島夷誌略

Dǎoyí zhìlüè 島夷誌略

Brief Treatise on the Island Foreign Peoples by 汪大淵 (Wāng Dàyuān, zì Huànzhāng, fl. 1330–1351) — zhuàn 撰

About the work

A 1-juan Yuán-period monograph on the Indian-Ocean and Southeast-Asian foreign countries, by Wāng Dàyuān 汪大淵 (zì Huànzhāng 焕章, native of Nánchāng 南昌; fl. 1330–1351), based on his two extended sea voyages from Quánzhōu in Zhìshùn 1 (1330) and Zhìyuán 3 (1337) — the first ranging across maritime South-East Asia, India, and the Persian Gulf, the second probably reaching East Africa. The work treats around 100 guó (countries / locales) and concludes with the Yìwén jìlüè — a section on foreign products. It is the principal mid-fourteenth-century Chinese-language documentary monograph on the Indian-Ocean trading world, and is uniquely valuable as a record of countries Wāng personally visited rather than (as in Zhūfān zhì KR2k0139) of countries reported through merchant testimony. It was twice prefaced — by Zhāng Zhù 張翥 of Hédōng (Zhìzhèng era) and twice by Wú Jiàn 吳鑒 of Sānshān 三山 (Zhìzhèng jǐchǒu / 1349, the earlier preface; and a later one). The work was scarce by the late Míng (Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù and Jiāo Hóng’s Guóshǐ jīngjí zhì both omit it; Qián Zēng’s Dúshū mǐnqiú jì records it as an old Yuán hand-copy).

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Dǎoyí zhìlüè in one juan is by Wāng Dàyuān of Yuán. Dàyuān, zì Huànzhāng, native of Nánchāng. In Zhìzhèng he attached himself to a merchant ship and floated on the sea, passing through several tens of countries; recording what he heard and saw; he produced this work.

Now using Míng Mǎ Guān’s Yīngyá shènglǎn (the record of the Zhèng Hé voyages by his Muslim translator Mǎ Huān) for cross-comparison: as Zhānchéng’s people who wear three-mountain golden-flower crown, garments all wound with coloured kerchiefs; producing jiānánxiāng (agarwood), Guānyīn zhú, jiàngzhēn xiāng and the like; Guāwā (Java)‘s Sīcūn, Gūtān, Xīncūn, Sūmǎlǔ, Àigǎng kǒu — each place’s customs are different; further, that country’s people have three classes; its products: báizhīmá, lǜdòu, sūmù, jīngāngzǐ, báitán, ròudòukòu, guītǒng, dàimào, red-and-green parrots; Jiùgǎng (Palembang) has huǒjī (cassowary) and shénlù (deer); these are all not recorded in this work. Further, what is recorded of Zhēnlà products is only four or five out of ten compared to Yuán Zhōu Dáguān’s Zhēnlà fēngtǔ jì KR2k0141. Presumably distant places-and-frontiers — the chance one-mooring of a ship cannot completely survey without remainder; what was seen is each different, hence what is recorded each distinct — is not strange.

As to “Guāwā is the ancient Shépó” — examining the Míngshǐ: in Míng Tàizǔ’s time, Guāwā and Shépó both came tributing; their two countries’ kings’ names also differ; Dàyuān merging them into one is hearsay error.

But the various histories’ wàiguó lièzhuàn — those who held the brush — none had personally been to those lands; even Zhào Rǔshì’s Zhūfān zhì KR2k0139 and the like were also mostly gained from the shìbó (maritime trade) office’s merchants’ oral reports. This work is all personally traversed and hand-recorded — not at all the same as empty talk without verification. Hence what it records of Luówèi, Luóhú, Zhēnlù — the various countries — over half are not recorded in the histories. Further, on the various countries’ mountains-rivers, strategic narrows, regional borders, distance-extent, every one is described — even on those recorded in the histories, also not as detailed as what it says. To record it is also useful for kǎozhèng.

Examining: Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù and Jiāo Hóng’s Guóshǐ jīngjí zhì both do not record this work; only Qián Zēng’s Dúshū mǐnqiú jì records it, calling it an old Yuán hand-copy — so this work has long had no printed edition in circulation, and is rare. Further says: in Zhìzhèng, Hédōng Zhāng Zhù and Sānshān Wú Jiàn made prefaces. Now examining: in this text both prefaces are present; but Wú Jiàn’s preface has two pieces — the front one dated Zhìzhèng jǐchǒu (1349) — that is for Wú Jiàn’s compiled Qīngyuán xùzhì, where the Dǎoyí zhì is included as an appendix; the latter is for the present work’s separate publication. (…) Respectfully proof-read.

Abstract

The Dǎoyí zhìlüè is the principal mid-fourteenth-century Chinese-language documentary monograph on the Indian-Ocean and Southeast-Asian world, by the Yuán-period traveller Wāng Dàyuān 汪大淵 (CBDB 103642; zì Huànzhāng 煥章; native of Nánchāng 南昌 in Jiāngxī; fl. 1330–1351). Wāng made two extended sea-voyages from Quánzhōu — the largest port in the world at that time — beginning in Zhìshùn 1 (1330) and again in Zhìyuán 3 (1337), each lasting several years. The first voyage took him through maritime Southeast Asia, the Indian coast, the Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea; the second extended further, reportedly reaching the East African coast.

The work covers some 100 guó (countries or locales). It is the only pre-Míng Chinese-language documentary monograph on these regions composed by a personal observer rather than by a maritime-trade administrator working from merchant testimony. The Sìkù tíyào explicitly contrasts it favourably with the Zhūfān zhì of Zhào Rǔshì on this score. Despite the immediate textual rarity (rare by the late Míng), it became one of the standard Chinese sources for Indian-Ocean historical geography. The work was first prefaced by Zhāng Zhù 張翥 of Hédōng and twice by Wú Jiàn 吳鑒 of Sānshān (the Zhìzhèng jǐchǒu / 1349 preface accompanies the work’s appendix-publication in Wú’s Qīngyuán xùzhì).

The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 594.4).

Translations and research

• W. W. Rockhill, “Notes on the Relations and Trade of China with the Eastern Archipelago and the Coast of the Indian Ocean during the Fourteenth Century,” T’oung Pao 15 (1914): 419–447, 16 (1915): 61–159, 236–271, 374–392, 435–467, 604–626. The classic English-language partial translation with commentary; remains widely used.
• Sū Jì-qìng 蘇繼廎, Dǎo-yí zhì-lüè jiào-shì 島夷誌略校釋 (Beijing: Zhōnghuá, 1981). Standard modern critical Chinese edition.
• Roderich Ptak, China’s Seaborne Trade with South and Southeast Asia, 1200–1750 (Aldershot, 1999), passim.
• Geoff Wade, “An Early Age of Commerce in Southeast Asia, 900–1300 CE,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40.2 (2009): 221–265, comparative.
• Tansen Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade (Honolulu, 2003).
• John W. Chaffee, The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China (Cambridge, 2018).
• Wilkinson §73.5.

Other points of interest

The Dǎoyí zhìlüè is the principal documentary continuation of the Zhūfān zhì tradition, but with an important difference: it claims direct personal observation rather than merchant testimony. This makes it valuable not only for the Indian-Ocean polities themselves but as a source for the cosmology of late-Yuán Chinese maritime knowledge. The work in particular records Luóhú (modern Lopburi or Ayutthaya region), the Sānyǔ / Tāprobane (Sri Lanka) coast, Bīngjiāluó (Bengal), the Maldives (Běi-liú-li), and the Tiāntáng guó (Mecca region) — the last reached by extension to the Persian Gulf.

Links

• Wikidata
• Rockhill, T’oung Pao 15–16 (1914–1915)
• Sū Jìqìng, Dǎoyí zhìlüè jiàoshì (Zhōnghuá, 1981)
• Wilkinson §73.5