Zhenla

THE COUNTRY OF Zhenla, also called Zhanla, calls itself Ganbozhi [Cambodia].

The present sacred dynasty follows the Buddhist scriptures of the Tibetans and gives it the name of Ganpuzhi, which sounds almost the same as Ganbozhi.¹

If you set sail from Wenzhou and go south-southwest by the compass past Min, Guang, and the various overseas ports, then cross the Seven Islands Sea and the Jiaozhi Sea, you come to Champa.

With the wind behind you, you will then get from Champa to Zhenpu on the frontier of Cambodia in about fifteen days.²

From Zhenpu you carry on west-southwest by the compass, cross the Kunlun Sea, and enter a river estuary.

There are dozens of estuaries but you can only go into the fourth one, as the rest are all so silted up that very large boats cannot get through.

As it is, there are tall bamboos, old trees, yellow sand, and white reeds as far as the eye can see. As you move swiftly along it is not easy to make out where you are, and the sailors reckon it is a hard thing to find the right estuary.³

From the mouth of the estuary you sail north, and with a favorable current you reach a place called Zhanan, a prefecture of Cambodia, in about fifteen days.

For the trip from Zhanan you change on to a small boat. With a favorable current it takes ten days or so to go past Halfway Village and Buddha Village, cross the Freshwater Sea [Tonle Sap Lake], and reach a place called Ganpang, fifty li [roughly 17 miles or 25 kilometers] from the capital city.⁴

According to the Treatise on the Various Foreigners, Cambodia is 7,000 li in breadth.

Going north from the capital, it is fifteen days by road to Champa, and to the southwest it is fifteen days’ journey to Siam.

In the south it is ten days’ journey to Fanyu, and to the east there is the ocean.⁵

It has long been a trading country.

The great Mandate of Heaven that the sacred dynasty has received includes everywhere within the four seas.

Marshal Sodu set up a province in Champa, and sent out a general and a senior commander, who went there together.

In the end they were seized and did not return.⁶

In the sixth month of the year youwei in the Yuanzhen reign period (1295), the sacred Son of Heaven dispatched an envoy with an imperial edict, and ordered me to accompany him.⁷

In the second month of the following year, the year bingshen in the Yuanzhen reign period (1296), we left Mingzhou, and on the twentieth day of that month we set sail from the harbor at Wenzhou.

On the fifteenth day of the third month we reached Champa, having been set back by adverse winds mid-journey.

We arrived in Cambodia in the autumn, at the beginning of the seventh month.

We duly secured the submission of local officials.

In the sixth month of the year dingyou in the Dade reign period (1297) we turned our boat around, and by the twelfth day of the eighth month we were back at Mingzhou, anchored off the coast.

Although I could not get to know the land, customs, and affairs of state of Cambodia in every particular, I could see enough to get a general sense of them.⁸