Sanfotsi (), also written as Sanfoqi, was a trading polity in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

mentioned in Chinese sources dated from 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 res ...

circa 12th century. In 1918,

George Cœdès George Cœdès (; 10 August 1886 – 2 October 1969) was a 20th-century French scholar of southeast Asian archaeology and history. Biography Cœdès was born in Paris to a family of supposed Hungarian-Jewish émigrés. In fact, the family was ...

concluded that Chinese forms of ''San-fo-ts'i'' (Sanfoqi), ''Fo-ts'i'' (Foqi), ''Fo-che'' (Foshi), ''Che-li-fo-che'' (Shilifoshi), which correspond to Arabic ''Sribuza'' and can be reconstructed as ''Śribhoja'', are names referring to the

Srivijaya Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th ...

empire, located in

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

South Sumatra South Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Selatan) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southeast of the island of Sumatra, The province spans and had a population of 8,467,432 at the 2020 Census. The capital of the province is Palembang. The prov ...

, in present-day

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. Others argued that Sanfotsi is more likely a transliteration of ''

Suvarnabhumi ( sa, सुवर्णभूमि; Pali: '); my, သုဝဏ္ဏဘူမိ, ; km, សុវណ្ណភូមិ, ''Sovannaphoum''; and th, สุวรรณภูมิ, . is a toponym, that appears in many ancient Indian literary s ...

'', which may refer to Suvarnadvipa or

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

. According to Chinese sources, Sanfotsi was an empire that controlled many territories in the strait of Malacca, eastern Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. It was purportedly a large

thalassocracy A thalassocracy or thalattocracy sometimes also maritime empire, is a state with primarily maritime realms, an empire at sea, or a seaborne empire. Traditional thalassocracies seldom dominate interiors, even in their home territories. Examples ...

ruled by a high-king exercising sovereignty over several states that were dependencies of Sanfotsi. Although some considered Sanfotsi to refer to Palembang proper, recent scholars say its territorial extent was more vast.

Accounts

Sanfotsi as a state is recorded in many accounts, the majority of which are from Chinese sources such as the Chinese annals

Chu-fan-chi ''Zhu Fan Zhi'' (), variously translated as '' A Description of Barbarian Nations'', ''Records of Foreign People'', or other similar titles, is a 13th-century Song Dynasty work by Zhao Rukuo. The work is a collection of descriptions of countri ...

written by Chau Ju-kua, and '' Ling-wai tai-ta'' by Chou K'u-fei (). Excerpts here translated by Hirth and Rockhill:

''Hsin-Tang-shu''

This

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

chronicle '' Hsin-Tang-shu'' mentioned that the envoy of ''Mo-lo-yu'' (

Melayu Kingdom The Melayu Kingdom (also known as Malayu, Dharmasraya Kingdom or the Jambi Kingdom; , reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation ''mat-la-yu kwok'')Muljana, Slamet , (2006), ''Sriwijaya'', Yogyakarta: LKIS, . was a classical Buddhist kingdom l ...

) came to Chinese court in 644–645. While the envoy of ''Shih-li-fo-shih'' (Srivijaya) came for the first time in 670.

''Chu-fan-chi''

''Ling-wai-tai-ta''

Interpretations

The established theory has concluded that Sanfotsi is identical to

. Srivijaya was written in older Chinese sources as ''Shi-li-fo-shi'' (室利佛逝, also shortened as ''fo-shi'') which is an approximate phonetic rendering, but changed to ''San-fo-qi'' at the end of the Tang dynasty. ''San'' means "three" in Chinese, therefore the term can be read as "the three vijayas"; this has been suggested as Chinese recognition that it was not a centralized empire at some time in its history. ''Ling-wai-tai-ta'' mentioned that in the years of 1079, 1082, and 1088 the country of ''Chan-pi'' (Jambi) located in ''Sanfotsi'' sent envoys to China. In the 12th century, ''Shi-li-fo-shi'' (Srivijaya) only twice sending envoys to China; 1156 and 1178. The equation of ''Shi-li-fo-shi'' (Srivijaya or Palembang) with ''Sanfotsi'' is quite problematic, since ''Chu-fan-chi'' mentioned that Palembang was one of the vassal states that belongs to Sanfotsi. While on the other hand Jambi or Malayu was not mentioned as Sanfotsi's vassal. This could mean that at that time Sanfotsi was centered in Jambi or Malayu, not in Palembang. Sanfotsi is more likely a transliteration of ''Suvarnabhumi'', which rever to Suvarnadvipa or Sumatra. Thus the kingdom was Suvarnabhumi (''Sanfotsi'' or Sumatra) while the capital was shifted between Palembang (''Shi-li-fo-shi'' or Srivijaya) and Jambi (''Chan-pi'' or ''Mo-lo-yu''). However, other historians tried to locate it somewhere else. Filipino historian Paul Kekai Manansala suggested that Sanfoqi refers to it was a Prehispanic

Philippine The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

state name Sambali. He argued that the accounts suggests that Sanfotsi was located to the south of China, and was, in fact, due south of the port of Ts'uan-chou. Since the Philippines is the only area exactly and directly due south of the port of Ts'uan-chou and has several place names such as Lingmayon (

Lingayen Lingayen, officially the Municipality of Lingayen ( pag, Baley na Lingayen; ilo, Ili ti Lingayen; tgl, Bayan ng Lingayen), is a 1st class municipality of the Philippines, municipality and capital of the Philippine Province, province of Pangasi ...

) and Poni ( Panai) that may fit some of the place names in the account, it therefore may fit the description. Some Thai historians, such as Chand Chirayu Rajani, while agreeing with the designation of Sanfoqi with Srivijaya, argued that it refers to Chaiya in Thailand rather than Palembang.

References