G07 



CHAP. III. 



CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE. 



ALTHOUGH the intimate knowledge of Ceylon acquired 

 by the Chinese at an early period, is distinctly ascrib- 

 able to the sympathy and intercourse promoted by com- 

 munity of religion, there is traditional, if not historical 

 evidence that its origin, in a remote age, may be traced 

 to their love of gain and eagerness for the extension of 

 commerce. The Singhalese ambassadors who arrived 

 at Eome in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, stated 

 that their ancestors had reached China by traversing 

 India and the Himalayan mountains long before ships 

 had attempted the voyage by sea * , and as late as the 

 fifth century of the Christian era, the King of Ceylon 2 , 

 in an address delivered by his envoy to the Emperor of 

 China, shows that both routes were then in use. 3 



It is not, however, till after the third century of the 

 Christian era that we find authentic records of such 

 journeys in the literature of China. The Buddhist 

 pilgrims, who at that time resorted to India, published 

 on their return itineraries and descriptions of the distant 

 countries they had visited, and officers, both military 

 and civil, brought back memoirs and statistical state- 

 ments for the information of the government and the 

 guidance of commerce. 4 



1 PLINY, b. vi. ch. xxiv. 



2 Maha Nama, A.D. 428 ; Sung- 

 shoo, a " History of the Northern 

 Sung Dynasty," b. xcvii. p. 5. 



3 It was probably the knowledge 

 of the overland route that led the 

 Chinese to establish their military 

 colonies in Kashgar, Yarkhand and 



the countries lying between their own 

 frontier and the north-east boundary 

 of India, Journ. Asiat. 1. vi. p. 34-3. 

 An embassy from China to Ceylon, 

 A.D. 607, was entrusted to Chang- 

 Tstten, "Director of the Military 

 Lands." Suy-shoo, b. Ixxxi. p. 3. 

 * RKIXATTD, Memoir e sur Flnde, 



