Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Guangzhou to Palembang

Probable Scholars say

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.

The monk Yijing wrote down his own voyage from Guangzhou to Palembang on his way to study in India.

The Chinese monk Yijing sailed from the port of Guangzhou to Palembang, on his way to study in India. He wrote down his own voyage, stop by stop. [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 27]

For scholars

Only one source was read here. So the tier stops at Probable. This rests on a retelling of an old 1894 translation, not an independent primary reading. No cargo is named. This was a monk’s pilgrimage trip. The sea lane shown is schematic. [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 27]

Facts

Mode
Maritime (open sea)
From
Guangzhou (Canton)
To
Palembang (Fo-che)

Ports on this route

  • Palembang (Fo-che)

    Palembang was the great capital of the Srivijaya sea kingdom in Sumatra. A Chinese monk sailed there on his way to and from India, thirteen hundred years ago.

    [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 (Yijing 'left the Guang-Zhou region ... visited Fo-che, Mo-lo-yu and Sumatra ... proceeded northwest to Kie-tcha ... reached the Nicobar Islands ... Tamralipti.' Returning, 'landing again at Kie-tcha and Fo-che.' Citing Chavannes's 1894 translation.)

  • Guangzhou (Canton)

    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.

    [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 ... While returning to China, he took the same route.' Citing Chavannes's 1894 translation of Yijing.)
Scholar notes

Only one source was read, so the tier stops at Probable; this rests on Dayalan's paraphrase of Chavannes's 1894 French translation of Yijing, not an independent reading of a primary translation such as Takakusu 1896. No cargo is named - this was a monk's pilgrimage voyage. The sea lane is schematic.

  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.)