''Daoyi Zhilüe'' () or ''Daoyi Zhi'' () which may be translated as ''A Brief Account of Island Barbarians'' or other similar titles, is a book written c. 1339 (completed c. 1349) by
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongols, Mongol-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Division of the M ...
Chinese traveller
Wang Dayuan recounting his travels to over a hundred places in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. The book was written in present-day
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. It described the weather, products, people, and customs of the places that Wang Dayuan visited.
The timeline for Wang Dayuan's life and travels is:
*1311 - born
*1330 - sailed for the first time from Quanzhou
*1334 - returned to Yuan Dynasty
*1337 - sailed for the second time from Quanzhou
*1339 - returned to Yuan Dynasty
Content of the book (known as ''Dao Yi Zhu'') was originally an appendix in a local gazetteer ''Qing Yuan Xu Zhi'' ( 清源续志, ''A Continuation of the History and Topography of Quanzhou)'' composed by Wu Jian in 1349. According to the Yuan poet
Zhang Zhu, ''Daoyi Zhilüe'' was re-published in 1350 as an individual travel account.
Andaya and Andaya write that Dao Yi Zhi Lue provides more information on areas east of the Malay Peninsula than any other Yuan dynasty source. According to the postscript Wang Dayuan visited all the places described. However, Park notes that 90% of the text is devoted to Southeast Asia and that Wang does not give details of his route and itinerary to West Asia. However, Deng states that Wang Dayuan's account is consistent with later Ming Dynasty accounts of Zheng He's travels. There is currently no full English translation of the book but the Chinese version is available online. Partial translations however are available.
See also
*
Zhu fan zhi
*
Chinese exploration
References
Bibliography
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1330 - Singapore's Early Settlements & Trade- a short documentary about how Singapore was depicted in Wang Dayuan's ''Daoyi Zhilue'', produced for the Singapore Bicentennial in 2019.
Chinese non-fiction books
1330s books
History books about Sri Lanka
Books about Sri Lankan natural history
Books about Sri Lankan exploration
Primary sources for early Philippine history
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