72 continental south asia and the islands
elephant tusks and real pearls. In the 6th month (June/July) of 762,
it again offered gifts (Hsin T’ang shu 222C:9a; Ts’e-fu yüan-kuei p.5030,
5031). No further missions are recorded.^158
India
The Chinese historians of T’ang and Sung times had only vague
knowledge of the political borders of India (T’ien-chu, from Sung
onward called Yin-tu). They were usually content to divide it sche-
matically into Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, and Central
India, which stood in no relation to real conditions.
Five missions from India to Eastern Chin, Liu Sung, and Liang
are recorded for the Six Dynasties from 357-503,^159 but no missions
arrived from India in Sui times. Relations were only restored during
T’ang (Sung shih 490:1b).
In 641, envoys from the king of Mo-chia-t’o (Magadha),^160 Shih-
lo-yi-to (Harsa), arrived at the T’ang court with a letter and gifts.
Emperor T’ai-tsung ordered the Commandant of the Cavalry Fleet
as Clouds, Liang Huai-ching,^161 to go to Magadha as a return envoy
and present a letter stamped with the imperial seal (Chiu T’ang shu
198:12a;Hsin T’ang shu 221A:12a; T’ung-tien 193:19a; Ts’e-fu yüan-kuei
p.5024;Wen-hsien t’ung-k’ao 338:50a).
In the 5th month (June/July) of 646, envoys from an unspecified
Indian state offered presents (Ts’e-fu yüan-kuei p.5014).
In the 3rd month (Apr./May) of 647, Liang Huai-ching returned
from Magadha. King Harsa had attached an envoy of his own to him,
who presented Emperor T’ai-tsung with a fire pearl (burning-glas),
curcoma longa,^162 and [seedlings of] the Bodhi tree, jackfruit tree, and
white poplar. The emperor sent the Assistant of the Commandant of
(^158) Liao shih 12:5a and 70:8a-8b record that on Mar.12, 989, the Shih-tzu State
offered gifts to the Liao court. Wittfogel, Liao, pp.51-52, considers it within the realm
of possibility that contacts were established between Liao and Ceylon, but also sug-
gests that the Shih-tzu State could have been a Central Asian country, governed by
a “shih-tzu wang” or “lion king” (Arslan). I believe this mission to have come from
Turfan. See under that heading.
(^159) See my Six Dynasties, p.90.
(^160) Situated in northern India, south of Nepal.
(^161) Ts’e-fu yüan-kuei gives his name as Li Yi-piao, but in the sequence of events,
as set out in 162 Hsin T’ang shu, Li Yi-piao, must have been sent in 647.
A perfume or incense.