Itinerary of Sung Yun in Turkistan

Abstract

Chinese sources are main sources of Turkic history. Because they are sometimes only recourse, these have mostly no facility to compare with other sources. Despite Chinese annals are seen as the most reputable sources, encyclopedic, historical, geographical, philosophical, judicial etc. books written in the relevant times are so important. Again, travelogues have a separate place. Although travelogues often contain personal observations of the traveler and not have deep knowledge, they are the only source for many historical truths. It is necessary to read travelogues carefully and to compare with other sources in the relevant times. On this occasion, Turkistan observations of Buddhist pilgrim Sung Yun who is one of the most important travelers of Turkistan history are noteworthy. His trip began from Chinese capital, passed Turkistan and ended in India. As a cleric, Yun mostly chooses to talk about Buddhism of his observed places such as other Buddhists and lively describe daily life and religious attitude in Turkistan cities in the beginning of fifth century. It is so natural that the traveler does not touch of political events. Information given by traveler about Hephthalites is priceless. We have tried to present the text word by word about Turkistan of old Chinese verified and annotated copy of "Sung Yun Travelogue", to reflect vitality of imageries and to provide of exact control of the Chinese expressions. We made a comparison with the other main sources for explaining some necessary points in text. Although it is so difficult, we gave a try to make an itinerary map. Our purpose is to provide a studied and criticized main source for the studies about Turkistan.