This page needs to be proofread.
64
PRELIMINARY ESSAY

with the power of the Uighiirs. In 840 the Kirghiz, who claimed to be originally descended from the Chinese general Li Ling captured by the Hiong nu in 99 B.C ., took the Orkhon capital of the Uighiirs and killed the qagan. The Uighiirs were scattered to the south and to the south-west towards Turfan and Karashahr and to the west towards Kucha ; however thirteen Uighiir tribes elected in 841 Wu-kiai as their qagan ; Wu-kiai led a wandering life, and finally was killed in 847 in the Altai. After the fall of the Uighiirs, the property of the Manichseans was confiscated and their temples were closed. The remaining Uighiirs settled at Kan chau, in Kan Su, and at Kao ch'ang, east of Turfan. Their religion lasted in Chinese Turkestan until the thirteenth century ; in China proper it was concealed under the cover of Buddhism and Taoism till it disappeared finally ^. The capitals of the Uighiirs were Kao ch'ang, Khotcho or Idiqut Shahri, near Turfan, and Kara Balgasiin ^ on the left bank of the Orkhon. An inscription in Chinese, Turki and Sogdian found at Kara Balgasiin, devoted to the qagan who died in 821, throws a good deal of light on Manichseism^. The Uighiir writing, from which is derived the Manchu script, is itself derived probably from the Sogdian and not from the Estranghelo, its parent writing.] III. COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA. 41. We have seen, in the early part of this Essay, that reason exists for believing in very early intercourse ^ [Bretschneider, Mediaeval Res., i, pp . 236 seq. ; Chavannes, Tu Kiue, pass. ; Chavannes et Pelliot, Un traite manicheen retrouve en Chine, J . As., ii, 1912 ; i, 1913.] 2 [A plan of this city has been given by Radloff in his Atlas der AlterthiXmey der Mongolei, 1892-6 .] ^ [See the bibliography in Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 2732-3 .]