Shanshan is the Chinese name for Loulan, a kingdom that existed roughly from 200BC-1000AD at the north-east of the Taklamakan desert.

The Chinese Emperor Wu of Han's imperial envoy Zhang Qian passed through the kingdom circa 130BC, bringing the first reliable news of Central Asia to the Chinese court. In 77 BC the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi stabbed Loulan's king Chang Gui to death. In 55 BC the kingdom became a Chinese puppet state, and the Chinese moved the capital south-west and away from Loulan.

The Chinese pilgrim monk, Faxian, stayed about a month in Shanshan after a 17 day journey from Dunhuang in 399AD. He described the country as "rugged and hilly, with a thin and barren soil. The clothes of the common people are coarse, and like those worn in our land of Han, some wearing felt and others coarse serge or hair.... The king professed (our) Law, and there might be in the country more than four thousand monks, who were all students of the Hinayāna.... (The monks)...were all students of Indian books and the Indian language."

The capital was near modern Charklik , between Dunhuang and Khotan, on the "Southern Route" of the Han histories. The town of Loulan, at the northwestern corner of the salt lake known as Lop Nor, and became an important staging point for caravans travelling from Dunhuang to Kucha on the "Central Route".

Towns

• Loulan
• Niya

References

• Baumer, Christoph. 2000. Southern Silk Road: In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin. White Orchid Books. Bangkok.
• Brough, J. 1965. “Comments on third century Shan-shan and the history of Buddhism.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. XXVIII, 3, pp. 582-612.
• Brough, J. 1970. “Supplementary Notes on Third-Century Shan-Shan.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. XXXIII, pp. 39-45.
• Hill, John E. 2004. The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu. Draft annotated English translation.[1]
• Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation. [2]
• Legge, James. Trans. and ed. 1886. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fâ-hsien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Reprint: Dover Publications, New York. 1965.
• Loewe, Michael 1969. “Chinese Relations with Central Asia.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 32, pp. 91-103.
• Noble, Peter S. 1930-32 “A Kharoṣṭhī Inscription from Endere.” Bulletin of the Society of Oriental Studies, VI, (1930-32), pp. 445-455.
• Stein, Aurel M. 1907. Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford. [3]
• Stein, Aurel M. 1921. Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China, 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980. [4]
• Stein Aurel M. 1928. Innermost Asia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Iran, 5 vols. Clarendon Press. Reprint: New Delhi. Cosmo Publications. 1981.
• Thomas, F. W. 1943-46. “Some Notes On Central-Asian Kharosthī Documents.” Bulletin of the Society of Oriental Studies, 11, pp. 513-549.
• Watson, Burton. Trans. 1961. Records of the Grand Historian of China: Translated from the Shih chi of Ssu-ma Ch'ien. Chapter 123: The Account of Ta-yüan, p. 265. Columbia University Press.

External links

• Silk Road Seattle (The Silk Road Seattle website contains many useful resources including a number of full-text historical works)

See also

• Loulan