Of Marco
Polo and Ibn Khordadhbeh as well as the position given to Sanf by
Abulfeda, justify me, I think, in placing Champa in that part of the
central and southern indo-Chinese coast which the French to-day call Annam
(Cochinchine and Basse-Cochinchine), the Binh-Thuan province showing more
particularly what remains of the ancient kingdom.
Since I wrote the above, I have received No. 1 of vol. ii. of the Bul.
de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, which contains a note on Canf et
Campa, by M.A. Barth. The reasons given in a note addressed to him by
Professor De Goeje and the work of Ibn Khordadhbeh have led M.A. Barth to
my own conclusion, viz. that the coast of Champa was situated where
inscriptions have been found on the Annamite coast. - H.C.]
The Sagatu of Marco appears in the Chinese history as Sotu, the military
governor of the Canton districts, which he had been active in reducing.
In 1278 Sotu sent an envoy to Chen-ching to claim the king's submission,
which was rendered, and for some years he sent his tribute to Kublai. But
when the Kaan proceeded to interfere in the internal affairs of the
kingdom by sending a Resident and Chinese officials, the king's son (1282)
resolutely opposed these proceedings, and threw the Chinese officials into
prison. The Kaan, in great wrath at this insult, (coming also so soon
after his discomfiture in Japan), ordered Sotu and others to Chen-ching to
take vengeance. The prince in the following year made a pretence of
submission, and the army (if indeed it had been sent) seems to have been
withdrawn. The prince, however, renewed his attack on the Chinese
establishments, and put 100 of their officials to death. Sotu then
despatched a new force, but it was quite unsuccessful, and had to retire.
In 1284 the king sent an embassy, including his grandson, to beg for
pardon and reconciliation. Kublai, however, refused to receive them, and
ordered his son Tughan to advance through Tong-king, an enterprise which
led to a still more disastrous war with that country, in which the Mongols
had much the worst of it. We are not told more.
Here we have the difficulties usual with Polo's historical anecdotes.
Certain names and circumstances are distinctly recognisable in the Chinese
Annals; others are difficult to reconcile with these. The embassy of 1284
seems the most likely to be the one spoken of by Polo, though the Chinese
history does not give it the favourable result which he ascribes to it.
The date in the text we see to be wrong, and as usual it varies in
different MSS. I suspect the original date was MCCLXXXIII.
One of the Chinese notices gives one of the king's names as Sinhopala,
and no doubt this is Ramusio's Accambale (Acambale); an indication at
once of the authentic character of that interpolation, and of the identity
of Champa and Chen-ching.
[We learn from an inscription that in 1265 the King of Champa was
Jaya-Sinhavarman II., who was named Indravarman in 1277, and whom the
Chinese called Che li Tseya Sinho phala Maha thiwa (Cri Jaya Sinha varmma
maha deva). He was the king at the time of Polo's voyage. (A. Bergaigne,
Ancien royaume de Campa, pp. 39-40; E. Aymonier, les Tchames et leurs
religious, p. 14.) - H.C.]
There are notices of the events in De Mailla (IX. 420-422) and Gaubil
(194), but Pauthier's extracts which we have made use of are much fuller.
Elephants have generally formed a chief part of the presents or tribute
sent periodically by the various Indo-Chinese states to the Court of
China.
[In a Chinese work published in the 14th century, by an Annamite, under
the title of Ngan-nan chi lio, and translated into French by M. Sainson
(1896), we read (p. 397): "Elephants are found only in Lin-y; this is the
country which became Champa. It is the habit to have burdens carried by
elephants; this country is to-day the Pu-cheng province." M. Sainson adds
in a note that Pu-cheng, in Annamite Bo chanh quan, is to-day Quang-binh,
and that, in this country, was placed the first capital (Dong-hoi) of the
future kingdom of Champa thrown later down to the south. - H.C.]
[The Chams, according to their tradition, had three capitals: the most
ancient, Shri-Banoeuy, probably the actual Quang-Binh province;
Bal-Hangov, near Hue; and Bal-Angoue, in the Binh-Dinh province. In the
4th century, the kingdom of Lin-y or Lam-ap is mentioned in the Chinese
Annals. - H.C.]
NOTE 2. - The date of Marco's visit to Champa varies in the MSS.: Pauthier
has 1280, as has also Ramusio; the G.T. has 1285; the Geographic Latin
1288. I incline to adopt the last. For we know that about 1290, Mark
returned to Court from a mission to the Indian Seas, which might have
included this visit to Champa.
The large family of the king was one of the stock marvels. Odoric says:
"ZAMPA is a very fine country, having great store of victuals and all good
things. The king of the country, it was said when I was there [circa 1323],
had, what with sons and with daughters, a good two hundred children; for he
hath many wives and other women whom he keepeth. This king hath also 14,000
tame elephants.... And other folk keep elephants there just as commonly as
we keep oxen here" (pp. 95-96). The latter point illustrates what Polo says
of elephants, and is scarcely an exaggeration in regard to all the southern
Indo-Chinese States. (See note to Odoric u.s.)
NOTE 3. - Champa Proper and the adjoining territories have been from time
immemorial the chief seat of the production of lign-aloes or eagle-wood.
Both names are misleading, for the thing has nought to do either with
aloes or eagles; though good Bishop Pallegoix derives the latter name from
the wood being speckled like an eagle's plumage.
