ARI Working Paper Series

Memoir 47 of the Suishu 隋書 (History of the Sui Dynasty) documents the kingship, regalia, official titles, geography, customs, and curiosities of four early Southeast Asian polities: Linyi, Chitu, Zhenla, and Poli.  With the exception of some scene-setting background information regarding Linyi, most of the material can be dated, with varying degrees of certainty, to the years 605-617.  It is during this period that “over ten kingdoms from the wild south brought tribute” and Chinese emissaries recorded travel as far as the Malay Peninsula.  Memoir 47 is of particular interest due to the occurrence of more than 60 transcribed non-Chinese words, including titles, personal and place names, fruits, cloth, and animals.  The paper references past scholarship on the derivations of these words and proposes a number of new identifications.

Due to its importance as a source of Linyi’s history, a translation of the Suishu’s brief biography of General Liu Fang with an account of his military campaign against King Fan Zhi is included.