Tokhāristān ( 吐火羅) is the area between present-day northern Afghanistan and the southern part of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Because this area was, in the olden times, the Bactria State of the Achaemenid Empire, and later the territory of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the people from this area were called the Bactrians. Bactrians and Sogdians, who lived in the north area of Tokhāristān, were known as people of commerce, and they were assumed to be rivals in the same trade. Studies about Bactrian people who lived in China, however, have been few so far, and many recent reports of epitaphs do not reflect the contents of the historical material of the epitaphs. And thus, in this study, the author expands the basic study of the epitaphs which contain Luo ( 羅), a Bactrian family name. At the moment, there are four epitaphs which can be determined as Bactrian: Luo Zengsheng and his wife Kang ( 羅甑生及妻康氏), Luo Gui ( 羅炅), Luo Hehan ( 羅何含), and Luo Zhoujie ( 羅州玠). Furthermore, from the contents of those Bactrian Luo epitaphs, their activities have become clear, specifically such as having intimate relations with Sogdians.

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This article aims to reconsider the political role of bannermen in the Qing Court’s Imperial Household Department (neiwufu), who have typically been known for their service as bondservants. To achieve this aim, this paper analyzes the activities of bannerman Cangming and his family, who are originally of Joseon ancestry. This study stresses the following points, each of which is a common feature of all bannermen who worked within the Imperial Household Department. Firstly, Cangming’s personal connection to the Manchu Emperor was the single most important aspect of his career. Summoned to serve under the Yongzheng Emperor before his enthronement, Cangming became a servant boy in his court. After Yongzheng’s succession, Cangming was appointed to the position of Minister of the Imperial Household Department (zongguan neiwufu dachen) and to Chamberlain of the Imperial Guard (ling shiwei nei dachen). Such a career path enabled Cangming to maintain and strengthen his personal ties to the Emperor and other members of the imperial family. Secondly, the scope of his official duties was not limited to the household affairs of the Emperor, but also included bureaucratic work. He also oversaw such affairs as the upkeep of major state infrastructure, military administration and investigations of malfeasance. The careers of Cangming and his descendants illustrate these points. In short, this paper portrays the role of the Imperial Household Department’s bannermen in a new light as a politico-administrative elite.

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Muhammad Ali Khan was joined by British and Russian representatives on his 1842 mission to Khiva. This instance has been overlooked in both the context of the historical relationship between Iran and Central Asia and research covering the Great Game of the nineteenth century. This article discusses the importance of the Qajar mission for both Khivan-Iranian and Anglo-Russian relations in Central Asia. The author argues that negotiations for the release of Shiite captives detained in Khiva repeatedly failed because the Qajarid and Qongrat had limited state control over Turkmen military raids (ālāmān). On the other hand, the British government overlooked these limitations and mediated in the negotiations to prevent Muhammad Shah’s projected military expedition against Khiva. This was an attempt to eliminate factors that would worsen the instability of the British Indian Army’s occupation of Afghanistan. Abolitionist logic was reflected in the British side of the negotiations by regarding Shiite captives in Khiva as slaves. The Russian government pursued policies in line with the Concert of Europe by placing special emphasis on cooperation with Britain while also facing commercial competition in Central Asia. On one hand, this required a cooperative attitude toward the mission. On the other hand, Russia made great efforts to complete a commercial treaty with Khiva to cultivate markets for Russian industrial goods. The dilemma of pursuing Concert policies in Europe while competing against Britain in the Asian market clearly affected the decision-making process regarding Imperial Russia’s Central Asian policies of the 1840s.

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In this paper I discuss the case of establishing “Xian” inside a banner in the eastern part of Inner Mongolia during the Modern Era. Qian’an district was established by the government of Jilin Province in the 15th year (1926) of the Republic of China inside the south Γorlos Banner in the eastern part of Inner Mongolia. I used historical materials kept in a local archives center and The Investigation Reports that had been published by the government of Manchukuo in the 1930s. I examined the negotiation process and the survey process for reclaiming land. Firstly, I found that Cimedsampil, who was the banner-head of the South Γorlos, didn’t agree with the reclaiming land policy. Secondly, I discovered that they divided the land into 274 perfect JINGs 井(3×3) and 35 imperfect JINGs, then they divided the JINGs into 36 FANG 方(500m×500m). As a result, the division of Qian’an District was created just like a planned map. Lastly, I found that the place names of Qian’an District were named after QIANZIWEN 千字文, the Thousand Character Classic – a traditional Chinese poem.

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This article deals with three historic letters written in Tibetan script preserved in the files of Fyodor Shcherbatskoy (1866–1942) in the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (СПбФ АРАН). Although archivists attribute all three of the letters to Dorzhiev (1854–1938), known as the Dalai Lama’s aide and a mediator between Tibet and the Russian Empire, two of them are from Tshe ring zla ‘od, a Kalmyk noble, to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama (1876–1933) while he was staying in Mongolia and to Nikolai II in 1905. In the former letter, Tshe ring zla ‘od asked the Dalai Lama to urge Nikolai II to confer the title Knyaz’ (Duke) on him and in the latter letter, he claimed his eligibility for the title Knyaz’ to Nikolai II. The third letter was sent from Dorzhiev in St. Petersburg to the “Rugby Four”, Tibetan students studying in England, in 1913, when the Thirteenth Dalai Lama made the declaration of independence. In this letter, Dorzhiev, who was supposed to act as a quasi-ambassador of Tibet for the Tibetan government in this crucial year, expressed the hope to visit them in England.

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