Yuan 7

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Crops………….

Melon:

Watermelon: According to the History of the Five Dynasties (46): Hu Wei is the secretary of Xiao Han (47), and he went to the Uigur Khitan (48). When he came back, it is planted with cow dung and covered with sheds. It is as big as Chinese melon, and has sweetness. Guangzhou has this since the arrival of the Yuan. In fact, it is round and strong, and it is in three colors: yellow, red, and black. Visitors from the north say: Melon can stop polydipsia (1) and do not eat too much. It is sweet and warm. Today it exists in Lingnan (49) as a native product……………….

(this is the arrival of the watermelon a native from East Africa in China)

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(the beginning of the section on trade goods)

The yuan dynasty covers the ends of the four seas (all over the world) where the sun and the moon rise and set, and no one dares not to bring tribute, kowtow, and call themselves vassals. Therefore the strangeness of seas and mountains, and humans and beasts, and the diversity of pearls and rhinoceroses are always stored in the internal [governmental] storages . … the prosperity of the precious goods is now twice than that written in previous gazetteers. Now I listed the countries, the names of which we know, as an attachment after the section……………..

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Goods received from the Fan (=Tribute) Countries……

Treasures:

ivory, rhinoceros horn, crane top, zhen beads, coral, bitianzi (2), cui mao (3), turtle, tortoiseshell.

Cloth: ……

Fragrant goods:

Agarwood (4), fragrant incense, yellow ripe fragrant, beat incence, dark and spicy, zhan-cheng, cu-shu, wu-xiang, fragrant wood, dalbergia-fragrance (5),

sandalwood, musk, rose water, frankincense, golden fragrance.

Drugs: ……

Various wood:

logwood tree (6), shooting wood, ebony, red-wood.

Leather goods: ……

Hoofs; Horn: …..

Sunderies:…….

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The countries south of Ma-ba-erh-country (马八儿国) (7):

Xì lan (8), jia yi (9), wu li fa dan (10), cha liye kuo (11), bo de zhi (12), gu da lin (13).

Da gu lan guo. 大故蓝国 (14)

Hu tu la guo. 胡荼辣国 (15)

Xi li fu dan. 禧里弗丹 (16)

Bin tuo lan na. 宾陀兰纳 (17)

Po jia lu. 迫加鲁 (18)

Meng ge lu. 盟哥鲁 (19)

Tiao tu ji. 条土□吉 (20)

Da na. 靼拿 (21)

Kuo li zhu si. 阔里株思 Hormuz (22)

Jia la dou. 加剌都 (23)

Ba fei li. 拔肥离 (24) Berbera on the east coast of Africa.

Tu fu. 涂拂 (25)

Pi sha fu dan. 毗沙弗丹 (26)

Ya da. 哑靼 Adan (27)

Peng jia luo. 鹏茄啰 Bengal (28)

Ji shi. 记施 Kish (29)

Ma luo hua. 麻啰华 Malwa (30)

Bi shi luo. 弼施啰 Basrah (31)

Ma jia li. 麻加里 (32) Malindi East Coast of Africa

Bai da. 白达 (33)

Ceng ba. 层拔 Zanzibar (34)

Shan si. 赡思 (35) should be 瞻思 Zhan Si (now East Africa Coast Zanji Land)

Bi pa luo. 弼琶啰  Berbera (36)

Wu si li. 勿斯离 Misr (37)

Wu ba. 勿拔 (38)

Lu mei. 芦眉 (39)

Weng man. 瓮蛮 Oman (40)

Fu lan. 弗蓝 (41)

Hei jia lu. 黑加鲁 (42)

Mo jia. 默茄 Mekka (43)

Cha bi sha. 茶弼沙 (44)

Ji ci ni. 吉慈尼  (45)

(1) Polydipsia: given to excessive thirst.

(2) Bitianzi: a kind of green stone.

(3) cui mao: adornment made from the feathers of the kingfisher bird.

(4) Agarwood: or aloeswood, eaglewood or gharuwood is a fragrant dark resinous wood used in incense, perfume, and small carvings.

(5) Dalbergia-fragrance: kind of trees called true rosewoods

(6) Logwood tree: (is from South America) most probably the Sappan-wood of Asia is meant which produces the same red dye.

(7) Ma-ba-erh-country (马八儿国): On the East Coast of India.

(8) Xì la: Ceylon

(9) jia yi: Kayal: medieval town in the Tamrapani delta of Coromandel of Tamil Nadu.

(10) wu li fa dan:Kaveripattanam; Chola port city in India.

(11) cha liye kuo: Kilakarai is an eastern coastal town and a port, located in southern Tamil Nadu.

(12) bo de zhi: Negapatam is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu important port during the period of Medieval Cholas.

(13) gu da lin: Gangaikonda Cholapuram is a village in Tamil Nadu, India. It was the capital of the Chola dynasty from c. 1025.

(14) Da gu lan guo. 大故蓝国 "The Great Blue Country", which is now Kollam on the west coast of southern India.

(15) Hu tu la guo. 胡荼辣国 Hucha Spicy Country", which is the area of Gujarat in northwestern India.

(16) Xi li fu dan. 禧里弗丹 Shirifudan in present-day Nagapatam on the south east coast of India.

(17) Bin tuo lan na. 宾陀兰纳 Pandaraina in Sanskrit and Fandarāina in Arabic. It is about 16 miles north of Calicut on the west coast of the Indian peninsula.

(18) Po jia lu. 迫加鲁 referring to Mangalore North Baganor on the west coast of India.

(19) Meng ge lu. 盟哥鲁 is now Mangalore on the coast of Malar, India.

(20) Tiao tu ji. 条土吉 now the Maldives Islands

(21) Da na. 靼拿 is now Netana, Mumbai Bay, India

(22) Kuo li zhu si. 阔里株思 Hormuz

(23) Jia la dou. 加剌都 Kaladu refers to Karachi, Pakistan

(24) Ba fei li. 拔肥离 Berbera on the east coast of Africa.

(25) Tu fu. 涂拂  除拂 now Dhofar, in the Arabian peninsula

(26) Pi sha fu dan. 毗沙弗丹 Vishafdan on the coast of present-day India

(27) Ya da. 哑靼 Adan

(28) Peng jia luo. 鹏茄啰 Bengal

(29) Ji shi. 记施 Kish

(30) Ma luo hua. 麻啰华 Malwa

(31) Bi shi luo. 弼施啰 Basrah

(32) Ma jia li. 麻加里 (Malindi East Coast of Africa)

(33) Bai da. 白达 Baida (now Baghdad, the capital of Iraq)

(34) Ceng ba. 层拔 Zanzibar

(35) Shan si. 赡思 should be 瞻思 Zhan Si (now East Africa Coast Zanji Land)

(36) Bi pa luo. 弼琶啰  Berbera

(37) Wu si li. 勿斯离 Misr

(38) Wu ba. 勿拔 the Mirbat area in southern Oman.

(39) Lu mei. 芦眉 Eastern part Roman Empire.

(40) Weng man. 瓮蛮 Oman

(41) Fu lan. 弗蓝 Byzantine Empire

(42) Hei jia lu. 黑加鲁 Hedjaz province of Mecca

(43) Mo jia. 默茄 Mekka

(44) Cha bi sha. 茶弼沙 or today's European Spain

(45) Ji ci ni. 吉慈尼   Gitzni refers to the territory of Afghanistan today.

(46) period of time between the fall of the Tang dynasty (ad 907) and the founding of the Song dynasty (960), when five would-be dynasties followed one another in quick succession in North China.

(47) Xiao Han (Liao dynasty) (蕭翰; died 949), Liao dynasty general.

(48) Khitan people were a nomadic people who, from the 4th century, inhabited parts of Mongolia, Northeast China and the Russian Far East. The Uyghurs are recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.

(49) Lingnan: Lit.: South of the [Nanling] Mountains. The region covers Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong & Macau and the Northern half of Vietnam.