268
Geography, Vol. I; — Heyd, Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen ■Age D’Anville, Rcc he relies g'eographiq ues et historiques sur la Serique des anciens (1768) in M'emoires de F Acad'emie Roy ale des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres, xxxii, 573-603; — Reinaud, Relations pohtiques et commercials de F Empire Romain avee F Asie Orientale pendant les cinq premiers siecles de Eire chretienne.
See also Richthofen, China, 1, chap, x; — Stein, Sand-buried Rums of Khotan ; — Gotz, Jderkchrswege im Dienste des Welthandels, 496-511; — Speck, Handelsgeschichte des Altcrtums, I; — Letourneau, L Evolution du Commerce-, — Noel, Histoire du Commerce du Monde , I; — Lindsay, History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce, I; — Mayr, Lehrbuch dcr Handelsgeschichte, I, § 16; — Tozer, A History of Ancient Geography, 281; — Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, I, 565; II, 166, 658; — Edmunds, Buddhist and Christian Gospels , 4th ed., introduction.
64. Through Bactria to Barygaza. The overland travel from the Yellow River to Bactra, first instituted, possibly, early in the 2d century B. C. and then obstructed for nearly two centuries, followed two routes. The earlier, and to the Chinese the most im- portant because it led to the Khotan jade-field, was the Nan-lu or ' 'southern way,” the stages of which may be traced on the map as follows :
Singanfu, Lanchowfu, Kanchow, Yumenhsien, Ansichow, Lop Nor to Tsiemo (the Asmircca of the Greeks) where the routes divided. The Nan-lu followed south of the Tarim River to Khotan and Yar- kand, thence over the Pamirs and westward to the Oxus and Bactra. This was the earliest route opened by the Chinese army under Pan Chao, being cleared in 74 A. D. The second route, the P'ei-lu or "northern way,” followed the same course from Singanfu to Tsiemo, thence north of the Tarim through Kuche and Aksu to Kashgar, and over the tremendous heights of the Terek to the Jaxartes and Samar- cand. Thence a route led southward to Bactra, while another led southwestward more directly to Antiochia Margiana (Merv. ) This second route was opened by Pan Chao in 94 A. D.
A variant of the P'ei-lu led from Yumenhsien to Hami, Turfan and Kharachar, meeting the above route at Kuche; this was preferable in some respects, being close to the mountains, but was subjected to constant attacks by the savage Tartar tribes, Hami especially being a storm-center in the Chinese annals, and an important outpost for the defence of the main route. Another variant led from Turfan through the Tian-shan to Urumtsi and Kuldja, thence by the Hi River and
