Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Guangzhou (Canton)

Probable Scholars say

Guangzhou is a great port city in south China. A Chinese Buddhist monk sailed from here all the way to India, more than a thousand years ago.

Guangzhou is a great port city in south China. More than a thousand years ago, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Yijing sailed from here. He was on his way to India by sea, and old records say he passed Fo-che, Mo-lo-yu and Sumatra along the way. He took the same route home again. [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 27]

For scholars

Only a single passing mention was read here. It names Guangzhou as Yijing’s starting point, not a description of the port itself. So this entry rests on very thin evidence, and the tier stops at Probable. No source here gives a coordinate. The position given is the modern city of Guangzhou, read from a map. Guangzhou stands for the Chinese end of the sea route to India used by Buddhist pilgrims. [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 27]

Facts

Coordinates
23.13°, 113.26°
[Natural Earth, 1, n.d.]
  1. *Natural Earth, 1:50m Physical and Cultural Vectors*. n.d. public domain
Modern name
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Also known as
Canton, Guang-Zhou (Yijing's transliteration)
Region
east-asia

Routes through Guangzhou (Canton)

  • Guangzhou to Palembang

    The Chinese monk Yijing sailed from the port of Guangzhou to Palembang on his way to study in India. He wrote down his own journey, stop by stop.

    [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 27]
    1. Duraiswamy Dayalan. *Ancient Seaports on the Eastern Coast of India: The Hub of the Maritime Silk Route Network*. in Acta Via Serica 4. 2019 , offprint p. 27 ('Yi-Jing, who took the maritime route to India, left the Guang-Zhou region in China and visited Fo-che, Mo-lo-yu and Sumatra ...' Dayalan cites Chavannes's 1894 translation of Yijing's account.)
Scholar notes

Only a single passing mention was read (Yijing's departure point), not a description of the port itself, so this entry rests on very thin evidence and the tier stops at Probable. No coordinate is given in the source; position is the modern city of Guangzhou, read from a map. Included as the Chinese end of the Bay of Bengal / Indian Ocean pilgrim route documented for Tamralipti and other ports in this atlas.

  1. Duraiswamy Dayalan. *Ancient Seaports on the Eastern Coast of India: The Hub of the Maritime Silk Route Network*. in Acta Via Serica 4. 2019 , offprint p. 27 ('Yi-Jing, who took the maritime route to India, left the Guang-Zhou region in China and visited Fo-che, Mo-lo-yu and Sumatra ... While returning to China, he took the same route.' Citing Chavannes's 1894 translation of Yijing.)