Chinese Sources on Maritime Trade and the Spread of Buddhism

Chinese Sources on Maritime Trade
and the Spread of Buddhism
Darui Long
University of the West, Los Angeles
For the PNC Annual Conference 2015
Zhongwei jiaotong shiji congkan 中外交通史籍叢刊
(Collectanea of Chinese historical works on overseas travel)
Professor Xiang Da (1900 – 1966)
• Xiang Da initiated the series
of Zhongwei jiaotong shiji
congkan 中外交通史籍叢
刊 (Collectanea of Chinese
historical works on overseas
travel) in 1958 -1960.
• Shijia fangzhi zhi 釋迦方志(A Record of Buddhist Places)
written by Daoxuan 道宣and annotated by Fan Xiangyong
范祥雍.
• Daoxuan 道宣 (596 – 667), an eminent monk who
established the Vinaya school, wrote Xu gaoseng zhuan 續
高僧傳 ( Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks).
• Influenced by Xuanzang’s Da Tang xiyu ji 大唐西域記 (
Records of Western Region in the Great Tang Dynasty), he
decided to work out a book concerning the places where
Shakyamuni propagated his teachings in India and also the
places that Xuanzang traveled.
• Many passages are taken from Da Tang xiyuji by Xuanzang.
Kingdom of Funan
• Kingdom of Funan ( 扶南; Fúnán) (Khmer: អាណាចក្រហ្វូណន)
was the name given by the Chinese to an ancient
kingdom located in southern Southeast Asia centered
on the Mekong Delta that existed from the first to sixth
century CE.
• The name is found in Chinese historical texts describing
the kingdom, and the most extensive descriptions are
largely based on the report of two Chinese diplomats,
Kang Tai 康泰and Zhu Ying朱應, representing the Wu
Kingdom of Nanking who sojourned in Funan in the
mid-3rd century AD.
Zhou Daguan (1270–?)
• a Chinese diplomat under the Temür Khan, Emperor
Chengzong of Yuan.
• He is most well known for his accounts of the customs
of Cambodia and the Angkor temple complexes during
his visit there.
• He arrived at Angkor in August 1296, and remained at
the court of King Indravarman III until July 1297.
• He was neither the first nor the last Chinese
representative to visit the Khmer Empire.
• However, his stay is notable because he later wrote a
detailed report on life in Angkor, The Customs of
Cambodia (真臘風土記) .
Translation of the book
• Zhou's book was first translated into French by the
sinologist Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat in 1819, and again
by Paul Pelliot in 1902.
• The Pelliot translation, which was later revised, has
been translated into English and German.
• In 2007, the linguist Peter Harris completed the first
direct translation from Chinese to modern English.
Harris also draws a series of parallels between the
voyage of Zhou and the travels of Marco Polo.
• Marco Polo was Zhou's contemporary, however,
according to Harris, Polo's travels contain a number of
unusual omissions that have yet to be fully explained.
• His portrayal is today one of the most
important sources of understanding of
historical Angkor and the Khmer Empire.
• Alongside descriptions of several great
temples, such as the Bayon, the Baphuon,
Angkor Wat, and others, the text also offers
valuable information on the everyday life and
the habits of the inhabitants of Angkor.
• Zhenla fengtu ji xiaozhu 真臘風土記校注Account of
Customs and People in Cambodia by Zhou Daguan周達觀
and Annotated by Xia Nai 夏鼐. This book was translated
as A Record of Cambodia: The Land and its People by Peter
Harris, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2007.
•
• Zhou Daguan, a native of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, was
sent to Cambodia in 1295. He stayed in Angor during 12961297. This book came out before 1312. Zhou’s travel note
is of great historical value because it is the only surviving
first written record of the daily life in the Khmer Empire.
• Later, Cambodia became a French colony. French scholars attached
great importance to this book. Both Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat and
Paul Pelliot translated this book into French.
•
• Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat: Description du royaume de Cambodge
par un voyageur chinois qui a visité cette contrée à la fin du XIII
siècle, précédée d'une notice chronologique sur ce même pays,
extraite des annales de la Chine, Imprimerie de J. Smith, 1819.
• Paul Pelliot: Traduction de "Mémoires sur les coutumes du
Cambodge", récit de Chou Ta-kuan, suivie d'un commentaire
inachevé de Paul Pelliot, publié en 1951, Librairie d'Amérique et
d'Orient (Paris), 178 pages.
Ji Xianlin (1911-2009), editor-in-chief
for Da Tang xiyuji jiaozhu
Map of Xuanzang’ travel
• Nanhai ji gui neifa zhuan jiaozhu 南海寄歸內法傳校
注 Records of Buddhism Sent from the South Sea,
written by Venerable Yijing (義淨 I-Ching) and
annotated by Wang Bangwei 王邦維.
• It has been translated into English by Li Rongxi,
Buddhist Monastic Tradition: A Record of Inner Law
Sent Home from the South Seas. Berkeley: Numata
Center, 2000
Yijing -- the most influential Chinese monk who went to
India for Buddhist Dharma.
• He focused on Vinaya rules, noting down how Indian
Buddhists followed the disciplines.
• This made his book different from Venerable Faxian’s travel
notes and different from Xuanzang’s Da tang xiyu ji which
focuses on geography. Yijing’s book provides us detailed
information on Indian Buddhist Sangha.
• He also recorded what he observed in India and South Sea,
making this book valuable with knowledge of communications
and interactions between China and India, history of
Buddhism, geography and social customs.
• It is one of the most important source books for scholars of
Indian Buddhism.
• Da Tang xiyu qiufa gaoseng zhuan jiaozhu 大唐西
域求法高僧傳校注 Biographies of Monks Who
Went to Western Regions in the Great Tang
Dynasty, written by Venerable Yijing義淨 （635713） and annotated by Wang Bangwei 王邦維.
• English translation: Latika Lahiri, Chinese Monks
in India: Biography of Eminent Monks who Went
to the Western World in Search of the Law during
the Great Tang Dynasty. Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass Publisher, 1986.
Map of Western Regions and India
Wang Bangwei
Map of Yijing’s travel: Sea route
• In this book, Yijing records 57 monks who
traveled to India. Most of them took the sea
routes. This indicates that maritime routes
became the main routes for trade, and travels
between the Chinese and people of foreign
countries.
• Yijing’s book helps us to understand maritime
trade routes in India and Southeast Asia before
the arrival of Arabs in the eighth-ninth centuries.
It offers information on history, culture, religions
and geography.
Map of Xuanzang and Yijing
• The contents of An Nam chí
lược are arranged in 20
chapters (quyển), except for
details dating from Lê Tắc's
lifetime, An Nam chílược is
derived almost entirely from
Chinese accounts and
contains some records that
cannot be found elsewhere.
• Today 19 chapters are
preserved in the original
form except the 20th chapter
named Danh công đề vịnh An
Nam chíthat was lost.
•
• Annan zhi lue 安南志略（Records of An Nam）written by
Lê Tắc 黎崱 and annotated by Wu Shangqing 武尚清.
• Annan zhi lue 安南志略(An Nam chílược ) (Records of An
Nam ) is an historical text that was compiled by the
Vietnamese historian Lê Tắc during his exile in China in
early 14th century. Published for the first time in 1335
during the reign of the Yuan Dynasty, An Nam chílược
became one of the few historical books about Đại Việt that
survive from the 14th and 15th centuries and it is
considered the oldest historical work by a Vietnamese that
has been preserved.
•
• Haiwai jishi 海外紀事 (Hai ngoai ky su, Record of Events of
Overseas) written by Da Shan 大汕and annotated by Yu Sili余思黎.
• Da Shan’s original name was Xu Shilian 徐石濂. A native of Wuxian
無縣, Jiangsu Province, he was discontented with Manchu’s
conquest and left home to become a monk.
• He became abbot of Changshou Monastery 長壽寺, Guangzhou.
• He changed his name as Da Shan 大汕.
• In 1695, Nguyen Phuc Chu阮福淍, a warlord who ruled the
southern provinces of Vietnam from 1691 to 1725, invited Da Shan
to propagate Buddhism.
• Da Shan was even appointed as preceptor of the state. More than
1400 people were converted to Buddhism.
Haiwai jishi (Hai ngoai ky su, Record of Events of Overseas)
written by a Buddhist monk named Da Shan
• Afterwards, he traveled Huế, Hội An, and Culao Cham.
• He returned to Guangzhou in the fall of 1696.
• Then he wrote what he observed in Vietnam in six juan, leaving an
account of the rule of Nguyen, who used all his sources for war.
• He also recorded the life of Chinese who resided in the area.
• The book is valuable in its records of navigation from Guangzhou to
Hue and the navigation skills of the Vietnamese people of the time.
•
• Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2008.
•
• 趙汝适：論十二和十
三世紀中國與阿拉伯
貿易的著作“諸蕃
志”》（Chau Ju－
Kua: His Work on the
Chinese and Arab Trade
in the twelfth and
thirteenth Centuries,
Entitled Zhufan zhi. 趙
汝适《諸蕃志》之英
譯本，與柔克義合譯，
1911，聖得堡）
Friedrich Hirth (1845-1927)
• 夏德(1845-1927),德國人,漢
學家、在華任職的海關官
員。
• Friedrich Hirth (Ph.D. ) was a
German-American
sinologist.
• He was appointed an official
in China’s customs
Zhifang wai ji 職方外紀 (Chronicle of
Foreign Lands) written by Giulios Aleni
艾儒略 and annotated by Xie Fang謝
方
• Giulios Aleni (1582 - 1649)
was an Italian Jesuit
missionary and scholar. He
was distinguished for his
knowledge of mathematics
and theology.
• In 1609, he was sent to
China. He traveled many
places in China, including
Macau, Beijing, Shanghai,
Yangzhou, Shaanxi and
Shanxi.
• Zhifang waiji職方外紀, an atlas book, was
written during his stay in Hangzhou, 1620,
when disputes involving missionaries
occurred.
• Five scholar-officials who converted to
Catholicism wrote prefaces.
• Faxian zhuan jiaozhu 法顯傳校注 (Biography
of the Eminent Monk Fa-hsien, or The Travels
of Fa-hsien, or Record of the Buddhist
Kingdoms), annotated by Zhang Xun章巽.
• Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2012.
• 考證法顯傳 [Texte imprimé] / 足立喜六著
• Kōshō Hokken den [Texte imprimé] / Adachi
Kiroku cho
Faxian’s travel route
Map of Faxian’s travel
Historical Data of South Asia from Chinese
Sources, Beijing: PK U Press, 1990
Collection of South Asian Historical Materials
from Chinese Sources, 1994
Zhang Xinglang張星烺，Zhongxi jiaotong
shiliao huibian 中西交通史料匯編
(Collection of Historical Sources on the
History of Sino-Western Communications),
Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 4 volumes. 2003.



Ma Huan 馬歡. Yingya shenglan 瀛
涯勝覽 (General Survey of the
Ocean Shores ), annotated by 馮承
鈞, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1955).
The author was a sailor under Zheng
He.
He jotted down what he saw during
his voyages when he guarded Zheng
He.
• History of Relations
between China and
Southeast Asia.
• Feng Chengjun (1887
– 1946) studied at
the University of
Paris under Paul
Pelliot.
• He learned Latin,
Sanskrit, German,
Mongolian, French
and English
languages.
• Feng Chengjun
• 馮承鈞 ，Xiyu nanhai
shidi kaozheng lunzhu
huiji 西域南海史地考
證論著匯集
• Collection of
Translations of French
Scholars’ Works on
China’s Western
Regions and South Sea.
Chen Jiarong, Xie Fang and Lu Junling
陳佳榮,謝方,陸峻嶺Gudai nanhai
diming huishi 古代南海地名匯釋
(Compilation and Explanation of
Ancient Geographical Terms about the
South Sea). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1986, and reprint in 2002.
• This collection of ancient geographical
terms, compiled in early 1980s,
remains a key reference to the topic
we are investigating the maritime
routes.
• The book is divided into two sections:
the first part starts with entries in
Chinese, by strokes; the second
section starts with English alphabet.
• Thus, readers can easily find out the
geographical terms either through
Chinese characters or English words.
Feng Chengjun xueshu zhuzuo ji
馮承鈞學術著作集
• Collection of Works
by Feng Chengjun.
• Shanghai: Shanghai
guji chubanshe,
2015.
• Feng’s works
should not be
neglected.
Feng Chengjun (1885 – 1946): a great
historiaan and translator
• Feng focuses on translation of French
sinologists works into Chinese.
• His works widened the horizon of Chinese
understanding of “Chinese studies” in Europe.
• He was an expert in history, linguistics, and
historical geography.
• English, French, German, Sanskrit, Mongolian
and Latin
• Studies on Sea
Route Contacts
before the Sui
Dynasty (581 BCE)
by Chen Jiarong
• University of Hong
Kong
Chou haitu bian 籌海圖編
military treatise on maritime defense
• Hu Zongxian 胡宗憲 (1512-1565)
was a native of Jixi 績溪, Anhui
Province.
• He was a jinshi 進士 and
appointed a touring censorial
inspector in Hunan and
Guangdong province and then
inspector of Zhejiang Province. 任
浙江巡按御史, minister of war
and deputy censor of Censorate.
• He committed suicide in the prison
due to his relation with son of Yan
Song嚴嵩, who was a considered a
treacherous official.
Chou haitu bian籌海圖編military
treatise on maritime defense
• 13 volumes.
• Another author was Zheng Ruozeng 鄭若曾
(1503- 1570)
• This book is collected in the Siku quanshu 四
庫全書 Complete Library in Four Sections.
• An important source book on history of Ming
military, seaports defense and relations
between China and Japan明代的軍事史、海
防史、中日交通史的寶貴資料文獻
• Zheng He hanghai tu 鄭和航海圖 (Zheng He’s
Navigation Maps, an excerpt from juan 240, Wubei zhi
武備志 [Treatise on Armament Technology], ed. by
Mao Yuanyi 茅元儀, 1621).
• Probably, about 30 copies of Wubei zhi are extant. The
Library of Congress has a copy printed by movable
types during the Tianqi period (1620-1627).
• This book contains twenty navigation maps. Many
scholars have researched on this book, including Liang
Qichao 梁啟超, Feng Chengjun馮承鈞， W.F. Mayers,
G. Philips, W. Groeneveldt, J.J. Duybendak, Paul Pelliot
and Japanese scholars.
• Liangzhong haidao zhen 兩種海道針(Two
Kinds of Compass Sea Routes, copied back
from Bodleian Library, Oxford University).
• Both books on compass were probably copied
by Jesuit missionaries. They brought them
back to Europe and later came to Oxford
University.
•
Map of Zheng He’ Voyage
Wu bei zhi 武備志 [Treatise on Armament
Technology]
武備志 [Treatise on Armament Technology]
• Mao Yuanyi 茅元儀 (1594 – 1644?) wrote it in
1621.
• Probably, about 30 copies of Wubei zhi are
extant.
• This book was banned during the period of Qing
Dynasty (1644 – 1911).
• However, it was secretly circulated in
• The Library of Congress has a copy printed by
movable types during the Tianqi period (16201627).
武備志 [Treatise on Armament Technology]
武備志 [Treatise on Armament Technology],
Wu bei zhi 武備志 [Treatise on Armament Technology]
Wu bei zhi 武備志 [Treatise on
Armament Technology]
• Wu bei zhi 武
備志 [Treatise
on Armament
Technology]
was printed in
the first year
of Tianqi
(1621)
Wu bei zhi 武備志 [Treatise on
Armament Technology]
Haiguo wenjian lu (海國聞見錄 Records of Things Heard and
Seen in the Maritime Countries
Haiguo wenjian lu (海國聞見錄 Records of Things Heard and
Seen in the Maritime Countries) 1730
• Chen Lunjiong 陳倫炯 was a native of Fujian.
• His father engaged in maritime trade and came to know the
Taiwanese islands very well.
• He offered his maritime expertise to the Manchu army,
which helped it win its critical battles in the conquest of
Taiwan in 1682.
• Chen thus had accumulated much first-hand experience
sailing seas with his father since his early years.
• Mathew W. Mosca observes that Chen Lunjiong’s map
resembles a 1694 world map of Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720)
that was presented to the Kangxi Emperor and later
translated into Chinese and Manchu, citing Aomen lishi ditu
jingxuan 澳門歷史地圖精選
Haiguo wenjian lu 海國聞見錄
• Chen’s map and the book itself were drawn from two
sources.
1. A foreign map that Chen identifies as a complete
map of foreign countries along the Seas (Yanhai
waiguo quantu 沿海外國全圖）
2. Chen’s own maritime experience, his reading of
Chinese maritime literature and the nautical,
geographical, ethnographical data he gathered by
interviewing Chinese sailors and foreign merchants
during his decades of military service as a
commanding officer of Qing troops stationed at
Taiwan, Penghu and coastal Guangdong Province.