Zhou Dagan's "Customs of Cambodia"

This richly illustrated book is a new translation from the French of Zhou Daguan’s Customs of Cambodia, from Paul Pelliot​’s 1902 translation. About Pelliot’s work (BEFEO II, 1902, pp. 123- 177), the author notes that Pelliot ​“worked at a revision of his translation until 1924, after which he does not appear to have returned to the manuscript. He had begun very detailed notes to his revised translation, but unfortunately these only go as far as section 3 (out of a total of 40). His revisions were published posthumously in 1951. Two recent articles from Chinese scholars have supplied some corrections to Pelliot’s text, and their findings are incorporated here. They are Xia Nai, Zhenla fentuji jiaozhu (1981) and Yang Baoyun, ​‘Nouvelles études sur l’ouvrage de Zhou Daguan, Recherches nouvelles sur le Cambodge, Paris. EFEO.1994. Études Thématiques 1. pp.227 – 234.”

While the number of photographs dedicated to Angkor Wat can be surprising — after all, Zhou Daguan mentioned many buildings, including Prasat Baphuon and Angkor Thom Royal Palace, but never visited Angkor Wat proper, to which it refers as ​“the tomb of Lu Ban” – , this edition is completed by a useful index, allowing to search among the many topics covered by the famous Chinese traveler.

The author’s English version was commissioned in April 2000 by the Siam Society in order to substitute the only English translation (also from the French) previously produced by J. Gilman d’Arcy Paul in 1967. This one, reedited in 1987, 1993, and 1999, was deemed inaccurate. Peter Harris, who translated Zhou Daguan’s original Chinese text (or some of its numerous versions) into English, noted that ​“Smithies takes into consideration some of the variants in the Chinese text that have come to light in recent decades. But he himself acknowledges he does not read Chinese, and his translation inevitably suffers from being two removes from the original. An earlier translation into English by J. Gilman d’Arcy Paul suffers from the same problems, in a more pronounced form.” (A Record of Cambodia, p15)

Zhou, Daguan. A Record of Cambodia: The Land and Its People . Silkworm Books. Kindle Edition. 

In annex, the author translated into English Louis Finot​’s 1929 essay ​‘The Temple of Angkor Wat’ (ÉFEO, Mémoires archéologiques vol II, complete with a note by Jacques Dumarcay.”

We can find here also the first English translation of Paul Pelliot’s preface in its integrality:

The only description of Angkor at the time of its splendour is that in the Mémoires sur les coutumes du Cambodge [The Customs of Cambodia) (Zhenla feng duji) [Tchen la fong t’ou ki from the pen of Zhou Daguan Chou Ta-kuan, Tcheou Ta-kouan].

Zhou Daguan, with the family name of Caoting Yimin [Ts’au-t’ing yi-min), came from Yungjia [Yong-kia] in Chekiang [Tchö-kiang]. In 1296 – 1297, he accompanied a Chinese embassy which spent nearly a year in Cambodia. On returning to China, he drew up an account of his journey, probably right away, and certainly before 1312; he was still alive in 1346. Shortly after the fall of the Mongol dynasty in 1368. the Mémoires sur les coutumes du Cambodge were incorporated in a compilation, essentially comprising extracts, of one hundred chapters, the Shuofu (Chouo fou from the pen of Tao Zongyi [T’ao Tsong-yi]. But this Shuofu is not the standard edition of 120 chapters which appeared in 1646 – 1647; in this, the Mémories were reproduced, with the absence of one page, following the 1544 edition appearing in the Gujin Shouhai [Kou kin chouo hai]; this, directly or indirectly, is the basis of the half-dozen editions of the Mémories which were available until recent times. However, several manuscript copies existed, often inaccu- rate or fragmentary, of the original Shuofu, one of these has recently been published by the Commercial Press in Shanghai. The text is generally identical to that in the Gujin Shouhai, which is certainly a copy of the Shuofu itself. It is however important to have, for the first time, a text which does not derive from the 1544 edition.

The Shuofu contains hardly any complete works. So, although the Mémories, such as we have them, form a coherent whole, one wonders if the text is not cut. This is what a bibliophile in the middle of the seventeenth century. Qian Zeng [Ts’ien Ts’eng], claimed; speaking of a manuscript in his possession, he wrote: ​“This volume was copied from a Yuan manuscript version. The edition of [Gujin] Shouhai has contradictions, errors, and omissions; six or seven tenths of the original is lacking, it hardly gives an idea of the book. Unfortunately, the few manuscript copies of the Mémories which I have been able to trace seem only to supply the usual text, and the few early quotations which I have been able to gather are usually found there. There is, though, one exception. The Chengzhai Zaji [Tch’eng tchai tsa ki] of Lin Kun [Lin K’ouen], which must have been compiled fairly early on in the fourteenth century, and for which Zhou Daguan himself wrote a preface in 1346, quotes a pamage from the Mémories which is found there, but it is quoted with a final phrase, certainly original, which is missing from the present text. Until now, this is the only trace of a more complete text which Quian Zeng was still aware of three centuries later.

The work attracted the attention of Abel Rémusat, who translated it in 1819. I myself produced a new version in 1902 in the Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, but offprints of this are very rare. I have taken advantage all the more willingly of the chance to publish the Mémories again, since my translation of 1902 could be refined or improved at several points.

Even if the text of the Mémoires, such as we have it, is not complete, it is of exceptional interest. The accounts of the early Buddhist pilgrims, in particular of Xuan Zang [Hiuan-tsang), makes one appreciate the detailed accuracy with which Chinese travellers compiled the notebooks of their accounts, Zhou Daguan visited Cambodia when it was still very prosperous, and gives a lively and exact account of the country. However, the decline was not far off: the Siamese were at hand. Already the monks in Cambodia were called by a Siamese name, which labriel San Antonio noted three centuries later, although he is forgotten today. Above all Zhou Daguan speaks of the recent invasion of the Siamese and the destruction this caused. I can hardly avoid attributing to the Siamese the successive removals of the Cambodian capital from Angkor to Babaur, Lovek, and finally Phnom Penh.