The ''Yiwu Zhi'' or ''Record of Foreign Matters'', also known as the ''Jiaozhou Yiwu Zhi'' (交州异物志), ''Nanyi Yiwu Zhi'' (南裔异物志), ''Jiaozhi Yiwu Zhi'' (交趾异物志) and ''Yangyilang Zhushu'' (杨议郎著书) amongst others, is a treatise written by

Eastern Han The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

court advisor Yáng Fú (杨孚) covering the people, geography, fauna, rice cultivation, fruit, trees, grass, bamboo, insects and fish of the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

region. It is the first written Chinese account of the

Lingnan Lingnan (; Vietnamese: Lĩnh Nam) is a geographic area referring to the lands in the south of the Nanling Mountains. The region covers the modern Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as modern northe ...

area's produce, production methods and aboriginal customs and uses a detailed methodology that would be adopted as standard by later works of this genre including the ''

Nanfang Caomu Zhuang The (c. 304 CE) ''Nanfang caomu zhuang'' (南方草木狀 ''Plants of the Southern Regions''), attributed to the Western Jin dynasty scholar and botanist Ji Han (嵇含, 263-307), is a Flora describing the plants of Nanyue and Jiaozhi, pres ...

'', ''Linhai Shuishang Yiwu Zhi'' (临海水上异物志), ''Nanzhou Yiwu Zhi'' (南州异物志), ''

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

Yiwu Zhi'' (凉州异物志), ''Bashu Yiwu Zhi'' (巴蜀异物志), ''Funan Yiwu Zhi'' (扶南异物志), ''Lingnan Yiwu Zhi'' (岭南异物志), ''Nanzhong Bajun Yiwu Zhi'' (南中八郡异物志), ''Guangzhou Yiwu Zhi'' (广州异物志), and ''Lingbiao Luyi'' (岭表录异).

* Human geography: Land of the Tattooed Forehead People (''Diaoti Guo'' 雕题国), Territory of the Wolf (''Lang Guo'' 狼国), ''Xitu Guo'' (西屠国),

Rau peoples Rau, Laoz ( Zhuang: ), Liao ( Chinese: 僚人) or Lao peoples ( lo, ລາວລຸ່ມ),However, whether Lao belongs to the Lao group or Tày group is disputed. is an ethnic cluster covering Zhuang, Buyei, Tay– Nùng and other Northern Tai l ...

''Wuhu'' (乌浒), Yellow Haired People (''Huang tou Ren'' 黄头人),

Kingdom of Funan Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...

, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province ''Jinlin'' (金邻) ''Sidiao Guo'' (斯调国). * Animals and birds:

Hepu Hepu (), alternately romanized as Hoppo, Hopu or Hop'u, is a county under the administration of Beihai City in southeastern Guangxi, China. It borders Lianjiang (Guangdong) to the southeast, Bobai County to the northeast, the Gulf of Tonkin to th ...

cattle, gorilla, elephant, rhinoceros,

macaque The macaques () constitute a genus (''Macaca'') of gregarious Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques inhabit ranges throughout Asia, North Africa, and (in one instance) Gibraltar. Macaques are principally ...

, peacock. * Fish and insects: mussel, cowrie, water snake, hawksbill turtle, whale, jellyfish. * Fruit: Japanese banana,

betel The betel (''Piper betle'') is a vine of the family Piperaceae, which includes pepper and kava. The betel plant is native to Southeast Asia. It is an evergreen, dioecious perennial, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins. Betel plan ...

, coconut, olive,

bayberry ''Myrica'' is a genus of about 35–50 species of small trees and shrubs in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. The genus has a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, and missing only from Aust ...

, sugar cane, sweet potato. * Plants:

banyan A banyan, also spelled "banian", is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adventitious prop roots, allowing the tree to spread outwards indefinitely. This distinguishes banyans from other trees with a strangler habit that begin life as a ...

, cotton, laurel, cardamom,

giant hyssop ''Agastache'' () is a genus of aromatic flowering herbaceous perennial plants in the family Lamiaceae. It contains 22 species, mainly native to North America, one species native to eastern Asia. The common names of the species are a variety ...

, ginger-lily *Precious stones: Kunlun jade,

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

Versions

The ''

Book of Sui The ''Book of Sui'' (''Suí Shū'') is the official history of the Sui dynasty. It ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written by Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda, and Zhangsun Wuji, with Wei Zheng as the lead author. ...

'' and the ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

'' both cite from the ''Yiwu Zhi'' but from the time of the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

(960-1279) the book became lost, although scattered references to it remain in works such as '' Beitang Shuchao'' (北堂书抄), ''

Imperial Reader of the Taiping Era The ''Taiping Yulan'', translated as the ''Imperial Reader'' or ''Readings of the Taiping Era'', is a massive Chinese ''leishu'' encyclopedia compiled by a team of scholars from 977 to 983. It was commissioned by the imperial court of the Song ...

'', ''

Extensive Records of the Taiping Era The ''Taiping Guangji'' (), sometimes translated as the ''Extensive Records of the Taiping Era'', or ''Extensive Records of the Taiping Xinguo Period'', is a collection of stories compiled in the early Song dynasty. The work was completed in 978 ...

'', ''Yiwen Julei'' (艺文聚类), ''

Commentary on the Water Classic The ''Commentary on the Water Classic'' (), or ''Commentaries on the Water Classic'', commonly known as ''Shui Jing Zhu'', is a work on the Chinese geography in ancient times, describing the traditional understanding of its waterways and ancie ...

'', '' Qi Min Yao Shu'', '' Guangyun'', ''

Taiping Huanyu Ji The ''Taiping Huanyu Ji'' (), or "Universal Geography of the Taiping Era 76-983" is a 10th-century AD geographical treatise by Chinese scholar Yue Shi 樂史 (930-1007), written during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song in the Northern Song Dy ...

'', ''Hailu Suishi'' (海录碎事), ''

Compendium of Materia Medica The ''Bencao gangmu'', known in English as the ''Compendium of Materia Medica'' or ''Great Pharmacopoeia'', is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine, natural history, and Chinese herbology compiled and edited by Li Shizhen and published in the ...

'', ''Guang ''Qunfang Pu'' (广群芳谱)'', Guangdong Xinyu'' (广东新语), and ''Guangzhong Tongzhi'' (广东通志) amongst others. In the first year of the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

Daoguang Emperor The Daoguang Emperor (; 16 September 1782 – 26 February 1850), also known by his temple name Emperor Xuanxong of Qing, born Mianning, was the seventh Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the sixth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning ...

(1821),

Zeng Zhao Zeng (, ) is a Chinese family name. In Cantonese, it is Tsang; In Wade-Giles, such as those in Taiwan, Tseng or Tzeng; in Malaysia and Singapore, Chen or Cheng; in the Philippines, Chan; in Indonesia, Tjan; in Vietnam, Tăng. The surname Zeng is ...

(曾钊) produced a version of ''Yangyilang Zhushu'' (杨议郎著书) from ancient textual sources then in 1849 the ''Yiwu Zhi''.
In March 1947, The

Commercial Press The Commercial Press () is the first modern publishing organisation in China. History In 1897, 26-year-old Xia Ruifang and three of his friends (including the Bao brothers Bao Xian'en and Bao Xianchang) founded The Commercial Press in Shang ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

published a compendium of works based on the ''Yiwu Zhi'' followed in 1991 by the Guangdong Publishing Group (广东省出版集团) issuing the ''Lingnan Cultural Archive'' (岭南文库), which included Wu Yongzhang's (吴永章) work ''Yiwu Zhi Jiyi Jiaozhu'' (异物志辑佚校注).

Notes

References

{{Reflist Han dynasty texts Han dynasty literature

Contents

Versions

See also

Notes

References