There is a kingdom that briefly appears in Song Dynasty historical records and that “disappears.” That kingdom is called the “Kingdom of Puduan” 蒲端國.
This kingdom was recorded to be a seven-day journey to the east from Champa. That would probably place it in the Paracel Islands (Oh, no!!).
The “pu” in the name of this kingdom is the same “pu” that I discussed in the previous post, and that some scholars have argued indicates the Arab name “Abu.” At the same time, it is very close to the Cham honorific title “Po,” and given that this kingdom was always mentioned in relation to Champa, one could argue that it was the “Kingdom of Po Duan,” with “Duan” being the Chinese pronunciation of an unidentified Cham word.
However, before we decide whether this was the “Kingdom of Po Duan” or the “Kingdom of Abu Duan,” let’s look more closely at some of the limited amount of information that is recorded about this kingdom.
The Kingdom of Puduan is mentioned in two sources, the Songshi (History of the Song), and the Song huiyao jigao (Song Government Manuscript Compendium). The Songshi was compiled during the period of the subsequent Yuan Dynasty and was published in 1346.
Meanwhile, the Song huiyao jigao (hereafter, SHYJG), was compiled even later, during the period of the Qing Jiaqing Emperor’s rule (1796-1820), although it was based on Song Dynasty materials that were preserved in a Ming Dynasty encyclopedia of 1408.
The Songshi states that in 1004 (景德元年) the Kingdom of Puduan presented tribute (蒲端國遣使來貢).
The SHYJG, meanwhile, records that on the same day in 1004, Dashi (what I’ll call in this post “Arabia”), Sanfoqi, and Puduan were granted the privilege to present tribute (德元年正月十四日，賜大食、三佛齊、蒲端諸國進奉使緡錢)
Finally, the Songshi states, under a section of the text about Arabia, that in 1004 the Arab envoys hung out at the capital with the envoys from Sanfoqi and Puduan (景德元年，又遣使來。時與三佛齊、蒲端國使並在京師，會上元觀燈，皆賜錢縱其宴飲。)
There are other references, but this is sufficient for the point that I will make in this post.
Now that I know that “Sanfoqi” was Angkor and that in the tenth and early eleventh centuries virtually all of the envoys from Angkor to China were named “pu,” I can see a clear “Arab connection” here.
Of course, the envoys from Arabia, Sanfoqi, and Puduan hung out with each other – they were all Arabs.
So does this mean that the “Kingdom of Puduan” was the “Kingdom of Abu Duan”? Not necessarily.
There is something very interesting in the SHYJG. Let us recall that the SHYJG is a Qing Dynasty work that is based on Song Dynasty documents that were preserved in a Ming Dynasty encyclopedia. In other words, scholars looked at those earlier documents and then selected information to include in the SHYJG.
In a section on Champa, there is an annotation after the title word “Champa.” It says that “after the word Champa were the two characters ‘Puduan’” (占城「占城」下原有「蒲端」二字). In other words, in the Ming Dynasty encyclopedia that these Qing Dynasty scholars examined, there was a section called “Champa Puduan” (占城蒲端).
In Chinese sources, it is conventional to place closely related items together like this. So, for instance, in biographical sections of Chinese dynastic histories, they have sections where a group of people will be listed. The first person listed might be the most famous, but then people closely associated with him are then listed there as well, and their biographies are all discussed in the same section.
The compilers of the SHYJG were clearly aware of that convention, but they noted that “In examining the document, there was no information about the Kingdom of Puduan. This is an error and we have deleted it” (按本篇幷無 蒲端 國內容， 蒲端 國另有篇目，此當衍，今刪。). This makes sense because by the time of the Qing Dynasty, there was no sign of a Kingdom of Puduan anymore.
Later in the text, there is a section on the Kingdom of Puduan that says “Puduan is out in the sea. It is in close contact with Champa but has never had relations with the Middle Kingdom” (蒲端在海上，與占城相接，未嘗與中國通。)
However, as we saw above, the SHYJG notes that Puduan presented tribute in 1004, and it mentions other times as well. Finally, it also mentions a king of Puduan, and that man’s name is 蒲端國主悉離琶大遐至遣使. The first two characters of this man’s title are “Sri” (悉離).
This leads me to think that “Puduan” was perhaps a Chamic “Kingdom of Po Duan.” Indeed, there is also a passage in the SHYJG where it directly states that Puduan was under the authority of Champa (有司以蒲端在占城之下).
However, it also looks to me like some of the envoys to China from Puduan were Arab. That could explain why a Chamic “po” kingdom was recorded using the Arabic “pu” character because from the perspective of the Chinese, the people who were arriving to present tribute were like the other “Abus” who were arriving from Angkor and Arabia.
What I sense from the information in this and the previous post is that there was an “Arab moment” in the Angkor-Zhenla-Champa-Paracel corridor in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Arabs didn’t “rule” any place in this region, but they were closely allied at times with local rulers, from Angkorian kings to the Cham[ic] rulers of Zhenla and Po Duan. Further, they served as envoys to China for all of these places.
That’s why we find the envoys of Arabia, Angkor, and Po Duan hanging out together in the Song Dynasty capital in 1004 (That must have been fun!!), and it is why there are statements in Song Dynasty sources claiming that the clothing and customs of Champa are like those of Arabia (其風俗、衣服與大食國相類) and that the people of Angkor are all surnamed Abu (國人多姓蒲).
Indeed, if we could stand on the southern coast of China in the Song Dynasty and look outward, much of the world would have looked Arab, as the people arriving from various kingdoms were actually Arabs. For me, this really helps explain something that has always confused me.
In Song Dynasty sources Arabia is frequently mentioned in the same breath as places in Southeast Asia, and I’ve always struggled to understand why that was the case. The best I’ve been able to do is to attribute this to the “weird” way that premodern Chinese viewed the world.
In reality, however, if we understand that Sanfoqi was Angkor and that there were Arabs who were active in the tenth and eleventh centuries in a region that stretched from Angkor to the Paracels, then the premodern Chinese worldview suddenly looks a lot more logical.
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蒲端 is in Middle Chinese and its read as /buo/ and /tuɑn/. If the “po” actually refer to master or lord, then 蒲端 was couple as both “po” (or “pu”) and “tuan” refers to master or lord.
If this 蒲端 located in the east of Champa, then this kingdom more likely to be the kingdom of Butuan in the present day Philippines
Yes, and apparently archaeologists have found Cham pottery at Butuan too.
“蒲端” is most likely the Kingdom of Butuan in Northeastern Mindanao which thrived during the 1000s-1300s. The last mention of this polity (that I am aware of) was in the 1304 Dade Nanhai Zhi, along with Philippine polities before it was replaced by pre-Islamic Sulu Kingdoms in the Chinese records. It was founded by Butuan nobles to control its strategic location during the shift of the trading patterns in the eastern corridor of Southeast Asia during the Yuan Dynasty.
A passage in Dade Nanhai Zhi reads:
東洋佛坭國管小東洋：
麻里蘆，麻葉，美昆，蒲端，蘇錄，沙胡重，啞陳，麻拿囉奴，文杜陵。
[Brunei Kingdom of the Eastern Ocean is in charge of the Small Eastern Ocean:
Malilu (Maynila), Ma-i (Mait: Mindoro polity), Meikun (I think it’s Vigan an important settlement in the Ilocos Region, but one scholar said it was Manukan, Zamboanga del Norte), Puduan (Butuan), Sulu, Shahuzhong (Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte), Yachen (Oton, Iloilo), Manaluonu (Maranao/Lanao Lake polity), and Wenduling (either the pre-islamic Maguindanao/Cotabato polity or Bintulu, Sarawak).]
Shao Yun Yang made some transliterations and translations of the Chinese records of Butuan here:
https://www.academia.edu/49761750/Section_on_Puduan_Butuan_Song_huiyao_jigao
The Butuan King mentioned was most likely “Sri Pada Haji.”
*Butuan is pronounced as “Boot-one” btw. Two syllables only.
*Though Butuan continued to exist up until the arrival of the Spaniards in the area, all its former glory and influence were not that great anymore.
Thank you for your comments!!
When I wrote that blog post, I didn’t know anything about Puduan. Now I know more, but I still need to look at it more closely. In some sources, there is a clear connection mentioned with Champa, and apparently archaeologists have found Cham ceramics as this site in the Philippines. I find that interesting, and want to learn more about it.