608 



MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



[Part V. 



It was reasonable to anticipate that in such records 

 information would be found regarding the condition 

 of Ceylon as it presented itself from time to tune to 

 the eyes of the Chinese ; but unfortunately numbers of 

 the original works have long since perished, or exist 

 only in extracts preserved in dynastic histories and 

 encyclopaedias, or in a class of books almost peculiar to 

 China, called " tsung-shoo," consisting of excerpts re- 

 produced from the most ancient writers. M, Stanislas 

 Juhen discovered in the Pien-i-tien, (" a History of 

 Eoreign Nations," of which there is a copy in the Im- 

 perial Library of Paris,) a collection of fragments from 

 Chinese authors who had treated of Ceylon ; but as the 

 intention of that eminent Sinologue to translate them^ 

 has not yet been carried into effect, they are not avail- 

 able to me for consultation. In this difficulty I turned 

 for assistance to China; and through the assiduous 

 kindness of IMr. Wyhe, of the London Mission at 

 Shanghai, I have received extracts from twenty-foiu^ 

 Chinese writers between the fifth and eighteenth cen- 

 turies, from which and from translations of Chinese 

 travels and topographies made by Eemusat, Klaproth, 

 Landresse, Pauthier, Stanislas Julien, and others, I 

 have been enabled to collect the following facts relative 

 to the knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Chinese in 

 the middle ages.^ 



p. 9. Stanislas JuLiEisr, preface to 

 liis translation of JImten-Thsanff, 

 Paris, 1853, p. 1. A bibliogi-apliical 

 notice of the most important Chinese 

 works which contain descriptions of 

 India, by M. S. Julien, will be found 

 in the Journ. Asiat. for October, 1832, 

 p. 264. 



^ Journ. Asiat. t. xxix. p. 89. M. 

 Stanislas Julien is at present en- 

 gaged in the translation of the ^SV- 

 yu-ki, or " Memoires des Contrees 

 Occidentales," the eleventh chapter 

 of which contains an account of Cey- 

 lon in the eighth century. 



^ The Chinese works referred to 



in the foUoAving pages are. — Simg- 

 shoo, the "History of the Northern 

 Suug Dynasty," a.d. 417—473, by 

 CniN-Y6, wi-itten about a.d. 487. 

 — Wei-slioo, " a History of the Wei 

 Tartar Dynasty," a.d. 386—556, by 

 Wei-show, a.d. 590. — Foe-Koue Ki, 

 an " Account of the Buddhist King- 

 doms," by Chy-Fa-Hian, a.d. 399— 

 414, French transl., by Remusat, 

 Klaproth, and Landresse. Paris, 1836. 

 — Leanf/shoo, " History of the Leang 

 Dynasty," A.D. 502 — 557, by Yaotj- 

 SzE-LEEN, A.D. 6-30. — Suy-slioo," His- 

 tory of the Suy D-sTiasty,'" a.d. 581 

 —617, by Wei-Ching, a.d. 633. 



