真腊风土记 [Revision and Annotation of The Land and Social Conditions of Chenla], by Xia Nai

Zhou Daguan (also Tcheou Ta-Kouan, Zhu Daguan) ch 周达观 , kh ជីវតាក្វាន់(chiv takvan), vn Chu Đạt Quan, th โจวต้ากวาน (cho wta kwan)(c. 1270, Yongjia (modern Wenzhou) – ? shortly after 1346), a Chinese traveler under the Temür Khan (Emperor Chengzong), authored the sole written and direct account of the customs of Cambodia and the Angkorean power from the 13^th century that has been preserved to our days.

Arrived at Angkor in August 1295, he remained near the court of King Indravarman III (also named Sri Srindarvarman) until July 1296. We know only a third of his account, The Customs of Cambodia (真臘風土記, Zhēnlà Fēngtǔ Jì, literally The Land and Social Conditions of Chenla), first translated into French by the sinologist Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat in 1819 (Description du royaume de Cambodge par un voyageur chinois qui a visité cette contrée à la fin du XIII siècle, précédée d’une notice chronologique sur ce même pays, extraite des Annales de la Chine, Imprimerie J. Smith, 1819), and later on by Paul Pelliot in 1902 (1). In 2007, the linguist Peter Harris completed the first direct translation from Chinese to modern English.

Coincidentally, Zhou Daguan’s travel to Angkor occurred the same year than ​“the trader and adventurer Marco Polo arrived back in Venice after twenty-five years’ absence. Legend has it that he was full of stories about his travels in China and other parts of Asia, and about the services he provided to the great khan Khubilai, the founding emperor of the Mongol dynasty then ruling China. That same year, 1295, a young man by the name of Zhou Daguan set sail from Mingzhou, a port on the southeast coast of China. Zhou was headed for Cambodia as part of a delegation sent there by Khubilai’s grandson Temür, who had come to the imperial throne on the death of his grandfather.” (cf. Peter Harris, A Record of Cambodia, p 6).

We still have to conjecture in which capacity Zhou Daguan joined the delegation, but we know he was not a diplomat acting for the Yuan dynasty, nor a trader. The ​“Summary of the General Catalogue of the Complete Library of the Four Treasures” of the Qing Dynasty, praising the book as ​“quite comprehensive and rich in meaning, with many details, which can make up for the missing parts of the Yuan History,” mentions its author as a ​“lettered man.” 

As for the name Daguan 达观​, which he used after his trip to Chenla, several interpretations have been given: ​“the one who saw everything”, ​“at ease in every circumstance”, ​“who sees the bright side of everything”. 

Sinologist and Khmerologist Pascal Médeville is currently working on a novelized account of Zhou Daguan’s life and travels. And in December 2024, Princess Buppha Devi Dance School presented in Phnom Penh the first musical and dance production inspired by the journey of Zhou Daguan, លោក ជីវ តាក្វាន់ បានជួបនគរចេនឡា Zhou Daguan in the Kingdom of Chenla.

Angkor Database recommends the direct translation established from the ancient Chinese text into English by native Chinese Ms. Beling Uk and native Cambodian Solang Uk in 2010 and 2011. Xia Nai​’s 1981 Chinese edition of the travelogue remains a reference.

Customs of Zhenla has also been translated into:

• Khmer: កំណត់ហេតុរបស់លោក ជីវ តាក្វាន់ អំពីប្រពៃណីនៃអ្នកស្រុកចេនឡា [Chiv Ta Kwan [Zhou Daguan]‘s diary about the traditions of the people of Chenla], tr. Ly Team Teng, 1971, Phnom Penh.
• Thai:  โจวต้ากวาน, บันทึกว่าด้วยขนบธรรมเนียมประเพณีของเจินละ เฉลิม ยงบุญ [Record of Chenla’s customs and traditions], tr. Chalerm Yongbunkerd, 2014 (3^d edition) — ISBN 978−974−02−1326−0.
• Vietnamese: Chu Đạt Quan, Chân Lạp phong thổ ký [Chenla Land and People], tr. Lê Hương, Nhà xuất bản Kỷ Nguyên Mới, Saigon, 1973 [excerpts in Vietnamese here]. 
• German: Walter Aschmoneit, Zhou Daguan, Aufzeichnungen über die Gebräuche Kambodschas, Studeingemienschaft Kambodschanische Kultur, 2006, 120 p., ISBN13 978 – 3000200724.
• Spanish: Vida y costumbres de Camboya, Relato del viaje de Zhou Daguan a Angkor, by Astrid Haardt, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013, 108 p., ISBN13 978 – 1478384496.

(1) In Antoine Brébion’s Dictionnaire Bibliographique, the entry Tcheou-Ta-Kouan states: ​‘Lettré chinois du XIIIe siècle de notre ère, qui avait pour appellation Ts’ao-T’ING; il était originaire de Yong-Kia au Tchô-Kiang, il suivit l’ambassade chinoise envoyée au Cambodge en 1295, il revint en Chine en 1297. Le très érudit sinologue qu’est M. P. PELLIOT, de l’Ecole française d’Extreme-Orient, lui a restitué la paternité d’une relation intitulée Description du Cambodge, qu’ABEL DE RÉMUSAT avait attribuée à MA-TOUAN-LIN.’ [Chinese erudite from the 13^th century CE, who was named Tsao-Ting, hailing from Yong-Kia in Tcho-Kiang. He followed the Chinese embassy sent to Cambodia in 1295, traveling back to China in 1297. The most learned sinologist Mr P. PELLIOT, from EFEO, has given back to him the autorship of a text titled ​‘Description of Cambodia’, previously attributed to MA-TOUAN-LIN by ABEL DE RÉMUSAT.]

Xia Nai (夏鼐, 1910, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China – 19 June 1985) was an eminent Chinese archaeologist, celebrated on the international academic scene as a member of the British Academy (1974), the Swedish Royal Academy of Letters, History, and Antiquities (1983), the U.S. Academy of Sciences (1984), the Italian Institute of Far Eastern Studies, the Third World Academy of Sciences and the German Institute of Archaelogy.

After majoring in economic history at Tsinghua University in Beijing (1934), he studied Egyptology at the University College of London and later joined the Beijing Central Museum. A professor at Zhejiang University, he worked on many excavation sites in China (including the discovery of the Yin ruins in Anyang, dating back to the Shang dynasty) and was appointed Director of the Institute of Archaeology within the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) (1962 – 1982). 

Persecuted and submitted to ​‘re-education’ during the Cultural Revolution, between 1966 and 1972, he resumed his academic and field work afterwards and published in 1981 a major, annotated edition of Zhou Daguan’s Customs of Cambodia. He also contributed to the development of the Wenzhou Museum, Wenzhou being his and the famous Chinese traveler Zhou Daguan​’s hometown.

In Anyang,1935 (Source: School of Archaeology and Museology)

Xia Nai (center) checking findings at the Ding Mausoleum (Ming Dynasty) near Beijing, 1958 (Source: China Daily)