Part 105 (1/2)
The earliest emba.s.sy from Ceylon recorded in the Chinese[1] annals at the beginning of the fifth century, appears to have proceeded overland by way of India, and was ten years before reaching the capital of China.
It was the bearer of ”a jade-stone image of Buddha, exhibiting every colour in purity and richness, in workmans.h.i.+p unique, and appearing to be beyond human art[2].”
[Footnote 1: A.D. 405. Gibbon alludes with natural surprise to his discovery of the fact, that prior to the reign of Justinian, the ”monarch of China had actually received an emba.s.sy from the Island of Ceylon.”--_Decline and Fall_, c. xl.]
[Footnote 2: _Leang-shoo,_ A.D. 630, b. liv. p. 13. The ultimate fate of this renowned work of art is related in the _Leang-shoo,_ and several other of the Chinese chronicles. Throughout the
Tsin and Sung dynasties it was preserved in the Wa-kwan monastery at Nankin, along with five other statues and three paintings which were esteemed chefs-d'oeuvre. The jade-stone image was at length destroyed in the time of Tung-hwan, of the Tse dynasty; first, the arm was broken off, and eventually the body taken to make hair-pins and armlets for the emperor's favourite consort Pwan. _Nan-she,_ b. lxxviii. p. 13.
_Tung-teen,_ b. cxciii. p. 8. _Tae-ping,_ &c., b. dcclx.x.xvii. p. 6.]
During the same century there were four other emba.s.sies from Ceylon. One A.D. 428, when the King Cha-cha Mo-ho-nan (Raja Maha Naama) sent an address to the emperor, which will be found in the history of the Northern Sung dynasty[1], together with a ”model of the shrine of the tooth,” as a token of fidelity;--two in A.D. 430 and A.D. 435; and a fourth A.D. 456, when five priests, of whom one was Nante, the celebrated sculptor, brought as a gift to the emperor a ”three-fold image of Buddha.”[2]
[Footnote 1: _Sung-shoo,_ A.D. 487, b. xcvii. p. 5.]
[Footnote 2: Probably one in each of the three orthodox att.i.tudes,--sitting in meditation, standing to preach, and reposing in ”nirwana.” _Wei-shoo,_ ”History of the Wei Tartar Dynasty,” A.D. 590, b.
cxiv. p. 9.]
According to the Chinese annalists, the kings of Ceylon, in the sixth century, acknowledged themselves va.s.sals of the Emperor of China, and in the year 515, on the occasion of k.u.mara Das raising the chatta, an envoy was despatched with tribute to China, together with an address, announcing the royal accession, in which the king intimates that he ”had been desirous to go in person, but was deterred by fear of winds and waves.”[1]
[Footnote 1: _Leang-shoo,_ b. liv. p. 10. _Y[(u]h-hae,_ ”Ocean of Gems,”
A.D. 1331, b. clii. p. 33. The latter authority announces in like terms two other emba.s.sies with tribute to China, one in A.D. 523, and another in the reign of Kirti Sena, A.D. 527. The _Tsih-foo yuen-kwei_ mentions a similar mission in A.D. 531, b. dcccclxviii. p. 20.]
But although all these emba.s.sies are recorded in the Chinese chronicles as so many instances of acknowledged subjection, there is every reason to believe that the magniloquent terms in which they are described are by no means to be taken in a literal sense, and that the offerings enumerated were merely in recognition of the privilege of commercial intercourse subsisting between the two nations: but as the Chinese _literati_ affect a lofty contempt for commerce, all allusion to trade is omitted; and beyond an incidental remark in some works of secondary importance, the literature of China observes a dignified silence on the subject.
Only one emba.s.sy is mentioned in the seventh century, when Dalu-piatissa despatched ”a memorial and offerings of native productions;”[1] but there were four in the century following[2], after which there occurs an interval of above five hundred years, during which the Chinese writers are singularly silent regarding Ceylon; but the Singhalese historians incidentally mention that swords and musical instruments were then imported from China, for the use of the native forces, and that Chinese soldiers took service in the army of Prakrama III. A.D. 1266.[3]
[Footnote 1: A.D. 670. _Ts[)i]h-foo yuen-kwei_, b. dcccclxx. p. 16. It was in the early part of this century, during a period of intestine commotion, when the native princes were overawed by the Malabars, that _Hiouen-Thsang_ met on the coast of India fugitives from Ceylon, from whom he derived his information as to the internal condition of the island, A.D. 629--633. See Transl. by STANISLAS JULIEN, ”_La Vie de Hiouen-Thsang_,” Paris, 1853, pp. 192--198.]
[Footnote 2: A.D. 711, A.D. 746, A.D. 750, and A.D. 762. _Ts[)i]h-foo yuen-kwei,_ b. dcccclxxi. p. 17. On the second occasion (A.D. 746) the king, who despatched the emba.s.sy, is described as sending as his envoy a ”Brahman priest, the anointed graduate of the threefold repository, bearing as offerings head-ornaments of gold, precious neck-pendants, a copy of the great Prajna Sutra, and forty webs of fine cotton cloth.”]
[Footnote 3: See the _Kawia-sakara_, written about A.D. 1410.]
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the only records of intercourse relate to the occasional despatch of public officers by the emperor of China to collect gems and medical drugs, and on three successive occasions during the earlier part of the Yuen dynasty, envoys were empowered to negotiate the purchase of the sacred alms-dish of Buddha.[1]
[Footnote 1: ”In front of the image of Buddha there is a sacred bowl which is neither made of jade, nor copper, nor iron; it is of a purple colour and glossy, and when struck it sounds like gla.s.s. At the commencement of the Yuen dynasty, three separate envoys were sent to obtain it.”--_Taou-e che-leo_ ”Account of Island Foreigners,” A.D. 1350, quoted in the ”_Foreign Geography_”, b. xviii. p. 15. This statement of the Chinese authorities corroborates the story told by MARCO POLO, possibly from personal knowledge, that ”the Grand Khan Kublai sent amba.s.sadors to Ceylon with a request that the king would yield to him possession of 'the great ruby' in return for the 'value of a city.'”--(_Travels,_ ch. xix.) The MS. of MARCO POLO, which contains the Latin version of his Travels, is deposited in the Imperial Library of Paris, and it is remarkable that a pa.s.sage in it, which seems to be wanting in the Italian and other MSS., confirms this account of the Chinese annalists, and states that the alms-dish of Buddha was at length yielded by the King of Ceylon as a gift to Kublai Khan, and carried with signal honour to China. MARCO POLO describes the scene as something within his own knowledge:--”Quando autem magnus Kaan scivit quod isti ambaxiatores redibant c.u.m reliquis istis, et erant prope terram ubi ipse tune erat, scilicet in Cambalu (Pekin), fecit mitti bandum quod omnes de terra obviarent reliquis istis (quia credebat quod essent reliquiae de Adam) et istud fuit A.D. 1284.”]
The beginning of the fifteenth century was, however, signalised by an occurrence, the details of which throw light over the internal condition of the island, at a period regarding which the native historians are more than usually obscure. At this time the glory of Buddhism had declined, and the political ascendency of the Tamils had enabled the Brahmans to taint the national wors.h.i.+p by an infusion of Hindu observances. The _Se-yih-ke foo-choo,_ or ”Description of Western Countries,” says that in 1405 A.D. the reigning king, A-lee-koo-nae-wurh (Wijaya-bahu VI.), a native of Sollee, and ”an adherent of the heterodox faith, so far from honouring Buddha, tyrannised over his followers.”[1]
He maltreated strangers resorting to the island, and plundered their vessels, ”so that the envoys from other lands, in pa.s.sing to and fro, were much annoyed by him.”[2]
[Footnote 1: B. xviii. p. 15.]
[Footnote 2: _Ming-she_, b. cccxxvi, p. 7.]
In that year a mission from China, sent with incense and offerings to the shrine of the tooth, was insulted and waylaid, and with difficulty effected an escape from Ceylon.[1] According to the _Ming-she_, or History of the Ming Dynasty, ”the Emperor _Ching-tsoo_, indignant at this outrage on his people; and apprehensive lest the influence of China in other countries besides Ceylon had declined during the reign of his predecessors, sent _Ching-Ho_, a soldier of distinction, with a fleet of sixty-two s.h.i.+ps and a large military escort, on an expedition to visit the western kingdoms, furnished with proper credentials and rich presents of silk and gold. Ching-Ho touched at Cochin-China, Sumatra, Java, Cambodia, Siam, and other places, proclaiming at each the Imperial edict, and conferring Imperial gifts.” If any of the princes refused submission, they were subdued by force; and the expedition returned to China in A.D. 1407, accompanied by envoys from the several nations, who came to pay court to the Emperor.
[Footnote 1: _Se-y[)i]h-ke foo-choo_, b. xviii. p. 15. This Chinese invasion of Ceylon has been already adverted to in the sketch of the domestic history of the island, Vol. I. Part IV. ch xii. p. 417.]
In the following year Ching-Ho, having been despatched on a similar mission to Ceylon, the king, A-lee-ko-nae-wah, decoyed his party into the interior, threw up stockades with a view to their capture, in the hope of a ransom, and ordered soldiers to the coast to plunder the Chinese junks. But Ching-Ho, by a dexterous movement, avoided the attack, and invested the capital[1], made a prisoner of the king, succeeded in conveying him on board his fleet, and carried him captive to China, together with his queen, his children, his officers of state, and his attendants. He brought away with him spoils, which were long afterwards exhibited in the Tsing-hae monastery at Nankin[2], and one of the commentaries on the _Si-yu-ke_ of Hiouen Thseng, states that amongst the articles carried away, was the sacred tooth of Buddha.[3] ”In the sixth month of the year 1411,” says the author of the _Ming-She_, ”the prisoners were presented at court. The Chinese ministers pressed for their execution, but the emperor, in pity for their ignorance, set them at liberty, but commanded them to select a virtuous man from the same family to occupy the throne. All the captives declared in favour of Seay-pa-nae-na, whereupon an envoy was sent with a seal to invest him with the royal dignity, as a va.s.sal of the empire,” and in that capacity he was restored to Ceylon, the former king being at the same time sent back to the island.[4] It would be difficult to identify the names in this story with the kings of the period, were it not stated in another chronicle, the _Woo-he[)o]-peen_, or Record of the Ming Dynasty, that Seay-pa-nae-na was afterwards named _Pu-la-ko-ma Ba-zae La-cha_, in which it is not difficult to recognise ”Sri Prakrama Bahu Raja,” the sixth of his name, who transferred the seat of government from Gampola to Cotta, and reigned from A.D. 1410 to 1462.[5]