In

Rila Mukherjee ed., Beyond National Frames:

India, South Asia and the World. Delhi: Primus, 2015.

3
Chinese Sources on South Asia
tan se n se n

INTRODUCTION
Chinese sources on South Asia composed before the twentieth century were
diverse, voluminous, and complex. They ranged from records found in the
Chinese Standard or Dynastic Histories (zhengshi ) to the travelogues
of Chinese monks visiting Buddhist sites and institutions in South Asia. In
fact, no other people of Asia have kept such extensive accounts of South Asia
as the Chinese did for almost 2,000 years. These records provide important
information about South Asian polities, societies, religious practices, as well
as the Buddhist, commercial, and diplomatic connections between ancient
China and South Asia.
Several caveats with regard to these Chinese records on South Asia,
however, need to be mentioned at the outset. First, the Dynastic Histories,
compiled by Confucian court officials, portrayed foreign regions and peoples
as uncivilized, who were subject to the Chinese emperor. These court
officials also looked at commercial activities with contempt and perceived
the merchant class as parasitic elements of society. As a consequence, all
missions from South Asia were described as tributary embassies despite their
apparent commercial intentions. During the Western Han dynasty (206
bce24 ce), for example, the so-called tributary missions from Jibin
(indicating the Kabul region in present-day Afghanistan) were intimately
intertwined with long-distance commercial activity (Kuwayama 1990; Sen
2003: 4). To make the issue more complex, foreign merchants residing at
the Chinese coasts are also known to have represented foreign polities to
the Chinese court (Hartwell 1983; Sen 2003: 155). Records of tributary
mission in the Dynastic Histories, therefore, cannot be always used to
denote diplomatic or political connections between South Asian polities
and the courts in China.
Second, the Dynastic Histories also tend to indict foreign rulers for
instigating military conflicts and present the responses by the Chinese
court as justified acts. The Tang envoy Wang Xuances (fl. seventh

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53

century) attack on the Middle Indian ruler named Aluonashun

(Arunasa?) in the seventh century and Zheng Hes (13711433)
capture of the Sri Lankan called Yaliekunaier or Aliekunaier
([Vira] Alakswara or Alagakkonara) in the fifteenth century
were both portrayed as legitimate actions by the Chinese emissaries against
disruptive and immoral South Asians (Sen 2014). Such records need to be
used with caution because in both instances the facts may have been more
complicated than those presented in Chinese sources.
Third, between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, when detailed writings
on South Asia by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims ceased, reports about the region
were supplied to the writers in China by people from South-East Asia or the
Persian Gulf. These sources seem to have passed on, sometimes deliberately,
incorrect information about the region to the Chinese. Thus, during the
Song period (9601279), the powerful Chola kingdom (850?1279) in
southern India was inaccurately recorded as a vassal state of Shilifoshi
(1rivijaya), a commercially and diplomatically active polity in SouthEast Asia. This was despite the fact that the Chola navy had made punitive
attacks on 1rivijayan ports in the early eleventh century (Sen 2009).
Fourth, Chinese Buddhist records likewise need to be carefully analysed
when reconstructing historical events and sites in South Asia. Such caution
is also required for an accurate understanding of the Buddhist exchanges
between South Asia and China reported in these sources. The records of
Chinese Buddhist travellers, for example, were written from the perspective
of religious devotees visiting their holy land. Their writings were primarily
for an audience in China that included members of the Buddhist clergy, the
critics of the doctrine, and even the emperor. As a result, sectarian agendas,
hagiographical traditions, and the need to legitimize the foreign religion
in China often dictated the descriptions of South Asian rulers (and their
interactions with the local Buddhist communities), society, and geography
found in such works.
The transformation of Xuanzangs (600?664) travels in South Asia
during the seventh century into a hagiographical account by his disciples
needs to be pointed out here. Compiled shortly after his death, the Da Tang
da Cien si sanzang fashi zhuan (Biography of
the Master of the Tripitaka of the Great Cien Monastery Compiled during
the Great Tang Dynasty, T. 2053) portrays Xuanzang as a well-known
figure prior to his travels, who was welcomed and venerated by almost every
Central and South Asian ruler he encountered. Descriptions of Xuanzangs
meetings with King HarSa (r. 606647?) of Kanauj, during which the South
Asian ruler reportedly showed great interest and admiration for the Chinese
monk, for instance, are clearly exaggerated in this work. Xuanzangs travels
and interactions with South Asian rulers and teachers recorded in the Da

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Tang da Cien si sanzang fashi zhuan must be understood in the context of

the disciples intent to glorify and perpetuate the legacy of their master.1
Although many of the above Chinese records have their shortcomings,
biases and exaggerations, they nonetheless provide significant information
about the interactions between South Asia and the Chinese dynasties,
Buddhist missionary and pilgrimage activities, and the geographical terrain
and historical events in South Asia. Much of this information may have
remained unknown without these Chinese writings. For the purposes of this
essay, the Chinese textual sources are simply categorized into two groups:
historical writings and Buddhist works. There is also a significant amount
of archaeological data that adds to our knowledge about the exchanges
between South Asia and China. Some of these archaeological discoveries are
briefly discussed in this essay as well. It should be noted, however, that each
of these broad categories has several sub-categories/genres. The historical
writings, for example, could include the Dynastic Histories, the Veritable
Records (shilu ), Collections of Court Documents (huiyao ), Local
Gazetteers (difang zhi ), Encyclopedias (leishu ), and Miscellanies
(biji). Buddhist works also have several sub-categories, including travel
accounts (youji), biographies of eminent monks (Gaoseng zhuan
) and translated sutras (fanjing). Archaeological sources range from
objects and artefacts to inscriptions and epithets. Only a few of these works
are highlighted in this essay.2

CHINESE HISTORICAL WRITINGS ON SOUTH ASIA

The Dynastic Histories are the most frequently referenced Chinese sources
on South Asia. The first of these Dynastic Histories, entitled Shi ji
(The Records of the Grand Historian), was compiled during the first
second century bce by the court officials Sima Tan (180?110
bce) and his son Sima Qian (145?86 bce). This work established
the model for the subsequent 25 Dynastic Histories, each focusing on
a specific Chinese dynasty that was usually composed by court officials
belonging to the succeeding dynasty. Shi ji records of a place called Shendu
through which commodities originating in the southwestern region
of present-day China reached the markets of Daxia (Bactria, west of
the Gandhara region in present-day Afghanistan).3 It has long been held
that Shendu refers to the present-day Pakistan-northern India regions. The
person who is said to have seen these commodities in the Daxia markets
was the Western Han envoy Zhang Qian , who on his return to the
court proposed that emissaries be sent to find the possible alternate route
to Central Asia from the southwestern territories of the Han Empire

Chinese Sources on South Asia

55

through Shendu. The failed attempt to find this route by Zhang Qian is
also mentioned in Shi ji.4
Han shu (History of the [Former] Han Dynasty), the next Dynastic
History written by Ban Gu (3292) in the first century ce, in addition
to retelling the Zhang Qian episodes, also provides a detailed account of Jibin.
It includes records of tributary missions from Jibin to the Han court and, at
the same time, reports about the courts involvement in the internal affairs of
South Asian polity. The Han court, according to Han shu, repeatedly tried
to install rulers who it thought would lead to the establishment of a friendly
regime in the extremely volatile western frontiers of its empire (Sen 2003:
34; Yu 2004). During the next several centuries, Jibin, the geographical
contours of which broadened in the fifth century to include modern-day
Kashmir, emerged as a key location for commercial and Buddhist exchanges
between South Asia and China.5
By the time the third Dynastic History, called the Sanguo zhi
(Records of the Three Kingdoms) was composed in the late third century,
Buddhist ideas had spread to several urban centres and port-towns of China.
Thus, one finds for the first time in a Chinese Dynastic History, a mention
of the Buddha (futu ), Buddhist texts, and the practice of Buddhism
in China. The present edition of Sanguo zhi contains annotations by a fifthcentury scholar named Pei Songzhi (372451), which provides
further details about the early history and reception of Buddhism in China.
Pei, for example, mentions the popular view about the Daoist master
Laozi traveling to a place called Tianzhu and converting the
barbarians to Daoism.6
In the next several Dynastic Histories, at least until the composition
of the Xin Tang shu (New History of the Tang Dynasty) in the
mid-eleventh century, the association between Tianzhu and the land of
the Buddha was frequently underscored. Based on the reports of Buddhist
pilgrims, tributary missions, and, in some cases, Chinese diplomats, Tianzhu
was divided into five parts: East, West, North, South, and Middle. Among
these, Middle Tianzhu , which indicated the present-day Bihar and
Jharkhand regions of India and, thus, encompassed key Buddhist pilgrimage
sites, was mentioned most frequently. The court historians were aware of the
existence of several independent polities, the practice of the Brahmanical jati
tradition, and the use of various languages and writing systems in Tianzhu.
It could also be discerned that within the Chinese worldview, Tianzhu
occupied a distinct position. Middle Tianzhu in particular, which the
Chinese sometimes referred to as Mojiatuo (Magadha), was seen
as a culturally sophisticated, socially robust, and administratively advanced
region. The Chinese Buddhists, as outlined below, frequently highlighted
these features of their holy land and were partially responsible for the ways

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in which Tianzhu was described in the Dynastic Histories. In fact, these

views often complicated the prejudiced Chinese perceptions of foreign
societies and peoples.
Nipoluo (Nepal) and Shizi guo (Simhala, i.e. Ceylon/
Sri Lanka) were often seen as distinct geographical and political entities in
Chinese sources. The descriptions of these polities and the tributary missions
sent by them to the Chinese courts were usually recorded in the same
chapter/section of the Dynastic Histories devoted to Tianzhu. In some of
these Dynastic Histories, however, Shizi guo was perceived to be a part of
South Tianzhu. The island became an important destination for embassies
and emissaries from the Yuan (12711368) and Ming (13681644) courts.
After the eleventh century, records on South Asia in the Chinese Dynastic
Histories change significantly. First, instead of devoting a separate section to
Tianzhu, as was the case previously, the Yuan and Ming Dynastic Histories,
Yuan shi (History of the Yuan Dynasty) and Ming shi (History
of the Ming Dynasty) respectively, focus more on specific polities in South
Asia. The polities of Mabaer (Mabar on the Coromandel Coast),
Kezhi (Kochi/Cochin on the Malabar Coast), and Banggela
(Bengal), for example, are mentioned more prominently than Tianzhu/
Shendu. This is evidently because of the increased use of maritime routes that
linked the coastal regions of China and South Asia. A second reason seems to
be the decline in the Buddhist eyewitness accounts, which mostly described
the inland areas of South Asia. Also important was the fact that a significant
number of merchants and emissaries from China started frequenting South
Asia after the eleventh century. Consequently, these non-Buddhist travellers
from China emerged as the main sources of information about South Asia
during the Yuan and Ming periods.
This shift in the nature of records on South Asia in the Dynastic Histories
is mirrored in other Chinese historical writings and compilations. The pretwelfth century sources such as the Shuijing zhu (Annotations to the
Book of Waterways), Tongdian (Encyclopaedic History of Institutions),
Cefu yuangui (Outstanding Models from the Storehouse of
Literature), and Youyang zazu (Miscellany of the Youyang
Mountain) focused on the Middle Tianzhu, North Tianzhu, and/or the
Jibin regions of South Asia. These sources also frequently used information
collected from Buddhist writings. Li Daoyuans (d. 527) commentary
in the Shuijing zhu, for example, not only makes extensive use of the fifthcentury travelogue by the monk Faxian (337?422?), but also cites
some of the other Chinese Buddhist accounts of South Asian cosmology and
geography (Petech 1950). The encyclopaedias Tongdian and Cefu yuangui,
compiled in the ninth and the eleventh centuries respectively, have extensive
reports on the tributary and diplomatic exchanges between the Tang court

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57

and South Asian polities located in the hinterland areas. Written in the ninth
century by Duan Chengshi (803?863), Youyang zazu similarly
includes important notices on the Buddhist, diplomatic, and commercial
exchanges between Tang China and Mojiatuo. From the twelfth century
onwards, writings on South Asia found in such sources as Zhufan zhi
(Records of the Barbarous People), Lingwai daida (Replies
from Beyond the Mountains), Daoyi zhile (Brief Record of
the Island Barbarians), Xingcha shenglan (The Overall Survey of
the Star Raft), and Yingyai shenglan (The Overall Survey of the
Oceans Shores), on the other hand, have very little information about the
hinterland areas.
The focus in these later historical writings is on the coastal regions
of South Asia. According to Zhou Qufei (c.1135c.1189), who
composed the Lingwai daida in 1178, Chinese seafaring traders planning to
go to Dashi (i.e. the Persian Gulf) transited through Kollam on the
Malabar coast in the twelfth century. 7 It is not clear, however, if these traders
had emerged as the main source of information about the Indian Ocean world
for either Zhou or Zhao Rugua , the custom official who wrote
Zhufan zhi in 1225. The information on the Zhunian (Chola) in these
two works suggest that Arab and South-East Asian merchants frequenting
the Song coast may have remained the main informants about South Asia
until the early thirteenth century.8
Chinese knowledge about the coastal regions of South Asia improved
significantly in the early fourteenth century with the expansion of Chinese
trading, shipping, and diplomatic networks in the Indian Ocean. One key
source for this period was written by a person named Wang Dayuan
(c.1311?), who travelled to South Asia and described the region in detail in
his travelogue entitled Daoyi zhile. Wang Dayuan had sailed to the region
with Chinese seafaring traders in the 1330s. Wangs records indicate that he
visited almost every important port in South Asia, including those located
in Bengal, Coromandel and Malabar coasts, as well as those in Sri Lanka and
the present-day Gujarat state.
Fei Xin , the author of Xingcha shenglan, and Ma Huan (died
c.1460), who penned Yingyai shenglan, also travelled to South Asia.9 They were
members of the Zheng He expeditions that made seven maritime voyages in
the Indian Ocean from 1405 to 1433. Xingcha shenglan and Yingyai shenglan
contain detailed descriptions of the polities on the coastal regions of South
Asia and the diplomatic interactions between these polities and the Ming
court. Another Chinese source for maritime connections between Ming
China and South Asia is the Ming shilu (Veritable Records of the
Ming Dynasty), which is a comprehensive account of the historical events
during the Ming period.10 Read together with the writings of Marco Polo

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and Ibn Battuta, the Chinese records from the Yuan and Ming periods make
it clear that traders, sailors, and court officials from China had become major
participants in the Indian Ocean maritime networks (Sen 2011).
Even after the cessation of the Zheng He voyages and the decision of
the Ming court to limit its maritime engagement with foreign regions,
information collected on South Asia by those who travelled with Zheng
He filtered into later Chinese sources. Ethnic Chinese merchants settled in
South-East Asia, who continued to trade between the South Asian and Ming
coasts, may have supplied additional information to the writers in China.
One such later work is the Siyi guangji (Extensive Records of the
Four Barbarian Regions) compiled by Shen Maoshang in the late
sixteenth or early seventeenth century. The work provides a detailed record
of Banggela, much of it borrowed from earlier Ming sources, followed by
a discussion of Indian (Brahmi) script and a list of Bengali words in
Chinese transcriptions. Chinese interpreters may have used this list, which
includes words related to terrestrial objects, types of clothing, names for birds
and animals, etc., as a lexicon (Sen 2005).
The sixteenth century was an important watershed with regard to Chinese
sources on South Asia. It was not until the early nineteenth century that
Chinese sources on South Asia based on eyewitness accounts start reappearing.
While the Ming shi, and some other works such as the Xu Tongzhi
(Continuation of the Comprehensive History of Institutions) were compiled
during this interim period, information about South Asia in many of these
sources predated the sixteenth century. Furthermore, even though some
eighteenth-century Chinese sources, including Chen Lunjiongs
(fl. 170330) Haiguo wenjian lu (Records of Things Seen and
Heard about Maritime Polities), take account of British imperialism centred
in South Asia and the possible threat to Qing China, the knowledge about
the region was vague and rudimentary. The same seems to be true about the
cartographical tradition during this period of information gap. As Matthew
W. Mosca (2013: 126) points out, the early Qing maps depicting South Asia
were of no operational use either for warfare or diplomacy for the Qing
court. Calcutta was excluded, he writes about one of the survey maps, as
were most other major European ports in India trading to China. Officials
wishing to get a purchase on Indian geography from the vantage point of
Lhasa or Guangzhou, and the emperor and Grand Council supervising them,
could get no help from the survey map.
Hailu (Records of the Maritime World), written by Yang Bingnan
(fl. c.1839) and published in 1820, indicates that the Chinese had reestablished their maritime networks with South Asia by the early nineteenth
century. The descriptions of South Asia found in Hailu came primarily from
a sailor named Xie Qinggao (17651822) who visited various ports

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59

in the region in the late eighteenth century (Mosca 2013: 206). A person
from the Jiaying region of eastern Guangdong Province, Xie could have
reached South Asia through the networks of Chinese migrants who had
begun settling in Calcutta, the capital of British India, and its vicinity. In
fact, people from Jiaying region were one of the main groups of Chinese
immigrants in Calcutta, who eventually established their huiguan (nativeplace association) and other cultural institutions in the city (Zhang and Sen
2013). In addition to a detailed account of Calcutta, Hailu also includes
notices on other South Asian ports and regions, including Madras, Bombay,
Cochin, Sri Lanka, and Surat. The opium trade between British India and
Qing China was also reported by Xie. Some of Hailus descriptions about
South Asia were later incorporated into Guangdong tongzhi , the
local gazetteer of Guangdong Province (Mosca 2013: 207).
The Opium War (183942) and the threat of a British invasion triggered
unprecedented interest in South Asia among Qing officials. This not only
resulted in the compilation of detailed studies on South Asian geography,
but also attempts to gather intelligence about British India. Consequently,
during the second half of the nineteenth century, the Chinese produced
several comprehensive and insightful works on the region. One such work
was by Wei Yuan (17941857), who urged his countrymen to concern
themselves with India because Western domination there was now a matter of
vital concern to China (Leonard 1984: 169). Wei Yuans Haiguo tuzhi
(Illustrated Records on the Maritime Polities) has extensive descriptions
of South Asia that is framed within a broad understanding of the historical
encounters between the earlier Chinese dynasties and the region. While
Wei Yuans work mostly concentrated on the coastal regions of South Asia,
another Chinese writer named Yao Ying (17851853) gave an equally
detailed account of the frontiers between Tibet and British India in his work
entitled Kangyou jixing (Travel Records of an Emissary). Neither
Wei Yuan nor Yao Ying had travelled to British India. But, their writings
show greater awareness about the contemporary geopolitical situation in
South Asia than any time before in Qing history.
The last few decades of the nineteenth century witnessed the travels
of several Chinese representatives to British India, sent expressly to collect
intelligence about the possible threat posed by the British. These travellers
included Huang Maocai , Ma Jianzhong (18451900), and
Wu Guangpei (18541918).11 Then, in 1901, Kang Youwei
(18581927), a leading Chinese intellectual and the main instigator of
the Hundred Days Reform, which sought to modernise several aspects of
Qing society, including the educational, economic, and political systems, in
1898 at the Qing court, took exile in British India and lived in Darjeeling
for several months (Liu 2012). Each of these Chinese visitors produced

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insightful accounts of their travels and expressed their views on Indian society
and civilization. Except for Huang, these writers portrayed India as a failed
state and criticized the Indians for the failure to defend themselves against
the British colonizers. Huang, on the other hand, was impressed with the
economic and technological developments in South Asia that he credited
to British rule.
The view of India as a failed and enslaved country percolated throughout
Chinese society due to newspaper and magazine reports published in China
during the early twentieth century. These newspapers and magazines also
included articles, pictures, and cartoons of the Sikh policemen and guards
present in the British conclave in Shanghai (Karl 2002). Such reports made it
easier for the common Chinese to understand the discourse on colonized South
Asia taking place among the Qing intellectuals and officials. Indeed, in the early
twentieth century, newspapers and magazines emerged as an important genre
of Chinese reporting on South Asia that deserves a separate study of its own.

CHINESE BUDDHIST WRITINGS

ON SOUTH ASIA
Transmitters of Buddhist doctrines faced a formidable task trying to introduce
a complex set of belief systems to prospective converts in China who had
already developed strong social, cultural, and political traditions. Not only
did they have to use the local language to communicate basic doctrines, they
also needed to create a favourable perception of the foreign region where
the doctrines originated. The success of Buddhism in China in some ways
might have to do with the fact that those who brought the religion to the
region recognized the social, cultural and political complexities in China and
were willing to modify the doctrines in order to attract local followers and
coverts. Buddhist writings in China seem to have always tried to maintain
this balance between basic doctrinal teachings and local traditions. The
proselytizers of Buddhist doctrines made their case by using a wide array of
literature, which included translated texts, commentaries, historiographies,
biographies, bibliographies, apologetic literature, and hermeneutics. These
writings often incorporated descriptions of the sites and places the Buddha
had inhabited that were framed within the context of the sacred (and
imaginary) Indic continent known as Jambudvipa.
One of the earliest Chinese Buddhist hermeneutics was the work known
as Lihuo lun (Treatise on Alleviating Doubt), most likely composed
in the third century ce by a person named Mouzi . The work set out
to present Buddhist doctrines in the Chinese cultural context (Keenan 1994:
10). Information about South Asia when Mouzi composed the work was

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61

rudimentary, with the first eyewitness account of the region by the monk
Faxian reaching China almost two centuries later. Despite this handicap,
Mouzi explained, in response to various critics, the cultural legitimacy of the
foreign religion. It was, he pointed out, established by a cultivated person, it
aimed to instil virtues among common people, and its basic teachings were
comparable to those emphasized by Confucian and Daoist philosophers.
Although the work does not provide details about South Asian geography
or society, it is an important source for understanding the ways in which
people in China were coming to terms with a foreign culture that had started
exerting considerable influence through Buddhism.
It was in order to gain deeper understanding of this foreign culture
and obtain specific teachings espoused by the Buddha that Chinese monks
started visiting South Asia. Faxian is recognized as the first Chinese monk
to have made this successful trip to South Asia. Others may have attempted
to make the arduous journey before him, but none returned to write about
their experiences in the holy land. Faxian was already 60 years old when, in
399 ce, he embarked on his journey along with a few of his companions.
By the time he returned 14 years later, the Chinese monk had trekked
across the treacherous Taklamakan desert (in present-day Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China), visited the major
Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Tianzhu, travelled to Shizi guo, and survived a
precarious voyage through the sea route back to China.
The opening passage of Faxians Foguo ji (A Record of the
Buddhist Kingdoms, T. 2085) tells us that the procurement of texts related
to monastic rules (i.e. Vinaya) was the main purpose of his trip.12 His account
of South Asia includes descriptions of Buddhist monasteries, the approximate
number of Buddhist monks in the regions he visited, the teachings and rituals
practiced by the Buddhist clergy, and the Buddhist legends associated with
some of the sacred sites. Faxians record of his travels became popular among
the contemporaneous Chinese clergy. It was, as noted above, also widely
quoted by court historians and other writers in China.
Inspired by Faxians account, many other Chinese monks travelled to
South Asia. In the seventh century the number of such monks increased
significantly. This included Xuanzang and Yijing (635713). Xuanzangs
record of his travels in South Asia, on which he embarked around 629,
called Da Tang Xiyu ji (The Records of the Western Regions
Visited During the Great Tang Dynasty, T. 2087) was written on the
request of the reigning Tang ruler Taizong (r. 626649).13 Xuanzangs
work is significant, therefore, both as account of religious pilgrimage and a
historical record of foreign polities and societies neighbouring Tang China.
It provides rare insights into the political, social, and religious situations in
Central and South Asia.

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Like Faxian, Xuanzang takes note of the Indic influences on Central Asian
societies. He reports, for example, that the people of Yanqi (Agni),
Quici (Kucha) and Khotan used modified versions of Indic script. Also
in a similar vein to Faxian, Xuanzang narrates, although in more detail, the
Buddhist legends and miracles associated with the sites he visited and the
Buddhist relics he saw. In addition, the perilous nature of long-distance travel
between South Asia and China experienced by Faxian is also evident in the
work of Xuanzang. The most noteworthy aspects of Xuanzangs account are
the general discussions on the geography and analysis of the term Tianzhu
and its alternative Yindu ,14 as well as the records about his interactions
with kings HarSa and Bhaskaravarman of Kamarupa. As mentioned above,
there is a biography of Xuanzang written by his disciples, which also details
his travels to South Asia, but exaggerates several episodes, including those
related to the Chinese monks meetings with foreign rulers and his fame at
Nalanda, a monastic institution where he studied for several years.
Compared to the travel records of Faxian and Xuanzang, the works of
Yijing have attracted limited attention as a source on South Asia. Yijing
travelled to South Asia between 671 and 695. Before eventually returning
to China, he completed and sent two works of immense importance from
SumatraNanhai jigui neifa zhuan (The Record of
Buddhism as Practiced in India Sent Home from the Southern Seas, T.
2125)15 and the Da Tang Xiyu qiufa gaoseng zhuan
(Memoirs of Eminent Monks who Visited India and Neighbouring Regions
in Search on the Law during the Great Tang Dynasty, T. 2066).16 The
former work is a detailed account of how Buddhist doctrines and monastic
rules were practiced in South Asia. The latter work contains biographical
information on 56 Buddhist monks from China and Korea who travelled
to South Asia in the seventh century.
Another Chinese who visited South Asia during the seventh century
was the Tang diplomat Wang Xuance. A lay Buddhist, Wang is reported to
have made three trips to Middle Tianzhu and adjoining regions. In addition
to meeting local rulers, Wang also took part in several Buddhism-related
activities. He made donations to the Mahabodhi Monastery in Bodh Gaya
and other Buddhist institutions, and brought back relics and other Buddhist
objects to Tang China (Sen 2003: 3744). In 666, Wang Xuance completed
a diary of his travels entitled Zhong Tianzhu guo xing ji
(Records of the Travels to Middle Tianzhu), which is now lost. The work
is supposed to have included maps of the regions he visited and the sketches
of Buddhist images he saw. Fragments of his diary can be found in a number
of Chinese Buddhist sources, most importantly in Fayuan zhulin
(Pearl-grove of the Garden of the Law, T. 2122) compiled by the monk
Daoshi (d. 668?).17

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63

Based on the writings of the above Chinese Buddhist travellers to South

Asia, members of the Chinese Buddhist clergy who were unable to make the
journey contended the legitimacy and cultural sophistication (and sometimes
superiority) of Buddhism. Indeed, the impact of these Buddhist travelogues is
apparent in the work of Daoxuan (596667), one of the leading Chinese
monks of the seventh century. In his Shijia fangzhi (Records of
the Region of Sakya, T. 2088), Daoxuan passionately argued that Tianzhu
should be considered the centre of the world and a more sophisticated
civilization than China. He framed his conclusion with calculations of the
distances between geographical determinants, the mountains and seas, and
a comparison of the cultural developments in the two regions. Most of his
arguments were based on the writings of Chinese Buddhist travellers to
South Asia (Sen 2003: 9). Similar to Mouzi, Daoxuan may have been also
addressing the critics of Buddhism in China.
By the tenth century, however, the situation had changed. Buddhists
in China had charted their own doctrinal course, which depended less on
input from South Asia. Several local schools of Buddhism had developed by
this time, the propagation of which did not require the glorification of the
Buddhist holy land. As a result, some leading monks in Song China not only
started asserting the importance of local doctrines, but also insisted that the
teachings formulated in China should be transmitted to South Asia. Zanning
(9191001) was one such influential monk who argued that without
such reverse transmission of Buddhism, people in South Asia would fail to
properly understand Buddhist doctrines. He even criticized the South Asians
for being unsophisticated, who were, he noted, satisfied with generalizations.
His criticism was specifically for the followers of Buddhism in South Asia
who had failed to record a clear date for the Buddha (Sen 2003: 137).
Zannings criticisms are found in the biographical work called Song gaoseng
zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Monks Compiled during the
Song Dynasty, T. 2061), which belongs to an important genre of Chinese
Buddhist literature and a key source about the leading South Asian and
foreign missionaries in China. The earliest surviving biographical work is
by the monk Huijiao (497554), who compiled his Gaoseng zhuan
(Biographies of Eminent Monks, T. 2059) sometime in 522 or
523. Huijiaos work includes several biographies of monks from South
Asia who travelled to China to propagate Buddhism, starting with the two
legendary figures Shemoteng (KasapamrdaNga?) and Zhu Fahu
(DharmarakSa?). In the seventh century, Daoxuan compiled another
collection of biographies called Xu gaoseng zhuan (Continued
Biographies of Eminent Monks, T. 2060), which contained 485 biographies
of Chinese and foreign monks. Later, during the Ming period, a fourth
major Buddhist biographical work, entitled Ming gaoseng zhuan

64

Tansen Sen

(Biographies of Eminent Monks Compiled during the Ming Dynasty),

was composed.
Similar to some of the other Chinese Buddhist works mentioned above,
these biographical compositions also responded to the critics of Buddhism
in China. Moreover, they were sometimes influenced by sectarian struggles
within Chinese Buddhist communities. As a result, the biographies of monks
found in these works are often hagiographical (Kieschnick 1997). They also
try to legitimize the transmission of Buddhist doctrines by associating them
with Chinese rulers. It is unlikely, for example, that Shemoteng and Zhu
Fahu, the first two foreign monks recorded in the Gaoseng zhuan, went to
Han China on the invitation of the Chinese emperor. It is also not clear if
they were historical figures. Similarly, the famous Chan master Putidamo
(Bodhidharma) is mentioned in the Xu gaoseng zhuan as a person
from South Tianzhu, but the earliest record about the monk suggests that
he was from Central Asia. And Zanning, perhaps in order to advance his
argument about the need for a reverse transmission of Buddhism, suggests that
Daoxuan was so well known in South Asia that monks from there travelled
to China expressly to meet the Chinese Buddhist. In other words, like the
Dynastic Histories written by Confucian court officials, Chinese Buddhist
records on South Asia (and South Asians) have also to be analysed critically
because of the inherent biases and deliberate distortions of facts.
Another Chinese Buddhist genre that needs to be mentioned briefly as a
source for the activities of South Asian monks in China is the bibliographies.
The earliest surviving bibliographical work called Chu sanzang ji ji
(Collection of Records Concerning the Translation of the Tripitaka,
T. 2145) was composed by Sengyou (445518). Some of the later
works include the Song compilations Dazhongxiangfu fabao lu
(Record of the Dharma Treasures Newly Compiled during the
Dazhongxiangfu Reign Period, H. 1675) and Jingyou xinxiu fabao lu
(Record of the Dharma Treasures: Newly Compiled
during the Jingyou Reign Period, H. 1676). These works record the titles
of Buddhist texts translated by Chinese and foreign monks, the methods
in which the works were transmitted, and biographies of the translators.
One of the main purposes of these bibliographies was to establish a list of
authentic (or canonical) Buddhist texts. The latter two Song compilations
are particularly important because they demonstrate continued support for
Buddhist translation activity at the Chinese court even when the doctrinal
input from South Asia had declined (Sen 2003: 11032).
Although a large number of Buddhist texts were translated during the
Song dynasty and Buddhist monks continued to travel between China and
South Asia during this period, no major sources of information about South
Asia are found in the Buddhist writings after the eleventh century. Buddhism

Chinese Sources on South Asia

65

in much of what the Chinese called Tianzhu had weakened by this time. It
was not until the early twentieth century that pilgrimages between China and
Buddhist sacred sites in South Asia revived. Some of these twentieth-century
Chinese monks, such as Taixu (18901947) who led a goodwill mission
in 193940 to British India and Sri Lanka, wondered why Buddhism had
disappeared in the land of its origin and contemplated, similar to Zanning
almost a thousand years ago, if it would be possible to transmit the doctrines
back from China.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOURCES
In this brief section, two types of archaeological sources from China are
highlighted. The first type consists of objects originating in or associated
with South Asia found in China. The second are artefacts related to China
found in South Asia. These archaeological findings throw significant light on
Buddhist and commercial connections between South Asia and China, some
of which are not recorded in textual sources. It should be noted, however,
that it is often difficult to conclusively identify the South Asian provenance
of these objects for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they could
have been made in Central or South-East Asia, or copied in China from
prototypes or sketches brought from South Asia.
Chinese Buddhist pilgrims often mention bringing religious objects,
including relics and images from South Asia. Xuanzang, for example, besides
carrying 657 Buddhist texts and one hundred grains of relics associated
with the Buddha, is reported to have also brought several gold, silver and
sandalwood images. All of these prized possessions were displayed at the
Hongfu Monastery in the Tang capital Changan for public viewing. It is
also recorded that a model of the famous Nalanda Monastery, an image of
the Mahabodhi Monastery, and several illustrations related to the teachings of
Buddhism were brought by another Chinese monk named Huilun in
the seventh century. Similarly, the Chinese envoy Wang Xuance is known to
have returned to China with drawings of Buddhist divinities, one of which
was used as a model for images of the future Buddha Maitreya installed in
Luoyang and Changan (Bagchi [1950] 1981: 196; Sen 2003: 206).
South Asian craftsmen travelling to China also transmitted images and
drawings of Buddhist figures. During the Northern Wei period (386
534), three painters from Tianzhu named 1akyabuddha, Buddhakirti and
Kumarabodhi are reported to have worked in China (Pelliot 1923). Chinese
sources also record that a monk-artist from Shizi guo in Tang China built clay
images of the Buddha for the Guangfu Monastery in Luoyang (Acker 1974:
255). Another record mentions Chinese artists going to South Asia with the

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Tansen Sen

envoy Wang Xuance to bring back drawing of Buddhist images and sites
(Sen 2003: 206). While many of these objects have not been conclusively
identified, there have been several important archaeological discoveries
associated with South Asia in China during the last several decades. These
include Buddhist texts brought from South Asia by monks, ritual artefacts,
as well as images of Buddhist divinities. Trade items purportedly imported
from South Asia have also been excavated. Additionally, tombs of at least
two South Asians residing in China have been identified.
The earliest evidence of South Asian products in China comes from Handynasty tombs in the ancient port of Hepu in present-day Guangxi Province.
Belonging to local elites, these tombs hold significant amount of precious
stones, lapis lazuli, and beads seemingly imported through maritime routes
(Wu 2006). Beads and pearls originating in South Asia have also been found
in later tombs and Buddhist monasteries located in present-day Shanxi and
Shaanxi Provinces. The findings at the crypt of the Famen Monastery, near
the present day Xian, are perhaps the most revealing. Archaeologists have
not only found objects that may have been imported from South Asia, but
also ritual items that were clearly modelled after South Asian prototypes
(Sen 2003: 18690).
In fact, South Asian prototypes were used to make several Buddhist images
in China. Motifs found on some of the Liang dynasty (50257) Buddhist
sculptures, for example, were, according to James C. Y. Watt (2004: 94),
lifted directly from Indian sculptures. The so-called Asoka Buddha images
from Sichuan Province, also dating from the Liang period, are known to be
replicas of the images originally commissioned by the Mauryan king Asoka.
As Watt points out (2004: 94), According to literary records, many such
images had by extraordinary circumstances travelled all the way to China,
alighting in particular along the coast during the rule of Emperor Wudi.
Indian monks residing in Jiangsu and Zhejiang recognized them as authentic
Indian works.
The tombs belonging to South Asian residents in China are equally
noteworthy archaeological discoveries because very little about the lives
of such migrants are recorded in textual sources. The first of these tombs,
belonging to a member of the famous Gautama family of astronomers at the
Tang court, was excavated in 1977 (Chao 1978; Sen 1995). The occupant
of the tomb, named Qutan Zhuan (Gautama Zhuan, d. 776), was
one of the sons of the renowned court astronomer Qutan Xida
(Gautama Siddhartha?). Similar to his father, Gautama Zhuan held the
position of the director of the bureau of astronomy and was in charge of
formulating calendars and calculating astronomical phenomenon for the Tang
court. Unlike the Indic custom of cremation, however, Gautama Zhuan was
buried in a Chinese-style tomb, with an epitaph, and other Sinitic funerary

Chinese Sources on South Asia

67

paraphernalia. Gautama Zhuans epitaph indicates that he married a woman

belonging to a famous Chinese clan and had six children, all of whom had
Chinese names.
In 2005, a second tomb belonging to a descendant of a South Asian
migrant in China was found in Xian (Cheng 2006; Wang 2008). The epitaph
discovered in the tomb records that the occupant was named Li Dan ,
who belonged to a brahmin family from Jibin. Li Dan died in 564 and was
honoured by Emperor Wu, the reigning ruler of the Northern Zhou dynasty
(55781). The epitaph suggests that Li Dans grandfather may have been the
first person in the family to migrate to China. Li Dan, who also seems to
have had the Indic name Tuosuo (Dasa?), travelled to Jibin to study
for about five years and then returned to China. Similar to Gautama Zhuan,
Li Dan was buried according to Chinese funerary practices. These two tombs
are important collaborative evidence about the presence of non-Buddhist
South Asians in China who are occasionally mentioned in Chinese textual
sources. These tombs also indicate the process of acculturation that must have
taken place among the South Asians who decided to settle down in China.
There is also archaeological evidence of other South Asian settlers in China
who may have tried to maintain their distinct identity and practices. The
remains of a Brahmanical temple in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, suggests the
presence of a Tamil trading diaspora on the Chinese coastal region during
the Song-Yuan period. Several sculptures of Brahmanical deities, images
portraying Brahmanical legends and myths, a 1iva liNgam, and a bilingual
Tamil-Chinese inscribed tablet have been recovered from different areas of
the port-city (Sen 2003: 22731; Yu 2007; Lee 2009). These discoveries
substantiate the brisk maritime exchanges taking place between China and
South Asia mentioned in the contemporaneous textual sources. They are
especially significant for understanding the maritime networks of Tamil
traders in the South China Sea.
Chinese porcelain and coins found in the coastal regions of South Asia, and
on some instances in the hinterland, are also proof of maritime commercial
connections between the two regions during the first half of the second
millennium. Places such as the Coromandel and Malabar coasts and coastal
Sri Lanka are the main locations where Yuan and Ming ceramics have been
excavated (Karashima ed. 2002). The discovery of similar ceramics in the
present-day Delhi-Agra region suggests that some of these commodities
were reaching the hinterland through Bengal (Gray 1965; Carswell 1978).
There are also two Chinese Buddhist inscriptions from the Song period
that were found in Bodh Gaya. While one of these inscriptions was installed
sometime between 981 and 990, the second bears the date 1022 (Bagchi and
Chou [1944] 2011). Buddhist connections between China and South Asia
continued, as these inscriptions reveal, even after the Chinese clergy decided

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Tansen Sen

to pursue their own doctrinal course. In fact, by the nineteenth century, the
Chinese diasporic settlements in South Asia had started establishing their
unique Buddhist temples and shrines in places such as Calcutta. Buddhist
monks from China resumed their pilgrimages to the sacred sites in South Asia,
some of them, as mentioned above, intending to one day revive Buddhism
in their holy land.

CONCLUSION
The multifaceted and complex nature of Chinese sources on South Asia
can be discerned from the above discussions. Four important watersheds in
the Chinese chronicling of South Asia can be summarized based on these
discussions. The first watershed seems to have been around the mid-fifth
century, when Faxian returned from his travel to South Asia and composed
his travelogue Foguo ji. As a result of his work, court historians, Buddhist
clergy, and other writers in China gained detailed information about the
geography, society, and cultural practices in various regions of South Asia.
Passages from Foguo ji, and subsequently the later writings by Buddhist
travellers, were often quoted verbatim in several Chinese sources.
The eleventh century was the second watershed moment. With the
decline in Buddhist travel writings on South Asia and the corresponding
expansion of Chinese mercantile networks in the Indian Ocean, the Chinese
sources from the twelfth to around the sixteenth century indicate a focus on
the coastal regions of South Asia. These include writings by sailors and court
officials who travelled to South Asia by maritime routes. The hinterland
areas and the Buddhist sacred sites were, unlike the earlier period, rarely
mentioned in these writings.
The Ming courts decision to end maritime expeditions and ban foreign
trade had a significant impact on Chinese writings on South Asia between
the sixteenth and the early nineteenth century. Not only was there a dearth
of new information about South Asia, existing knowledge about the region
had also become confused and distorted. It was only in the early nineteenth
century, the fourth watershed period with regard to Chinese writings on
South Asia, that fresh and detailed material on the region started filtering
into China. By the latter half of the nineteenth century, travellers from
Qing China started visiting what was then British India and began reporting
on the threat from colonialism and about the failed Indian civilization,
with which, some of these writers recollected, it had intimate interactions
in the past.
This periodization and the caveats mentioned at the beginning of this
essay are important not only for an accurate understanding of the Chinese

Chinese Sources on South Asia

69

writings on South Asia, they are also significant markers for the proper
comprehension of the interactions between ancient China and South Asia.
Indeed, these sources reveal the ebbs and flows of contacts and exchanges
between China and South Asia. The Chinese writings have their value as well
as shortcomings and biases. As a result, the background of the authors, the
purpose of writing these records, the prospective audiences of these works,
and the wider knowledge of Chinese historiography, literary traditions, and
polemics are necessary to appropriately utilize Chinese sources on South Asia.

ABBREVIATIONS
H.
T.

Zhonghua dazang jing (The Chinese Buddhist Canon).

Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1994.
Taisho shinshu daizokyo (Taisho-era new edition of
the Buddhist canon), ed. Takakusu Junjiro (18661945),
Watanabe Kaikyoku (18721932), et al., 100 vols., Tokyo:
Taisho issaikyo kankokai, 192435.

NOTES
1. Geng Yinzeng (1994) has collected a majority of the Chinese textual
records on pre-nineteenth century South Asia in her two-volume work entitled
Zhongguo zaiji zhong Nanya shiliao huibian . She
(Geng 1990) has also described in detail the Chinese sources from where
these records have been extracted. Together, these volumes are key resources
for accessing Chinese-language material on South Asia. Missing in these
works, however, is any critical analysis of the sources. Haraprasad Ray (2004)
has provided critical annotations in his translation of some of these materials.
However, the caveats about the Chinese sources highlighted here are also not
fully addressed in his translated volumes.
2. There are several Chinese medical and astronomical texts that also include
references to South Asia and South Asian experts that are not mentioned here.
Some of these are discussed in Bagchi ([1950] 1981).
3. Shendu seems to be the earliest term used in Chinese sources to refer to northern
India and regions of Pakistan. Later, words such as Tianzhu or Yindu
were also employed by Chinese writers. There are also instances when
specific regions, towns, or kingdoms of India are mentioned, such as Zhong
Tianzhu (Middle India) or Mojietuoguo (Magadha).
Since the geographic contours differed based on authors and texts, I have
avoided using the generic India to render these terms. Instead, I have used the
specific references as they appear in a cited text. Additionally, because some of

70

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.

Tansen Sen
these Chinese terms also incorporated modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh, I
have used South Asia to refer to the region. China mostly denotes the areas
ruled by the dynasties and kingdoms in Chinese history from the Shang to the
Qing. The specific borders changed based on the expansion and contraction of
these polities.
For a translation of these passages, see Watson (1993).
For detail about Jibin in Chinese sources, see Hill (2009), pp. 489505.
Tianzhu in Chinese sources generally designated the region south of presentday Kashmir.
A German translation of the work was done by Netolitzky (1977).
Zhufan zhi includes records of polities in the South Asian coastal regions and
also provides a list of products that were exported from these sites. Its record
of Chola polity on the Coromandel Coast is perhaps the most noteworthy
(Karashima and Sen 2010). The English translation of the work is by Hirth and
Rockhill ([1911] 1966).
For English translations of these works, see Mills ([1970] 1997 and 1996).
For translations of the sections that deal with the maritime world, including
the coastal regions of South Asia, see Wade, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/
On these Qing travellers and their writings, see Lin (1993) and Sheel (2007).
The most recent translation of Faxians travelogue in English is Li (2002).
The most recent translation of this work is Li (1997).
On the issue of Chinese names for ancient India, see Bagchi ([1948] 2011).
The most recent translation of this work is Li (2000).
The most recent translation of this work is Lahiri (1986).
Some of these records have been collected by Lvi (1900), Feng (1957), and
Sun (1998).

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