Zhenlifu 真里富 (Chen-li-fu) is the name of a small kingdom in central Cambodia that briefly interacted with the Song dynasty at the beginning of the thirteenth century.If you search for…
There is a kingdom by the name of Zhenlifu 真里富 (also, Chen-li-fu) that is mentioned in a Song dynasty source known as the Song huiyao jigao 宋會要輯稿 (Draft Institutional History…
Last year I wrote a couple of blog posts on a term, “Pu” 蒲, that appears in Song dynasty sources: “When the Cham Ruled the Seas” and “More Evidence for…
I recently learned/realized that during the Tang dynasty period, there was an overland trade route that went from what is now central Vietnam over to Cambodia and then south to…
There is something that I have come to realize as I’ve worked with Chinese sources on early Southeast Asian history, and it is that the scholars who have written on…
When technology advances gradually, we tend to not fully appreciate the scale of the transformation that it brings. This is because we adapt to its gradual changes, and lose track…
For years, I have been telling people that we are living in a new age. With the digitization of historical sources, something that has really only developed significantly in the…
In 2024, the Wikipedia page for Chenla [Zhenla], contained the following sentence:“According to Paul Pelliot, Sambhupura was the capital of Land Chenla [km] (Upper Chenla) and Vyadhapura was the capital…
There is a place name in early Chinese sources called “Linyi” 林邑.For 100+ years, scholars have been trying to figure out where exactly it was, and how it was related…
The History of the Sui (Suishu 隋書) was completed in 636. It has an account of Linyi which is translated below.(隋書／列傳 凡五十卷／卷八十二 列傳第四十七 南蠻／林邑)林邑之先，因漢末交阯女子徵側之亂，內縣功曹子區連殺縣令，自號為王。無子，其甥范熊代立，死，子逸立。日南人范文因亂為逸僕隸，遂教之築宮室，造器械。逸甚信任，使文將兵，極得眾心。文因間其子弟，或奔或徙。及逸死，國無嗣，文自立為王。其後范佛為晉揚威將軍戴桓所破。宋交州刺史檀和之將兵擊之，深入其境。至梁、陳，亦通使往來。The origins of Linyi date back to…