Zhou Daguan's Customs of Cambodia: A New Translation
by Zhou Daguan & Solang & Beling Uk
An English translation of the famous text by Zhou Daguan anchoring it to the 'real' Khmer country (Srok Khmer).
Type: hardback
Publisher: DatASIA
Published: 2000
Pages: 146
ISBN: 978-1-934431-18-4
Languages : English, Khmer, Chinese
ADB Library Catalog ID: ZHOU4
Though the Chinese merchant and emissary's travelogue to Cambodia has been previously translated to French (the oldest one by Jean-Pierre Abel-Ramusat in 1819) and then English, this is the first direct translation from ancient Chinese by authors born in Cambodia and China.
This linguistical and historical prowess was initiated in 2004, when Solang Uk discovered a copy of Zhou Daguan's vivid relation of the "customs of Cambodia" in a Khmer translation authored by a famous writer killed by the Khmer Rouge, Ly Thiam Teng.
This translation establishes a palpable, vivid link between Zhou Daguan's description and the 'real'Cambodia. For instance, in the part describing the Cambodian (called Zhenla by Zhou Daguan) flora -- "There are pomegranates, sugarcane, lotus flowers, lotus roots, carambolas, bananas, and xiongqiong as in China. Although lychees and tangerines are the same in shape as the Chinese ones, they taste sour. There are many other kinds [of fruit] I have never seen in China. Trees are also very different. There are so many· varieties of herbaceous plants and flowers. The flowers are scented and with beautiful vibrant colors. There are even more varieties of flowers in the water, but I do not know their names. As for peaches, plums, apricots, sour plums, pines, cypresses, firs, Chinese junipers, pears, Chinese dates, poplars, willows, osmanthus, orchids, chrysanthemums, this country does not have them. However, there are lotus flowers in the first lunar month." --, the authors add a photograph of a carambola (star fruit, ផ្លែស្ពឺ [phlae speu] in Khmer) tree, taken by S. Uk in 1999:
Foreword by Amir D. Aczel.
A discussion of previous French, English and Chinese editions by UN Leang.
While cooking, "people of Zhenla (Cambodia) bury three stones in the ground to form a fire stove", notes Zhou Daguan after his trip to Angkor in 1296. Here below, a cooking pit in a farmer's house near Kratie in 2018 (Photo DR).
Tags: Zhou Daguan , travelogue, Khmer history, Khmer traditions, 13 century, translations, material culture, Chinese travelers
About the Author
Zhou Daguan
Zhou Daguan (also Tcheou Ta-Kouan, Zhu Daguan) 周达观 , kh ជីវ តាក្វាន់ (chiv takvan)(c. 1270, Yongjia (modern Wenzhou)–?), a Chinese traveler under the Temür Khan, authored the sole written and direct account of the customs of Cambodia and the Angkorean power from the 13th century that has been preserved to our days.
Arrived at Angkor in August 1296, he remained at the court of King Indravarman III until July 1297. 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.
Angkor Database recommends the direct translation established from the ancient Chinese text into English and Khmer by native Chinese Ms. Beling Uk and native Cambodian Solang Uk in 2010 and 2011.
(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 13th 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.]
About the Translator
Solang & Beling Uk
Solang (b. Tuk Meas, Cambodia) and Beling (b. Hunan, China) Uk are the authors of the first translation of Zhou Daguan's account on Angkor in the 13th century sourced from Chinese and Khmer versions of this essential testimony about the Angkorian power at its peak, before the Siamese and Cham invasions.