Classic,' a work of which the original dates from the beginning of our era, and which is preserved in an edition of the fifth century, mentions a stream which rises among the Onion Mountains (Muztagh) and flows south-west through Ki-pin. This must be either the Hydaspes (Vitasta or Jhelum) or Gilgit and Hunza branch of the Indus.
But there are other specific grounds for identifying the chief part at least of Ki-pin with Cashmere. According to the Han Shu, which was published A.D. 90,[1] the land is flat, the climate mild, the low-lying portions being wet and suitable for rice fields. Gold, silver, and copper are plentiful, and are fashioned into utensils. There are humped cattle, water buffaloes, elephants, large dogs, monkeys, and peacocks. Pearls, coral, amber, agate, and glassware are to be found. The people are ingenious carvers, good cooks, and clever at weaving ki (shawls and rugs of hair). In the bazaars silver and gold coins are used, the obverse showing a riding-horse, and the reverse a man's face. The whole of this account refers to the period when the Săk rulers were still in possession, and before the Kushans, advancing over the Hindu Kush, or Paropamisus, carried their conquests up to the Indus. The same record adds that China had her first relations with Ki-pin between 141 and 87 B.C. 'The king frequently robbed our missions. His son, however, sent envoys to us, but was killed by the Chinese envoy sent by us in return after the king in question had unsuccessfully tried to murder the said envoy.' The third king quarrelled with a second Chinese envoy and massacred him and his suite. The reigning Chinese emperor (B.C. 48–32) felt he had not the means adequately to punish this distant offence; so he took no severer steps than to dismiss the Ki-pin envoy from China, and to deliver him safe at the Hien-tu Passes;[2] political relations were then broken off. During the next reign (B.C. 32–6) it was proposed to renew intercourse with Ki-pin; but, on the ground that the Hien-tu range presented an insuperable physical barrier to the Ki-pin men, who were in consequence quite unable either to injure or to assist China by force of arms, it was resolved to confine future intercourse to admitting Ki-pin trading caravans. By way of further illustrating the difficulties of mountain travel, it is explained that, leaving P'i-shan to your north, you pass through four or five states independent of China; after 2,000 li (666 miles) you reach the Hien-tu range, crossing the Headache Mountains on the way.[3] Finally it is added most distinctly that neither the Parthians nor the Kushans nor the Ki-pins are in any way vassals to China.
