57 Dirasat

Hardships from the Arabian Gulf to : The Challenges that Faced Foreign Merchants Between the Seventh

Dhul Qa'dah, 1441 - July 2020 and Thirteenth Centuries

WAN Lei

Hardships from the Arabian Gulf to China: The Challenges that Faced Foreign Merchants Between the Seventh and Thirteenth Centuries

WAN Lei © King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, 2020 King Fahd National Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lei, WAN Hardships from the Arabian Gulf to China: The Challenges that Faced Foreign Merchants Between the Seventh and Thirteenth Centuries. / Lei. WAN. - Riyadh, 2020

52 p ; 23 x 16.5 cm

ISBN: 978-603-8268-57-5

1- China - Foreign relations I-Title 327.51056 dc 1441/12059

L.D. no. 1441/12059 ISBN: 978-603-8268-57-5 Table of Contents

Introduction 6 I. Dangers at Sea 10 II. Troubles from Warlords and Pirates 19 III. Imperial Monopolies, Duty-Levies and Prohibitions 27 IV. Corruption of Officialdom 33 V. Legal Discrimination 39 Conclusion 43

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Introduction During the Tang (618–907) and Northern Song (960–1127) dynasties, China had solid national strength and a society that was very open to the outside world. By the time of the Southern Song (1127–1279) dynasty, the national economic weight of the country moved to South China; at the same time, the in the Mideast had grown into a great power, too, whose eastern frontier reached the western regions of China, that is, today’s Xinjiang and its adjacent areas in . As trade intermediaries, the Arab and Persian peoples played a significant role in the communication between the East and Europe. Many Muslim merchants came to China for business purposes; the coastal Chinese cities thus became international ports due to the busy commerce between China and various countries. Some of these merchants even settled in China. They are called the “Hui Hui forerunners” by historians and were integrated into the Hui Hui “main body”, that is, the mainstream of the Hui Hui migrants; the main body consisted of those who came from the Khwarazmian Empire (“the Hui Hui country” in the Mongol and documents) and other Central Asian peoples who were driven into China by the Mongol armies as a consequence of the three large-scale westward expeditions (1219–1260). “Dashi” 大食, or Arab, was the main commercial partner during the Tang and Song dynasties. In the twelfth century, Zhou Qufei wrote that “Dashi was a collective term for many countries”.(1) Dashi was the name of the Abbasid Caliphate together with many of the conquered countries, kingdoms, khanates, and protectorates under its rule. In 651 when the Arabs defeated the Sassanid Empire, a vast Arab Empire was established. Because its eastern frontier reached the western part of China, the two powers became neighbors. According to the medieval Chinese pronunciation, “Dashi” was pronounced closely to “Tazik”, originally referring to Tajik people who were the nearest neighbor to the western

(1) Zhou Qufei, “Scroll 3, Hanghai waiyi (Maritime Routes and Alien Countries)” in Notes from the Land Beyond the Passes, 99. (All the translations in this article are done by this writer except where otherwise noted.) part of China, and who were under the control of the Arab Caliphate during the ; but the designation was changed to refer to Arabs afterwards. The Hui Hui forerunners took several routes to China. One route was through the traditional overland originating from West Asia, going eastward via the vast the Central Asian Steppe, onwards to present-day Xinjiang, and finally to the main cities of China’s heartland such as Chang’an, , and . A second route was along the maritime Silk Road, beginning at the Gulf and then traveling by ship eastward to the Melaka Straits via the , then across the South China Sea before finally arriving at Chinese coastal cities such as Annan (in the present-day northern part of Vietnam), , , Hangzhou, Yangzhou, and so on. Additionally, according to the research of Bai Shouyi, there were two routes that combined the maritime and the overland routes together. The first was to sail from Dashi to Annan, and then journey overland to Yunnan; the second was to sail from Dashi to Tianzhu (), then travel by land to Yunnan. However, Bai believed that only a limited number of merchants used these combined routes.(2) I argue that those who adopted the combined routes would continue their journeys to Guangzhou and other coastal cities, too. Some of the merchants would not stop along the coastal cities, but rather would continue their journey to the interior of China; they typically travelled along the Great -Hangzhou Canal to the inner cities of Chang’an, Luoyang and Kaifeng.(3)

(2) Bai Shouyi, Reserved Manuscripts of Chinese Islamic History, 6. (3) As Song huiyao records, on the twenty-eighth day of the fifth month of the third year under the Yuanfu reign (1100), the throne issued the following decree, stating that “the foreign merchants and the local-born foreign people who will go to other prefectures or to Capital East for business purposes should apply for the certificate from the Maritime Trade Superintendency; the Superintendency should investigate the truth before giving a certificate so that the merchant could be protected along the journey. Relevant administrations should check them carefully in case any prohibited goods or criminals are with them.… [because before this decree,] the Guangzhou Superintendency had submitted a report, saying that ‘the foreign merchants came to Guangzhou with their goods and would pay their taxes before their market trading; they have the right to return to their native land or to live here. Now, some foreign merchants from Dashi and other countries asked for going to other prefectures and the regions of the Capital East, but we do not have relevant regulations for them to go to other prefectures with business purposes.’ That was why the throne gave such a decree”. (See Song huiyao, Zhiguan [Officers] 44,Shibosi [Superintendency], Paras. 8–9, 4207).

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As recorded by classical Chinese books, when a merchant ship docked at a Chinese port, such as Guangzhou, the whole city turned out to the harbor and the streets immediately became noisy. Li Zhao, a writer of the Tang dynasty, wrote that the overseas ships from the South Sea were from foreign countries and “every year, they arrive in Guangzhou and Anyi.(4) The ships from the Lion-Country [Ceylon] are the biggest in size; their decks are several zhang in height, and [every deck is] crammed with goods. When they come [to a harbor], they should report to the local dao [provincial] administration, and all the city becomes noisy”.(5)Many large-scale merchants could earn a huge sum of money with the goods loaded by a single ship. Some of the merchants were received by important local officials, some were granted audience at the imperial court, and some were awarded titles of nobility and became officials in China. But there were other merchants who, amid these journeys or in doing business in the Chinese market, lost their wealth and became impoverished. Yue Ke, who was the grandson of the well-known general and poet, Yue Fei, recounted some of his personal experiences in Guangzhou when he was a young boy in one of his books, the Ying shi (The History Written on the Table Before Bed).(6) He had met an Arab merchant with the name of Abu who had migrated from Champa to Guangzhou. His residence was amazingly gorgeous, and was a generous spender according to Yue Ke’s description:

My family was invited [by a merchant Pu, or Abu 蒲姓] and I was there too. I saw him spending his money as if he were spreading dirt, and he tipped all the servants with nobody left. Whatever the

(4) Anyi Refers to the capital city of Annan, what is today’s Hanoi in North Vietnam. At the time, it was under Chinese administration. (5) See Li Zhao, Lower scroll in Supplement on Tang history (Completed in 820s). Wang Dang (d. 1100s) in his Tang yu lin (Sketches on the Tang Dynasty) (Scroll 8, buyi [Supplement], 728) has a similar record. Perhaps Wang cited the source from Li Zhao. (6) Yue Ke, “Scroll 11: Panyu hailiao (The Overseas Barbarians in Panyu)” in Ying shi (History Written on the Table Before Bed), 125–127. pearls and fragrant shells [that he wore], he just carelessly sat on them. A subordinate [of the prefect] said, “This is his habit”. Three days later, he prepared wines and lambs for a banquet [in honor of the local officials], saying that this is to show respect tothe [Chinese] customs. His house was full of ambergris and musky fragrances. The dishes of the feast have exotic flavors, which are completely unknown to me. They are of various kinds and share no similarity at all.(7)

However, when Yue Ke returned to the North, one day upon meeting some of his familiars from the South, he learnt of this news about Abu:

[Talking about my experience in Guangzhou], they told me that the Pu family was not as rich as they had been in the past, with the pond [and the rest facilities in his house] all dismantled. Quanzhou also has [a wealthy] overseas barbarian, called Shi-luo-wei 屍羅圍, whose property was second to that of the Pu family, but recently, he met a similar fate and declined. Both the accumulation and loss of wealth have destined time cycles.(8)

This pattern of accumulating and losing wealth was not caused by unknowable processes, but was connected to the real hardships faced by foreign merchants. My study examines some of these difficulties, highlighting the stories of both well-known and more obscure foreign merchants by relying on accounts from the Chinese historical record. The discussion on hardships is thematically divided into five sub-topics: dangers at sea, the troubles from warlords and pirates, imperial monopolies, duty-levies and prohibitions, the corruption of officialdom, and legal discrimination in China.

(7) Ibid. (8) Ibid.

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I. Dangers at Sea Travelling by sea was no easy matter. , a historian of the Tang dynasty, stated in his Tong dian (Encyclopedic History of Institutions) that During Emperor He-di’s Yongyuan reign of the (89–105), dispatched one of his subordinates Gan Ying to Da-qin. When Gan Ying arrived in Tiao-zhi and were ready to sail to sea, the shipman from An-xi told him, “the sea is wide; those who sail on the sea, when being helped with the tailwind, can pass over the sea within three months; when meeting headwind, they might spend three years”. As Gan Ying heard of this, he gave up on his plan to sail.(9) Da-qin refers to the Eastern or Byzantium, Anxi to Parthia – the eastern part of Iran – and Tiao-zhi to Iraq, which belonged to the Persian Empire at the time. Zhou Qufei of the wrote in his book Ling wai dai da (Notes from the Land Beyond the Passes)(10) that:

Most of the foreign merchants coming to China can complete their journey within one year; only Dashi must be two years or even longer. Generally speaking, when a foreign ship sails with a tailwind, it can go one thousand li; but when it meets oppositional wind, one cannot expect what will happen. The merchants are fortunate to stop their ships in our country, because we have the bao-jia [neighborhood administration] system [so that they can be protected]. But if they stay in a foreign country, [when a disaster comes,] they will have nothing left, whether in lives or properties. Mecca, Misir [], and other countries like them are several tens of thousands of li from us.(11)

(9) Du You, “Scroll 192, Bianfang (Frontiers) (no. 8: Tiao-zhi)” in Tong dian (Encyclopedic History of Institutions), 5238. (10) Zhou Qufei completed his Lingwai daida in 1178 when he left South China; before this he had been a lower-ranking official in a small county in present-day Guangxi. He was a meticulous man in writing his book; all the resources were from what he had seen and heard; some of these sources he obtained by personally interviewing foreign merchants or interpreters. Yang Wuquan, Preface to Zhou Qufei, Lingwai daida, 9. (11) Zhou Qufei, “Scroll 2, Waiguo men (Foreign Countries), Hanghai wai yi (Sailings of the Foreign Merchants)” in Lingwai daida jiaozhu (Notes from the Land Beyond the Passes), 126–127. An Arab merchant, Sulayman, stated in his mid-ninth century account that “according to Ya’qubi, China is a big country. To go to China from the Persian [Arabian] Gulf, one must pass seven seas; each has different color and wind and fresh air from one another”.(12) The journey between the Gulf and China is a long one; a trip requires at least one year in order to reach China. What were the conditions of the maritime route? Let us examine the earliest record in China. A tomb stele of a Chinese eunuch by the name of Yang Liangyao 楊良瑤 (736–806) was discovered in Jingyang county, province, in 1984. It revealed that Yang went to the Western Oceans in the fourth month of the first year under the Zhenyuan reign (785), a time much earlier than that of of the . The imperial court bestowed upon Yang the title of “eunuch with credentials” as well as a red garment and fish-emblem(13); with these, Yang was sent on a diplomatic mission to the “Black-robbed Dashi” 黑衣大食, referring to the Abbasid Caliphate. The sea journey was described in the stele as follows:

Entrusted with the mission, he was unafraid of the far-off distance. When he arrived at the South Sea, he left the land and took a ship [for the sea]. He showed bravery and heroic determination to go across the sea. His behavior encouraged his followers and his loyalty moved spirits and gods. He had his hair cut in worship of Heaven, [an act which also] inspired all his men. This moved Yanghou 陽侯 [the God of Storm], who pacified the waves and Pingyi 屏翳 [the God of Wind], who changed the movement of the winds. The sails were raised covering the sky and oars were pulled

The baoj-jia system was created by Wang Anshi; such a system survived in the coastal regions until the Southern Song dynasty. (See the note at p. 128 of the book by the annotator Yang Wuquan.) (12) Sulayman [Arabia]; Bannong and Liu Xiaohui, trans. Vayage Du Merchand Asabe Sulayman Par Sulaman, 4. (13) These are the symbols of official positions in the Song dynasty.

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crossing the vast seas. God’s lantern led the way during the night and immortal beasts guided the way in daytime. Having repeated a year-circle and passed over many countries, Yang imparted foreign people with imperial culture and taught foreign people throughout the vast lands…(14)

The poetic and superstitious imagery found in the text give the modern reader an approximating conception of life at sea, but not an accurate one. The Pingzhou ketan (Pingzhou Table Talks) by Zhu Yu and the Lingwai daida by Zhou Qufei, both of whom lived during the Song dynasty, offer more realistic accounts of the lives of sailors which are different from the one found in stele of Yang Liangyao. For example, both texts observed that a common sailor had to be obedient to his superiors; these were the gang-shou (captain), fu gang-shou (vice-captain), and za-shi (fore-overman); otherwise he would be punished or even executed. The Pingzhou ketan states:

The prefect of Guangzhou worships the Harvest-Reward God 豐 降神 for good wind in the fifth month. The throne’s order [is] that regardless of the size of a maritime ship, whether holding several hundred people in a big ship or one hundred people in a small one, the richest merchant should be the gang-shou, then fu gang-shou, and then za-shi; these men should be registered in the Maritime Trade Superintendency 市舶司; and they possess the rights to punish their followers by whipping; and the properties of the [punished] dead should be confiscated.(15)

This quotation demonstrates that a common sailor had a very low position; once he committed an error, he would be punished, possibly in a very severe

(14) The original text can be seen in Zhang Shimin, “Yang Liangyao: The earliest Chinese envoy to the West Oceans”. Journal of Xianyang Teacher’s College, no. 3 (2005): 5. (15) Zhu Yu, “Scroll 2, Para. 68” in Pingzhou ketan, 133. way. In addition to this strictly imposed discipline, conditions on ships were usually poor and difficult. Both goods and men were crammed together. Zhu Yu continued: “each ship has several dozens of zhang in width and depth, the merchants shared the space for goods; everyone would get [a space] several chi wide.(16) People are in the upper part, and goods, under them. Porcelains occupy the majority of the trade, with smaller ones placed in bigger ones to save space; there is not much room left”.(17) According to this measurement, each man would have two meters or so for his personal space; under such conditions, sailors must have considered journeys at sea to be quite arduous. Beyond these problems, ships were also at risk of crashing into rocks. To cite Pingzhou ketan again:

A seagoing ship does not fear storms, but fears getting stranded. Once the ship strands, it cannot get out of this predicament. When the ship leaks suddenly, it cannot be repaired from the inside. [The captain would] order the ghost-slaves 鬼奴 [black divers] to fix the damaged part with chisels and oakum from the outside. The ghost- slaves are experts who do not close their eyes when diving in water. The ship’s pilot is acquainted with the lay of the coasts; at night he judges the direction by looking at the stars, and in the daytime, by relying on the sun. In a dark weather, he observes the south-pointing needle [compass]; he also uses a ten-zhang long rope with a hook to take mud from the sea-bed and determines their whereabouts by smelling the mud.(18)

The so-called “ghost-slaves” were black slaves from Africa; the Pingzhou ketan also mentions that some rich households in Guangzhou bought “ghost-

(16) During the Song dynasty, one zhang equals to 10 chi and 361.8 meters. (17) Zhu Yu, “Scroll 2, Para. 68” in Pingzhou ketan, 133. (18) Ibid.

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slaves”, who were captured for sale into China and brought by merchant ships. The slaves did the riskiest jobs aimed at maintaining a ship. A text in the Lingwai daida by Zhou Qufei described the conditions faced by sailors when travelling. It was not about West Asia, nor about Muslims; however, it offers a sketch of the conditions encountered by most sailors at that time. Ships were able to carry several hundred people and typically stored enough food to last for one year, including livestock. As a result, “when they [the sailors] were on a risky sea, they would live a king’s life, which was as if they were not alive [any longer] in the real world, playing the ‘host-guest game’ in eating and drinking so as to ignore the dangers”.(19) This scene is indicative of the fear and spiritual emptiness that many sailors experienced; only temporary diversions would let them forget the real. Zhou continues:

When the pilot dimly saw mountains on the sea, he would judge which country it might be; for example, suppose they were sailing toward some country, he should figure out the due days when he was supposed to see a certain mountain and then the ship would turn to some direction accordingly. When the ship met a strong wind, [and due to the accelerated speed,] it would arrive in an expected place earlier and the pilot could see the [supposed] mountain [also in an earlier time]; thus, the route direction must be changed accordingly. Presuming that the ship had surpassed the [changing] point, there would be no way to return; the ship would [easily] float to a shallow area and would run on hidden rocks and be crushed into pieces. As the ship was big, it would not fear storms but shallow waters.(20)

This text provides vivid and reliable accounts of the dangers faced by sailors at sea. The narration is drawn from a chapter entitled “Ships from

(19) Zhou Qufei, “Scroll 6, Mulan zhou (Ships from Mulan)” in Lingwai daida, 217. (20) Ibid. Mulan” in the Lingwai daida. A researcher Zhang Xinglang explained that “Mulan” refers to the farthest country in the West,(21) but he did not confirm the exact place; another researcher Chen Jiarong argued that it was a reference to Murabit, a term referring to West Africa and al-Andalus (southern ).(22) The Arab merchant, Sulayman, recounted that on the sea near , there was a group of islands that ships had to pass through: “when a ship goes astray, it will be met with catastrophe; [when it goes the proper way,] it will arrive at its destination”.(23) He also mentioned other routes in different seas which involved a variety of dangers. Another problem that sailors had to contend with were food shortages that forced them to fish. As Zhu Yu discusses in Pingzhou ketan:

[the sailors] would use a big hook, which is as big as human arms, with chickens or ducks as bait, to catch fish. [When a fish is caught,] the ship must follow the fish for half a day until the fish gets exhausted; then the ship may approach the fish, [and following its way] for an additional half a day before [they] get it. When a fish is caught but [coincidently] a wind comes, they must give up [the fish]. Sometimes a fish is too big to eat, [so] they would cut open its belly to get to the small fish it has swallowed; the belly may hold several dozens of small fish, and each is several-dozen jin(24) in weight.(25)

One may guess that at the very beginning of the journey, the ship was full of food in preparation for the voyage. As time passed and no harbor was found to re-supply, catching fish became the only way to continue to feed the crew; however, catching fish was also a demanding and risky job.

(21) Zhang Xinglang, Collection of the Historical Documents of Sino-Western Communications, 33. (22) Chen Jiarong et al., Interpretations of the Names of Ancient Places in the South Sea, 192. (23) Sulayman, Vayage Du Merchand Asabe Sulayman Par Sulaman, 7. (24) In the early Northern Song dynasty, one jin equals to 680 grams; in the mid-Northern Song dynasty, it was 640 grams; and in the Southern Song dynasty, 625 grams. (25) Zhu Yu, “Scroll 2, Para. 68” in Pingzhou ketan, 134.

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Diseases were yet another problem. Once a sailor was afflicted with a disease, it was likely that he was doomed to die; in fact, when dying, he would be typically thrown into the sea. In the Pingzhou ketan Zhu Yu stated that the sailors had a taboo against anyone dying on the ship; and that when a man was dying, he would be put into the sea even when he was still breathing, with a sleeping mat wrapped around the body, and with earthen jars full of water tied on the mat so that it would sink. As soon as the body was thrown into the sea, fish would swallow the body together with the mat; the enrolled body seldom sank into deep waters.(26) To be thrown into the sea alive was a terrible fate for any man; yet it occurred frequently. As sailors had little space, which they shared with goods or even livestock, it was easy for them to fall sick. The death taboo in a ship must have originated from the fear of the spread of disease. Sharks were also a danger at sea. When a ship encountered big sharks, it was at risk of being destroyed:

A saw-shark 鋸鯊, which is as long as one hundred zhang, has a nose-bone as sharp as a saw; once it meets a ship, it will cut it in half by the middle, [a task as easy] as sweeping up dead leaves. When the ship is on the voyage and [the pilot] sees dead trees piled up like a hill, and he is doubtful there is a mountain here, then [it is assumed that] this must be a dragon. The sailors would cut their hair and burn the hair using fish scales and bones, and then put the [the ashes] into the sea [for worship]. Such an action is for an urgent occasion, but most of times, they could not be able to ward off disaster (27)

There must be some exaggeration here in describing the danger of a shark; the so-called “dragon” was perhaps a whale, as it was possible that even a

(26) Ibid. (27) Ibid. sizable ship could be easily capsized by a whale; this would lead to the ship’s destruction and the death of its passengers. Unless one had no other choice, or was forced to do so, one would not want to become a sailor and face the dangers found along the maritime route between the Gulf and China. A man who took on such a job put his life at risk. In order to let the family members and close relatives know how they were faring, sailors used pigeons to send messages. Duan Chengshi stated in his book the Youyang Miscellany that “the majority of the Persian ships breed pigeons, which can fly several thousandli away; when a pigeon returned home, [family members could] know that this was a reassuring message from [the passenger]”.(28) The term “Persian ships” here possesses a wider meaning, referring to all of the ships from West Asia. Li Zhao of the Tang dynasty also stated, “when a ship leaves for the sea, they always breed white pigeons for sending messages; when the ship is destroyed, the pigeons could return home even if several thousand li afar”.(29) Aside from all the dangers at sea, many foreign merchants also met their deaths at foreign ports. Quanzhou (Zaitun) had a “Foreign Merchants Cemetery”; Lin Zhiqi (style name “Zhuohzai”) stated in his book, the Zhouzhai wenji (Literary Collection of Zhuozhai), that “when [the Arab merchant] Shi- na-wei 屍郍圍 was in Quanzhou, he did not care for property but cared for friendship. He assisted his fellows for more than ten times; and the [completion of the] Foreign Merchants Cemetery was one [project] carried out with his assistance. The construction of the cemetery was initiated by anther fellow Pu-xia-xin 蒲霞辛 but was completed by Shi-na-wei”.(30) Guangzhou also had a Foreigners’ Cemetery “in the western outskirts, only several kilometers from

(28) Duan Chengshi, “Scroll 16, Yu pian (Feathers) (Para. 611, “Pigeon”) in Youyang Miscellany, 154. (29) See Li Zhao, Supplement on Tang History (Lower scroll). And, Wang Dang (d. 1100s) in his Tang yu lin (Sketches on the Tang Dynasty) (Scroll 8, Buyi [supplement], 728) has a similar record. Perhaps Wang cited the source from Li Zhao. (30) Lin Zhiqi, “Scroll 15, Quanzhou dongban fanshang ji (The Foreign Merchants in the Eastern Outskirts of Quanzhou)” in Zhouzhai wenji (Literary Collection of Zhuozhai).

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the city proper, which holds several thousand tombs, all heading toward the south and facing west”.(31) Facing west refers to the direction of Mecca, which is an Islamic custom for orienting Muslim burials in China.(32) A writer Fang Xinru lamented the dead foreign merchants in Guangzhou with a poem:

Having survived from whale-laden storms at sea, Like a fox, I finally find my burying earth on a hill. Thirty-thousand-li distant from home is far for me to see, I have left hundreds of thousands of treasures behind me.(33)

The merchants and sailors paid for wealth with their lives; regretfully, we do not know much about their backgrounds and their lives. Nevertheless, these cemeteries witnessed one aspect of the hardships they faced.

(31) Fang Xinru, Nanhai bai yong (Hundred Lyrics to the South Sea), 11–12. (32) In North China today the Muslim dead are buried toward the north but facing west. (33) Fang Xinru, Nanhai bai yong (Hundred Lyrics to the South Sea), 11–12. II. Troubles from Warlords and Pirates A foreign merchant would probably travel through many countries during the journey from West Asia to China. The rulers of these countries changed often, as did their policies toward foreign merchants. Some rulers – or momentary warlords who assumed control of a given area – robbed the travelers who passed through their domains. Such incidences took place both within and outside the territories of China. Mabito Genkai’s The Great Master of the Tang Travels East (completed in 779) describes the adventures of 鑒真, or Ganjin (688–763) in the Japanese pronunciation, who journeyed from China to Japan. The following paragraph is the description of the Master’s arrival in Wan’an prefecture (present-day Hainan Island) in 748, where he was hosted by a regional warlord:

[There] the Great Staff Supervisor Feng Ruofang 馮若芳 asked them [Jianzhen and his followers] to stay in his house, where he accommodated them for three days. For quite some time Ruofang had captured two or three Persian ships each year, seized and sold their goods, and enslaved the people on board. In an area that took three days to cross from north to south and five days from east to west, in this area, village after village was filled with the slaves of Ruofang. When Ruofang entertained guests he often used as candles. Once he burnt up over one hundred pounds. Behind his house aromatic woods piled up mountain-high, as if fallen from the sky. This could be said of his other valuables as well.(34)

The term ‘Persian ships’ refers to ships from a broad Persian cultural area not solely limited to the geographic area of present-day Iran. The official Ruofang robbed these merchants when they arrived in China. The northeastern part

(34) Mabito Genkai [Japan]; Marcus Bingenheimer, trans. The Great Master of the Tang Travels East (Part 2). The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies, no. 5 (2004). [Rev. PDF edition (ver. 1)].

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of Hainan Island was centrally located in an important axis of “the maritime routes to alien countries from Guangzhou” as introduced by .(35) Many slaves were originally sailors from the foreign ships; the frankincense, which was also robbed, was “piled up mountain-high”, implying that an emperor could not match his ostentatious way of life. Another example of such warlord banditry is from the biography of Deng Jingshan 鄧景山 drawn from the Old Book of the Tang. Deng’s administrative manner was simple and strict, which was known in the court; however, something happened beyond his control in the fourth year of the Zhide reign (769) when he held the position as the prefecture commander of Huai-nan when Liu Zhan 劉展 rebelled. “[Deng] commanded the vice ping-lu commissioner, Tian Shengong 田神功, to suppress the rebellion.(36) But when Tian reached [the city of] Yangzhou, he robbed the properties of the local people, and [those who refused were] quelled into submission. Several thousand Arab and Persian merchants died”.(37) Tian Shengong confiscated the merchants in the name of suppressing a rebellion, but his real purpose was to rob the properties of these merchants and enrich himself. Another famous instance is that of the rebellion. When Canton (Guangzhou) was occupied by Huang’s rebellious troops, 120,000 foreigners were massacred, excluding the Chinese population. The majority of the victims were Muslims; others were Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians.

(35) Jia Dan’s book, The Countries in the Four Directions of August China, which was divided into forty scrolls, has not survived in its entirety; fortunately, some of its main parts were included in the official dynastic historical book,The New Book of the Tang. With respect to the maritime routes to foreign countries, Jia mentioned two routes, one from the to in , and the other one from Guangzhou to Arab countries in West Asia. The translation of “The Maritime Routes to Alien Countries from Guangzhou” by Jia Dan can be found in “The First Chinese Travel Record on the Arab World”, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, ed., Qira’at, no. 7 (January, 2017): 24–31. (36) Huai-nan is the present-day Yangzhou, province. (37) Liu Xun, ed., “Scroll 110, Individual biographies, no. 60: Biography of Deng Jingshan” in The Old Book of the Tang, 3313. This occurred in the sixth year of the Qianfu reign (under Emperor Xizong in the Tang dynasty), namely, in 879.(38) Incidences of warlord banditry occurred outside of China as well. An example of this is mentioned with reference to Champa, a domain that was located in the mid-southern part of what is present-day Vietnam. The Song huiyao (Drafted Compendium of the Song Dynasty), states:

On the twenty-eighth day of the eleventh month of the third year under the Qiandao reign (1167) …. According to the prosecution of Wu-shi-dian 烏師點 and others, who were all from Dashi, two rich men from our country, Fo-ji 佛記 and Xia-luo-chi 霞囉池, had prepared shells, frankincense, ivories, and so on to pay tribute to the Great Song and had stayed temporarily outside the harbor of Champa. A local chief dispatched some native-born Tang-ren [Chinese] and barbarians [native people from Champa], who came by boat to induce Fo-ji and Xia-luo-chi and other merchants to Champa, but then they took them into custody. They carried away all their precious goods, leaving only some frankincense and ivories to Wu-shi-dian. Then [Champa] dispatched envoys from their country to pay tribute [to the Great Song] with such [robbed] goods as tributary articles, and they killed [some of the Dashi] people [in custody], which is really sad.(39)

Two other contemporary books, the Wenxin tongkao (General Studies on Ancient Documents) and the Song huiyao, repeat the same story. The former

(38) Sulayman [Arabia]; Liu Bannong and Liu Xiaohui, trans. Vayage du Merchand Asabe Sulayman par Sulaman, 57. There is an English translation by Eusebius Renaudos that reads as follows: “There are persons fully acquainted with the affairs of China, who assure us, that besides the Chinese, who were massacred upon this occasion, there perished in Hundred and Twenty Thousand Mohammedans, Jews, Christens, and Parsees, who were there on Account of Traffic”. ——See Eusebius Renaudot, trans., Ancient Account of India and China (: Printed for S. S. Hardings, 1733), 42–41. (39) Xu Song, “Fan-yi (Foreign Countries), no. 4: Zhancheng (Champa), Para. 82” in Song huiyao, 9819.

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source states that the envoys represented by Wu-shi-dian arrived at and reported the event to the Maritime Trade Superintendency. Following that, the imperial court ordered Champa to return the gifts and let them go back to their native country.(40) The latter source, offering a more detailed account, states that the Superintendency asked the imperial court to send a decree to Champa stating that their wares had been purchased on the basis of good prices in China, but that all the Dashi merchants in custody should be released and the merchants should be allowed to go back to their native country. The imperial court agreed with this suggestion and ordered the Institute of Academicians to draft such a decree;(41) moreover, the imperial court agreed to issue a decree “to return ten percent of the tributary articles by Champa” and the remaining goods should be left to this Superintendency for chou-mai based on the quantity and in accordance with relevant regulations.(42) The man who robbed the Dashi merchants was Zou-ya-na 鄒亞娜. He had recently succeeded to the throne of Champa (but his title had not been conferred yet by the Chinese court). Due to the accusation lodged against him by the Dashi merchants for his robbery, the Chinese emperor did not immediately confer a title on him; he had to wait till next time when Champa paid tribute to the Song court.(43) This was a concession made to the Dashi merchants. Another instance of this warlord banditry can be found in Samboja, a kingdom located in the present-day Big Sunda Islands, Indonesia. Zhao Rukuo in his Zhu fan zhi (A Description of All Barbarian Peoples) states that

(40) Ma Linyuan, “Scroll 339, Si-yi kao (Foreign Countries in Four Directions), no. 16: Dashi” in Wenxian tongkao, 9397. (41) Xu Song, “Fan-yi (Foreign Countries), no. 4: Zhancheng (Champa), Para. 82” in Song huiyao, 9819. (42) Chou-mai refers to the practice by which the Chinese administration officially bought 30% to 60% percent of non-monopolized goods from foreign merchants. (43) The original text: “then all the court official said, ‘as the old king of Champa passed away and Zou- ya-na has succeeded the throne, if he pays tribute to the Song court with the conventional rituals, we can discuss his entitlement. Nevertheless, as Dashi persecutes him now, it becomes hard to confer upon him the title’. Then the throne ordered Cheng Youzhi to let the Superintendency to draft a report and interpret the reasons [for not conferring him the title], and that he must wait until the next tribute for his title to be given”. ——See Xu Song, “Fan-yi (Foreign Countries), no. 7: Lidai chaogong (Tributes in All the Reigns), Para. 50” in Song huiyao, 9968. “when any foreign ship passed the kingdom but did not pay a visit [to this kingdom], it would dispatch a fleet to fight, swearing that they should destroy the ship. That is why the kingdom has become a center for travelling vessels”.(44) Samboja capitalized on its strategic location to force foreign merchants to pass through it. In the case of such countries which were outside of China’s sphere of influence, the Song government asked the foreign merchants to use alternative routes.(45) This situation was also applicable to overland routes in proximity to the Chinese interior. In the early eleventh century, the Gansu Corridor was not under the control of the Song. The Song huiyao states:

In November of the first year under Emperor Renzong’s Tainsheng reign [1023], the vice manager of the Palace Eunuch Service, Zhou Wenzhi 周文質, reported [to the throne] that “Shazhou and Dashi- guo had come to pay tribute and have arrived at the customs [office]. Dashi frequently came to pay tribute; they always take the sea route to Guangzhou. This time, they came to the capital through Shazhou prefecture, then through the territory of the [West-]Xia dynasty, and then they arrived in Weizhou. I ask Your Majesty to consider to prohibit their coming through this route; instead, to reaffirm the old system, that is, [the envoys] should not come or return via the western barbarian regions”. The throne agreed.(46)

Both Shazhou and Weizhou were then under the control of the Western Xia dynasty, which was a rival to the Song; in case anything unexpected should

(44) Zhao Rukuo, Zhu fan zhi, 35–36. (45) As the suzerain of many countries in Asia during the Tang and Song dynasties, had China not been powerful enough, it would not have been able to maintain its large-scale tributary system and protect many weaker powers. To realize this role, a first-class national administration was essential. (46) Xu Song, “Fan-yi (Foreign Countries), no. 4: Dashi, Paras. 91–92” in Song huiyao, 9827. The prefectural seat of Shazhou was present-day , Gansu province. Weizhou prefecture was in Shaanxi province.

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happen, the Song emperor agreed to the advice given by his officials to mandate that foreign merchants come to China through a more preferable route. Beyond the banditry of warlords, pirates constituted a persistent threat to foreign merchants. Zhu Yu, in his Pingzhou ketan, recounts the experience of foreign merchants passing through (): “Merchants said that when a ship was not large enough and did not have many people, they dared not go near the country, because the seas has many pirates, who would rob any ship that was not bound for their country, or bound for Champa…they would rob all the goods and tied up the people to sell them to the northerners, and saying, ‘you should not have come here’”.(47) There were pirates throughout the South and Eastern China Seas who actively robbed foreign and Chinese ships found along the coastal cities during the Song dynasty. The term “pirates” referred to in the Song documents were described as hai-zei 海贼 or “sea-thieves”, or hai-kou 海寇 or “sea-bandits”. To cite the statistics by Kuwahara Jitsuzo according to the Revised Quanzhou-fu , during the 140 years or so between the Shaoxing reign and the Xianchun reign (1131–1274), there were eight major incidents involving “sea-bandits” in Fujian province alone, averaging one every seventeen to eighteen years.(48) These were:

In the fifth year of the Shaoxing reign (1135): in the first month of the spring, Zhu Cong 朱聰 invaded Quanzhou; In the sixth year of the Shaoxing reign (1136): in the fourth month of summer, the envoy suppressed the sea-thief Zheng Qing 鄭慶; In the thirteenth year of the Shaoxing reign (1143): there appeared many groups of sea-bandits in the central mountainous regions, where they existed side by side, but Pacification Commissioner Ye Mengde 葉夢得 suppressed all of them;

(47) Zhu Yu “Scroll 2, Para. 68” in Pingzhou ketan, 133. (48) Also called the Qianlong Quanzhou fu zhi (The Qianlong-era-version Quanzhou-fu Gazetteer) revised by Huai Yinbu et al. In the fifteenth year of the Shaoxing reign (1145): the sea-bandit Chen Xiaosan 陳小三 invaded Fuzhou but the Pacification Commissioner Xue Bi 薛弼 suppressed him and captured him alive; In the eighth year of the Qiandao reign (1172): the barbarians of the Pi-she-ye 毘舍耶(49) invaded [Fujian]; In the eleventh year of the Jiading reign (1218): in the fourth month of the summer, the sea-bandits Wang Ziqing 王子清, Zhao Xique 趙希卻, and others invaded Quanzhou and Prefect Zhen Dexiu 真 德秀 dispatched troops and defeated them; In the fifth year of the Shaoding reign (1232): [some] sea-bandits invaded Quanzhou; Zhen Dexiu defeated them but the sea-bandits escaped; In the tenth year of the Xianchun reign (1274): [some] sea-bandits robbed Quanzhou, but the Commissioners of the Maritime Trade Superintendency, Pu Shoucheng 蒲寿晟 and Pu Shougeng 蒲寿庚, repelled them.(50)

These incidences all took place in Fujian; other provinces were not included in the compilation of the statistics. Of course, pirates did not trouble one province alone: Zhu Cong, mentioned above, terrorized several areas. Li Xinchuan described how, in the third month of the fifth year under the Shaoxing reign (May 3, 1135), the imperial court sent a decree to the administrations of -lu and Fujian-lu to call for the capture of the sea-thief Zhu Cong. At the time, the merchant ships were on the verge of arrival, but the sea-routes were becoming hazardous due to rampant piracy. The commissioner of the Guangnan [Guangzhou] Maritime Trade Superintendency, Yao Zhuo 姚焯, asked the imperial court for support to capture the pirate quickly. The imperial

(49) “Pi-she-ye” were a native people from present-day Luzon Island, the . (50) Jitsuzo, Kuwahara, Feng You, trans., The Sino-West Commercial Communication History during the Tang, Song, and Yuan Dynasties, 156–157.

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court responded by ordering the military commanders stationed in Fujian and Guangxi to deal with the matter.(51) Several weeks later, the imperial court also gave a decree to Guangdong:

On the wu-wu day of the fourth month of the fifth year under the Shaoxing reign [May 29, 1135], [the throne] sent a decree to the military commanders of Fujian and Guangdong to organize the people along the sea into she 社 [communes] to capture the sea-bandits. At the time, an auxiliary academician of the Hall for Treasuring Culture, Lian Nanfu 連南夫, when discussing the affairs concerning the sea-bandits, argued that “the county received several million [of currencies] from the maritime trade; now the seasonal wind has come but the ships have not come. It is said that a man would rather enjoy becoming a local lord taking the yellow- umbrella carriage.(52) I am afraid it is not an easy matter for the bandits to accept amnesty.(53)

Here “to accept amnesty” means a rebel’s surrender to the court and acceptance of the throne’s offer for an official position. A contemporary writer, Zhuang Zhuo, stated in his work Jile bian (Collection of Tasteless-but- Wasteful-to-Discard Articles) that “a popular slogan after the Jianyan reign… is, ‘bandits have the shortest-route to bureaucratic promotions; while court officials make wonderful plans for offering amnesties’; and that, ‘amnesty is for killing people and committing arson, after which you may quickly become an important person.’”(54) Offering amnesty to sea-bandits actually became a recurrent phenomenon during the Southern Song dynasty.

(51) Li Xinchuan, “Scroll 87” in Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign, 1445. (52) To take a yellow-umbrella carriage means to take a royal-styled carriage. (53) Li Xinchuan, “Scroll 878” in Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign, 1471. (54) Zhuang Zhuo, Jile bian (Collection of Tasteless-but-Wasteful-to-Discard Articles), 67. III. Imperial Monopolies, Duty-Levies and Prohibitions According to many classical Chinese books, foreign merchants primarily traded in spices and herbal medicines, which were collectively known as xiangliao 香料 or aromatic substances. In exchange, they hoped to sell and purchase any products that could make profits. The quantities and prices were contingent however upon the policies of imperial administrations that typically imposed restrictions and prohibitions on trade. During the early Tang dynasty, a department for managing maritime trade was established in Annan (present-day Vietnam).(55) In the Song dynasty, departmental units called superintendencies were created in some coastal cities, and commissioners were appointed in charge of these superintendencies. A major policy enforced by these superintendencies was the official monopoly on business known as jin-que 禁榷, which was started in the Tang dynasty and was recorded in The History of the Song:

During Emperor Taizong’s era [627–649], the Monopoly Bureau 榷署 was established in the capital. All overseas merchants who traded aromatic herbs and precious goods in Guangzhou, Cochin [Jiaozhou prefecture], and Quanzhou [Zaitun] who failed to [first sell their goods] to official stores, were not allowed to trade privately [afterwards]. The throne gave a decree that since that time, pearls and shells, hawksbills, wrought iron, turtle shells, agates, and frankincense were officially monopolized, while other herbal medicines may be traded [freely] in the market only after the official trade.(56)

(55) It was established in the second year of the Kaiyuan reign (714) in Annan and was moved to Guangzhou in the tenth year. See Li Hu, “The Maritime Trade Superintendencies and their Commissioners”, Historical Studies, no. 3 (1988): 21–37. (56) Tuo Tuo et al., “Scroll 186, Shi huo zhi (Food and Goods), “Hushi bofa” (Laws on Trans-Border Trade and Maritime Trade Superintendencies) in The History of the Song, 4559.

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The official monopoly paid foreign merchants with prices that were often lower than those of the market. This monopoly was sometimes total in character: Xu Song, in his Song huiyao, recounts that in the third month of the second year under the Taiping Xingguo reign (977), the trade of aromatic herbs and rhinoceros ivories could only be conducted through official channels, with private business completely banned.(57) Accordingly, foreign merchants faced reduced profits from their trade. Another policy that was a source of hardship for foreign merchants concerned the payment of duties. The Pingzhou ketan states that when the merchants of foreign ships arrived at a harbor, either the Military Commission, or the Fiscal Commission as well as the Maritime Trade Superintendency would first inspect the goods and then impose “duty- levies” called chou-jie 抽解:

The duty-levy is based on ratio and ten refers to the total amount. Pearls and dragon-brain [borneol] with fine-quality should pay one share [ten percent] of duty; hawksbills and sappan-wood with less-quality should pay three shares. Then such goods could be allowed different prices [private market]; other goods than these were free for merchants [private market]. An ivory that is thirty-

(57) Xu Song, “Shi huo zhi (Food and Goods) no. 36: Que-yi (Monopoly and Trade), Paras. 1–2” in Song huiyao (Drafted Compendium of the Song Dynasty), 6785. The full text says: “In the third month [of the second year under the Taiping Xingguo reign], an assistant minister of the Court Judicial Review, Le Chong 樂沖, who supervised the spicy and medicine market of the Capital and an adjunct of Editorial Service, Bing 陶邴, requested [the throne] to prohibit storing fragrant medicines and rhinoceros ivories by private citizens. The throne then gave a decree, ‘since today, it is prohibited to purchase aromatic substances and rhinoceros ivories from Guangnan, Champa, Samboja, Dashi-guo, Quanzhou, Liangzhe [lu], and other foreign countries. The local medical products from other prefectures and fu are not prohibited. A period should be given to the merchants for selling their goods [left]; if, by the due time, the goods has not been sold yet, the goods should be sold [to the official stores] of the local prefectures andfu . If one who refuses to sell [to the official stores], one must be arrested and be sued for committing a crime according to relevant regulations. All the trade [group] leaders and individual merchant as well, if possessing aromatic substances and rhinoceros ivories, should sell their goods in fifty days and the shops [opened] in markets should sell their goods in one hundred days. If there are such goods yet by the due time, they must be sold to the official stores.’” jin in weight and frankincense, after payment of duties, should be officially purchased as it is categorized as monopolized goods. When a merchant has bigger ivories, he will cut them into smaller pieces with each piece under three jin; this is to prevent them from becoming monopolized goods. Generally, official prices are lower; [sometimes] the government will also add other goods to supplement [the monopolized goods], so merchants were sick of such a policy.(58)

Although the “merchants were sick of such a policy”, they had to obey it because whoever sold goods whose dues had not been paid, no matter how small of a sum involved, their remaining goods would be confiscated as punishment; and the offender could be subject to further disciplinary punishment.(59) Duty-levies fluctuated across different periods and with respect to various goods. There were no fixed policies and governments were capricious. This situation meant that foreign merchants had to predict the overall policy direction and state of the market in China; otherwise, there would be no profits to make. When the official duty-levies was beyond the capacity of a merchant to afford moreover, he risked serious losses. This happened frequently during the latter half of the Southern Song dynasty. In his Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign, Li Xinchuan states that on the jia-zi day of the eleventh month of the seventh year under the Shaoxing reign (November 28, 1137): “[The throne] gave a decree to the three Maritime Trade Superintendencies that from the time onward, foreign merchants should pay [only] ten percent for clove, agalwood, dragon-brain [borneol], and cardamon; they had been required to pay forty percent before. The throne heard that the merchants hated the [heavy] duty, so the percentage was reduced”.(60)

(58) Zhu Yu, “Scroll 2, Para. 66” in Pingzhou ketan, 132. (59) Ibid. (60) Li Xinchuan, “Scroll 156” in Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign, 2544. The three superintendencies were at Quanzhou, Mingzhou () and Hangzhou.

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Toward 1160 (the thirtieth year of the Shaoxing reign), the duty-levy became very high, sometimes even reaching half of the total value of the goods to sell; and all the monopolized goods were categorized as “fine-qualitied” ones in order to impose heavy duties; worse, many officials and notables invested in foreign trade to make profits and half of the imperial storages were used as personal properties.(61) This forced many foreign merchants to leave the Chinese market, resulting in an overall reduction of the Southern Song dynasty’s revenues. Beyond the official monopoly and duty-levies, foreign merchants also had to contend with a policy of prohibition that was imposed on a variety of goods, such as precious metals. During the 970s under the Kaibao reign of the Tang dynasty, precious metals were not prohibited yet. To cite The History of the Song as evidence:

In the fourth year of the Kaibao reign [971], the Maritime Trade Superintendency was established in Guangzhou, then in Hangzhou and Mingzhou; all foreign countries, such as Dashi, Gu-luo, Du- po, Champa, Bo-ni, Ma-yi, and Samboja, traded [in China] with commodities such as gold, silver, min-xian, lead, tin, variegated silks, porcelain, spices and aromatic substances, rhinoceros horns, ivories, corals, amber, pearls, shells, wrought iron, tortoise shells, hawksbill, agates, scallops, crystal, overseas-cloth, wu-man [Ceylon black-wood], sappanwood, and so on.(62)

(61) Li Xinchuan, “Scroll 186” in Yearly events since the Jianyan reign. (The book republished by the Zhonghua shuju in 1956 gives a remark, saying that this scroll is missing; I found the scroll in the Siku quanshu-version.) (62) Tuo Tuo et al., “Scroll 186, Shi huo zhi (Food and Goods), Hushi bofa (Laws on Trans-Border Trade and Maritime Trade Superintendencies)” in The History of the Song, 4558–4559.; The prefectural seat of Mingzhou was present-day Noingbo, province. Gu-luo 古邏 was a kingdom located between present-day Pegu an Rangoon, Burma. Du-po 闍婆 (some argue it is pronounced as “She-po”) is a place considered to be in Java Island, Indonesia. Bo-ni 勃泥, some argue it is in Kalimantan, Indonesia, and some argue it is present-day Brunei. Ma-yi 麻逸 is probably in present-day Mindoro in the Philippines. Min-xian 緡線 was a kind of rope used to connect objects together, especially for threading copper coins in strings. It was only after the capital was moved to the South (the founding of the Southern Song dynasty) that the imperial court prohibited trade in precious metals. The History of the Song states that gold, silver, copper, and iron had been lost in big quantities because overseas ships transported large quantities of them abroad. The loss of copper was especially severe. As currency was also produced from copper, taking currency abroad was prohibited and decrees were repeatedly issued in the first year of the Duanping reign (1234), the fourth year of the Chunping reign (1244), and the tenth year of the Chunyou reign (1250).(63) This proved to be futile: while the relevant laws were strict, countermeasures to evade them were quickly developed. Merchants sought profits, and officials were easily bribed, thus limiting the effectiveness of the laws.(64) Weapons and materials for producing weapons were prohibited from being traded as well. This law was issued in the third year of the Yuanyou reign (1088), as recorded in The History of the Song: when a Chinese merchant went abroad, he should report to his native prefectural administration the names and quantities of the goods with a guarantee by a guarantor; no weapon or materials for producing weapons and other prohibited materials could be transported abroad; the administration should give the merchant a certificate for his goods.(65) While this law did not mention foreign merchants, their business activities were subject to Chinese laws. In all, it is easy to understand the logic behind this prohibition given the tensions that existed between the Southern Song dynasty and its northern rivals. Prohibition was also imposed on the trade in pearls and other luxury items. The History of the Song states that in the third month of the fourth year under the Jianyan reign (May 9, 1180), Zhang Jun 張浚, a pacification commissioner, presented a memorial to Emperor Gaozong that Dashi had

(63) Tuo Tuo et al., “Scroll 180, Shi huo zhi, Lower part, 2, Huo-bi (Currency)” in The History of the Song, 43696–4399. (64) Tuo Tuo et al., “Scroll 186, Shi huo zhi, Hushi bofa” in The History of the Song, 4566. (65) Tuo Tuo et al., “Scroll 186, Shi huo zhi, Hushi bofa” in The History of the Song, 4561.

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dispatched its ambassadors to pay tribute with gems and pearls. The emperor replied that in the Daguan and Xuanhe reigns (1119–1125), was not used for exchange for horses but rather for gems and pearls; thus, the army and military provisions were so poorly equipped whereby the country became weak. Then the throne asked, “Now, you are asking for hundreds of thousands of min-currencies for such useless things, why can we not use the money to equip our army?” As a result, the imperial court instructed that Zhang Jun should not accept such articles but to express gratitude toward the ambassador by bestowing upon them a few gifts.(66) Li Xinchuan writes in the Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign that the imperial court began to refuse luxury items as tributary articles. The first time was in the fourth year of the Jianyan reign (1130) and the second time was the twenty-fifth year of the Shaoxing reign (1155). In the first instance, the goods were from Dashi and the second time, the country of origin was not mentioned, but it is noted that the goods were transported via three Superintendencies in Liang-zhe 兩浙 (Zhejiang and Jiangsu), Fujian, and Guangzhou, and the Sichuan Horse-Trading Office. The luxury items mentioned included pearl, rhinoceros ivory, frankincense, ambergris, coral, gardenia, glass, and other goods not intended for consumption. The imperial court ordered such goods to be prohibited because they were not useful.(67) A modern reader must notice that in these eras, people were not well informed. When the imperial government issued a new regulation, how could a foreign merchant learn of it from thousands of miles away? A mistake in the preparation of goods prior to departure could possibly result in losing business in China. Thus, any change in policies inflicted hardship upon foreign merchants.

(66) Tuo Tuo et al., “Scroll 186, Shi huo zhi, Hushi bofa” in The History of the Song, 4564. (67) Li Xinchuan, “Scroll 22, 621; Scroll 170” in Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign, 2797. IV. Corruption of Officialdom In the Pingzhou ketan, Zhu Yu concluded that the size of the income generated by the three Maritime Trade Superintendencies was connected to the behavior of local officials. If the latter were corrupt, foreign merchants would leave for other ports overseen by less corrupt officials:

Regarding the Guangzhou Maritime Trade Superintendency, in the old days, the military commander or transport commander administrated it; at the beginning, the charge was called envoy of the Maritime Trade Superintendency. The Superintendency in Fujian-lu is at Quanzhou; Mingzhou [Ningbo] and Hangzhou in Liangzhe-lu, as they are along the sea, also have Superintendencies. In the beginning year of the Chongning reign [1102], all the three superintendencies appointed commissioners; and Guangzhou became the most prosperous one among the three. When [local] officials made unlawful profits, merchants would call at a different harbor for their destination. That is why there was always fluctuations of prosperity among [one of the] three Superintendencies.(68)

There are many examples that substantiate Zhu Yu’s observation. During the Tang dynasty, the administrative institution of maritime trade was under the military or transportation department. In the first year of Emperor Gaozong’s Yongchen reign (682), Lu Yuanrui 路元叡 became the commander-in-chief of Guangzhou and was responsible for maritime trade. The New Book of the Tang states: “the former Commander-in-chief Lu Yuanrui, as he brazenly fetched the goods of the merchants, the ship captain was furious and had him killed”.(69) The death of Lu Yuanrui was recorded by in detail:

(68) Zhu Yu, “Scroll 2, Para. 66” in Pingzhou ketan, 132. (69) et al., “Scroll 116, Individual biograph, no. 41: Wang Lin 王琳” in The New Book of the Tang, 4223.

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[Lu] Yuanrui was assassinated by a “Kun-lun [nu] 崑崙奴” [dark- or black-skinned slave].(70) [In fact], Yuanrui was a weakling; his subordinates were reckless and overbearing. When merchants’ ships came, the subordinates would go to profit themselves [at the merchants’ expense]. Then the foreign merchants sued the [corrupt] officials to [Lu] Yuanrui, but Lu took out chains and was about to punish those who brought the complaint. The foreign people became furious, [and] one of them, who was taking a dagger in his sleeve, directly rushed to the office hall and killed Yuanrui and a dozen of people. [At the time,] nobody dared to approach the assassin. [Immediately afterwards,] the foreign merchants fled to their ship and ran away; there was no time to catch up with them.(71)

The story of Yuanrui encapsulates the problem of official corruption faced by foreign merchants. The Old Book of the Tang records that between the eleventh and the seventeenth years of Zhenyuan reign under Emperor Dezong (795–801), Wang E 王锷 was the military commissioner of Lingnan(-dao) as well as the overseer of maritime trade: “when any ship from the southwestern seas came, he would reap the profits [of the foreign merchants]; thus Wang’s wealth was greater than that of the imperial treasury [in this city]”.(72) In a biography about an upright military commissioner named Wei Zhengguan 魏正貫found in The New Book of the Tang, we learn about a group of corrupt officials that he eventually came to replace. The book states that whenever foreign ships came, the military commissioners would confiscate elephant ivories, rhinoceros’ horns, and bright pearls from the ship and sell

(70) Liang Jingwen argues that they were the dark-skinned people scattered in the Malay Archipelago. See “My opinion on the origin of -nu]”, Hai jiao shi yanjiu, no. 2 (2004): 58-62. (71) Sima Guang, “Scroll 203, Tang ji (Record on the Tang), no. 19, Para. 14” in Zi Zhi Tong Jian, 6420. (72) Liu Xun, “Scroll 151, Individual biography, no. 101: Wang E” The Old Book of the Tang, 4060. Lingnan circuit controlled a large portion of the present-day South China. them at lower prices. When Wei Zhengguan took the position, he confiscated nothing, forcing other officials to recognize his uprightness and virtue.(73) Corruption among officials during the Northern Song was no less severe than the Tang. The History of the Song says that in the fifth year under the Xi’ning reign (1072), the Guangzhou Maritime Trade Superintendency had a yearly deficit of 20,000 min-currency. The Market Exchange Office 市易 had interfered with normal trade, and many foreign merchants halted their commerce with China as a result. The imperial court ordered an investigation into the matter. According to the Song huiyao, it turned out that the supervisor of the Market Exchange Office, Lü Miao 呂邈, had entered the Maritime Trade Superintendency and freely embezzled the goods of foreign merchants.(74) Although this official was removed, the extent of the damages tothe international trade could not be repaired in a short time. Another example, as recorded in the Song huiyao, was in the sixth year of Emperor Huizong’s reign (1116); the imperial court decreed that anyone who forcefully buys goods and interferes with tribute to the court should be put into exile for two years.(75) The reason for the issuance of such a decree was due to a major incident from the year before. When envoys from Dashi came to pay tribute, the manager of the Guangzhou Revenue Section, Cai Mengxiu 蔡蒙休 accompanied them to the capital and, during the journey, “forced the envoys to sell their aromatic herbs without bargaining”.(76) This incident illustrates a serious and daring abuse of power that even affected envoys bringing tribute to the imperial court. A writer of the Southern Song, Wang Mingqing, notes in his book Hui zhu lu (Writings after Discussions) that a tea merchant called Zheng Liang 鄭良

(73) “Scroll 158, Individual biograph, no. 83: Wei Gao 魏皋” in The New Book of the Tang, 4937. Wei Zhengguan mentioned in the text was the second son of Wei Gao. (74) Tuo Tuo et al., “Scroll 186, Shi huo zhi (Food and Goods), Hushi bofa (Laws on Trans-Border Trade and Maritime Trade Superintendencies]” in The History of the Song, 4560. (75) Xu Song, “Fan-yi (Foreign Countries), no. 4: Dashi, Paras. 92–93” in Song huiyao, 9828. (76) Ibid.

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was unexpectedly promoted to the position of Guangnan fiscal commissioner during the Xuanhe reign (1119–1125). He heard that a foreign ship captain, Zeng Ne 曾訥, owned an agate basin, in which, when filled with water, one could see two fish swimming inside it. Zheng heard of this and offered money to buy it, but was refused. Zheng then sent troops to surround the house of Zeng Ne. The latter’s brother was drunk at the time and was ignorant of what was happening. Hearing the noise, he took his sword to go to the yard. This became an excuse for Zheng to accuse of him of “defying the order and killing people” and had him executed. Zeng Ne was exiled to Shamen Island. Years later, during the Jiangkan reign (1126–1127), following his release, Zeng Ne went to the capital and asked for a review of his case.(77) The superintendencies were especially rife with corruption during the Southern Song dynasty. Evidence for this can be found even in the accounts of upright officials. The Quanzhou-fu Gazetteer for instance describes Fu Zixiu 傅自修, the commissioner of the Quanzhou Maritime Trade Superintendency during the Shaoxing reign (1131–1162) who had an excellent record. As soon as he left his position in Quanzhou, foreign merchants were reported to have said: “previously, when a commissioner with the white beard was here, we would always transport many goods in our ships; but now that he was not working here and we cannot see him any longer, we are exploited by many [local] officials”.(78) The same source also notes the deeds of another commissioner, Zhao Chongdu 趙崇度 during the Jiading reign (1208–1224). Prior to his appointment, “when foreign ships came [to Quanzhou], the local officials all tried to take advantage of the [foreign] commodities; they did so in the name of ‘he-mai’ [pre-buy], but in reality, they paid nothing. Thus, the foreign ships appeared less and less until the market became short of goods”.(79)

(77) Wang Mingqing, “Scroll 8, Para. 259” in Hui zhu hou lu (Records after Discussions), 144. (78) Huai Yinbu et al., “Scroll 46” in Qianlong Quanzhou fu zhi (vol. 2), 501. (79) Huai Yinbu et al, “Scroll 29” in Qianlong Quanzhou fu zhi (vol. 2), 14. He-mai literally it means “to buy the goods agreeably;” but in fact, it was a kind of purchase forcefully dictated by the government to the people, normally for military purposes. Corruption was not limited to local officials at the level of the superintendencies, but sometimes included high-ranking ones as well. During the Shaoxing reign (1131–1162), the notorious prime minister Qin Hui 秦檜 formed a clique that controlled the Maritime Trade Superintendencies for personal gain. According to the Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign by Li Xinchuan, the clique was made up of three men. The first was Zhao Shipeng 趙士鵬, the son-in-law of one of Qin Hui’s friends, who was made in charge of the Maritime Trade Superintendency of the Liangzhe-lu, in the seventh month of the fifteenth year under the Shaoxing reign] (July 1145).(80) The former prime minister Wang Gui 王圭 commented on Zhao Shipeng as such: “he gave luxury goods to Qin Hui; in fact, he kept half the goods for himself as personal property”.(81) The second man in the clique, Zheng Qiaonian 鄭僑年 who was the commissioner of the Fuzhou Maritime Trade Superintendency, was even worse than Zhao Shipeng. According to Li Xinchuan, when foreign goods arrived in port, half of the duty-levies from foreign goods would go into his private coffers. He was so cruel, arrogant, and greedy, and used the wealth obtained to bribe his superiors; while holding his various offices from Chuzhou to Guizhou-fu, and from the Guangzhou military commandership to the Superintendency in Fuzhou, Zheng Qiaonian bribed many powerful officials with pearls and rhinoceros and elephant ivories, enabling him to reach a high position in Mingzhou.(82) The third was Zhang Zihua 張子華, an illiterate man who was Qin Hui’s boyhood friend. It was for this reason alone that he was appointed as commissioner of Maritime Trade Superintendencies in Fuzhou-lu and then in Guangnan-lu. He was infamous for his rampant corruption, which eventually led to his impeachment because many of his colleagues submitted

(80) is in present-day Jiangsu province. (81) Li Xinchuan, “Scroll 154” in Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign, 2490. (82) Li Xinchuan, “Scroll 170” in Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign, 2782.

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memorials to the imperial court urging such action.(83) Zhang was exiled to Wanan-jun (present-day Wanxian county in Hainan Island) and his properties were confiscated. His case involved many high-ranking officials, including the prime minister, but the imperial court halted further investigation as any corrective action would have required a total reformation of the bureaucratic system: a feat well beyond the capacities of the court at the time.(84) All this did not mean that foreign merchants had no recourse against such incidences of corruption. Li Xinchuan stated that in the sixth month of the tenth year under the Shaoxing reign (July, 1140), the tea and salt supervisor, Cao Gongmai 晁公邁, who was also in charge of the Maritime Trade Superintendency, was sued by a Dashi envoy, Man-ya-li 滿亞裡, for corruption. The imperial court ordered the censor Zhu Shilong 祝師龍 and assistant minister of the Court of Judicial Review Wang Shixin 王師心 to go to Guangzhou to prosecute him.(85) Man-ya-li is described as an envoy to China who held a high position; this perhaps explains why he was able to sue a corrupt commissioner. It is likely that many other foreign merchants would not have dared to take such an action: otherwise, the sources would have made mention of such attempts.

(83) Li Xinchuan, “Scroll 173” in Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign, 2852. (84) Ibid. (85) Li Xinchuan, “Scroll 136” in Yearly Events since the Jianyan Reign, 2189. V. Legal Discrimination Discrimination against foreigners was a well-established feature of Chinese imperial law. One manifestation of this discrimination concerned marriages between foreigners and Chinese. It was natural for foreigners to enter into marriages after settling in China for extended periods of time. However, the relevant laws sought to impede such unions. Jin Mei argued that the Tanglü shuyi (Interpretations of the Laws of the Tang Dynasty) was focused on three issues surrounding the relationship between foreigners and Chinese. First, a Chinese male could not marry a foreigner outside the territorial boundaries of the empire; if he did successfully marry one, he was to be exiled 2,000 li away; and a man who attempted to marry a foreigner but was ultimately unsuccessful would be punished with a sentence that was three-degree less severe than exile. Second, a Chinese envoy dispatched to a foreign country could not marry foreigners there; a foreign envoy in China, regardless of status, could not marry a Chinese female either. Third, a foreigner who came to China and settled there could take a Chinese female as his wife or concubine but he could not bring her back to his native country.(86) The regulations noted by the Tanglü shuyi, and particularly the last issue which is relevant to the conditions of foreign merchants, is substantiated elsewhere. The Tang huiyao for instance observes: “on the sixteenth day of the sixth month of the second year under the Zhenguan reign [July 22, 628], [the throne] ordered that all the fan-ren [barbarian foreigners] who married Chinese women as wives or concubines could not bring the Chinese women back to their native countries”.(87) The Cefu yuangui (The Archival Palace as a Great Tortoise Oracle) states that in the sixth month of the first year under the Kaiyuan reign (836), -fu reported that the Chinese people could

(86) Jin Mei, “Comparisons of the laws concerning trans-national intermarriages in the Tang and Qing dynasties”. Fa xue, no. 7 (2006): 77–83. (87) Wang Tuan et al, “Scroll 100, Zalu (Miscellany)” in Tang huiyao, 1796.

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not communicate, do business with, marry, or contact “uncivilized people” (foreigners); and, using slaves and maid-servants as collateral to borrow money from foreigners should also be strictly punished.(88) The New Book of the Tang provides an account of the strict policies of Lu Jun 盧鈞, a military commissioner who managed maritime trade, concerning the Fan-Han (蕃漢, or “barbarian-Chinese”) marriages:

Foreign barbarians and the Chinese lived as neighbors; they intermarried with one another. They occupied the same places and built up their houses, and when local officials would come to interfere [with such illegal affairs], it would result in chaos because the foreigners and Chinese would make troubles against each other. Then, [Lu] Jun ordered that the foreign barbarians and the Chinese could not enter into marriages, and that nobody could occupy the same cultivated land. The area under his administration then became peaceful and nobody transgressed against order.(89)

Under the Song dynasty, the inherited Tang-era regulations became even more restrictive. For instance, while during the Tang dynasty, foreigners could marry Chinese women, the Song dynasty effectively banned Fan-Han marriages.(90) During the Yuanyou reign (1086–1094), the military commissioner of Fuyan-lu (present-day northern Shaanxi), Fan Chuncui 范純粹, encouraged the imperial court to uphold the older decree banning such marriages:

It was believed that the draft of the article, “a foreigner cannot marry a Han Chinese”, possessed great significance. After the foreigners

(88) Wang Ruoqin, et al., “Scroll 999, Waichen bu (Vassal Countries), no. 44: Hushi (Trans-Border Trade)” in Cefu yuangui, 11563. (89) Song Qi, et al., “Scroll 182, Individual biographies, no. 107: Lu Jun” in The New Book of the Tang, 5367. (90) Zhang Bangwei, “Various characteristics of the marriage system during the Song dynasty”, Shehui kexue yanjiu (Social sciences studies), no. 3 (1989): 80–85. migrated into the inner land [of China] and as time passed, many of them [easily] breached such an article; they had many offspring and the offspring would [also] neglect the prohibition. In the old days, [foreign barbarians had] brought upon China many disasters; the present-day court should consider the future of this country. So, [the throne] should be cautious against small matters like these marriages.(91)

Although Fan Chuncui was concerned about intermarriages along the western frontier of China, such concerns – and the existence of a ban – were also applied to the southeastern coastal regions of the country. Zhu Yu states in his Pingzhou ketan:

During the Yuanyou reign, a man surnamed Liu from the fan- fang [foreigners’ quarter] in Guangzhou married a lady from the imperial-clan. Liu’s official level was finally promoted to Palace Eunuch of the Left Duty Group. When Liu died, as the lady had no son, the clan members [of Liu] came to inherit his properties. They sent someone to beat the drum [outside the administrative hall] to start the legal proceedings.(92) [Until this time], the throne did not know that an imperial-clan lady had married a foreigner. The throne henceforth prohibited such marriage and ordered that within three generations of a foreigner [who lived in China], at least one generation [must have] assumed an official position [in China] before the family could possess the privilege to marry imperial-clan women.(93)

(91) , “Scroll 466, Emperor Zhezong (31): Yuanyou liunian jiuyue xinhai (The Xin-hai Day of the Nineth Month of the Sixth Year under the Yuanyou Reign) in Xu changbian, 11138. (92) To beat the drum in front of the administration hall marked the start of a lawsuit. (93) Zhu Yu, “Scroll 2, Para. 86” in Pingzhou ketan, 138.

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Chinese society had a strong feudalistic tradition that placed value on the position of officials; it seemed that one had to get an official position before one could shed their “barbarian” identity and be allowed to acquire privileges such as marrying the women of the imperial-clan. Beyond restrictions on marriage, imperial law also maintained residential segregation. Whether in the imperial capital, Chang’an, or in the southern coastal city of Guangzhou, the foreign and Chinese places of residence were separated from one another. Chang’an had the “west market” area and Guangzhou had the southern foreign quarter set aside for foreign residents. Li Tao states that in the thirtieth year of the Jingyou reign (1036), “on the xin-hai day of the fourth month, the throne gave a decree that the fan-shang (foreign merchants) are not allowed to possess much property, nor could they reside together with Chinese people”.(94) , a well-known Neo-Confucian scholar of the Song dynasty, relates a case that illustrates this segregationist law. When Fu Zide, also known as Lord Fu, was in charge of the Fuzhou administration, a foreign merchant sought to build a “tall building” (mosque) in front of the Confucian Temple in Quanzhou, a move heavily opposed by the gentry and literati scholars. However, the merchant bribed many officials, leading to the dismissal of these popular complaints. When this case was presented to Lord Fu, he found an excuse to settle it immediately: the merchant was identified as a foreigner who belonged to an “uncivilized people [who] are not permitted to live downtown”.(95)

(94) Li Tao, “Scroll 118, Emperor Renzong (1): [Jingyou san nian] xia siyue xinhai (The Xin-hai Fay of the Fourth Month of the Third Year under the Jingyou Reign)” in Xu Zizhi Tongjian changbian, 11138. (95) Zhu Xi, “Scroll 98, Introduction to Lord Fu, the Grand Master for Court Service and Supervisor of the Directly Attached Secret Archive and Director of the Protection Temple in Wuyi Mountain” in Complete Book of Zhu Xi, vol. 25, 4543. Conclusion This study examined the various hardships faced by foreign merchants who were engaged in trade between the Arabian Gulf and Chinese coastal cities during the Tang and Song dynasties. The first hardships they encountered were those at sea: they subjected themselves to draconian discipline, inadequate conditions, monotonous life rhythms and were at risk of facing disaster and consequently death at any given moment. Other hardships came from the banditry of warlords – carried out by various countries along the maritime routes such as Champa and Samboja – and the relentless attacks of pirates, leading to a possible loss of cargo or even lives in the journey to China. Upon arriving to their destinations, foreign merchants had to deal with other types of hardships. These included both normal and abnormal regulations that were related to existing official monopolies, levy-duties and prohibitions on goods, all of which affected the trade volume and profit returns of foreign merchants. The corruption of officialdom, widespread during the Tang and Song dynasties, was yet another problem they had to contend with. With limited options for redress against such abuses, foreign merchants often sought to re-direct their trade to other ports controlled by less-corrupt officials. A final source of hardship came from imperial laws which imposed restrictions on marriage and place of residence. The material used in this study were primarily classical Chinese documents and some material from the foreign travel literature.

43 44 Dirasat No. 57 Dhul Qa'dah, 1441 - July 2020

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About the Author

Dr. WAN Lei obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Malaya. He joined the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) as a Senior Research Fellow since January 2017. His areas of expertise are historical and anthropological studies concerning the Hui Muslim minority and Islam in China and the history of Chinese–Arab relations. He is also currently working on a project involving the Chinese to English translation of historical texts related to Sino–Arab communications. Prior to joining the KFCRIS, he was a lecturer, associate professor, and professor in higher education institutions in Malaysia, Turkey, and China; and he still holds a position as professor in Xinyang Agriculture and Forestry University in , China today. He has published more than 30 articles in Chinese and English related to Chinese Muslim studies and also published the book, Identity and Struggles: The Hui Minority in Modern China, at Istanbul in 2012, which was subsequently listed into the Oxford Bibliographical Entry. His recent works with KFCRIS include: “The Chinese Islamic National Salvation Association and the Hui Minority: 1937–1948” (no. 45, 2019); “Two Scholars and the Hui Protest Movement in China in 1932: The Attitudes of Hu Shih and toward the Hui Minority and Islam” (no. 11, 2017); “The Earliest Muslim Communities in China” (no. 7, 2017); “The First Chinese Travel Record on the Arab world” (no. 3, 2017); and “The Etymology and Evolution of the Term Huizu: A Discussion on the Formal Title of a Chinese Muslim People” (no. 3, 2016).

King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS)

The KFCRIS is an independent non-governmental institution based in Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Center was founded in 1403/1983 by the King Faisal Foundation (KFF) to preserve the legacy of the late King Faisal and to continue his mission of transmitting knowledge between the Kingdom and the world. The Center serves as a platform for research and Islamic Studies, bringing together researchers and research institutions from the Kingdom and across the world through conferences, workshops, and lectures, and through the production and publication of scholarly works, as well as the preservation of Islamic manuscripts. The Center’s Research Department is home to a group of established and promising researchers who endeavor to produce in-depth analyses in various fields, ranging from Security Studies, Political Economy, African Studies and Asian Studies. The Center also hosts the Library which preserves invaluable Islamic manuscripts, the Al-Faisal Museum for Arab Islamic Art, the Al-Faisal Institute for Human Resources Development, the Darat Al-Faisal, and the Al-Faisal Cultural Press, which issues the Al-Faisal magazine and other key intellectual periodicals. For more information, please visit the Center’s website: www.kfcris.com/en

P.O.Box 51049 Riyadh 11543 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Tel: (+966 11) 4652255 Ext: 6892 Fax: (+966 11) 4659993 E-mail: [email protected]