graciously accepted the ‘tribute’ offered, but gave more expensive
presents in return. Of course, foreign embassies also brought goods for
trade, and the Chinese well appreciated their commercial value.
A second conclusion is that the frequency of official embassies by
no means indicated the extent and volume of trade between China
and Funan. Private trade fluctuated, depending on political conditions
in both China and Southeast Asia, but it certainly did not dry up for
decades on end. ‘Smuggling’ continued even when official sanctions
against trade were enforced, for local officials could always be bribed.
So why did Southeast Asian rulers send official embassies to
China? Some went in response to the invitation of Chinese emperors
who sought exotic products or the gratification of barbarian submis-
sion. Some Southeast Asian rulers dispatched embassies in order to
reinforce or legitimise their own power. Presentation of fine clothing,
titles and regalia raised the status of rulers of small kingdoms like
Funan, giving them the edge over their rivals in the cutthroat politics
of Southeast Asian mandalas. Most embassies, however, were sent to
promote trade, particularly in Chinese luxury products, such as silk and
later fine porcelain, desired as status symbols by Southeast Asian elites.
There is still something odd about proud and independent
Southeast Asian rulers accepting even nominal vassal status in the
form of Chinese investiture, even if this was to their temporary politi-
cal advantage. In order to understand why so many were prepared to do
so, we need to look more carefully at the worldview of Southeast Asia,
for this rested on entirely different cosmological as well as political,
institutional and economic foundations from the Chinese understand-
ing of the world outlined in the previous chapter.
Most early Southeast Asian rulers borrowed from Hinduism the
idea that the king was the representative on earth of the great god
Shiva (or more rarely Vishnu). Prosperity depended on the extent to
which an earthly kingdom reflected the heavenly realm of the gods.
The more nearly this was achieved, the closer the identity between
king and god, and the greater the power of the king. Kings thus set out
Early relations