Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

IXTRODUCTIOX. 27
of the Arabs», and still beyond that is Mu-lan-p'i, and a thousand other
kingdoms; and in the extreme West is the place where the sun goes in and
of which we do not know» ^
The earliest narrative of a voyage on the southern seas by a Chinese
5 which has come down to us is that of the pilgrim F a-hi^ in the early part
of the fifth century. He says that, desiring to return from India to China, he
embarked at Tamlook ^ near the mouth of the Hoogly, on a large merchant
vessel (j^ A. 3^ iW) ^"^ which, sailing day and night, he came to Ceylon
' in fourteen days. Here he took passage on another large merchant ship (-^
10 j|§),
on board which there were more than 200 men, and to which was
attached a smaller vessel i^)in case of damage to the larger one by the
sea. Fa-hien speaking of the voyage says*:
«The Great Ocean (^ '/^) spreads out over a boundless expanse. There
is no knowing east or west; only by observing the sun, moon and stars was
15 it possible to go forward. If the weather was dark and rainy the ship went
forward as she was carried by the wind, without any definite course. In the
darkness of the night only the great waves were to be seen, breaking on one
another, emitting a brightness like that of fire, with huge turtles and other
monsters of the deep (all about). The merchants were full of terror, not know-
20 ing where they were going. The sea was deep and bottomless, and there
was no place where they could drop anchor ("|^ ^, lit., «let down a stone»)
and stop. But when the sky became clear they could tell east and west, and
the ship again went forward in the right direction. If she had come on any
hidden rock there would have been no way of escape».
25 Arriving in Java C^ ^ ^) he took passage on another large mer-
chantman, on which there were over 200 men. It carried provisions for fifty
days and set sail on the 16*" of the 4*" moon (sometime in May). After
steering a north-easterly course for a month, they encountered a «black wind»,
1) Ling-wai-tai-ta, 2,9.
30 2) Tamlook was already in FaJiien's time the principal emporium of trade with Ceylon
< and south-eastern Asia, and it remained so for centuries after. It was visited by numerous Chi-
nese pilgrims in the seventh century, but no mention is made of it as a great commercial center
either by the writers of the T'ang or the Sung dynasties. Ch6u K'tt-fei and Chau Ju-kua did
not know of its existence.
85 3) L e g g e, Kecord of Buddhist kingdoms, 100, 112— 1 1 3. C h a v a n n e s, Religieux Iminents,
' 42, says, on the authority of the I-tsie-king-yin-i, Ch. 1, that the vessels called po {^) were
some 200 feet long and could carry from six to' seven hundred persons. Ships called ch'uan (^)
were, probably, of smaller dimensions.