IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
THE MALAYAN PO-SE-HISTORICAL NOTES 469
In another passage of the Man §u (p. 29), the question is of a place
Ta-yin-k`un ~C 4-L (evidently a silver-mine), not well determined,
probably situated on the Gulf of Siam, to the south of which the people of the country Po-lo-men (Brahmana), Po-se, 8e-p`o (Java), Po-ni (Borneo), and Ktun-lun, flock together for barter. There are many precious stones there, and gold and musk form their valuable goods.' There is no doubt that the Malayan Po-se is understood here, and not Persia, as has been proposed by PELLIOT.2 A similar text is found in the Nan i ci it A ("Records of Southern Barbarians "), as quoted in the T `ai p`in yü lan,3 "In Nan-èao there are people from Po-lo-men, Po-se, Se-p`o (Java), Po-ni (Borneo), K`un-lun, and of many other heretic tribes, meeting at one trading-mart, where pearls and precious stones in great number are exchanged for gold' and musk." This text is identical with that of the Man .su, save that the trading centre of this group of five tribes is located in the kingdom of Nan-èao (in the present province of Yün-nan). E. H. PARKER' has called attention to a mention of Po-se in the Tang Annals, without expressing, however, an opinion as to what Po-se means in this connection. In the chapter on Piao (Burma) it is there stated that near the capital of that country there are hills of sand and a barren waste which borders on Po-se and P`o-lo-men, — identical with the above passage of the Man §u.6
In A.D. 742, a Buddhist priest from Yan-èou on the Yangtse, Kienèen it a by name, undertook a voyage to Japan, in the course of which he also touched Canton in 748. In the brief abstract of his diary given by the Japanese scholar J. TAKAKUSU,' we read, "Dans la rivière de Canton, it y avait d'innombrables vaissaux appartenant aux brahmanes, aux Persans, aux gens de Koun-loun (tribu malaise) ." The text of the work in question is not at my disposal, but there can be no doubt that it contains the triad Po-lo-men, Po-se, K`un-lun, as mentioned in the Man hi., and that the question is not of Brahmans, but of the country
1 In another passage (p. 34 b) Fan Co states that musk is obtained in all mountains of Yuin-Cati and Nan-6a°, and that the natives use it as a means of exchange.
2 Bull. de l'Ecole française, Vol. IV, p. 287, note 2. Ch. 981, p. 5 b.
4 The text has A I do not know what cu ("to boil") could mean in this
connection. It is probably a wrong reading for I, as we have it in the text of the Man u.
b Burma with Special Reference to Her Relations with China, p. 14 (Rangoon, 1893)-
6 This passage is not contained in the notice of Piao in the Kiu T `a7i Su (Ch. 197, p. 7 b).
7 Premier Congrès International des Etudes d'Extrême-Orient, p. 58 (Hanoi, 1903); cf. G. FERRAND, Textes relatifs à l'Extrême-Orient, Vol. II, p. 638.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.