Lien Sung (1310-1381); Yuan Shih
(History of the Mongol dynasty)
---------------------------------------
The History of Yuan, also known as the Yuanshi, is one of the official Chinese historical works known as the Twenty-Four Histories of China. Commissioned by the court of the Ming dynasty, in accordance to political tradition, the text was composed in 1370 by the official Bureau of History of the Ming dynasty, under direction of Song Lian (1310–1381). It mentions several zebras arriving in China.
Taken from; W.W.Rockhill; Toung Pao 1914
Not a Zebra presented to the Yuan emperor but to the Ming emperor Youngle; taken from: Ning Xian Wang (Zhu Quan) ; I Yu Thu Chih (1430) (The Illustrated Record of Strange Countries)
(Ch 15) In 1288 a mission is said to have arrived at court from Ma'bar, and in 1289 we read of Ma'bar presenting the Emperor with two zebra's and in the 8th moon of 1290 another envoy came to court from the same country and presented the emperor with two piebald oxen and a t'u-piao (lynx?).
These and many other visits of foreign envoys to the court of the Chinese emperor were a result of the diplomatic missions of Yang Tingbi. Shen Fuwei in his Cultural flow between China and the outside world p 158 has the following to say about it: After capturing Quanzhou, the Yuan emperor dispatched envoys oversees ten times. Yang Tingbi was sent in 1280 and 1282 to Quilon in Malabar, receiving promises of support from Egyptian traders and Muslim Chieftains, and went on to Kenya. By 1286, ten states in Malaya, Sumatra, India and Africa had sent envoys back. Rockhill who published the text concerned of the Yuan Shih in Toung Pao 1914 has no mention of the envoy going to Kenya. He gives the list of the ten states that sent envoys back. But all places he locates in Asia I will give the list: In the 9th moon of the 23th year chih-yuan (1286) on the day yi-ch'ou being the first day of the moon, Ma-pa-erh (Ma'bar), Hsu-men-na (Mangalore), Seng-ki-li (Abulfeda's Shinkali now Cranganore), Nan-wu-li (3), Ma-lan-tan (Abulfeda's Malifattan (4)), Na-wang (5) (Nilawar), Ting-ko-erh (north east of Sumatra), Lai-lai (on Sumatra), Ki-lan-i-tai (6), Sa-mu-tu-la (Sumatra), ten kingdoms in all, each of which had sent either a son or a younger brother of its ruler with a letter to the emperor, were received in audience and presented articles of tribute. Rockhill however had some doubt about the identification of some of the places.
In the New History of the Yuan (1922) (Republic of China) Written by Ke Shaomin we find:
At that time, the court sent Tingbi to go abroad. Arrived in Julan, the lord of the kingdom greeted the seal, sent his ministers to take care of him, he purchased treasures and a black monkey. After that, the time came to go. Not long after, Ma-Bar-guo sent an envoy to the dynasty, and he would come to Beijing, and the emperor sent envoys. Following the dispatch of Fujian, he left his country and took the black bowl; Buddha's relics. He traveled in the sea for a year or so. With his country envoy, he entered and with a strange beast. It was like a mule but a giant hair was mixed in black and white. His name was Atabi. They also tribute the flower ox, water buffalo, flower donkey, and a tigercat.
(1) Ma’bar country: Ma'bar Coast: the entire coastal zone of Indian state Tamilnadu (southeastern coast of India).
(2) Kulam: Kollam (formerly Quilon) south India.
(3) Possibly the same (or part of the same) polity of Lambri/Lamuri situated in or nearby Aceh, Sumatra.
(4) port on the Coromandel coast.
(5) maybe Nellore is a city located on the banks of Penna River, in Nellore district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
(6) Kelantan or Kalantan in the Malay peninsula.