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A Note on Professor Duyvendak's Lectures on China's Discovery of Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
Professor Duyvendak, in his lectures on China's discovery of Africa, delivered at the University of London, ends with the last of the voyages of Chêng Ho, 1431–33. This, until modern times, is doubtless the final official contact of the Chinese with Africa itself. The Ming history, however, records one more mission, this time from Miṣr (Egypt) to China, as has already been noticed by both Bretschneider and Pelliot. Since the records of this embassy, as preserved in the Ming shih lu
, are of some interest I present a translation of them below.
- Type
- Notes and Communications
- Information
- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , June 1952 , pp. 384 - 387
- Copyright
- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1952
References
page 384 note 1 Published by Probsthain, Arthur, London, in 1949.Google Scholar
page 384 note 2 Ming shih (ed. of Ch'ien-lung period), 332/22 ab; Bretschneider, E., Medieval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources (1888), 308Google Scholar; and Pelliot, Paul, “Les anciens rapports entre Egypte et l'Extrême-Orient,” Congrès International de Géographic, v (1926), 21–22.Google Scholar
page 384 note 3 Photolithographic reproduction of 1940, Nanking. Cf. Franke, Wolfgang, “Zur Kompilation und Überlieferung der Ming Shih-lu,” Sinologische Arbeiten, I (1943), 1–46Google Scholar. The “Veritable Records” in question are the Ying-tsung Jui-huang-ti shih-lu treated by Franke on pp. 18–19. They were completed in 1467.
page 384 note 4 Identified by Bretschneider and Pelliot as al-Suṭān al-Malik al-Ashraf Barsbay, who reigned from 1422 to 7th June, 1438. The embassy must therefore have been over three years en route from Egypt to Peking. They were probably housed at the final post of the relay system, the Yen-t'ai-i, as the Hui-t'ung-kuan was then under construction. See the paper by Pelliot published posthumously in T'oung Pao 38 (1948), 253–254.Google Scholar
page 384 note 5 A post established in 1389, north-east of Jehol and north-west of Mukden. Cf. Gibert, L., Dict, historique et géographique de la Mandchourie, p. 183Google Scholar, and Ming shih 90/17a.
page 384 note 6 Cf. Bretschneider, , op. cit., ii, 186 and 295.Google Scholar
page 385 note 1 The term is hsing-tsai, temporary capital, not abandoned for Peking until this very year; cf. Pelliot, , T'oung Pao 31 (1935), 291, n. 2.Google Scholar
page 385 note 2 Not entirely accurate. According to the Ming-shih, 332/22a envoys from Misr had come to the Chinese court in the Yung-lo period. Cf. Duyvendak, , China's Discovery, p. 32.Google Scholar
page 385 note 3 On this situation see Bretschneider, , op. cit., ii, 263–264.Google Scholar
page 385 note 4 Pelliot, , TP 31 (1935), 289Google Scholar, n. 2, has written concerning this term: “il doit s'agir de brocarts et de satin pour les vêtements, et de taffetas pour les doublures.”
page 385 note 5 Cf. Pelliot, , TP 30 (1933), 437–438.Google Scholar
page 385 note 6 Pelliot, , TP 30 (1933), 426, n. 1Google Scholar, mentions this term without trying to translate it. Professor Duyvendak proposes “bleached” cotton, possibly “cambric”.
page 385 note 7 This is not quite correct. As Bretschneider, , op. cit., ii, p. 286Google Scholar, indicates, the Ming history (Ming shih 332/15b) reports that when in 1433 an embassy from Herat came bringing camels, horses, and jade the eunuch Li Kuei was ordered to accompany it on its homeward journey bearing gifts to Shāh Rukh (b. 1377, r. 1405–1447) and his chieftains.
page 385 note 8 Dr. George C. Miles of the Museum of the American Numismatic Society, who has kindly offered several suggestions, writes to me, “The probability is that this is ‘Ala’ al-Dawlah Ulugh Beg, son of Shāh Rukh, who was supreme Timurid ruler from 1446 to 1449, but who as early as 1407 was governor of a part of Khurāsān. Herat was certainly his headquarters during most of his life. As for Pa-tu-erh, I suspect this is for ‘Bahādur’, a title used by most of the Timurid rulers.” On Bahādur see also Bretschneider, , op. cit., i, 279, n. 668.Google Scholar
page 385 note 9 Darhan, a Mongol term for a military officer; shê-jen, a kind of attaché, usually a member of the family of an envoy. I owe explanation of these terms and other suggestions to Mr. Fang Chao-ying of the Chinese History Project, located at Columbia University.
page 386 note 1 Not to be confused with Zain al-'Ābidin, who reigned over Sumatra from 1405 to 1433; see Pelliot, , TP 30 (1933), 275–276Google Scholar, 31 (1935), 293. Dr. Miles suggests Shāh Khān Zain al-'Ābidīn, who ruled for half a century over Kashmir at this time. His dates of reign are variously given as 1417–1467, 1420–1470,1421–1472. Kak, Ram Chandra, Ancient Monuments of Kashmir (London, 1933), 33–40Google Scholar, who supports the last, does not mention his contacts with the Chinese court, but does tell of his relations with Miṣr. It is of passing interest that fire-arms were first introduced into Kashmir in 1466, and that Zain al-'Ābidīn himself is credited with composing a treatise in Persian on the manufacture of fireworks. One wonders if relations with China might have led to this knowledge.
On earlier contacts between the two countries see Bretschneider, , op. cit., p. 138, n. 368, and II, 26Google Scholar, and Chavannes, E., Documents sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs) Occidentaux (1903), 166–168Google Scholar, and “Notes Additionelles”, TP 1904, 44 ffGoogle Scholar. There appears to be no mention of any in the Ming shih
page 386 note 2 The Ming shih 329/20b mentions this chief's name in the same connexion. Cf. Bretschneider, , op. cit., ii, 194.Google Scholar
page 386 note 3 I have not been able to find either Lien-chên 
or Ma-erh-ch'ao 
above in the Ming shih (cf. the list of small localities sending envoys in the Ming shih 332/28b–29a, reproduced by Bretschneider, , op. cit., ii, 315Google Scholar, with corrections by Pelliot, , TP 1944, 129–131)Google Scholar, the Huan-yü-t'ung-chih 
(a geography of the empire presented to the court in 1456 —see my forthcoming paper on Geographical additions of the XIV and XV centuries to be published in the MacNair memorial volume), the Ming i-t'ung-chih of 1461, or the Chinese itinerary of the Ming (possibly fifteenth century as well) translated by Bretschneider, in The China Review, v (1866–1877), 227–241.Google Scholar
page 386 note 4 Daruga means governor in Mongol; cf. Bretschneider, , op. cit., i, 138, n. 368; ii, 186.Google Scholar