Dated records beginning with the year 98 B.C. testify to the presence of a Chinese garrison near the modern Tun-huang.[483] But at the beginning of the Christian era the Empire was convulsed by internal rebellion and ceased to have influence or interest in Central Asia.  With the restoration of order things took another turn.  The reign of the Emperor Ming-ti is the traditional date for the introduction of Buddhism and it also witnessed the victorious campaigns of the famous general and adventurer Pan Ch’ao.  He conquered Khotan and Kashgar and victoriously repulsed the attacks of the Kushans or Yueh-chih who were interested in these regions and endeavoured to stop his progress.  The Chinese annals do not give the name of their king but it must have been Kanishka if he came to the throne in 78.  I confess however that this silence makes it difficult for me to accept 78-123 A.D. as the period of Kanishka’s reign, for he must have been a monarch of some celebrity and if the Chinese had come into victorious contact with him, would not their historians have mentioned it?  It seems to me more probable that he reigned before or after Pan Ch’ao’s career in Central Asia which lasted from A.D. 73-102.  With the end of that career Chinese activity ceased for some time and perhaps the Kushans conquered Kashgar and Khotan early in the second century.  Neither the degenerate Han dynasty nor the stormy Three Kingdoms could grapple with distant political problems and during the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries northern China was divided among Tartar states, short-lived and mutually hostile.  The Empire ceased to be a political power in the Tarim basin but intercourse with Central Asia and in particular the influx of Buddhism increased, and there was also a return wave of Chinese influence westwards.  Meanwhile two tribes, the Hephthalites (or White Huns) and the Turks,[484] successively became masters of Central Asia and founded states sometimes called Empires—­that is to say they overran vast tracts within which they took tribute without establishing any definite constitution or frontiers.

When the T’ang dynasty (618-907) re-united the Empire, the Chinese Government with characteristic tenacity reverted to its old policy of keeping the western road open and to its old methods.  The Turks were then divided into two branches, the northern and western, at war with one another.  The Chinese allied themselves with the latter, defeated the northern Turks and occupied Turfan (640).  Then in a series of campaigns, in which they were supported by the Uigurs, they conquered their former allies the western Turks and proceeded to organize the Tarim basin under the name of the Four Garrisons.[485] This was the most glorious period of China’s foreign policy and at no other time had she so great a position as a western power.  The list of her possessions included Bokhara in the west and starting from Semirechinsk and Tashkent in the north extended southwards so as