Zhu fan zhi

Zhu Fan Zhi (simplified Chinese: 诸蕃志; traditional Chinese: 諸蕃志; pinyin: Zhū Fān Zhì; Wade–Giles: Chu-fan-chi), variously translated as A Description of Barbarian Nations, Records of Foreign People, or other similar titles, is a 13th century Song Dynasty work by Zhao Rugua. The work is a collection of descriptions of countries and various products from outside China, and it is considered an important source of information on the people, customs and in particular the traded commodities of many countries in South East Asia and around the Indian Ocean during the Song Dynasty.

An annotated partial English translation was published in 1911 by Friedrich Hirth and William W. Rockhill.

The author Zhao Rugua (1170-1231) was a member of the Song Dynasty imperial clan. He was posted to Fujian as a supervisor of the maritime trade in Quanzhou. While working in Fujian, he had the opportunity to meet merchants from various countries from whom he gathered information on various countries around the world. He also took note of the various products traded, studied the maps of the period, and together with the information he had learnt he wrote the book which he finished around 1225 CE. Zhao wrote: "Assigned to this post recently, I spend all day reading various maps... I listed names of these countries and their customs... I removed hearsay and kept facts. I thus name this book Zhu Fan Zhi."

Many entries of the Zhu Fan Zhi take information from other older works, such as Zhu Yu's Pingzhou Ketan (萍洲可談) from 1116,Duan Chengshi's 9th century Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, and other works. In particular it borrowed heavily from the 1178 work Lingwai Daida by another geographer, Zhou Qufei (Chinese: 周去非; pinyin: Zhōu Qùfēi; Wade–Giles: Chou Ch'ü-fei). However, a significant part of the book came from information Zhao gathered from foreign and Chinese traders. As he himself had not travelled overseas, the information he collected is necessarily secondhand, unlike other works such as Daoyi Zhilüe written by Wang Dayuan of the Yuan Dynasty who had travelled overseas to observe other countries at firsthand. Nevertheless, the book contains valuable information on various countries and traded products of the 13th century to modern scholars.

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