Lǐngwài dàidá 嶺外代答
Answers from Beyond the Ridges, in Lieu of Replies by 周去非 (Zhōu Qùfēi, jìnshì 1163) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 10-juan Southern-Sòng natural-history, ethnographic, and frontier-administrative treatise on Lǐngnán and the Southeast-Asian and Indian-Ocean regions known to twelfth-century Sòng administrators. Composed in Chúnxī 5 (1178) by Zhōu Qùfēi after his return from his term as Tōngpàn of Guìlín (modern Guǎngxī), the work was conceived — per the autograph preface — as a written answer (dàidá) for friends inquiring about Lǐngwài, to spare the author the labour of repeated oral explanation. Building on Fàn Chéngdà’s Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì KR2k0115 (Zhōu had been Fàn’s aide), it is divided into 20 thematic categories (the present recension preserves 19, with one mén preserving sub-entries but having lost its overall heading on military registers and household-rolls): geography (dìlǐ), border-defence (biānshuài), foreign countries upper (wàiguó shàng) and lower (wàiguó xià), customs (fēngtǔ), legal-system (fǎzhì), fiscal-affairs (cáijì), implements (qìyòng), garments (fúyòng), foods (shíyòng), incense (xiāng), musical instruments (yuèqì), treasures (bǎohuò), minerals (jīnshí), flowers and trees (huāmù), and so on. The 294 entries make this the principal Southern-Sòng documentary monograph on Lǐngnán and on Sòng knowledge of Southeast Asia, India, the Arabian Sea, and East Africa.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Lǐngwài dàidá in ten juan was composed by Zhōu Qùfēi of Sòng. Qùfēi, zì Zhífū, native of Yǒngjiā; Lóngxīng guǐwèi jìnshì (1163); in Chúnxī he served as Tōngpàn of Guìlín. This work was composed after his term ended at Guìlín. The autograph preface says: it is based on Fàn Chéngdà’s Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì, supplemented with what he saw and heard, recording 294 items in all. Because there were people who asked about Lǐngwài affairs and he was tired of answering, he wrote this to show them — hence “dàidá” (in lieu of reply).
The original work was divided into twenty mén; presently, those with surviving headings number nineteen mén; one mén preserves its sub-entries but the overall heading has been lost; what is treated is matters of military system and household registers.
The book is finely articulated and detailed; compared with the works of Jī Hán KR2k0104, Liú Xún KR2k0108, and Duàn Gōnglù KR2k0106 its narration is more thorough. What it records of the various south-western Yí is mostly based on contemporary translators’ words; the sounds-and-characters are not free from corruption. But the biānshuài, fǎzhì, and cáijì sections truly suffice to supplement what the official histories did not provide — not merely a record of customs and natural products, mere conversational ornament.
The Shūlù jiětí and the Sòngshǐ yìwénzhì both make it ten juan. What is recorded in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn is combined into two juan — not the original. We have followed the original heading and again split it into ten juan. Respectfully proof-read in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Director-General compilers (chén /) Jǐ Yún, (chén /) Lù Xīxióng, (chén /) Sūn Shìyì; Director-General proof-reader (chén /) Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Lǐngwài dàidá is the principal Southern-Sòng documentary monograph on Lǐngnán and on twelfth-century Chinese maritime knowledge of South and Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and East Africa. It was composed in Chúnxī 5 (1178) by Zhōu Qùfēi 周去非 (CBDB 10207; zì Zhífū 直夫, Lóngxīng 1 jìnshì 1163, native of Yǒngjiā 永嘉 in Wēnzhōu) following his term as Tōngpàn of Jìngjiāngfǔ (Guìlín). Zhōu had been an aide of Fàn Chéngdà 范成大 during the latter’s governorship of Guǎngxī (1172–1175), and the Lǐngwài dàidá is conceived as an expanded continuation of Fàn’s Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì KR2k0115.
The work’s principal contributions are in three areas: (i) ethnographic description of the Yáo, Lí, Zhuàng, Dòng, Lǎng, and other indigenous peoples of Guǎngxī and Hǎinán, with extensive treatment of Hǎinán’s interior; (ii) the biānshuài and fǎzhì sections on the Sòng frontier-administrative system, which are without parallel as a primary source for Sòng frontier governance and which the Sìkù tíyào explicitly commends as supplementing the official histories; (iii) the wàiguó shàng / wàiguó xià sections (juan 2–3) which give the most detailed Southern-Sòng account of foreign countries — including Annam (Jiāozhǐ), Champa, Cambodia, Java (Shépó), Sumatra (Sānfúqí), the Maldives, southern India (Zhūniǎn, Gùlín), the Arabian Sea (Dàshí, Mòjiā guó), and East Africa (Zhōnglǐ, identified as Somalia’s Banaadir coast, and Cèngbá, identified as Zanzibar). These passages are the principal source for the related sections of Zhào Rǔshì’s Zhūfān zhì KR2k0139 (compiled 1225) and for the Yuán Wénxiàn tōngkǎo Sìyì kǎo. The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 589.13).
Translations and research
- Almut Netolitzky, Das Ling-wai tai-ta von Chou Ch’ü-fei: Eine Landeskunde Südchinas aus dem 12. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1977). Full German translation with critical apparatus; the standard scholarly edition in any Western language.
- Friedrich Hirth and W. W. Rockhill, Chau Ju-Kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Entitled Chu-fan-chï (St. Petersburg, 1911 / repr. Taipei, 1970), uses Lǐng-wài dàidá extensively as the principal source-text for Zhào’s Zhū-fān zhì.
- Schafer, The Vermilion Bird (UC Press, 1967), passim.
- Yáng Wǔ-quán 楊武泉 ed., Lǐng-wài dàidá jiào-zhù 嶺外代答校注 (Zhōnghuá, 1999). Standard modern critical Chinese edition.
- Hugh Clark in Cambridge History of China, vol. 5, pt. 1.
- Tansen Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400 (Honolulu, 2003), uses the work for Sino-Indian and Sino-Arab maritime contact.
- Wilkinson §73.5 (with bibliography).
Other points of interest
The Lǐngwài dàidá’s identification of Zhōnglǐ guó with Somalia’s coast and Cèngbá with Zanzibar is the earliest Chinese explicit description of the Eastern African coast and one of the most important pre-Yuan texts for Indian Ocean maritime history. The work’s extensive recourse to the testimony of yìzhě (translators) — the Sìkù tíyào notes resulting yīnzì corruption — makes it a major piece of evidence for twelfth-century maritime-trade linguistic contact.
Links
- Wikidata
- Netolitzky, Das Ling-wai tai-ta von Chou Ch’ü-fei (Steiner, 1977)
- Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-Kua (1911)
- Wilkinson §73.5