Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

1,22 THE ARABS. 123
18) The oCourt Chronicles of the Sung-shi does not mention any visit of the Ta-shi in
993, though there is one recorded in 994. A mission which came to the court in 993, is referred
to in some detail in Sung-shi, ^gOjie* et seqq. The head of the mission was again the one
mentioned before as P'u-hi-mi (Abu-Hamid), ali&s- Piv4o-hai. He is described as the master of
5 an Arab vessel, but being too old and sick to proceed to court himself, he sent his assistant
captain Li-a-wu with his credentials, in which he addresses the Emperor on his own behalf,
thanking him for past favours bestowed on him and the foreign trade at Canton, while
explaining the reasons for his not submitting his tribute in person. Then again in 995 a tribute
mission arrived under the o8hip-master» P'n-ya-t'o-li (^ iffl K^ ^^)' ^^° deputed P'u-
10 hi-mi (Abu-Hamid) again to offer his tribute at court. During the audience the emperor enquired
about his country, when he stated, among other details, that «it was conterminous with Ta-ts'in,
which, being a dependency, was now governed by his native country)) ( e3. ~7C ^^ ^ >|iH
||lJ-^^j^J@-^;7|S0jS/f^;^).
Then follows the account of the elephant
and rhinoceros hunting. It will be seen that Chau Ju-kua differs by two years as to the date
15 of the audience. In 988 P'u-ya-t'o-lr came again- as envoy from San-fo-ts'i.
19) Sung-shi, 5,a4 records a visit to the Court of China of Ta-shi and people from Pin-
t'ung-lung in the third year elii-tau (A. D. 997), but none in the third year yUng-hi; the nien-
hau only differing. See also Sung-shi, 490,18^' and supra, p. 52, note 3.
20) Between the visit of 997 and that of 1003, Sung-shi, 6,8, records the coming in 999 of
•20 « South-western barbarians, people of Chan-ch'ong and Ta-shi». The following year it notes (6,ii)
the coming of people from Ta-shi, Korea, and Kau-chou ( "^ J>|4 ) aborigines. Concerning the
mission of 1003, two references are made to it, in the first (7,2) it is simply stated that in the sixth
year hien-p'ing San-fo-ts'i and the Ta-shi came with presents. In the second reference (490,18'') it
is said that in the sixth year hien-p'ing the Ta-shi sent as envoys dP'o-lo-k'in, San-ma-ni and
25 othersB (j^ ^S ^|^ ^_ ^ J8 ^^) with tribute. oMa-ni and the others were received
in audience in the tJhung-ch'Sng tien (hall), etc.)). Bretschneider, Ancient Chinese and Arabs,
15, referring to this mission (he puts it in 1004, and gives the name of the envoy as Po-kin-lo-sanmo-ni),
is of opinion that the last three sounds of this name indicate an allusion to the Arabian
dynasty of the Samanides, who reigned till the beginning of the eleventh century in the East and
30 had their capital in Bokhara. Chavannes, Le Nestorianisme, 38, 40—41, says of the word
Ma-(or Mo-)ni (^ IE also written "^P y|j^) that it was used solely to designate Mohamme-
dans. He refers to this mission of 1003 as a proof that the Mani were Moslim. According to
Broomhall, Islam in China, 05, n. 2, Mo-ni has been sometimes used, erroneously, by tho
Chinese to transcribe the word Mullah. He gives an example of this in the K'ien-lung inscription
35 of 1764 in the Peking mosque on the Ch'ang-an-ta-chieh. Devgria, Musulmans et Manicheens
chinois (Journ. Asiat., 1897, X, 477) looks upon the words P'o-lo-k'in-san-ma-ni as an Arabic
name, such as Balkin- Samftni, or Balkin-^s-Samani. But this seems improbable. Samani is
wrong, and Dev§ria confounded Samani (JiLoLw) and Sam' ani (^U^-w); furthermore Balkin
cannot be an Arabic word.
40 21) Sung-shi, 490,18'" referring to this mission, uses the same language as our author, but,
instead of the last four characters used by Chau, it has ^ |^ j^ ^ ^ -pj,
22) Conf. Sung-shi, 7,14'' and 490,18".
23) According to Sung-shi, 7,i9, T'o-p'o-li came to Court in 1008, with people from San-
fo-ts'i and csouth-western barbarians». In another passage (490,13'') it is said that in the third
45 year hien-p'ing (A. D. 1000) «the ship-master T'o-p'o-li sent as his messenger Mu-
(^ ^)
ki-pi {^ ^^ ^) with presents to the Emperor; when Mu-ki-pi went back the Emperor
sent to T'o-pVli a letter and also vessels (of porcelain), clothes, a saddle and a horse... :» In
the tenth moon of the first year ta-chung siang-fu (A. D. 1008), while the Emperor was absent
in the eastern part of the Empire for sacrificial purposes, T'o-p'o-li asked to be allowed to go
50 to the T'ai-shan to there offer his presents to the Emperor. He was allowed to do so. (The_same
year) the ship-master Li-a-wu (see supra, p. 117, line 35) sent a messenger Ma-(hia-)wu
(^j^ /^
Mohammed) by name, who presented to the Emperor a jade -stone badge (^ ^). of great