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Kurz: Boni in Chinese Sources NSC Working Paper No. 4“The Great Ming rules all under Heaven. Which of the vassals in the ten thousandregions did not to come to present offerings, and which among them did not cometo be made king?! 93 Boni is a place remote and blazing hot, [its king] was moved tocome to court as fast as the wind, as swift as the clouds. He told his wife and hischildren, his younger brothers and sisters and his officials, to kowtow successively,and to hurriedly knock their heads numerous times to the ground. Kneeling he said:“The Emperor is like my parents. My life and my entertainment is a blessing comingfrom the Emperor. Heaven covers me and Earth carries me, and they give me shelter.I raised my head to look up at the August Ming and so I came here to submit mysincerity. The Emperor said: “Alas! I am ruling over the world and I bring peace tothe empire, but my virtue is insufficient.” The king kowtowed and called out ‘Tenthousand years’ [and said]: “I am submitting to Your virtue, cherishing Your kindness,that nurtured me like spring and immersed me like the sea. The mountains andrivers in my country have hidden treasures, that Your power has made appear.Barren plants and trees have dense foliage again, and brilliant blossoms, and theseplants bear fruit. Rare birds sing together, stroking their wings; animals flocktogether and dance in rhythm. The old men in my country say, that this wasachieved through imperial influence. Even though my country is very far away, Iwanted to look up in reverence [to the Emperor].” The Emperor was very pleasedand treated [the king of Boni] with exceptional ceremonies, rewarding him withbanquets and bestowing gifts on him, all this upon generous imperial orders. Why,after just one month, did an illness unexpectedly strike him? Immediately [theEmperor] mourned, and again and again he lamented [the king’s condition]. Whenhe was about to die he turned to those that mourned for him and said, that when hedied, they should not forget the profound favours the Emperor [had bestowed onhim]. Oh! The wise king surpassed all the vassals from the southwest by far. None ofthem could measure up to the king. When he was alive, he displayed sincerity; whenhe passed away, he was given a posthumous inscription. The descendants of theking were enfeoffed with titles for generations. His tomb is built like a hall, and ashrine is situated next to it, to give peace to the soul of the king, so that it will not bedisturbed for eternity. Although the king could not return home, his fame spread farand wide. The favours of the Emperor [given to the king] will shine for all cominggenerations.” 94For Carrie Brown, the tomb inscription by Hu Guang (1368‐1432) and the tomb inscriptionfound in the entry on Boni in the Mingshi are almost identical. However, on closerinspection, it becomes quite evident that while the contents are the same, the “sentencesand phrases” that Brown calls repetitive, are rather different in fact. The text here has beenused in the 1990s to reconstruct the stele inscription that has only survived in a very fewfragments.93 Brown translates: “All countries come to pledge their allegiance.”94 I have used two editions of the text, namely the original from the Huang Ming wenheng, and a modernedition, published on the internet. See “Boniguo gongshun wang mubei 浡泥國恭順王墓碑 ”, in ChengMinzheng 程敏政 (comp.), Huang Ming wenheng 皇明文衡 (SBCK), 81.629‐630; “Boniguo gongshun wangmubei 浡泥国恭顺王墓碑 ”, http://zhjyx.hfjy.net.cn/Resource/Book/Edu/KWDW/ TS090039/0044_ts0900 39.htm, accessed 16 May 2006.32
Kurz: Boni in Chinese Sources NSC Working Paper No. 4Figure 2:Brunei‐China Friendship Park in Nanjing, ChinaStele in front of the tumulusSource: AuthorIt is the only text that provides information on the family of the king of Boni, giving thenames not only of his parents but also of his wife and his brothers. The name of the father,Manareshanawang, suggests no link to Mahemosha, the king of Boni in 1371. At the sametime, it seems not too farfetched an idea to understand the first part of the name, Manare,as either a royal title or a family name of the ruling family, since it is also found inManarejiananai. 95 I would see this as proof that the Boni of Mahemosha and that ofManarejiananai does not refer to one specific country, but rather to one region. This regionmay well have been separated into several small states with different rulers. The fact thatthis text here does not refer to Mahemosha and the diplomatic relations with Boni just lessthan forty years earlier may be regarded as another piece of evidence for the hypothesisthat Boni was the term applied to the island of Borneo as a whole.95 According to Geoff Wade, it is quite likely that Manarejiananai is a transcription of the title Maharajadhirajwhich, at that time, was used by Thai rulers.33
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