CHAP. III.] CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE. 



6-21 



But although all these embassies are recorded in the 

 Chinese chronicles as so many instances of acknow- 

 ledged subjection, there is every reason to believe that 

 the magniloquent terms in which they are described 

 are by no means to be taken in a literal sense, and that 

 the offerings enumerated were merely in recognition of 

 the privilege of commercial intercourse subsisting be- 

 tween the two nations. But as the Chinese literati affect 

 a lofty contempt for commerce, ah 1 allusion to trade is 

 omitted in their books ; and beyond an incidental remark 

 in some works of secondary importance, the literature of 

 China observes a dignified silence on the subject. 



Only one embassy is mentioned in the seventh cen- 

 tury, when Dalu-piatissa despatched "a memorial and 

 offerings of native productions ; " l but there were four 

 in the century following 2 , after which there occurs an 

 interval of above five hundred years, during which the 

 Chinese writers are singularly silent regarding Ceylon ; 

 but the Singhalese historians incidentally mention that 

 swords and musical instruments were then imported from 

 China, for the use of the native forces, and that Chinese 

 soldiers took service in the army of Prakrama TTT. 

 A.D. 1266. 3 



In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the only 

 records of intercourse relate to the occasional despatch of 

 public officers by the Emperor of China to collect gems 



A.D. 523, and another in the reign of 

 Kirti Sena, A.D. 527. The Tsih-foo 

 yuen-ktvei mentions a similar mission 

 in A.D. 531, b. dcccclxviii. p. 20. 



1 A.D. 670. Tsih-foo yiten-kwei, 

 b. dcccclxx. p. 16. It was in the 

 early part of this century, during a 

 period of intestine commotion, when 

 the native princes were overawed by 

 the Malabars, that Hiouen-Thsany 

 met on the coast of India fugitives 

 from Ceylon, from whom he derived 

 his information as to the internal 

 condition of the island, A.D. 629 

 633. See Transl. by STANISLAS JU- 



LIET, "La Vic de Hiouen-Thsang," 

 Paris, 1853, pp. 192198. 



3 A.D. 711, A.D. 746, A.D. 750, 

 and A.D. 762. Tslh-foo yuen-kwei, 

 b. dcccclxxi. p. 17. On the second 

 occasion (A.D. 746) the king, who 

 despatched the embassy, is described 

 as sending as his envoy a " Brahman 

 priest, the anointed graduate of the 

 threefold repository, bearing as offer- 

 ings head-ornaments of gold, precious 

 neck-pendants, a copy of the great 

 Prajna Sutra, and forty webs of fine 

 cotton cloth." 



3 See the Kawia-sakara, written 

 about A.D. 1410. 



s s 3 



