Tun-sun ()

Paul Wheatley

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00114431

Tun-sun ()

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Paul Wheatley

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

Writers on the early history of South-East Asia have frequently referred to a country known to the Chinese as (Tun-sun), but so far no one has collated all the available texts to furnish the fullest possible description of this shadowy state. The following notes are an attempt to show that their assembly provides one of the earliest extant accounts of the Malay Peninsula.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 88 , Issue 1-2 , April 1956 , pp. 17 - 30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00114431 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1956

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 17 note 1} Liang shu ( Edition), chap. 54, f. 7, recto.

^{page 17 note 2} For the interpretation of this phrase I am indebted to Arthur Waley who, in a personal communication, suggests that should be read as , meaning stepping-stone. The significance of this emendation will become apparent in a later section of this essay.

^{page 17 note 3} See K'ang hsi tzu Hen () under , and P'ei wen yün fu (), chap. 40, under .

^{page 18 note 1} Groeneveldt, W. P., Verhandelingen van het Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, vol. 39 (Batavia, 1879)Google Scholar, now most conveniently accessible in revised form in “Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca”, Miscellaneous Papers relating to Indo-China and the Indian Archipelago, Second Series, vol. 1 (London, 1887), pp 239–240Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 2} Schlegel, G., “Geographical Notes,” T'oung Pao (Leiden, 1899), pp. 33–4.Google Scholar

^{page 18 note 3} Nan shih ( Edition), , chap. 78, f. 5, recto.

^{page 18 note 4} Pelliot, P., “Le Fou-nan,” Bulletin de l'Éicole française a'Extrême-Orient, tome 3 (Hanoi, 1903), p. 263Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 5} Laufer, B., “Malabathron,” Journal Asiatique, tome 12 (Paris; juillet-août, 1918), pp. 28–9Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 6} Luce, G. H., “Countries Neighbouring Burma,” Journal of the Burma Research Society, vol. 14, pt. 2 (Rangoon, 1925), pp. 147–8Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 7} Dato' SirBraddell, Roland, “An Introduction to the Study of Ancient Times in the Malay Peninsula and the Straits of Malacca,” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 17, pt. 1 (10, 1939), p. 194Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 8} Wai-toon, Han, “A Study on Johore Lama,” Journal of the South Seas Society, vol. 5, pt. 2, no. 10 (Singapore, 1948), pp. 17–35Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 9} Yün-ts'iao, Hsü, “Notes on Malay Peninsula in Ancient Voyages,” Journal of the South Seas Society, vol. 5, pt. 2, No. 10 (1948), pp. 1–16Google Scholar.

^{page 19 note 1} The passage in the Nan shih (p. 18 above) reproduces this phrase from the Liang shu. It is possible that Schlegel's translation was influenced by the expanded phrase which occurs in the T'ung tien ().

^{page 19 note 2} This passage is not included in the notice in the Nan shih which Schlegel used, but he translated an identical remark from the T'ung tien ().

^{page 20 note 1} Liang shu, chap. 54, f. 9, recto.

^{page 20 note 2} The country around the northern shores of the Gulf of Siam (see Braddell, op. cit., pp. 201–2).

^{page 20 note 3} Chap. 788, f. 1, verso ( Edition).

^{page 20 note 4} Chap. 788, ff. 1, verso, and 2, recto.

^{page 21 note 1} Probably represents Old Khmer Kuruṅ = king, regent—Pelliot, P., “Deux Itinéraires de Chine en Inde à la fin du VIII^e Siècle,” B.É.F.E.O., tome 4 (1904), pp. 228–230Google Scholar.

^{page 21 note 2} The name hu () refers specifically to Mongol and Tartar tribes of Central Asia, but Pelliot is probably correct in saying that it includes Indians “au sens large”. He also discerns in the distinction between hu and brahmans some indication that the former were a merchant class (op. cit., p. 279, footnote 4).

^{page 21 note 3} Fo-t'u has not been satisfactorily explained. It may mean either the Buddha or a stupa. Pelliot thinks the expression might possibly signify “a buddhist”.

^{page 21 note 4} Pelliot's translation is reproduced by Ferrand, G., “Le K'ouen-louen et les Anciennes Navigations Interocéaniques dans les Mers du Sud,” Journal Asiatique, onzième série, tome 13 (Paris; mars-avril, 1919), p. 242Google Scholar.

^{page 22 note 1} This passage has also been translated into French by de Saint-Denys, le Marquis d'Hervey, Ethnographic des Peuples Étrangers à la Chine (Geneva, 1883), pp. 444–7Google Scholar, and into English by Schlegel, op. cit., pp. 34–6.

^{page 23 note 1} Chap. 788, f. 1, verso.

^{page 23 note 2} This probably refers to the T'ang shih lun tuan (), a critical study of the history of the T'ang dynasty, written in the eleventh century.

^{page 23 note 3} Laufer (op. cit.) has demonstrated that was the plant known to the ancient world of the West as malabathron, which he identifies as patchouli. As Pogostemon heyneanus this is found wild from India to the Philippines.

^{page 23 note 4} Laufer has identified this plant as the Eupatorium (op. cit., p. 27, footnote 5).

^{page 23 note 5} Chap. 982, f. 3, verso.

^{page 23 note 6} B. Laufer, op. cit., pp. 27–8.

^{page 23 note 7} Luce, op. cit., p. 151, footnote 1.

^{page 23 note 8} Edition, chap. 4, f. 18, recto.

^{page 24 note 1} T'ai p'ing yü lan, chap. 790, preserving a quotation from the third-century Nan chou i wu chih.

^{page 24 note 2} Liang shu, chap. 54.

^{page 24 note 3} T'ai p'ing huan yü chi, chap. 177, and T'ung tien, chap. 188.

^{page 24 note 4} Liang shu, chap. 54, and Shui eking chu, chap. 1.

^{page 24 note 5} Wheatley, P., “Belated Comments on Sir Roland Braddell's Study of Ancient Times,” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 28, pt. 1 (Singapore, 1955), pp. 78–98Google Scholar.

^{page 24 note 6} T'ai p'ing yü lan, chap. 787, ff. 3, 4, 5 (sections on , , etc.).

^{page 24 note 7} Also known as the Fu-nan chuan () and Fu-nan chi in the Shui ching chu; as the Fu-nan t'u su () in the T'ai p'ing yü lan, and as K'ang T'ai wai leuo chuan () in the Shih chi cheng i.

^{page 25 note 1} See p. 20 above.

^{page 25 note 2} Schlegel, op. cit., p. 38.

^{page 25 note 3} Luce, op. cit., p. 156.

^{page 25 note 4} Pelliot, op. cit., p. 263, footnote 1.

^{page 25 note 5} Han Wai-toon, op. cit., p. 21.

^{page 26 note 1} Wales, H. G. Q., “Archæological Researches on Ancient Indian Colonization in Malaya,” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 18, pt. 1 (1940), pp. 61–3Google Scholar.

^{page 26 note 2} The results of these expeditions are summarized by Sieveking, G. de G., Wheatley, P., and Gibson-Hill, C. A. in “The Investigations at Johore Lama”, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 27, pt. 1 (Singapore, 1954), pp. 224–233Google Scholar.

^{page 26 note 3} Braddell, , Ancient Times, vol. 17, pt. 1 (1939), p. 201.Google Scholar

^{page 27 note 1} Wheatley, P., “An Early Chinese Reference to Part of Malaya,” The Malayan Journal of Tropical Geography, vol. 5 (Singapore, 1955), pp. 57–60Google Scholar.

^{page 27 note 2} e.g. Briggs, L. P., “The Khmer Empire and the Malay Peninsula,” The Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 3 (Ithaca, 1950), p. 259Google Scholar.

^{page 27 note 3} p. 20 above.

^{page 28 note 1} Laufer, op. cit., pp. 7–9 and 39–40.

^{page 28 note 2} For the dating of some of the Indian sections of this work see Palmer, J. A. B., “Periplus Maris Erythraei: the Indian Evidence as to the Date,” Classical Quarterly, vol. 41 (London, 1947), pp. 136–141Google Scholar.

^{page 29 note 1} Translated from the text of Frisk, H., “Le Périple de la Mer Erythrée,” Högskolas Årsskrift, vol. 33 (Göteborg, 1927), pp. i–ix, 1–145Google Scholar.

^{page 29 note 2} From the text of Renou, L., La Géographie de Ptolémée: L'Inde, VII (Paris, 1925), p. 52.Google Scholar

^{page 29 note 3} From the text of Müller, C., Pseudo-Callisthenes (Paris, 1840)Google Scholar. St. Ambrose also prepared a Latin version of this passage:—

... ut narrabat Scholasticus; et quod de Aethiopiae et Persiae nnibus et Auxumitarum locis ibi mercatores emendi, vendendi permutandaeque rei gratia conveniunt; et quod piper ibi nascitur, in magnaque colligitur copia. Ipsa autem admodum parva et inutilis gens est, quae intra speluncas saxeas vivit, et per praecipitia magna discurrere natura patriae edocta consuevit. Piper autem cum ramusculis suis colligitur: ipsas autem arbores quasi quasdam humiles ac parvulas stirpes esse dicebat. Nam et ipsoa exigues homunculos esse, et grandia quaedam capita asserit habere cum laevibus et detonsis capillis. (From the text of Migne, J. P., Patrologiae cursus completus, Paris, 1844.)Google Scholar

Article contents

Tun-sun ()

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests