Zhou Daguan

Zhou's ship set sail in Wenzhou (just above the edge of the picture) and drove southwest to Champa (to the right of the lettering "Phnom Penh"), on to Zhenpu (a town that must have been roughly in the middle under the lettering "Phnom Penh") and into the Mekong Delta .

Zhou Daguan (also Chou Ta-kuan ; Chinese  周 達 觀 , Pinyin Zhōu Dáguān ) lived in southeast China during the Yuan Dynasty and was a member of an imperial delegation that visited the Khmer capital at that time , Yasodharapura, in the region from 1296-1297 Angkor lies. The lasting importance of Zhou is based on his report on this trip, which bears the title Zhenla fengtu ji (臘 臘 風土 記), in English "Report of Cambodia".

Life

Zhou's life data can be derived from three documents:

1. his important travel report Zhengla fengtu ji , in which he dated his trip to Cambodia to the equivalent of 1296–1297,
2. a mention of this travelogue in Wu Qiuyan's work Zhu su shan fang ji from 1312 and
3. a foreword that Zhou wrote in 1346 for Lin Kun's work Cheng zhai za si .

So probably Zhuo was in his twenties when he drove to Cambodia; he published his travelogue within 15 years of his return and perhaps lived into his eighties, which was by no means unusual in China at the time. His exact life dates are not known.

When it is said that Zhou comes from Yongjia , it does not mean (in today's sense) a district of the important port city of Wenzhou , but (as was common in the past) the city as a whole. Zhou Daguan's Whenzou origin is an important clue in the effort to classify his personality and worldview. The port city, which can now look back on five thousand years of history and is located on the south-east Chinese coast about halfway between Hong Kong and Shanghai , is still a dynamic trading center to this day. Even during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), Wenzhou was a place of domestic and foreign trade, handicrafts and the arts, influenced by a variety of worldviews ( Buddhism , Daoism and Confucianism , but also Islam and Christianity ). Zhou himself was mainly influenced by Buddhism, at least he speaks of Buddhism with great respect in his work.

plant

From section 1: “The parapets of the bridges are made of stone and carved in the shape of a snake, each snake with nine heads. The fifty-four deities hold the snake in their hands and look as if to prevent it from escaping. ”In reality, the snakes in front of Angkor Thom are seven-headed.

From section 5: “Zhugu (Buddhist monks, here at Srah Srang ) shave their heads and dress in yellow. You leave your right shoulder uncovered (...) and go barefoot. "

The complete title of the travelogue reads in German "Report on the manners and customs of the people and the geographical features of Cambodia". The first two translations of the work were made into French, in 1819 by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat , in 1902 by Paul Pelliot . Pelliot's excellent version has been translated into other languages ​​many times; the first independent English translation, which the critics called the future “standard version”, was done in 2007 by the sinologist , researcher, university professor, NGO representative, author and BBC producer Peter Harris .

Zhou's report paints a picture of Cambodia at the time of King Sindravarman (reign 1295–1307), who leaned toward Theravada Buddhism, long after the great king and Mahayana Buddhist Jayavarman VII (1181 – approx. 1220) and immediately after the icon-storming one Hindu Jayavarman VIII (approx. 1243–1295), who had numerous representations of the Buddha destroyed.

The book as it came upon us consists of a foreword and forty sections; other sections have probably been lost, others have been corrupted, and others have been inserted in the wrong place.

The foreword gives, among other things, the key dates of the trip: Zhou left Wenzhou “by imperial decree” on March 24, 1296, reached Champa on April 18, 1296 and Cambodia (via the Mekong and Tonlé Sap ) in August. Almost a year later, between June 21 and July 20, 1297, he left Cambodia again and reached Mingzhou, today's Ningbo (a port city north of Wenzhou), on August 30, 1297.

The following contents are covered in the forty sections: (1) the layout of the city ​​known today as Angkor Thom ; (2) the royal palace and the homes of the rich and poor; (3) the clothes; (4) the officials; (5) representatives of three doctrines (scholars, Buddhists, Daoists); (6) the people (looks, the king's wives, the palace maids, homosexuals); (7) the birth; (8) initiation of the girls; (9) slaves; (10) the national language; (11) "savages"; (12) the scripture; (13) Feasts in the annual cycle and astronomy ; (14) dispute resolution; (15) leprosy (widespread in Zhou's opinion because people often “go into the water and bathe after making love”) and other diseases; (16) death; (17) agriculture and defecation; (18) the landscape; (19) natural products; (20) trade; (21) Chinese goods wanted; (22) flora; (23) the birds; (24) wildlife and farm animals; (25) vegetables; (26) fish and reptiles (e.g. "crocodiles the size of boats"); (27) fermented beverages; (28) salt and spices; (29) silk production by immigrant Siamese ; (30) kitchen utensils and dishes, furniture and mosquito nets; (31) litters, wagons, and elephant saddles; (32) boat building; (33) prefectures; (34) villages; (35) from collecting human bile for the King of Champa; (36) the danger of growing together in the case of incest ; (37) bathing culture; (38) Reasons for Chinese Sailors to Stay in Cambodia; (39) the army (poor equipment and leadership); (40) the king.

Zhou's book is the only surviving eyewitness account of everyday life in the historic Angkor Empire. The openness, varied interests and intelligence of the young foreigner are evident in every single section. Peter Harris: “He gives correct (albeit a few incorrectly) many details about Angkor. And he convinces us that he has seen most of what he tells us himself. "

Works

• Chou Ta-kuan: Customs in Cambodia. About life in Angkor in the 13th century. Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-936018-42-1 .

literature

• Zhou Daguan: A Record of Cambodia. The Land and Its People . Translated, introduced and annotated by Peter Harris. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2007, ISBN 978-974-9511-24-4 .
• Michael Freeman, Claude Jacques: Ancient Angkor . River Books, Bangkok 1999, ISBN 974-8225-27-5 .
• Johann Reinhart Zieger: Angkor and the Khmer temples in Cambodia . Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2006, ISBN 974-9575-60-1 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Zhou Daguan in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, pp. 13 and 41 (Peter Harris).
2. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 41 (Peter Harris).
3. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 4 (Peter Harris): “We know, too, that he came from Yongjia, now a small town near the port city of Wenzhou, but in Zhou's time it was a name often used for Wenzhou itself. "
4. ↑ See Zhou Daguan 2007, pp. 4-11 (Peter Harris).
5. ↑ See http://www.mywenzhou.com/history.htm
6. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 5 (Peter Harris): "Zhou himself was evidently inclined toward Buddhism, as were most of his contemporaries, since at one point he refers respectfully to 'the spiritual power of the holy Buddha'."
7. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 37 (Peter Harris): “A more accurate and fuller translation into English of the title of the book […] would be 'A Record of the Customs of the People and the Geographical Characteristics of Cambodia'. "
8. ↑ Chris Baker in the Bangkok Post, quoted on the spine of Zhou Daguan 2007: "This new book [...] should now become the standard version [...]"
9. ↑ Annual data from Freeman 1999, p. 12 and Zieger 2006, p. 186.
10. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 85 (Peter Harris): “The section numbers, which I have called chapter numbers, may also be later additions”.
11. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 32 (Peter Harris): “It seems to be corrupt, or missing parts, or both. Parts of it may also have been rearranged. ".
12. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 46: "[...] with an imperial edict [...]"
13. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 65: "In my humble opinion people contract the disease because they so often go into water and bathe after making love."
14. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 46: “There are crocodiles as big as boats. They have four feet and look exactly like dragons except they have no horns. "
15. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. VII (David Chandler): “Even in its truncated form, A Record of Cambodia - The Land and Its People is the only surviving eyewitness account of daily life at Angkor”.
16. ^ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 2 (Peter Harris): “He gets many of the details about Angkor right (though he gets a few wrong, too). And he persuades us that most of what he tells us he has seen first-hand. "

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Zhou is the family name here, Daguan is the first name.