Zhu Zhantan, the ‘Indian’ king of Funan, offers tamed elephants to the Jin court
In 357 an embassy from Funan in the Mekong Delta offered tamed elephants to the Eastern Jin court, and Emperor Mu declined the costly gift. The Chinese histories call the king who sent it Zhu Zhantan, ‘Chandana the Indian’; Sylvain Lévi saw in the name a royal title of the Kushans and suggested that a prince of Kushan stock, perhaps displaced by Samudragupta’s conquests, had taken the throne of Funan.
- Date
- 357year known
- Place
- Funan (capital probably near Angkor Borei)approximate locationtoday: Angkor Borei, Takeo Province, Cambodia · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Route
- Funan (capital probably near Angkor Borei) → Jiankang, the Eastern Jin capital
- Participants
- Zhu Zhantan, Funan, Jin dynasty (266–420)
- Threads
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Chandana; Candana; Tianzhu Zhantan; Chu Chan-t'an; Funan embassy of 357; Emperor Mu of Jin; Посольство Фунани 357 г.; Чандана
The Book of Liang dates the embassy to the first year of the Shengping era (357): King Zhu Zhantan presented a memorial and offered tamed elephants, and an imperial edict replied that such creatures cost much labour and expense and were not to be sent. The Book of Jin adds that the emperor feared that strange beasts from a distant land might harm people and ordered them sent back. Zhu, short for Tianzhu, was the Chinese name for India, so in China the king was known as ‘the Indian Zhantan’; Rolf Stein thought the epithet meant only that his family had once come from India. Funan had sent envoys to the Jin court before, from the 260s to the 280s, a generation after the Wu envoys Kang Tai and Zhu Ying had visited the country.
Sylvain Lévi argued that zhantan renders chandana, a royal title used among the Yuezhi and especially by the Kushans of Kanishka’s line. Recalling the exchange of embassies between Funan and a Murunda king on the Ganges in the 240s, he suggested that a branch of the Kushans, driven from the Ganges valley when Samudragupta subjected northern India, had sought its fortune across the Bay of Bengal. George Coedès took up the idea and called the reign an interlude in the history of Funan; early in the 5th century Funan was ruled by Kaundinya, an Indian Brahmin who, according to the Book of Liang, ‘changed all the laws to conform to the system of India’. The embassy of 357 is the only known date of Zhantan’s reign.
Connections
Related events
- Funan’s embassy to India: Su Wu sails to the Gangesbetween 240 and 250 · South AsiaLévi linked Zhantan with the Kushans, recalling Funan’s exchange of embassies with a Murunda king in the 240s
- Kang Tai and Zhu Ying, envoys of Wu, in Funanbetween 245 and 250 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniathe Wu envoys of the 240s opened the record of Funan’s relations with the Chinese courts
- Sima Rui founds the Eastern Jin at Jiankang6 April 317 – 26 April 318 · East Asiathe embassy came to the Eastern Jin court at Jiankang
- Campaigns of Samudragupta and the Allahabad pillar prashastibetween 330 and 353 – between 370 and 376 · South AsiaLévi’s hypothesis: a Kushan branch displaced by Samudragupta’s conquests took power in Funan
Same participants
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniavia Funan
- The Orchid Pavilion Gathering: Wang Xizhi writes the Lanting Preface22 April 353 · East Asiavia Jin dynasty (266–420)
- Buddhism reaches Korea: the monk Sundo in Goguryeobetween July and August 372 · East Asiavia Jin dynasty (266–420)
- Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eobetween 152 and 600 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniavia Funan
Same place
- Founding of Funan: Kaundinya and Queen Liuyebetween 1 and 100 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Fan Shiman, the ‘Great King of Funan’c. 205 – c. 225 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- Reign of Ermanaric, king of the Greuthungic. 350 – between 370 and 376
- Chernyakhov culturebetween 200 and 250 – between 400 and 430
- Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430
Balkans and Anatolia
- Wulfila’s Gothic Biblebetween 348 and 383
Middle East and Egypt
- Siege of Amida359
- Reign of Shapur II309–379
Africa
- Donatist schismbetween 311 and 312 – 411
- Ezana’s Nile campaign and the end of Kushbetween 340 and 360
Central and Northern Asia
- Shapur II’s war with the Chionitesc. 350 – 358
- The Kushano-Sasanian kingdom in Bactriabetween 230 and 262 – between 350 and 370
South Asia
- Campaigns of Samudragupta and the Allahabad pillar prashastibetween 330 and 353 – between 370 and 376
- The Buddha’s tooth relic is brought to Sri Lankabetween 309 and 371
East Asia
- Kofun period: the age of keyhole tombsbetween 250 and 300 – 538
North America
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
Latin America
- Teotihuacan at its height: the largest city of the Americasc. 250 – c. 550
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Funan
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бапном
- Book of Jin (Jin shu), ch. 97: Funan — Chinese text
- Book of Liang (Liang shu), ch. 54: Funan — Chinese text
- Coedès G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia / Ed. W. F. Vella; transl. S. B. Cowing. — Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968. — P. 46–47.
- Lévi S. Kaniṣka et Śātavāhana // Journal Asiatique. — 1936. — Janvier–mars. — P. 61–121.