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- Title
The Karez Concept in Ancient Chinese Sources Myth or Reality?
- Authors
Trombert, Éric
- Abstract
The karez (or qanât) is an ancient kind of underground waterworks that can be found still working from Iran to Morocco and, in present-day China, in Xinjiang (mostly in the Turfan Basin). In western countries and in the Middle East, historians generally consider the Iranian world as the core area of karez since the Achaemenid era (550-330 BC). In China, however, the prevailing theory concerning the origins of the karez technology in Xinjiang is that it was developed elsewhere in China's Central Plain and then imported with some minor modifications. This article intends to demonstrate that this was not the case and that the technique was unknown in the western regions at the height of the Han Chinese presence in Xinjiang in the late 8th century. This conclusion is confirmed by examining the historical process of the development of the karez technique as it is known through Qing sources. It started no sooner than the early 19th century and was related to the Qing colonial enterprise in the western regions.
- Subjects
IRAN; MOROCCO; CHINA; QANATS; WATERWORKS; DIFFUSION of innovations; ANCIENT science; CHINESE history; HISTORY
- Publication
T'oung Pao, 2008, Vol 94, Issue 1-2, p115
- ISSN
0082-5433
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1163/008254308X367031