1837.] Some account of the Wars between Barmah and China. 121 



IX. — Some account of the Wars between Burmah and China, together 

 with the journals and routes of three different Embassies sent to Pekin 

 by the King of Ava ; taken from Burmese documents. By Lieutenant' 

 Colonel H. Burney, Resident in Ava. 



The chronicles of the kings of Prome, Pagan, and Ava, which are 

 comprised in 38 volumes, and brought down to the year 1823, contain 

 accounts of several disputes and wars between those sovereigns and 

 the emperors of China. Tagaung, the original seat of empire on the 

 Erdwadi, is said to have been destroyed by the Tartars and Chinese 

 before the birth of Christ. In the reign of Phyu'-zo-di', the third 

 king of Pagan, who reigned between A. D. 166 and 241, the Chinese 

 are said to have invaded his kingdom with an immense army, over 

 which that king obtained a great victory at a place called K6-tham-bi ; 

 but neither the date nor the cause of this war is given. The 42nd 

 king of Pagan, Anora-tha Meng:-zo, who reigned between A. D. 

 101 7 and 1059, invaded China, — in what year is not mentioned, — for 

 the purpose of obtaining possession of one of Gaudama's teeth ; 

 which is said, however, to have refused to quit China. This king 

 had a meeting with the emperor of China, and the two sovereigns 

 lived together for three months, but at what place is not mentioned. 

 During Anora-tha-zo's residence in China, the emperor daily sup- 

 plied him with food dressed in various gold and silver vessels, which, 

 on the departure of the king, he is said to have delivered to the 

 emperor of China's religious teacher, with directions to dress food 

 in them daily, and make offerings of it to Gaudama's tooth. This 

 proceeding induced many succeeding emperors of China to demand 

 the presentation of the same kind of vessels from the kings of Pagan 

 and Ava, as tokens of their tributary subjection to China. In the 

 year 1281, during the reign of Nara-thi-ha-pade', the 52nd king 

 of Pagan, the emperor of China sent a mission to demand such gold 

 and silver vessels as tribute ; but the king having put to death the 

 whole of the mission, a powerful Chinese army invaded the kingdom 

 of Pagan, took the capital in 1284, and followed the king, who had 

 fled to Bassein, as far as a place on the Erdwadi below Prome called 

 Taroup-mo, or Chinese point, which is still to be seen. The Chinese 

 army was then obliged to retire in consequence of a want of supplies ; 

 but in the year 1300, Kyo-zua, the son of the above-mentioned king 

 of Pagan, having been treacherously delivered by his queen into the 

 hands of three noblemen, brothers, who resided at Myen-zain, a town 

 lying to the southward of Ava, and who forced the king to become 

 a priest and assumed the sovereignty themselves, another Chinese 



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