AET. 16 CAVES OF SZECHWAN PROVINCE, CHINA GRAHAM 



Yachow and near Lushan show conclusively that during the later 

 Han dynasty the Chinese were in possession of Yachow. Kiating 

 was in the hands of the Chinese during the Han dynasty, but for 

 centuries after Christ the highlands west of Suifu, between the 

 Yangtse and the Min Eivers, were under control of the aborigines. 

 Suifu was a difficult place for the Chinese to take and occupy, and 

 still more difficult to protect from the raids of the mantsus (bar- 

 barians) who lived in the mountains not far away. Chu Ko Liang, 

 the famous Chinese warrior, placed a garrison in Suifu in 225 A. D. 

 For centuries afterwards the city and surrounding country were in- 

 cluded in the Kien Wei district and were governed either from Kien 

 Wei or from Nan Ch'i. The Suifu history states that the whole Kien 



Wei district, which included ^ ^ ,^ ^^ ^^ .^ 



the Suifu prefecture, was Q-<y<><rX><><><y-q 



an aboriginal country, al- 

 though governed by Chinese 

 officials who lived in Kien 

 Wei. The name Yong Cheo, 

 or Mantsu Town, though 

 later replaced by various 

 other designations, and finally 

 by Hsu Cheo Fu, has tended 

 to cling to the city of Suifu 

 until the present day. 



If the aborigines made and 

 lived in the Szechwan caves, 

 the Suifu district should 

 abound in them, for it has 

 plenty of sandstone. Also, 

 Suifu was one of the mantsu 

 centers and was probably the last large city in Szechwan to be 

 taken from the aborigines by the Chinese. There should be fewer 

 caves near Chengtu, Kiating, and Yachow. But the fact is that 

 at Suifu there are only four or five very small caves, while there 

 are many near Yachow and Chengtu, and near Kiating there are 

 probably thousands of them. So far as the writer has been able 

 to learn, there are no similar artificial caves in Kweichow or 

 Yunnan, or even in Tibet, where there are still large numbers of 

 mantsus or aborigines. The caves of Szechwan are found in 

 the territory occupied by the Chinese during the Han dynasty 

 and at the beginning of the Three Kingdoms. Those in Kansu 

 Province are reported to be along the Yellow River, in a territory 

 that was probably inhabited by the Chinese centuries before Christ. 



PiGDKE 4. — Schematic drawing of the south side 

 of a Hau dynasty memorial arch near Ya- 

 chow. Height about 25 feet 



