โจวต้ากวาน, บันทึกว่าด้วยขนบธรรมเนียมประเพณีของเจินละ เฉลิม ยงบุญ [Zhou Daguan's Records of the Customs of Zhenla,Thai Translation]
by Chaloem Yongboonkerd
Type: e-book
Publisher: completed in May 1967 (2510 Thai Buddhist calendar) | Bangkok (Prah Nakhon), Sonsongkhram Pub., 1967.
Edition: digital version
Published: 1967
Author: Chaloem Yongboonkerd
Pages: 59
Language : Thai
ADB Library Catalog ID: eZD5
pdf 42.9 MB
The author of this informed translation penned it in 1967 from the available Chinese version of Zhou Daguan’s 真臘風土記 [A Record of Cambodia, its Land and its People]. In his preface, he noted that
in 1286 CE King Chewingzong of the Yuan Dynasty (Timur Khan) sent an ambassador to Cambodia to persuade the country to surrender to the Yuan Dynasty. A person named Zhou Takuan (周達觀), also known as Zhou Lao Thueng (周), traveled with the ambassador. After returning to China, he wrote a book called Records of Chenla Customs and Traditions (真臘風土記). […] Zhou Daguan’s records are interesting to read. The language is simple and the words are quite elegant. Anyone who has been to Angkor Thom and knows about the customs and traditions of Cambodia, when reading Zhou Daguan’s records, must admit that the contents of the records are mostly correct.
He didn’t hide the fact that, as a Thai historian, his interest was aroused by Zhou Daguan’s references to “Xian” [暹 as in the Chinese text, and in two instances 暹羅, Xian Luo for “Siam-Lavo”, which it is surprising as that kingdom’s name appeared some fifty years after his visit], which modern English translators (and Paul Pelliot) give as “Siam”. But when the author could have entered in modern Thai ชาวสยาม, chaw syam, “Siamese people”, he used instead ชาวเสียน, chaw seiyn, “people of Xian”:
Since Zhou Daguan’s records are interesting records, and there are many passages referring to the Xian people, who are believed to be Sukhothai people, such as saying that the Xian people brought silkworms and mulberry trees into Cambodia. The Xian women sewed the Chun, which was done by the locals. When the cloth was torn, they had to hire the Xian people to patch it up. When talking about the village, they said that there had recently been a battle with the Xian people, so the village had become completely empty, etc. Therefore, I had the idea to translate Zhou Daguan’s records from the original Chinese into Thai.
A previous Thai translation from the French
“I have checked [my translation] with Mr. San T. Komonbut’s, who translated from French by Pelliot from the original Chinese, and I would like to thank Mr. San T. Komonbut here”, remarked the author in the same preface.
We infer from that remark than San T. Komonbut สันต์ ท. โกมลบุตร (30 Apr 2451=1908 — 8 Apr 2520=1977) was the first Thai translator of Zhou Daguan’s account, even if he used Pelliot’s French version of the text. As an (excellent) translator from the French language hired by the Literary and Historical Section of the Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Education, San. T. Komonbut made available to the Thai public numerous historical records and documents dating back to the 17th century, such as works and testimonies on Siam by Simon de la Loubere, Guy Tachard, Etienne Galois, Nicolas Chervas, Pere de Choiseul, Mgr Pallegoix, Constantine Paulkhon, and…Zhou Daguan’s rediscovery by Paul Pelliot in 1904.
But before this gigantic oeuvre in the 1960s, San T. Komonbut or San Thewarak สันต์ เทวรักษ์ [Thai authors give both names as pen names, so we cannot decide on his real one] had written a staggering amount of short stories and novels in the romance, science-fiction and edifying fiction genres, starting with his first published short story, “เดี่ยวนกขมิ้น” “Diaw Nok Kamin” [Just a Golden Bird] in 1931. Widely popular, his works have been adapted into movies, stage plays, radio dramas and television dramas such as “เศรษฐีอนาถา” “Setthi Anatha”, “แม่ยอดสร้อย” “Mae Yot Soi”, “แก้วสารพัดนึก” “Kaew Sarapat Nuek” [The Wishing Crystal, 27 episodes starting in 1992]. We are still looking for a copy of his translation of Zhou Daguan’s Customs of Zhenla.
The translation
While we are awaiting the judgement of contemporary specialists in both Thai and Chinese literature, this translation, in its time checked by เลียง เสถียรสุต Liang Sathiensut, a Chinese language expert who wrote several books on Mahayana Buddhism, respects Zhou Daguan’s style — “simple, elegant and informative”, to quote the author.
Let’s concentrate on the end of Section 6, “The people”, which summarizes important findings noted down by Zhou Daguan, and had led internationally to some serious discussions among translators:
เบื้องหน้าและเบื้องหลังพระราชวังมีผู้หญิงสามัญเดินไปมาบนถนนไม่ ขาดสาย นางไว้ผมมวยแต่ไม่มีปืนปักผมหรือหวี และไม่มีสิ่งประดับศีรษะหรือหน้า แต่ที่แขนมีกำไลทองคำ นิ้วก็สวมแหวนทองคำ ซึ่งพวกเฉินเกียหลานและพวก ชาววังก็ใช้ด้วยเหมือนกัน | ทั้งชายและหญิงมักจะใช้เครื่องยาหอมทาตามร่างกาย เครื่องยาหอมนี้ ปรุงสำเร็จด้วยแก่นจันทน์ ชมดเชียง และของหอมอื่น ๆ | ทุกครอบครัวนับถือพระพุทธศาสนา | ในประเทศนี้มีพวกกะเทยอยู่มากมาย ทุกวันจะไปเดินตามตลาดเป็น หมู่ ๆ ละ ๑๐ คน มักจะชอบชักชวนชาวจีนและกลับได้ของให้อย่างงาม ช่าง น่าเกลียดและน่าบัดสีเสียนี่กระไร
[In front and behind the palace, there were ordinary women walking around the streets without ceasing. They had their hair in buns, but no hairpins or combs, and no head or face decorations. However, they had gold bracelets on their arms and gold rings on their fingers, which were also used by the Chen Jia Lan and the palace people. | Both men and women often applied perfumed medicine to their bodies. This perfumed medicine was prepared from sandalwood, jasmine, and other fragrant ingredients. | Every family was Buddhist. | There were many kathoey in this country. Every day they would go to the market in groups of ten. They liked to flirt with the Chinese and get beautiful things in return. How ugly and disgusting!]
Remarks :
- 陳家蘭 (exact transliteration in Thai would have been เฉินเจียหลัน) the chen jia lan เฉินเกียหลาน chenjialan (Harris) tch’ en-kia-lan (Pelliot). In Thai, the word seems to be made of เชน, chen, “Jainism”, เกียห, kjian, “apparatus”, ลาน lan, “court”.
- กะเทย kathey, kathoey, “ladyboy”, not transvestites, to be distinguished from ลักเพศ “unnatural”, a common modern Thai being ตุ๊ด tut : ผู้ชายที่มีพฤติกรรมเบี่ยงเบนทางเพศเป็นหญิง: men with feminine gender-bending behaviors.
from departure point to arrival in Angkor Thom:
- ??
- ขี้เกียง Khi Khien
- อรุณโจว Warun Zhou
- ฮกเกี้ยน Hokkien
- กวางตุ้ง Kwantung
- ปาราเซล PARACEL
- นตรธม Nathram
- กรียอน QUI NHƠN
- กันแข่งมาคส์ Cape St Jacques
- ปลดอนดอร์ POULO CONDORE
- มีดอง MY THO
- ขาเรีย Baria
- กันแข่งยาดส์ Kan Kaeng Yas
- โพธิสัตว์ Bodhisattva
- ทะเลสาย กำปงช่นั่ง Thale Sai Kompong Chanang
- นตรธม Angkor Thom
- นาดพัน Nak Phan (Thousand or Coiled Nagas) [for នាគព័ន្ធ Neak Pean]
- ประตูทิศเหนือ North Gate
- พระราชวังหลวง Royal Palace
- พิมานอากาศ Phiman Akas
- บายอน Bayon
- บาปวน Baphuon
- ประตูทางทิศตะวันตก West Gate
- ประตูชัย Pratu Chai [Victory Gate]
- ประตูผี Pratu Phi [Gate of the Ghosts]
- แม่บุญตะวันออก East Mebon
- พนมบาเกง Phnom Bakheng
- [นครธม Angkor Thom]
- ประตูติดใต้ South Gate
- นครวัด Angkor Wat
Tags: Zhou Daguan , translations, transcultural studies, Thai writers, Chinese sources, Chenla, Siam, Sukhotai
About the Author
Chaloem Yongboonkerd
Chaloem [or Chalerm] Yongboonkerd [or Yongbunkerd] เฉลิม ยงบุญเกิด (2455=1912−2518=1975) was a Thai banking historian and theorician, a linguist and the author of the reference Thai translation of Zhou Daguan’s records of Chenla.
After studying Chinese loanwords in Thai language, Chaloem Yongboonkerd decided to go back to the Chinese original text of Records on the Customs of Chenla with the help of Thai specialist in ancient Chinese เลียง เสถียรสุต Liang Sathiensut in order to translate the sole written source on Angkor in the 13th century.
This work, reissued in 2014, defuses wrongful interpretations of medieval history still popular in modern Cambodia. Pol Ittharam noted in Silpa Magazine (30 Dec. 2023) [in Thai]
A few years ago, someone published (repeatedly) an article suggesting that the “Siamese” were the ones who built “Angkor Wat,” a gigantic temple currently located in Cambodia. It was stated that evidence supporting this claim appeared in the records of “Zhou Daguan,” a Chinese envoy who traveled to ask the Kingdom of Cambodia at that time to become a tributary state of the Yuan Dynasty. Since the author cannot read Chinese, I would like to quote some passages from the translation by Chalerm Yongboonkerd in “Records on the Customs and Traditions of Zhenla” for the readers to consider whether what Uncle Zhou wrote can be used to claim that “Siamese people” built “Angkor Wat”, especially in the part that the proposer cited regarding the silk weaving and embroidery skills of “Xian people” as follows: “The natives do not raise silkworms or grow mulberry trees, and the women are not familiar with using needles and thread or sewing. They only know how to weave cotton. They also do not know how to spin yarn, but use their hands to make thread. They do not have a loom to weave cloth, but tie one end of the cloth around their waist and work on the other end. As for the shuttle, they use bamboo tubes.[…] Recently, the Xian people came to live in that country. They raise silkworms and grow mulberry trees as a profession. Therefore, all the silkworm and mulberry tree species came from Xian. They do not have hemp, but only jute. The Xian people use silk to weave thin black silk cloth to use as clothing. The Xian women are good at sewing. If the locals make a rip, they have to hire the Xian women to help them patch it up.”
That is all the words that Zhou Daguan wrote about the story of “Silkworms and Mulberry Trees”, which involved “Xian people” (understood to be “Siamese people”) directly. From this episode, we can understand that “Xian people” are definitely foreigners and have only recently come to make a living in Cambodia. Another point that Zhou conveyed is that Xian people have knowledge of mulberry planting, silk raising, and sewing and weaving, while the local people (Cambodians) do not have knowledge in this area. However, to conclude that “If the local people cannot even weave cloth, how can they build Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom that are so big? Where did they get their technological knowledge?” is considered to be an interpretation that goes far beyond what Zhou wrote. For those who have read such records, you may be shocked and wonder, “Hey! Did I miss something?” Where did Uncle Zhou write it? What made the proposer believe that?…
Publications
- เช็ค กฎหมายและการปฏิบัติ [Check: Laws and Practice], Bangkok, 1965.
- ตั๋วแลกเงิน [Exchange Letter], Bangkok, Prah Nakhon, 2509=1966.
- โจวต้ากวาน, บันทึกว่าด้วยขนบธรรมเนียมประเพณีของเจินล [Zhou Daguan’s Records of the Customs of Chenla], Bangkok, 1967; reis. Bangkok, Matichon Press, 2014.
- ลิปิกรรมไทยจีน สมัยราชวงศ์หมิง [Thai-Chinese Scriptures, Ming Dynasty], Bangkok, Prah Nakhon, 2511=1968.
- ภาษาไทย ภาษาจีน [Thai and Chinese Languages], Bangkok, Prah Nakhon, 2512=1969.
- 30th Anniversary of Bank of Thailand (BOT), commemorative book compiled by Chalerm Yongbunkerd, Bangkok, 1972.
- เลตเตอร์ออฟเครดิตและเช็ค [Letters of Credit and Checks], memorial book for Chaloem Yongboonkerd, Bangkok, Siwaporn Pub., 1975.
- อนุสรณ์งานศพ เฉลิม ยงบุญเกิด ณ เมรุวัดธาตุทอง 16 ธันวาคม 2518 [Chalerm Yongboonkerd Funeral Memorial at Wat That Thong Crematorium, December 16, 1975.