enjoyed the same reputation for strictness
and learning.

Turfan is an oasis containing the ruins of several cities and possibly
different sites were used as the capital at different periods. But the
whole area is so small that such differences can be of little
importance. The name Turfan appears to be modern. The Ming Annals[505]
state that this city lies in the land of ancient Ch'e-shih (or
Ku-shih) called Kao Ch'ang in the time of the Sui. This name was
abolished by the T'ang but restored by the Sung.

The principal city now generally known as Chotscho seems to be
identical with Kao Ch'ang[506] and Idiqutshahri and is called by
Mohammedans Apsus or Ephesus, a curious designation connected with an
ancient sacred site renamed the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. Extensive
literary remains have been found in the oasis; they include works in
Sanskrit, Chinese, and various Iranian and Turkish idioms but also in
two dialects of so-called Tokharian. Blue-eyed, red-haired and
red-bearded people are frequently portrayed on the walls of Turfan.

But the early history of this people and of their civilization is
chiefly a matter of theory. In the Han period[507] there was a kingdom
called Ku-shih or Kiu-shih, with two capitals. It was destroyed in 60
B.C. by the Chinese general Cheng-Chi and eight small principalities
were formed in its place. In the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.
Turfan had some connection with two ephemeral states which arose in
Kansu under the names of Hou Liang and Pei Liang. The former was
founded by Lu-Kuang, the general who, as related above, took Kucha. He
fell foul of a tribe in his territory called Chu-ch'u, described as
belonging to the Hsiung-nu. Under their chieftain Meng-hsun, who
devoted his later years to literature and Buddhism, this tribe took a
good deal of territory from the Hou Liang, in Turkestan as well as in
Kansu, and called their state Pei Liang. It was conquered by the Wei
dynasty in 439 and two members of the late reigning house determined
to try their fortune in Turfan and ruled there successively for about
twenty years. An Chou, the second of these princes, died in 480 and
his fame survives because nine years after his death a temple to
Maitreya was dedicated in his honour with a long inscription in
Chinese.

Another line of Chinese rulers, bearing the family name of Ch'iu,
established themselves at Kao-ch'ang in 507 and under the Sui dynasty
one of them married a Chinese princess