Zhūfān zhì 諸蕃志
Treatise on the Various Foreign Peoples by 趙汝适 (Zhào Rǔshì, 1170 – ca. 1231) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 2-juan Southern-Sòng monograph on the foreign countries known to the Sòng maritime-trade administration, compiled by Zhào Rǔ-shì 趙汝适 during his term as Tí-jǔ Fú-jiàn lù shì-bó (Maritime-Trade Commissioner for Fú-jiàn Circuit) at Quán-zhōu, the principal Southern-Sòng port for the Indian-Ocean trade. Composed in Bǎo-qìng 1 (1225). Juan 1 lists 50 foreign countries — South-East Asia (Champa, Cambodia, Annam, Java, Sumatra), South Asia (the various coasts of India, Sri Lanka), West Asia (the Arabian Sea, Aden, Mò-jiā guó / Mecca), East Africa (Cèng-bá / Zanzibar; Pí-pā-luó guó / Berbera; Zhōng-lǐ guó / Banaadir coast), and as far west as Mù-lán-pí guó (al-Murābiṭūn / Almoravid Spain-and-Morocco). Juan 2 lists fān-wù (foreign products): incense, dyes, spices, precious stones, ivory, rhinoceros horn, frankincense, myrrh, ambergris, etc. The work is the most informative single Chinese-language documentary monograph on thirteenth-century Indian-Ocean and East-African maritime history; it is in large part derived from Zhōu Qù-fēi’s Lǐng-wài dàidá KR2k0116 (1178) but supplemented with first-hand information collected from foreign merchants at Quán-zhōu — including an explicit identification of Mù-lán-pí guó as a country “60 days’ sail” west of Aden, the earliest Chinese reference to medieval Iberia.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Zhūfān zhì in two juan is by Zhào Rǔshì of Sòng. Rǔshì’s beginning-and-end is unrecorded; from the Sòngshǐ zōngshì shìxì biǎo we know him to be the great-grandson of Qíwáng Zhòng Hū; great-grandson of An-kāng-jùn-wáng Shìshuō; grandson of Yínqīng guānglù dàifū Bùróu; son of Shàndài; descended through the line of Jiǎnwáng Yuánfèn; eight generations from Tàizōng. This work is what he composed when he was Tíjǔ Fújiàn lù shìbó. At that time the Sòng had crossed south; with the various foreign peoples only the shìbó (maritime trade office) had connection — hence what is recorded is all matters of the maritime states.
The Sòngshǐ wàiguó lièzhuàn in fact draws on it; examining the order of narration, classifications, and dates — they all match. Only the Sòngshǐ is detailed on events but brief on customs and products; this is detailed on customs and products but brief on events — one is a shǐzhuàn, one is a zázhì; each format has its appropriateness; one cannot fault either for partial coverage.
The countries it lists: Bīntónglóng — the Sòngshǐ makes it Bīntónglǒng; Dēngliúméi — the Sòngshǐ makes it Dānliúméi; Āpóluóbá — the Sòngshǐ makes it Āpúluóbá; Máyì — the Sòngshǐ makes it Móyì. Presumably translation-language phonetic-correspondence has no fixed character; lóng/lǒng are the same sound transitioned; dēng/dān/pú/pó/má/mó are double-consonant transformations; the call has weight-and-lightness, hence the writing has variation; no way to verify which is right or wrong; we have followed both as they are.
Only — Southern Sòng was tucked at Línān; the maritime route open is the south-east, near at hand; this zhì however additionally records DàQín (the Roman East / Levant) and Tiānzhú (India) — seeming to skip across the Western Regions, not necessarily having seen those people personally. But examining: the Cèfǔ yuánguī records that in Táng times Xiānjiào (the Zoroastrian fire-religion) was called DàQín sì; and the Chéngshǐ records the Hǎiliáo (sea-foreigners) of Guǎngzhōu — that is the same kind. Further, Fǎxiǎn’s Fóguó jì KR2k0136 records: travelled overland to Tiānzhú, returned by attaching to a merchant ship to Jìn — we know the two countries can both be reached by transferring across the sea. Hence Rǔshì could see them at Fúzhōu in their trade.
So this work’s records are all gained from seeing-and-hearing, with personal inquiry. Naturally its narration is detailed-and-accurate, the basis on which the historians depend. Respectfully proof-read in the third month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
The Zhūfān zhì is the most important pre-modern Chinese-language documentary monograph on the Indian-Ocean trading world. It was composed in Bǎoqìng 1 (1225) by Zhào Rǔshì 趙汝适 (CBDB 3199; Sòng imperial-clan member of the Tàizōng / Jiǎnwáng Yuánfèn line, eight generations descended from Tàizōng — placing him in the 13th-c. yífáng of the imperial clan; conventional dates ca. 1170 – ca. 1231) during his term as Tíjǔ Fújiàn lù shìbó (Maritime-Trade Commissioner for Fújiàn) at Quánzhōu — at the time, the largest port in the world. Zhào collected material directly from the foreign merchants and ship-captains who were resident at Quánzhōu, supplementing this with extensive borrowing from Zhōu Qùfēi’s Lǐngwài dàidá KR2k0116 (compiled 1178).
Juan 1 surveys 50+ foreign countries. The work’s geographical horizon is the largest of any Chinese-language pre-modern source: it covers Champa, Cambodia, Annam, Sumatra, Java, the Philippines, the South-Indian coasts (Coromandel, Malabar), the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Peninsula (with detailed treatment of Aden / Wǔbā guó), the East-African coast (Bípāluó / Berbera, Cèngbá / Zanzibar, Zhōnglǐ / the Banaadir coast of southern Somalia), and as far as Mùlánpí guó — modern scholarship identifies this with the western Mediterranean / Almoravid territories of Spain and North Africa, on the basis of its description as “60 days’ sail west of Aden.” This is the earliest Chinese reference to medieval Iberia.
Juan 2 surveys fānwù — the foreign products, primarily traded through Quánzhōu: incense and aromatics (chénxiāng, jiàngxiāng, tánxiāng, rǔxiāng / frankincense, mòyào / myrrh, lóngxián / ambergris, chūxiāng / sumbul), dyestuffs (sūfāngmù / brazilwood, fānmù), spices (pepper, cardamom, cloves), precious stones (pearls, cuì and bìliúlí glasses, coral, agate, shēnglílí / lapis), ivory, rhinoceros horn, and various textiles.
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 594.1).
Translations and research
- 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: Imperial Academy, 1911; numerous reprints). The classic English translation, with extensive commentary; remains the standard scholarly edition. (Note Hirth-Rockhill’s still-influential identifications of the foreign place-names.)
- Yáng Bó-wén 楊博文, Zhū-fān zhì jiào-shì 諸蕃志校釋 (Beijing: Zhōnghuá, 1996). The standard modern critical Chinese edition with apparatus.
- Roderich Ptak, China’s Seaborne Trade with South and Southeast Asia, 1200–1750 (Aldershot, 1999), and his many studies of the Zhū-fān zhì.
- Tansen Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400 (Honolulu, 2003).
- John W. Chaffee, The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China: The History of a Maritime Asian Trade Diaspora, 750–1400 (Cambridge, 2018). Uses Zhū-fān zhì extensively.
- Hugh Clark, Community, Trade, and Networks: Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1991).
- Wilkinson §73.5.
Other points of interest
The Zhūfān zhì’s identification of Mùlánpí guó with western al-Andalus (Almoravid Spain and North Africa) is the earliest Chinese-language reference to the medieval Iberian Peninsula. The work’s accounts of Cèngbá and Zhōnglǐ on the East African coast are the earliest Chinese descriptions of the Swahili coast. The work was composed at the moment of greatest extent of Sòng-period maritime knowledge.
Links
- Wikidata
- Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-Kua (1911)
- Yáng Bówén, Zhūfān zhì jiàoshì (Zhōnghuá, 1996)
- Wilkinson §73.5