10 Boundaries and Beyond
embarking from China departed from the west coast of Guangdong,
sailing south along the coast, eventually entering into the Gulf of Siam. The
party landed at the narrow neck of the northern Malay Peninsula, or at
the present-day Kra Isthmus in southern Thailand. Crossing the Isthmian
track to the west coast overland, the travelers continued their journey
by sea again to reach Huangzhi. The whole journey required “several
transfers” on “barbarian ships” to reach the destination. It recounts that
the voyage did not follow a direct sea route from China to India. Should
this indeed have been the case, the several missions from Huangzhi
during the βirst century BC were probably serviced by transfers to reach
China. On the return voyage, however, the Chinese envoy departed from
a country south of Huangzhi, possibly Ceylon, and traveled all the way
by the sea route, most likely via the Straits of Malacca. The journey was
extremely hazardous because they would often encounter pirates who
looted and killed. The account reveals that there was trafβic frequent
enough to attract the presence of piracy in the Straits. Other hazards that
travelers often encountered were storms and shipwrecks.
Turning to the ship(s) the Chinese party boarded on the βirst leg of the
voyage, Wang Gungwu believes that the travelers embarked on Chinese
ship(s) sailed by the Sinicized Yue people from the southeast coast of
China. Paul Wheatley also says that, “Yue sailors were almost certainly
the carriers of both merchandise and merchants” in the Gulf of Tonkin
and on the South China coast.^28 Their suggestions are supported by
archeological βinds that point to the navigational skills of the Yue people
as early as the Neolithic Age.^29
The most revealing part of the text is the mention of “several
transfers” on board “barbarian trading ships”, a statement that clearly
indicates that these “barbarians” were participants in pursuing trade
along the sea route. But who were these “barbarian” carriers? By then
the Yue on China’s southeast coast had already been incorporated
into the Chinese empire and would therefore no longer be considered
foreign people. In the βirst two centuries Ćĉ, the rise of Funan in the
lower Mekong Valley and Champa on the southeast coast of present-
day Vietnam might offer a clue to the answer. The Khmers are believed
to have founded Funan and the Chams were the founders of Champa.
The two kingdoms were soon to become maritime powers in the Gulf
- Wang Gungwu, “The Nanhai Trade”, p. 23; and Paul Wheatley, The Golden
Khersonese, p. 283. - Bai Yue minzu shi lunji 百越民族史論集 [A collection of essays on the history
of the Yue people], comp. The Association of Research on the History of Yue
People (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui chubanshe, 1982), pp. 49–50.
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