The history of Xinjiang exploration is integral to the history of China""s frontier exploration and constitutes an important component in the history of China""s frontier studies. The present article is intended as an overview of 20th century exploratory expeditions to Xinjiang, focusing on the work of Chinese scholars.

Ⅰ

The Xinjiang expeditions, focusing on archaeological and exploratory activities , in the first two decades of this century basically followed an investigational pattern developed in the latter half of the 19th century. Among the most renowned foreign explorers were Sven Hedin (Swedish, 1865-1952) ,Aurel Stein (British Hungarian, 1862-1943), Albert Grunwedel (German, 1856-1935), Albert von Le Coq (German, 1860-1930), Vladimir[?] Obruchev (Russian, 1863-1956), and Ootani Kozui (Japanese,1876-1948), who, although operating under different circumstances, created great international excitement. Their fame was, however, tinged with notoriety because of their wanton disregard for China""s sovereignty,their wilful excavations, and their wholesale plundering of cultural relics.Reflecting on these latter aspects, Chinese necessarily feel humiliated because of the injury inflicted on their nationalist sentiments.

The exploratory efforts made by Chinese scholars during the first two decades of this century were by no means futile. Among such efforts was the compilation of local gazetteers. This was one of the achievements of the new reform policies at the end of the Qing Dynasty. In 1907 the Qing imperial government called on local administrations at all levels to compile local gazetteers, and Xinjiang province enthusiastically responded. At that time, there were within its territory, 6 fu (regions), 8 zhiliting (administrative subdivisions under the central government""s direct control),2 zhilizhou (prefectures under the central government""s direct control) , 2 fenfangting (minor administrative subdivisions established to reinforce border defense), 1 zhou (prefecture), 21 xian (counties), and 2 fenxian (sub-counties). This was a total of 38 local administrative institutions,and 4 deputized administrative institutions. 39 of these local gazetteers of Xinjiang are now extant; only the three local gazetteers compiled respectively by Dihua Zhou, Shufu Xian, and Huoerguosi Fenfangting are missing. [1] Judging from the contents of Xinjiang""s 39 local gazetteers, their compilation must have been supported by the appropriate local administrations, each of which assigned local scholars to undertake fieldwork and an assessment of contemporary conditions in the locality. For example, Xinpingxian xiangtu zhi (The Gazetteer of Xinping County) is unique among such historical writings in that it records in detail the names, birthplaces,and the terms of office of both the county""s seven successive magistrates (zhixian) and its nine successive sheriffs (dianli). This attests to the fact that it contains the findings of the county""s local gazetteer compilers secured through investigation and summarization.  Kuche zhilizhou xiangtu zhi (The Gazetteer of Kuqa Prefecture under the Direct Control of the Central Government) and Wensuxian xiangtuzhi (The Gazetteer of Wensu County) record the volume of trade in fur, cloth, and felt between these two localities and Russian and British merchants in the years from 1903 to 1906.These findings were similarly obtained by plowing through local official documents and commercial archives. Thus, the compilation of local gazetteers can be seen as part of a general survey or study of the history and current status of each locality in Xinjiang.

During the Qing dynasty many survey reports on Xinjiang were compiled by officials in the course of their trips, either to fill official posts or to settle down at the frontier as exiles. They left behind many works elaborating on their views regarding the reform of the administration of Xinjiang which were formulated on the basis of what they had seen and heard. Among those works completed before the 1911 Revolution are:

1. Xizheng xulu (Sequel to the Records of the Western Expedition) by Fang Ximeng who visited Xinjiang in 1906 (handwritten copy by Zheng Shurong).

2. Hehai Kunlun lu (A Report on the Kunlun Mountains, Rivers, and Lakes) in 4 volumes by pei Jingfu who travelled to Xinjiang in 1907 (edition signed by Hehai-kunlun-ke).

3. Fuxin jicheng (A Chronicle of My Official Career in Xinjiang) by Yuan Dahua who arrived in Xinjiang in 1910 (Xinjiang Guanbao Yinshuju,1911).

4. Kunlun lüxing riji (Diary of a Journey to the Kunlun Mountains) by Wen Shilin who travelled to Xinjiang in 1910 (1941 edition).

Of all the Xinjiang inspection tours in the post 1911 Revolution period,two are worth mentioning. One was that undertaken by Lin Jing in the winter of 1915; the other by Xie Bin in 1916. Both men were sent by the government of the Northern (Beiyang) Warlords (1912-1927) to explore the strategic possibilities of ruling Xinjiang. In his inspection report, Xinjiang jilüe (Brief Account of Xinjiang), Lin Jing advanced two proposals for reforming the administration of Xinjiang: "Ruling Xinjiang presupposes the construction of roads," and "once land access to Xinjiang is facilitated,the most important task is to move people to the region. " He predicted that "those who implement these two policies will succeed, and those who do not will fail. "[2]In his Kaifa Xinjiang jihuashu (A Xinjiang Development Program),"[3] Xie Bin advanced his ideas for administering Xinjiang, beginning with the traditional tuntian border policy of land reclamation designed to consolidate border defenses. He proposed establishing counties and dividing Xinjiang into two, insisting that the only way to resist British, Russian, and Japanese aggression was to open up Xinjiang and develop its economy, and that "the most urgent task in developing Xinjiang is to make it accessible. " (See his diary entry for 13 April).

The most notable event in Xinjiang exploration during the 20s and 30s was the dispatch of the Sino-Swedish Northwest Scientific Survey. On 26 April 1927, an agreement running to nineteen articles was signed by Sven A. Hedin, the Swedish explorer, and the China Association of Academic Organizations. [4]In compliance with this agreement the Sino-Swedish Northwest Scientific Survey Team was organized. The survey included geological, geomagnetic, meteorological, astronomical, archaeological, anthropological, ethnological, and folklore projects. Composed of 27 members, the expedition contained 10 Chinese headed by Xu Xusheng (a . k. a. Xu Bingchang) and 17 Europeans, from Sweden, Denmark and Germany, headed by Sven A. Hedin. The expedition devoted seven years to carrying out its programs and gathered a large quantity of firsthand information in the fields of archaeology, geology, meteorology, history,and the humanities. Up to 1992 its findings had been published in 55 volumes, and its explorations provided an excellent example of scientific and technological cooperation between China and the West. Its exploratory enterprise and scientific approach are still remembered to this day.

The success of the Sino-Swedish Expedition contrasted sharply with the failure of the Sino-French Academic Expedition which was organized in 1930 and composed of some 40 members under the direction of Chu Minyi and Pierre Heude. The expedition planned to explore such places in Xinjiang as Kashi (Kashgar), Aksu, Kuqa, Dihua (Urumqi), and Hami.However, the Chinese team found the French to be high-handed and uncooperative. Six Chinese team members withdrew from the expedition in indignation after arriving in Jiuquan. Chu Minyi failed to mediate between the two sides, and the expedition was aborted.

Of all the foreign explorers who came to Xinjiang after the 20s, Aurel Stein""s activities met with the strongest opposition from the Chinese. In 1930, he organized a team of archaeologists and prepared to enter Xinjiang for the fourth time. Because his plundering of Chinese Buddhist scriptures,inscribed bamboo strips, and Buddhist statues during the closing years of the Qing dynasty had aroused the ire of the Chinese, academics and the National Commission of Antiquity Preservation repeatedly "appealed to the government to instruct Xinjiang to immediately expel Stein, in order to safeguard China""s sovereignty. "[5] Under public pressure, the Nanking Government ordered the Xinjiang authorities to expel Stein and his team from China and confiscate all cultural relics he had unlawfully excavated in Hotan.

During the first half of the twentieth century the most noteworthy and academically-oriented explorations in Xinjiang were the surveys conducted by the Chinese archaeologist Huang Wenbi. From the late 1920s to the beginning of the 1940s, he undertook three expeditions to Xinjiang. The first time was as a member of the Sino-Swedish Northwest Scientific Survey Team, between 1928 and 1930, and he focused his survey on the ancient sites located on the peripheries of the Turfan (Turpan) and Tarim basins.His major effort in Turfan was the excavation of the ancient city of Jiaohe.In 1930 he reached the world-famous Lop Nur (Lake) region, where he unearthed the site of Tuyin and a cache of bamboo and wooden tablets dating to the Western Han dynasty. Huang was the first Chinese scholar to survey this region. In the spring of 1929, he set off from bank of the Tarim River near Shaya and succeeded in crossing the Taklimakan Desert in one month and six days. [6] Professor Chen Daqi, the then acting president of Peking University, praised him for being "the first Chinese to embark on such an enterprise in the modem age. His expedition""s rich findings can match those obtained in Xinjiang by any of its foreign explorers. "[7] In 1933, Huang Wenbi, who at that time was on the board of directors of the Sino-Swedish Northwest Scientific Expedition, embarked on his second Xinjiang exploration, intent on exploring the Lop Nur region. In 1943 Northwest University requested him to conduct a third Xinjiang expedition,the purpose of which was to survey Xinjiang""s education, culture, antiquity and ancient sites.

During the 1930s and 1940s, a number of scholars published reports on private surveys of Xinjiang tours. These reports include Wu Aichen""s Xinjiang jiyou (Record of Journeys in Xinjiang)   (Shangwu Yinshuguan,1935), and Chen Jiying""s Xinjiang niaolan (A Bird""s Eye View of Xinjiang) (Jianzhong Chubanshe, 1943). Huang Musong""s Xinjiang gaishu (A General Survey of Xinjiang) and Feng Youzhen""s Xinjiang shichaji (Record of an Inspection Tour in Xinjiang) were more political in color.

The 1940s brought an end to the exploration of Xinjiang, because of the increasingly precarious political situation.

Ⅱ

The establishment of New China raised new issues, and assigned new tasks to Xinjiang exploration. The stable and developing social environment facilitated the smooth conduct of scientific expeditions in Xinjiang, and Marxism-Leninism provided the correct guiding principles for them.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Xinjiang organized two large-scale studies of the current status and history of national minorities inhabiting the region.

The first study was conducted between 1950 and 1955. From March 1950 on, the Xinjiang People""s Government dispatched work teams to conduct social surveys in remote areas north of the Tianshan Mountains, including Ili, Tacheng (Qoqek), Altay and Hami, inhabited by nomadic Kazak and Mongolian peoples. Between September 1951 and May 1952,the CPC Xinjiang Sub-Bureau organized work teams to survey 13 counties of Hotan, Shache, Kashi, and Aksu south of the Tianshan Mountains, and a study of 14 typical villages was completed. In 1953 and 1954, the Xinjiang People""s Government sent inspection teams to conduct extensive studies in both the Altay and South Xinjiang (Nanjiang) pastoral zones inhabited by Mongolians, Kirgiz, and Tajiks. In 1954, the Planning Committee under the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region initiated an investigation of Xinjiang""s rural economy—an investigation characterized by an integration of "focal" and "sectoral" surveys. [8] In this period investigations conducted in the pastoral and agricultural zones focused on the status of social classes,the ownership of domestic animals and land, the relationship between the exploiters and the exploited, social conditions, and the history of each of the national minorities. After August 1952, to promote the land reform movement and the drive to realize socialist reform in livestock farming, the focus of investigation in the pastoral zones shifted to examining the status of social classes and the outcome of the implementation of the policies of "developing mutual aid and cooperation (among poor and middle-class herdsmen)" and "benefiting both the hired herdsmen and the herd owners. "Now rated as part of a literature valuable for research in the fields of economics, ethnology, sociology, religious studies, and folklore, most of the relevant information gathered from the investigations conducted in this period was collected in two studies: Xinjiang muqu shehui (Pastoral Communities in Xinjiang) and Xinjiang nongqu shehui (Farming Communities in Xinjiang),[9] which were not published until 1988 by Nongcun Duwu Chubanshe.

The second study took place between 1956 and 1964. In 1956, the Nationality Committee under the National people""s Congress and the Commission of Nationalities Affairs under the State Council jointly set up more than ten survey teams, including the Xinjiang survey group, to conduct large-scale surveys of the history and society of each of national minority.In 1958, jointly directed by the Commission of Nationalities Affairs under the State Council and the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Ethnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Central Institute of National Minorities and relevant governmental departments in various national minority regions launched a follow-up investigation for the purpose of compiling three series of publications: Shaoshu minzu jianshi (A Brief History of National Minorities), Shaoshu minzu jianzhi (A Brief Gazetteer of National Minorities), and Shaoshu minzu zizhi difang gaikuang (General Introduction to National Minority Autonomous Regions). These investigation reports were published by Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe from the late 1970s on. At the time of writing, six titles in these three series had already come off the press: 1) Nanjiang nongcun shehui (The Farming Communities of Southern Xinjiang) (1979); 2) Weiwu""erzu shehui lishi diaocha (Survey of Uygur History and Society)  (1984); 3) Hasakezu shehui lishi diaocha (Survey of Kazak History and Society)  (1987); 4) Balikun Hasakezu fengsu xiguan (Customs of the Barkol Kazaks) (1986); 5) Kerkezizu fengsu xiguan (Customs of the Kirgiz) (1986); and 6) Tajikezu shehui lishi diaocha (Survey of Tajik History and Society) (1984). However,more importantly, this second study saw the successful training of a generation of scholars in the fields of frontier studies and ethnology.

Contemporary with these dynamic social surveys in national minority regions, a systematic survey of cultural relics in Xinjiang and archaeological excavations were being conducted. In 1953 and 1957, two general surveys of cultural relics were conducted in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.These laid the groundwork for understanding the distribution in Xinjiang of historic sites and cultural relics. [10] Throughout the 1950s, Xinjiang archaeologists conducted the Turfan Basin, the Yili River Valley, and the extensive grasslands to the north of the Tianshan Mountains. This work helped train a group of young archaeologists who became the main force in Xinjiang excavations after the 1970s . In the meantime representatives of China""s older generation of archaeologists, such as Xiang Da, Huang Wenbi, Shi Shuqing, Yan Wenru and Wu Bailun, also undertook survey work in the region. This provided momentum for the development of archaeology in Xinjiang. [11]

During the "cultural revolution" period, although Xinjiang archaeology made some progress, academic surveys basically ceased. It was only to-wards the close of the 1970s, with the revival of research in social sciences,that a sizeable, supplementary survey of all autonomous prefectures and counties, based on the surveys of the 1960s, was sponsored by the Office in Charge of Compiling the Five-Book Series under the Nationality Affairs Committee of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe subsequently published the following titles: 1) Xinjiang Weiwu""er zizhiqu gaikuang (A General Survey of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) (1985); 2) Bayinguoleng Menggu zizhizhou gaikuang (A General Survey of the Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin)(1985); 3) Bortala Menggu zizhizhou gaikuang (a General Survey of the Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bortala); 4) Yili Hasake zizhizhou gaikuang (A General Survey of the Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Ili) (1985); 5) Kezilesu Kerkezi zizhiqu gaikuang (A General Survey of the Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu) (1985); 6)Changji Huizu zizhizhou gaikuang (A General Survey of the Hui Autonomous Prefecture of Changji) (1985) ; 7) Mulei Hasake zizhixian gaikuang (A General Survey of the Kazak Autonomous County of Mori)(1984); 8) Yanqi Huizu zizhixian gaikuang (A General Survey of the Hui Autonomous County of Yanqi) (1986); 9) Balikun Hasake zizhixian gaikuang (A General Survey of the Kazak Autonomous County of Barkol) (1984), and 10) Chabuchar Xibo zizhixian gaikuang (A General Survey of the Xibe Autonomous County of Qapqal) (1986). Compilation of the five series provided data and trained personnel for the writing of gazetteers.

The 1980s saw the survey of Xinjiang develop with a new verve. Archaeological excavation, general antiquities surveys, ethnographic surveys,surveys of religions, toponymic surveys, investigations of national conditions, and multidisciplinary surveys were all very much alive and thriving.The following are typical.

Desertification, for example, is an acute problem in Xinjiang, and a comprehensive survey of typical desertified areas was required in order to obtain information concerning the formation, conservation and expansion of oases. Two surveys were conducted after 1980 along the reaches of the Hotan River. Between May and July 1984, eleven researchers from the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences""Economics, Archaeology, and History Institutes conducted a survey designed to "investigate the Ceconomic development and environmental protection of the Hotan region from a historical perspective, and to explore methods of preventing and treating desertification and salinization problems from a macro perspective. "[12]The other investigation, conducted in October of the same year, was designed to examine problems related to Southern Xinjiang""s lifeline, the Tarim River,and a 30-member team was assembled by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region""s government to conduct a comprehensive scientific survey along the reaches of the Hotan River. The researchers in the team were drawn from fifteen academic disciplines.

The comprehensive exploration of the Taklimakan Desert was another multidisciplinary project. As the author had access only to the material of the archaeological component of the survey, only that is reported here. In the fall of 1989, the archaeological group set out from Urumqi, and reached Ruoqiang by way of Korla. It then proceeded west by traveling along the Altun Mountains and the northern lower slopes of the Kunlun Mountains. The expedition surveyed Ruoqiang, Qiemo, Minfeng, and Moyu counties,[13]and focused on the ancient site of Zhawa (Zawa) in Moyu county, a newly discovered site in the ancient Hotan river oasis system. Adjacent to a royal domain, the site proved to be "one of the cultural centers of the kingdom of Yutian (Khotan). "[14]

Of all the specific surveys undertaken, the most noteworthy was the exploration of the Silk Road within Xinjiang. Explorations focusing on the archaeology of the Silk Road were conducted at specific localities, and along specific routes and zones, covering the entire Xinjiang section of the Silk Road. Here only the exploration of Loulan will be discussed.

Loulan was one of the thirty-six ancient kingdoms in the Western Region (Xiyu), and was one of the major cities on the Silk Road. However, it disappeared for a millennium into the desolation of the Gobi Desert. On March 28,1900, Aldik, the Uygur guide working for Sven A. Hedin,discovered the site of Loulan by chance. Sven Hedin subsequently announced the astounding discovery to the world. [15] Between 1979 and 1980 the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences sent three expeditions to explore and excavate the site of the ancient city and the course of the nearby Kongque River. The first two expeditions were designed to ascertain the location of Loulan and find the road leading to it. The third expedition was intended to conduct actual exploratory work and excavations. The expeditions succeeded in determining the correct latitude and longitude of the site of the ancient city, discovering the dry river bed and the city canal system connected to it, excavating the tombs both outside the city and along the banks of the Kongque river, and correcting the errors of earlier explorers.

In May-July and November-December 1980, and May-June 1981, investigational teams sent by the Xinjiang Branch of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences traveled on three occasions deep into the Lop Nur (Lake)basin and surrounding areas to conduct a comprehensive survey involving hydrology, geology, geomorphology, soil study, botany, zoology,chemistry, and historical geography. "The study was one of the longest in duration, the widest in scope, the richest in content, and the most fruitful in its findings in the entire history of Loulan exploration. It enabled the team both to provide rather systematic answers to questions concerning Loulan""s historical geography and other disciplines, and to refute the theory that Lop Nur is a ""wandering""lake. "[16]

In March 1988, the Cultural Bureau under the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region directed the ancient Loulan site antiquity survey team to locate the site of the ancient city of Haitou and nearby sites. The focus of this survey was to trace the route between Mi ran (Milan) and Loulan. The survey team discovered the site of the ancient city of Haitou (i. e LK City)at 6 PM on 27 April 1988. Later the team identified the site of Aurel Stein""s LL city which is to the northwest of ancient Haitou,[17] and obtained a large quantity of data in the form of survey maps, photographs,videotapes, and cultural artifacts. This broke the foreign monopoly on Haitou archaeological material which had been in place since the beginning of the century. The survey also succeeded in opening up access to the southwestern part of ancient Loulan, along a route which begins in Miran and passes through Haitou. Field surveys were also conducted of the routes leading to Loulan from the northwest (beginning in Heshuo and passing through Malan and Qianjinqiao), from the east (beginning in Dunhuang and passing through "Bailongdui"), and from the southwest.

Because of the enduring international enthusiasm for anything related to the Silk Road, there have been many collaborative efforts between Chinese scholars and their international counterparts in Silk Road exploration. The largest of these was the comprehensive UNESCO-sponsored study in July and August 1990 of the desert section of the Silk Road in Xinjiang. The study was conducted by the Silk Road Desert Expedition comprising more than 40 scholars from 19 countries. In Xinjiang the expedition surveyed Turf an, Kuqa, Aksu, Kashi, and other cities and prefectures, and covered a distance of roughly "10,000 li" in the survey. [18]The study was brief, and was confined to observations of the culture and geography of the Silk Road. Nevertheless, it initiated dialogue and exchange among international scholars engaged in the study of the Silk Road and provided experience for deeper studies and cooperation among them for future Xinjiang exploration.

Ⅲ

Looking back over the history of Xinjiang exploration, some common points recur.

Two major factors have been behind the vicissitudes of Xinjiang exploration. One is the political stability and social order in Xinjiang; the other the support from and organization by the government and society. Xinjiang exploration can never flourish in the absence of these two factors. Its unprecedented growth in the latter half of this century, especially after the1970s is the best proof of this.

Xinjiang exploration undertaken by 20th century Chinese scholars underwent a process of inheritance, innovation, and development. The tradition of patriotism combined with fidelity to truth in the study of China""s frontier history and geography, has consistently served as the ideological starting point and ultimate goal of all Chinese exploration of Xinjiang. Since the beginning of the 1950s, Marxism has served as the guiding principle for conducting explorations and has been applied by Chinese researchers in their practice. Their tradition of patriotism combined with fidelity to the truth has thus been vitalized. The mode or methodology of their exploratory efforts has undergone a transformation from the survey conducted by the individual traveler, which typifies exploration in the feudal period, to the introduction of modern archaeological and ethnological methods after the 1920s, and on to the new stage of comprehensive and multidisciplinary exploration of today.

I believe the following tasks are important for future Xinjiang exploration :

1) The translation, systematization, and assessment of foreign and Chinese survey reports and studies of the last century. The first step in this is the preparation of a detailed catalogue of all data on Xinjiang exploration produced by Chinese and foreign scholars. The second step is to translate and systematize the survey reports according to determined priorities, and publish these as a comprehensive series. This is the only way to endow our future exploration and research with focus.

2) The editing and publication of the results of field reports, especially survey notes and research papers, produced by Chinese scholars since 1949.Sven Hedin""s Enford Genom Asien and Mark Stein""s Ancient Khotan have attracted generations of readers, but the experiences of Chinese explorers are no less interesting, yet they remain unknown to readers at present.

3) Cooperation with foreign scholars should be one of the important means for developing future Xinjiang exploration. We should not rule out such cooperation simply because of unpleasant past experiences. Not all pre1949 cooperation was a failure, and in this connection we can cite the experience of the Sino-Swedish Northwest Expedition. On the subject of such cooperation, Sven Hedin wrote: "In the past, some Western travelers had badly hurt the feelings of the Chinese and thus got into difficulties. Nothing of the sort ever happened among us. Chinese are at home in their country, foreigners are merely guests. If those guests are not appropriately flexible and wise concerning their own interests and fail to be broad-minded and polite towards their Chinese hosts, they are bound to reap their just rewards. As far as I am concerned, I will never forget those six happy years.As I was privileged to have the opportunity to work both in the fields and in Peiping together with some of new China""s most outstanding scholars, I would remember each of them with sympathy and thankfulness for the rest of my life. "[19]Xu Xusheng wrote that Sven Hedin was "very energetic in spite of his age, and he really gave impetus to the whole expedition. That the expedition as a whole could work so marvelously must be credited first to him. "[20]Evidently the successful cooperation between the two parties in the Sino-Swedish expedition hinged upon their mutual respect, understanding, and support. Indeed, mutual respect, mutual understanding, and mutual support ought to remain the norm for scientific cooperation between China and other countries.

For the future, it is imperative to further macrocosmic, microcosmic,and multi-disciplinary studies of special topics, in order to deepen the study of the history of Xinjiang exploration from the historical perspective of Chinese frontier studies. We must not neglect summarization and innovation from the academic perspectives of such disciplines as ethnology, archaeology, history, and geography.

Notes:

[1] Ma Dazheng, " Xinjiang difangzhi yu Xinjiangxiangtuzhi gao " (The Manuscript of Xinjiang Regional Gazetteer and Xinjiang Local Gazetteers) in Xinjiang xiangtuzhi gao (The Manuscript of Xinjiang Local Gazetteers) (Quanguo Tushuguan Wenxian Weisuo Fuyin Zhongxin, 1990), pp. 763-778.

[2] Lin Jing, Xinjiang jilüe (Brief Account of Xinjiang) (Tianshan Xuehui,1918), p. 47.

[3] Xie Bin, Xinjiang youji (Travels in Xinjiang), (Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe,1990), ed. Yang Lian and Zhang Yiqing, pp. 298-331.

[4] See Xu Xusheng xiyou riji (Diary of Xu Xusheng""s Western Travels), (Beiping Xibei Kexue Kaochatuan, 1930), vols. 1, 2, and 3.

[5] Wu Shaolin, Xinjiang gaiguan (Overview of Xinjiang)   (Zhonghua Shuju,1933), pp. 314-315.

[6] See Huang Wenbi Meng Xin kaocha riji (Huang Wenbi""s Mongolia and Xinjiang Survey Diary), (Wenwu Chubanshe, 1990).

[7] Huang Lie ed. , Huang Wenbi lishi kaogu lunji (Anthology of Huang Wenbi""s Historical and Archaeological Papers), (Wenwu Chubanshe, 1989), p. 8.

[8] See Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Planning Committee ed. , Xinjiang nongcun jingji diaocha baogao (Survey Report of Xinjiang""s Rural Economy), (1956).

[9] 96 reports running to some 700,000 Chinese characters are collected in Xinjiang muqu shehui (The Pastoral Communities in Xinjiang); 188 reports running to approximately 930,000 characters are collected in Xinjiang nongcun shehui (The Farming Communites of Xinjiang).

[10] Wenwu kaogu gongzuo sanshinian (Thirty Years of Archaeology and Antiquity Work), (Wenwu Chubanshe, 1979), p. 169.

[11] Xiang Da, "Xiyu jianwen suoji" (Miscellaneous Notes on Trip to Western Regions), Wenwu 1962, July-August; Shi Shuqing,  "Xinjiang wenwu diaocha suibi"(Random Notes on Xinjiang Antiquity Survey), Wenwu 1960, June; Yan Wenru,"Xinjiang Tianshan yinan de shiku" (Grottoes South of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang), Wenwu 1962, July-August; Wu Bolun, "Xinjiang Tianshan nanlu de wenwu diaocha"  (Antiquity Survey South of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang) , Wenwu cankao ziliao 1952, no. 10; Huang Wenbi, Xinjiang kaogu fajue baogao (1957-1958) (Xinjiang Archaeological Excavation Report 1957-1958), (Wenwu Chubanshe,1983).

[12] Chen Hua ed. , Hetian lüzhou yanjiu (Study on Oasis of Hotan) (Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1988), p. 308. This book is a summary of the results of this expedition.

[13] See "Takelamagan nanyuan diaocha" (Investigation to the Southern Border of Taklimakan), Xinjiang wenwu 1990, no. 4.

[14] " Moyuxian Zhawa yizhi" (The Site of Zawa in Moyu County) in Xinjiang wenwu 1990, no. 4.

[15] Meng Fanren, Loulan xinshi (A New History of Loulan) (Guangmingribao Chubanshe and Huolande Chuban Youxian Gongsi, 1990), pp. 4-7.

[16] Ibid. , p. 7.

[17] Loulan Antiquity Survey Team, " Luobubo diqu wenwu pucha jianbao" (Report of General Antiquity Survey in the Lop Nur Region) Xinjiang wenwu 1988, no. 3.

[18] Li Jianchao, "Sichouzhilu Zhongguo jingnei shamo luxian de kaocha" (Survey of the Segment of Silk Road in China""s Desert Regions) Xibei Daxue xuebao 1991,no. 2.

[19] Sven Hedin, My Life as an Explorer, translated by Sun Zhongkuan, (Xibei kexue kaochatuan congkan [Northwestern Survey Team Series]) part 1, Author""s preface, p. 2.

[20] Xu Xusheng xiyou riji (Xibei kexue kaochatuan congkan [Northwestern Survey Team Series]), vol. 1, p. 13.