Old Harbor in the Ming shilu
For the past five years, I have been arguing that a placename that appears in Chinese historical sources, Sanfoqi, was a reference to Cambodia, rather than to a proposed polity…
Sanfoqi, Old Harbor and the Baolin Polity in the Rekidai Hōan
For the past five years, I have been putting forth the argument that a Chinese place name, Sanfoqi, that scholars believe referred to a polity on Sumatra called “Srivijaya” was…
Sanfoqi in the Ming shilu
Many years ago now, in the 1990s, historian Geoff Wade translated the information about Southeast Asia in the Ming shilu (Veritable Records of the Ming), and then in the 2000s…
Southeast Asia in the History of the Song
The History of the Song (Songshi 宋史) is a very important source for the study of Southeast Asian history.One section of that work that is particularly important is Liezhuan 列傳…
Third-Fourth Century Maritime Southeast Asia in a Daoist Text
I recently came to realize that there is geographic information about third-fourth century maritime Southeast Asia in a Daoist text, the Grand Clarity Scripture of Divine Elixir Made from Liquid…
There is no Pulau Aur in Song Dynasty Era Sources
A few days ago, I posted a translation of information about maritime Southeast Asia in Zhou Qufei’s 周去非 1178 work, Lingwai daida 嶺外代答 [Representative Responses about the Region Beyond the…
12th-Century Maritime Southeast Asia in the Lingwai Daida
Zhou Qufei’s 周去非 1178 work, Lingwai daida 嶺外代答 [Representative Responses about the Region Beyond the Passes], is a very important Chinese source for information about maritime Southeast Asia at that…