Back to Table of Contents
To next
page
Note on KUNLUN empire
--------------------------------
During the tang Dynasty but also in the centuries before we see the rise of present day Indonesia and Malaysia to become the mayor naval powers in south east Asia.
This is important as they will expand and take over Madagascar and even settle on the east coast of Africa.
Here the empire at its biggest extension.
Here a list of extracts from books showing how the Chinese saw these foreigners with their ships come to rule the waves.
Yijing: Nanhai jigui neifa chuan (Practice of Buddhism in the South Seas) (692)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taken from: Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts, Languages and Texts edited by Roger Blench, Matthew Spriggs
As indeed the Juelun (Kunlun) were the first to come to Tongkin (Canton), all became known under the general name of Kunlun (i.e. people from beyond the frontier). But the (actual) Kunlun have curly hair and black bodies, (where as those of) the other islands are not different from in China, but for going barefoot and wearing the sarong.
Hui-Lin: I Ch'ieh Ching Yin I (737-820) (Lexicon)
-----------------------------------------------------
Taken from: Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts, Languages and Texts edited by Roger Blench, Matthew Spriggs
Taken from: Paul Pelliot 1923-25
(He is quoting Zhang Yi’s Guangya written in 230 AD and a commentary on the Zhuangzi by Sima Biao d305AD
Expose; bo: the lower is pronounced bo. Sima Biao commenting the Zhuangzi says: The bo are sea-going ships. In the Guangya bo is a sea ship too. They lie six or seven feet deep in the water. They are fast and can transport more than 1000 men, apart from cargo. They are also called kunlun bo. Many of those who form the crews and technicians of these ships are Kunlun (Southeast Asian) people. With the fibrous bark of the coconut tree, they make cords which bind the parts of the ship together (…). Nails and clamps are not used, for fear that the heating of the iron would give rise to fires, (The ships) are constructed by assembling (several) thicknesses of side-planks, for the boards are thin and they fear they woul break. Their length is over sixty meters (..). Sails are hoisted to make use of the winds, and (these ships) cannot be propelled by the strength of men (alone).
Li Fang: Taiping Yulan (Imperial Digest of Taiping) (983)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taken from: The Siren of Cirebon. A Tenth-Century Trading Vessel Lost in the Java Sea. By Horst Hubertus Liebner.
Christie, Anthony (1957): 'An Obscure Passage from the "Periplus: ΚΟΛΑΝΔΙΟφΩΝΤΑ ΤΑ ΜΕΓΙΣΤΑ"', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London,19 (2), 345-53
Manguin, Pierre-Yves: (1993b): 'Trading Ships of the South China Sea: Shipbuilding Techniques and Their Role in the History of the Devel-opment of Asian Trade Networks', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient,36 (3), 253-80.
A quotation from a lost Chinese account of the late third century explains:
Yuan 769
Foreigners call ships bo. The biggest are 20 chang or more in length, and two or three chang above the waterline. Seen from above they resemble covered galleries. They carry six to seven hundred men and a cargo of 10,000 hu.
The men from beyond our frontiers use four sails for their ships, varying with the size of the ships. These sails are connected with each other from bow to stern. [...] The four sails do not face directly forward, but are made to move together to one side or the other with the direction of the breeze. [...] The pressure [of the wind] swells [the sails] from behind and is thrown from one to the other, so that they all profit from its force. If it is violent, they diminish or augment [the surface of the sails] according to conditions. This oblique [rig], which permits the sails to receive from one another the breath of the wind, obviates the anxiety attendant upon having high masts.
These measurements have been understood to ‘indicate a vessel of about 170 feet overall, with a freeboard of some 16 feet or more’ and a carrying capacity of ‘c. 600 tons deadweight’.
Xiao Zixian: Nan Qi Shu: (Book of Southern Qi) (d537)
----------------------------------------------------------
Taken from: Kunlun and Kunlun Slaves as Buddhists in the Eyes of the Tang Chinese by KANG HEEJUNG
In this book Jiang Jingxuan 江景玄 (479–502) mentions that large Kunlun ships are called Kunlun Bo 崑崙舶. He writes that foreigners call their ships "Bo" 舶 and that these ships were much larger than those of China (Book of Southern Qi, Vol. 31).
Yuan 31………..
Jingzhen is in the Nanzhao Temple, there Yuanhui are wearing pleated purple, we all agree on this.
Yu Leyou set up a meeting, everyone is wearing a royal coat. And of silk brocade and Kunlun-bo (Kunlun ship) import goods.
Yang Xiu and Song Qi :Xin T'angshu
(New history of the Tang Dynasty) (1066)
--------------------------------------------
Taken from: Kunlun and Kunlun Slaves as Buddhists in the Eyes of the Tang Chinese by KANG HEEJUNG
Yuan 150
The end of an area. Empress Wu (r. 690-704) moved the Guangzhou Governor. The South China Sea has coming from the outer area the Kunlun bo (Kunlun Ships), and the former governor Lu Yuanrui took their goods.
Li Dashi+son Li Yanshou: Bei shi; (History of the Northern Dynasties) 北史 (659)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Taken from: Kunlun and Kunlun Slaves as Buddhists in the Eyes of the Tang Chinese by KANG HEEJUNG
Yuan 88…………
Also support was given to get in contact with the customers, in the case of Kunlun-bo (Kunlun-ships), there are lots of valuable goods present, dozens of nice jade for the rulers.
Li Baiyao: 北齊書, Bei Qi Shu; (Book of Northern Qi) (636)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taken from: Kunlun and Kunlun Slaves as Buddhists in the Eyes of the Tang Chinese by KANG HEEJUNG
Yuan 37…….
Ji and Zhao County. Public. The increase was exempted, it was accepted, then removed.
In a certain year it became the gate to the customers, in the case of Kunlun-bo (Kunlun-ships),there are lots of valuable goods present, dozens of nice jade for the rulers.
The same entry can be found in the History of the Northern Dynasties.