Boni in Chinese Sources - Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre - iseas

Kurz: Boni in Chinese Sources NSC Working Paper No. 4bedstead made of strings. When he goes out, he uses a ruannang 阮 囊(commentary: this is a large plain piece of cloth), which he sits upon and is carried in.In battle they use long bows and their armour is made of brass. It has the form of atube and it guards their backs and bellies.The land produces camphor, tortoise shell, sapan wood (sumu 蘇 木 ), betel nut,clove, and ebony. 17 The people eat fowl, goats and fish. They plough using oxen[huangniu 黃 牛 ] and water buffalos. There is no grain, but hemp and rice. There areno silk fabrics used, so gubei 古 貝 18 is used to spin cloth.When they marry, they drink coconut liquor (yezi jiu 椰 子 酒 ), eat betelnut (binlang檳 榔 ), and then finger rings [are presented]. Finally presents of gubei cloth or aglistening knife 19 together with gold conclude the rites. As to their burial rites theyhave coffins. [Deceased] children are cremated. For [deceased] adults canopies aremade from bamboo. They carry them into the mountains where they discard them.In the second month (of the Chinese calendar) they start tilling, and then they aresacrificing [to their dead]. After seven years they do not sacrifice any more. Theiryears end with the twelfth month and [they celebrate] the seventh day [of thatmonth] as a holiday.This place is hot, and has much wind and rain. The utmost joy for the people is tobeat drums, blow flutes, sound cymbals, and clap the hands, and they sing anddance for their entertainment. For eating, they have no [ceramic or porcelain]vessels, so they use bamboo basketwork and palm leaves as vessels. When theyhave finished eating, they throw them away. 20There are several pieces of information provided by this entry in TPHYJ that are worthy ofcloser inspection. The first one is the fact that the Chinese had no knowledge of the placeprior to 977. For Nicholl, the introductory remark of Yue opened the possibility that Boniwas just another name for the country that he had placed in northwestern Borneo. Hefound evidence for the veracity of his assumption in the work of Pelliot, who ascertainedthat the “Boni” ( 勃 泥 ) mentioned in the Manshu 蠻 書 by Fan Chuo 樊 綽 (fl. late ninth cent.)was the first occurrence of the term describing Borneo. 21 It is rather difficult to identify Boni17 For more information on ebony and its trade in China see Roderich Ptak, “Ebenholz in China: Termini,Verwendung, Einfuhr (ca. 1200‐1600)”, in Münchner Beiträge zur Völkerkunde 3:17‐40 (1990).18 This certainly should read jibei 吉 貝 as in all other texts treated here.19 The commentary to jingdao in TPHYJ is indecisive. It says that the term may refer to money, but that thismeaning cannot be established. I therefore have chosen the present literal translation.20 TPHYJ 179.17a‐18b (540). Cf. also the partial translation of this text in Sei Wada, “The Philippine Islands asKnown to the Chinese Before the Ming Period”, in Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko 4(1929): 127, note 2.21 Paul Pelliot, “Deux itinéraires de Chinese en Inde à la fin du huitième siècle”, in BEFEO 4 (1904): 277‐287,note 2.5