.^43
The almost exclusive purpose of the missions from the oasis states
to the Chinese court was trade, and the envoys dealt with Chinese
merchants as well as the government. According to Wen-hsien t’ung-
k’ao 337:42a, they sold their goods either to merchants or the Outer
Treasury, depending on where they got the better price.
The specified goods brought by the missions from East Turkestan
to China fall into the following categories:
Human Products965: a tooth of the Buddha from Turfan.
(^42) Yarkand (So-chü), situated between Kashgar and Khotan, did not have the
importance of its neighbours.
(^43) Note that Turfan also sent one and Khotan three missions to the Liao
court.