Champa in the Song Hui-Yao: a Draft Translation
https://static.blog4ever.com/2009/05/313755/artfichier_313755_208099_201102063329985.pdf
http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/docs/wps/wps05_053.pdf
Geoff Wade
Asia Research Institute,
National University of Singapore
arigpw@nus.edu.sg
Dec 2005
ARI Working Paper No. 53 Asia Research Institute ● Singapore
Translation of the Account of Champa contained in the Song hui-yao ji-gao （宋會藥輯稿）of the 12th century1
The country of Champa2 lies to the south-west of China. Sailing across the ocean to the south, San-fo-qi3 is a five-day journey. Overland, to the country of Bin-tuo-luo4 is a one-month journey. This country is subject to Champa. To the east, the country of Ma-yi5 is a two-day journey, while Pu-duan6 is a seven-day journey. To the north, it is a two-day journey to Guang-zhou, and to the north-east it is a one-month journey to Liang-zhe.7 To the north-west, it is a two-day journey to Jiao-zhou,8 but overland it is a half-month journey. [Champa’s] territory extends from east to
1 This account is contained in the 197th volume (蕃夷四) of the original text. The Champa text is found on pp. 7744-7755 of Volume 8 of the edition published by Zhong-hua shu-ju in Bei-jing in 1957.
2 “Champa” is the common translation of the Chinese term “Zhan-cheng” (占城), literally “the city of the Chams.”
3 Conventionally translated as Srivijaya, but seemingly a Chinese representation of the Arabic toponym Zābaj, through Hokkien vernacular pronunciation sña-but-zue of the characters 三佛齊. For a discussion of the references to Zābaj in Arabic texts, see G.R. Tibetts, A Study of the Arabic Texts Containing Materials on South-east Asia, E.J. Brill, Leiden and London, 1979. pp. 100-118.
4 This toponym Bin-tuo-luo (賓陀羅) appears to be a variant of Bin-tong-long (賓瞳龍), which is the most common Chinese representation of the name Pandurang[a]. For some studies of this polity, see P. Dupont, “Le Sud indochinois aux VIe et VIIe siècles. Tchen-La et Pānduranga”, Bulletin de la Société des Etudes Indochinois, XXIV-1 (1949) , pp. 9-25; and Paul Pelliot, “Textes chinois sur le Pānduranga” in BEFEO, Tome III (1903), pp. 649-654. However, some Chinese texts suggest two similarly-named polities subordinate to Champa in this period. The 12th-century text Ling-wai dai-da (嶺外代答), under its account of the country of Champa, notes: “Subordinate [to Champa] are the country of Bin-tong-long and the country of Bin-tuo-ling” (其屬有賓膧朧國賓陀陵國). See Zhou Qu-fei, Ling-wai dai-da jiao-zhu (Variorum edition of Ling-wai dai-da annotated by Yang Wu-quan), Zhong-hua shu-ju, Bei-jing, 1999. See p. 77. Most commentators consider this to be an error on the part of Zhou Qu-fei, probably as a result of taking two variant Chinese representations of the toponym Pandurang(a)/Phan Rang to be two separate polities. Panduranga was likely a major port in the 11th century. See the two early 11th-century Islamic tombstones from Panduranga as detailed in Paul Ravaisse, “Deux inscriptions çoufiques du Campā”, Journal Asiatique, Paris, 20: 2 (1922), pp. 247-289. Doubt has, however been cast upon the provenance of these two inscriptions.
5 “Ma-yi” (麻逸) is one of various ways of representing a polity name/toponym, often rendered as Mait. There seems to be an agreement that it lay in the modern Philippines Islands. Some suggest that it was the precursor of Maynila/Manila, while others aver that it represented Mindoro.
6 “Pu-duan” (蒲端) likely represents the toponym Butuan, a name which continues in use today for Butuan City which is located in the Agusan Valley within the modern province of Agusan del Norte in the northeastern part of Mindanao, the Philippines. The Song-hui-yao ji-gao also contains an account of Pu-duan, which has been translated into English by William Henry Scott in his Filipinos in China before 1500, China Studies Program, De La Salle University, Manila, 1989, pp. 27-28. For details of the 9th-13th century boats excavated in the Butuan area, see Margarita R. Cembrano, Patterns of the Past: The Ethno Archaeology of Butuan. For further details of Butuan-Champa connections, see Geoff Wade “On the Possible Cham Origin of the Philippines Scripts” in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol 24:1 (March 1993), pp. 44-87. See particularly pp. 83-85.
7 Literally, the “two Zhe” (兩浙), the name of a Song administrative circuit, administered from the modern Hang-zhou and comprising much of the modern province of Zhe-jiang, Shang-hai Municipality and the southern part of Jiang-su Province.
8 Jiao-zhou (交州), a Tang administrative division including the Red River Valley. The capital varied in location over time, but the reference here suggests that the time/distance measured is to the Red River delta.
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ARI Working Paper No. 53 Asia Research Institute ● Singapore
west for 700 li9, and from north to south for 3,000 li. The south is called Shi-bei10 zhou11, the west is called Shang-yuan12 zhou, and the north is called Wu-li13 zhou. The country has no walled cities, but has over 100 villages. The village clans14 number 300-500 or perhaps even 700. There are also district and town names.
The land produces fibrous and high-quality gharu wood,15 betel-nut,16 ebony,17 sapan wood, white cane, bee’s wax,18 kapok, floral cloth, damask, white fine cotton cloth, rattan mats, bei-duo leaf19 mats, and gold, silver and iron ingots. In terms of grains, they do not have wheat. They do have [non-glutinous] rice, millet and hemp. For each hu20 of seeds which the officials provide, the tax payable is 100 hu of product. They have lotus, sugar-cane, bananas, and coconuts. In terms of birds and animals, there are many peafowl and rhinoceros. They also raise many cattle and water buffalo. However, they do not have donkeys. There are also mountain cattle,21 but they cannot be used for ploughing. They are only killed in sacrifice to the spirits. When they are about to be slaughtered, a medium is instructed to offer prayers, which sound thus: “A-luo-he-ji-ba”22. In translation, this means: “May he be early reborn.” When people capture rhinoceros or elephants, they are all given to the king. Many of the people of the country ride elephants. Some use mountain chairs made of soft cloth, while others trade for horses in Jiao- .....