Early Chinese Notices of East African Territories
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3964024 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Friedrich Hirth (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1909 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 46 |
| Publication date | 1909-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3087496 |
| OpenAlex | W2312864397 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
THE earliest accounts in Chinese literature of Western territories contain no allusions of any kind that we might interpret as referring to any part of the African Continent. The name Li-kan, or Li-ki6n, which occurs in Ssi-ma Ts'ien's Shi-ki (about 86 B. C.) is there coupled with that of T'iau-chi (Chaldaea), and since in records that date from a few generations later the term is persistently declared to be identical with that of Ta-ts'in, the Roman empire in its eastern provinces, I do not hesitate to look upon it as covering the Roman Orient, possibly including Egypt. This is also the case with the accounts of Ta-ts'in contained in the H6u-han-shu,-applying mainly to the first century A. D.,-in which the direction of the silk trade via Antiochia Margiana, Ktesiphon, Hira and, by the periplus of the Arabian peninsula, to the silk-buying factories of the Phenician coast, such as Tyre, Sidon and Berytos, is clearly indicated.' Yet no mention of African ports can be traced back earlier than the beginning of the third century A. D., when fresh information, though transmitted unfortunately in sorely disfigured texts, had reached China. I refer to the account of the Wei-lio, 2 where the city of Alexandria is manifestly meant by the name Wu-ch'i-san. I admit that the IVei-lio is not very clear in its details regarding the dependencies of Ta-ts'in; but the one passage I refer to leaves but little doubt that Wu-ch'i-san is Alexandria. It says: At the city of Wu-ch'i-san, you travel by river on board ship one day, then make a round at sea, and after six days
Ancient history · Geography · Chinese history and philosophy · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Japanese History and Culture
A Chinese in the Nubian and Abyssinian Kingdoms (8th Century)
Africa and the Early Indian Ocean World Exchange System in the Context ofHuman–Environment Interaction
East Africa in the Early Indian Ocean World Slave Trade
Slavery in East Asia
Chinese-East African Trade Before the 16th Century
Contested Encounters
Eastward across the Western Sea
| Citations per year | 0.13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1974 - 2023 (50) |
| Highly cited | No |