Yet the idea of a spherical earth, literally and poetically, coexisted along side this scheme of things. At least as far back as the second century B.C., Chinese astronomers had written about the sphericity of the earth.70 Taoist cosmography, philosophically describing a spherical earth, held that heaven, after which man was modeled, 'revolved' from left to right, while earth, after which woman was conceived, did so from right to left.71 The traditional concept of yin and yang was also applied to the Chinese world concept. Yin, the passive power, was associated with the colder north, while the active power, yang, was associated with the hotter climes of southern China and the southern realms of Southeast Asia.
In Taoist creation myths, the emperor of the South Sea (that is, Southeast Asia) was Shu (Brief). Shu periodically visited the central region, Hun-tun, which was conceived as a cosmic egg or gourd, where he met with Hu (Sudden), the emperor of the North Sea.72 Interestingly, the analogy of an egg yoke for the earth floating in the heavens was used both in ancient China and ancient Greece.
China and Southeast Asian Trade
Chinese awareness of india, of the Roman Empire, and of the possibilities of trade with both, was heightened in the latter part of the second century B.C. (Han Dynasty) as a result of the adventures of an explorer/diplomat by the name of Chang Ch'ien. Chang made two expeditions, the first in 128 B.C. to Central Asia, during which he was taken prisoner for a decade by the Hsiung Nu (Huns) in the Altai Mountains, and again in 115 B.C. to western China. On his first expedition he found cloth and bamboo in Bactria and Fergana (north of modern Afghanistan), which in turn had been acquired from India, but which Chang recognized as being ultimately of southern Chinese origin. This was to prove eventful for both China and Southeast Asia, since it opened China's eyes to the possibilities of more direct trade with lands to the west, and it set the stage for the role that Southeast Asia would play as a facilitator of this trade. On the second expedition, Chang had his envoys continue further west, bringing gold and silks to Persia and the eastern periphery of the Greco-Roman world. Chang's endeavors led to the birth of the Silk Road along whose length there subsequently flowed not only trade but also an improved knowledge of the world. The latter was shared between Rome and China, and the lands that bordered the route; China learned of Burma and other neighbors in Southeast Asia.
The Southeast Asian mainland, however, was not itself an important destination for the earliest Chinese traders. What little it offered them in terms of indigenous resources could be obtained in ample quantities from sources farther north. It was, rather, itineraries to the west that first lured Chinese seafarers into the Indian Ocean. Thus for early Chinese sailors, Southeast Asia was an impediment as well as a destination, in the same manner that America was initially seen as an obstacle to Europeans sailing west in quest of Asia. Similarly, both the Europeans in America and the Chinese in Southeast Asia sought short-cuts across isthmuses. Many Chinese and Indian traders may have opted to cross the northern neck of the Malay Peninsula at the Isthmus of Kra rather than undertake the arduous voyage around the peninsula and through the Malacca Strait, just as European sailors experimented with crossing Central America at Darien to avoid the lengthy route around South America and through the Magellan Strait. Yet another parallel can be found between the Gulf of Siam and the vast mouth of the Rio de Ia Plata in Brazil; both must surely have tricked pilots into believing that they had reached the end of the continental obstruction, only for them subsequently to discover that they still had the full Malay Peninsula and the whole of South America, respectively, to round.
Fig. 22 Traiphum, 1776 (anonymous). (Section illustrated measures 51.8 x 138 cm) [With permission of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin- PreuRischer Kulturbesitz Museum für Indische Kunst]
The fragmentation of the celestial kingdom resulting from the fall of the Han dynasty between 190- 225 A.D., expedited the beginning of Chinese intercourse with Southeast Asia. As a result of the dynasty's demise, most of the territory south of the Yangtze River became part of the kingdom of Wu which, though isolated from countries to the west, controlled the long southern Chinese coastline and thus was in an ideal position to trade with Southeast Asia. In order to exploit this window of opportunity looking on to the countries that lay to the south, an embassy was dispatched, in the third century A.D., to southern Indochina under the guidance of K'ang-Tai, a senior secretary, and Chu-Ying, who was in charge of cultural relations. Although the original accounts of this enterprise are lost, much of their content has been passed on to us by way of the many later Chinese documents that quote directly from them. These extracts are often confusing and have probably been corrupted by copyists, but nonetheless they constitute much of what is known about Southeast Asia at the time of the early Christian period, and they have provided us with the only clear record of the kingdom of Fun an.
Chhinese maritime contact with Southeast Asia probably began over two thousand years ago. According to the Han Shu (History of the Han Dynasty), Chinese vessels were visiting Sumatra, Burma, Ceylon, and southeastern India during the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.− 8 A.D.).73 The scholar and official, Jia Dan (730-805), described the sea route from Canton (Guangzhou) to Baghdad, via Singapore and the Malacca Straits, the Nicobar Islands and the Indian Ocean, Ceylon and India, and finally the Arabian Sea and the Euphrates, at which point the journey was completed by land.
Chinese vessels began regularly to make the round trip to Southeast Asia in the eleventh century, during the Song Dynasty.74 Although the Song era is remembered as being primarily a period of intellectual strength, and a time when advances were made in printing techniques, it was also one in which curiosity about the outside world was not deemed respectable. Confucian philosophers, in particular, sought to discredit both the accuracy and the merit of knowledge about distant realms.
Some Song government bureaucrats did, however, chronicle the reports they heard about the lands to the south and two texts have survived with details pertaining to Southeast Asia. One was written in 11 78 by Chou Ch'ü-fei, an official of the maritime province of Kuang-hsi, the second a half century later, in 1226, by Chao Ju-kua, the Commissioner of Foreign Trade at Ch'üan-chou (coastal province of Fukien). Chou Ch'ü-fei explained that
The great Encircling Ocean bounds the barbarian countries [Southeast Asia]. In every quarter they have their kingdoms, each with its peculiar products, each with its emporium on which the prosperity of the state depends. The kingdoms situated directly south [of China] have [the Sumatran maritime state of Srivijaya] as their emporium; those to the south-east [of China] have She-p'o [Java].75
Referring to Indochina, Chou states that although
it is impossible to enumerate the countries of the South-Western Ocean... we have to the south [of Chiao-chih = Tongkin] Chan-ch'eng [Annam], Chen-la [Cambodia], and Fo-lo-an [?].
To the west of Cambodia (in present-day Thailand?) lies
the country of Teng-liu-mei. its ruler wears flowers in his hair, which is gathered into a knot. Over his shoulders he wears a red garment covered with white. On audience days he ascends an open dais, since the coumry is wholly without palace buildings of any kind. Palm leaves are used as dishes in eating and drinking; spoons nor chopsticks are used in eating which is done with the fingers.
Another kingdom is Tan-rna-ling, probably in the region of Ligor. Around the city of Tan-rna-ling
there is a wooden palisade six or seven feet thick and over twenty feet high,