车到新疆自治区吐鲁番东45公里处的高昌时，灼热的正午阳光照得人睁不开眼。在辽阔的蓝天白云之下，高昌那一片苍茫无际的黄色占领了整个视野，这里没有一株草、没有一棵树、更没有一朵花，只有漫无边际的、剥蚀得奇形怪状的黄土堆、黄土墙、黄土台……我心中直怀疑：这就是高昌吗？这就是那个连接中原、中亚、欧洲的枢纽、西域最大的国际商会、宗教中心和丝绸之路重镇高昌么？
　　然而这确实是高昌，它那古城呈长方形，总面积约220万平方米，外城、内城和宫城布局，类似于唐代长安，全城有九个城门，其中南面有三个城门，东、西、北面各有两个城门。内城周长约3600米，主要是宫城和寺院建造等。
　　宫城在全城最北部，它在人们眼前呈现的一片片断壁残垣叫人迷惑，这些断壁残垣中，哪里是当年的民居、哪里是当年的寺院、哪里是当年的王宫、哪里是当年的街道、哪里是当年的集市、哪里是当年的作坊呢？……岁月模糊了历史的面目，它只剩下一些隐隐约约的轮廓。不过眼下的大佛寺和讲经堂，还依稀可见当年的风采：这大佛寺呈庭院式布局，有明确的中轴线，全寺由山门、大殿、配殿、讲经堂和僧房等组成。建筑面积7000平方米左右，大殿建在土台上呈中心塔形制，殿中央是土坯砌筑的高大方塔。塔柱侧面开有一层层拱形佛龛。佛龛中原有塑像，但它早被外国探险考古者盗走，正面的大佛佛像亦已缺失，仔细看，才若隐若现地分辨出佛像当年的形状。大殿前部还有一个穹窿顶的土坯建筑，据说这就是讲经堂，相传当年玄奘大师就在这里讲过经：那是唐太宗初年，为了取得真经，年轻的玄奘离开长安西行印度，行至伊吾（今哈密），高昌王麹文泰即派使者把玄奘接到了高昌国。每次讲经，高昌王都亲自执香入帐，跪地当凳子让法师踩着他的背登上讲坛讲经。听者云集讲堂，每场皆达300之众。过了十几天，唐玄奘执意西行，高昌王苦苦挽留不成，便要求法师取经归来之时在高昌古城住上一年，继续讲经传道。临行那天上至君主、下至士庶都出城相送，可是当唐玄奘历经艰辛西去取经归来之时，高昌王麹文泰已于640年在唐军攻击下忧惧而亡。
　　高昌王麳文泰的命运，昭示了高昌古城曲折多难的历史。古代高昌城一直处于金戈铁马、腥风血雨中，再说这座古城诞生本来就与战争关联：史载汉武帝刘彻派大将军李广利率兵远征大宛以求汗血宝马，然军队疲惫不堪大败而退，汉武帝大怒，下令不许汉军东返，进玉门关者杀，于是这支队伍来到吐鲁番，他们见这里气候宜人，又有天山雪水，李广利当即决定将军中病弱疲惫的伤员们集中起来在这里屯田。从此，他们便在这里定居下来。此后，高昌人口不断增加，经济日益发展繁荣，公元327年，前凉张骏在此置高昌郡，继之又先后为前秦、后凉、西凉、北凉所管辖。442年，北凉沮渠无讳占高昌称王。460年，柔然人杀北凉王沮渠安周，立阚伯周为高昌王，称其国为高昌国，掀开了高昌王国的序幕。此后，在高昌称王的有张氏、马氏和麳氏，其中以麳氏享国最久，大约有140年之久。公元640年唐统一高昌，在此置西州，下辖五县，高昌自此进入了繁华昌盛的最佳时期。9世纪中叶以后，回鹘人在此建立了回鹘高昌王国，13世纪中叶以后，天山以北广大地区的蒙古游牧贵族发动叛乱，多次侵犯高昌国，战争持续达数十年之久，高昌终于在战乱中被毁，自此便逐渐被废弃。
　　
　　啊！往昔胡姬压酒、胡乐当筵的高昌，佛香袅袅、佛音朗朗的高昌，驼铃清脆、商客云集的高昌，葡萄美酒、水草丰美的高昌，繁华热闹、声色绝丽的高昌，在尔后的岁月里就像沙漠里的一滴水，被时间吸干了，它那无数活生生的历史变成一个个谜藏在黄土里，让如今的旅游者对它不断地寻寻觅觅……
　　
　　Ancient Glory in Desert Desolation
　　By Ye Yanli
　　
　　The sun was dazzling and scorching when we reached Gaochang, the capital city of the Gaochang Kingdom (460-640), forty-five kilometers east of Turpan in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Under the endless azure vault of heaven, the yellow desolation stretched out toward the horizon. Looking at the ancient city ravaged by time, I wondered if the grotesque remains were really leftovers of Gaochang, the once most prosperous trade outpost and largest religious center on the Silk Road in the western region that connected the central kingdom and radiated out to central Asia and Europe.
　　But there was no mistake. It was Gaochang, spreading out in a rectangular area of 2.2 million square meters. A miniature replica of Chang’an, capital of the great Tang Dynasty (618-907), Gaochang had nine city gates and was composed of three sections separated by city walls: the inner city, the outer city and the forbidden city. The Big Buddha Temple can still be clearly identified. Constructed along a central axis, the temple consisted of the temple gate, the great hall, the side halls, the sermon hall, and monks?living quarters. It is by no means easy to distinguish the palaces, markets, workshops, temples, and folk residences in the city.
　　
　　It is said that Master Xuanzhuang expounded the texts of Buddhism in the temple on his famous westward pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures in India. In the early years of the Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, the young monk set out on a long journey to India for getting Buddhist scriptures for the central kingdom. As he passed Hami near the kingdom, the king of Gaochang sent envoys out to meet the learned master and invited him to Gaochang. The monk agreed to preach sermons. At the beginning of each sermon, the king would walk into the lecture hall, holding burning joss sticks in his hands, and then kneel down as a stepping stool and let the monk to step on his back to get up to the lecture platform. Xuanzhuang preached for more than 10 days to the full house of an audience of three hundred local disciples and then determined to go on with his journey. Failing to make the monk stay longer, the king asked the monk to revisit Gaochang for a year on his way back from India. On the day of the monk’s departure, the king and all the residents in the city came out to see him off. When Xuanzhuang came back to Gaochang, however, the king had died in 640 when the troops from the central kingdom took the kingdom.
　　
　　The death of the last king of Gaochang was just one of many tragedies in the history of the glorious kingdom on the Silk Road. In a sense, the kingdom’s history was one of battles. It came into being in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) when General Li Guangli was sent by the emperor on a westward expedition for getting treasured horses from the Dawan Kingdom in Fergana Valley of today’s Uzbekistan. The expedition’s failure angered the emperor, who ordered to execute the whole expedition if they would dare to come back to the Yumenguan Fortress. Learning the warning, the general and his soldiers came to Turpan. Part of the expedition settled down there, and began to farm and led a normal life. As the population and wealth grew, the settlement came under the rule of a regional kingdom in 327. In the following decades, kingdoms replaced each other and the place was subjected to different rulers. In 460 the Gaochang Kingdom was formerly established. Three families with different surnames ruled the kingdom for 180 years until during the Tang Dynasty the kingdom was annexed in 640. That ushered in a flourishing period for Gaochang. In the mid 9th century, the Gaochang Kingdom was reestablished as the Tang Dynasty collapsed. In the 12th century, a war that lasted for decades between Gaochang and invading Mongols totally devastated the kingdom. It never recovered and thus sank into history.
　　One of the indirect consequences created by the disappearance of the glorious Gaochang centuries before was the dilapidation I was witnessing that scorching summer day. Gone were the music and dancing girls at carousals and banquets, bells ringing from quiet temples wrapped up by fragrant vapor of joss sticks, camel caravans carrying precious goods, and once widespread verdant ranches for herds of sheep and cattle. They all vanished into time and desert, and the city’s history and its secrets are now all buried in sands. Fascinated tourists like me come all the way to see an ancient glory whose name was and is Gaochang.
　　(Translated by David)