Zhao Rukuo
{{Short description|Chinese official and writer}}
Zhao Rukuo{{harvnb|Fan|Hargett|2011}}{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/Zhao-Rukuo |title=Zhao Rukuo |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}} ({{lang-zh|t=趙汝适|s=赵汝适|p=Zhào Rǔkuò}}; 1170–1231), also romanised as Zhao Rugua,{{harvnb|Park|2012|pp=50–52}} Chau Ju-kua,{{harvnb|Hirth|Rockhill|1911|p=V}} or misread as Zhao Rushi,{{harvnb|Zheng|2011|p=209}} was a Chinese government official and writer during the Song dynasty. He wrote a two-volume book titled Zhu Fan Zhi. The book deals with the world known to the Chinese in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries;{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F02E5D91139E633A2575AC2A9649D946396D6CF |title=Old Chinese Book Tells of the World 800 Years Ago; Chau-Ju-Kua's Chronicles of the Twelfth Century, Now First Translated, Give a "Description of Barbarous Peoples Picked Up by This Noted Inspector of Foreign Trade and Descendant of Emperors |date= December 29, 2012 |newspaper=New York Times}} the first volume is a list of foreign places with descriptions of each place and the customs of its local people.{{harvnb|Cœdès|1968|p=186}} The second volume is a catalog of trade goods.
Biography
Zhao was a member of the Song dynasty imperial clan, an eighth-generation descendant of Emperor Taizong in the lineage through the younger brother of Emperor Zhenzong.{{harvnb|Li|2012|p=30}}{{harvnb|Hirth|Rockhill|1911|p=35}}
He was born in Tiantai County in Taizhou, Zhejiang in 1170.{{cite web |url=http://www.fjsq.gov.cn:88/showtext.asp?ToBook=3222&index=4402& |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090915195631/http://www.fjsq.gov.cn:88/showtext.asp?ToBook=3222&index=4402& |archivedate=15 September 2009 |title=人物传 |work=fjsq.gov.cn |language=Chinese }} He began his career as a bureaucrat in 1190, and rose through the ranks. In 1224, he was appointed the supervisor of maritime trade (市舶司, {{Transliteration|zh|shibosi}}) in Quanzhou, Fujian province.{{harvnb|Wyatt|2011|p=35}} He also held the posts of prefect for Quanzhou as well the southern administrator.{{harvnb|Vorderstrasse|2012|p=459}} He died in 1231 and was buried in Linhai County in Zhejiang.
''Zhu Fan Zhi''
{{main|Zhu Fan Zhi}}
While working in Fujian, Zhao noted the commodities from various countries, and he had the opportunity to meet foreign merchants from whom he gathered information on various countries around the world. He also studied maps, and with the information that he collected, he wrote the book, which he finished around 1225. Many entries of Zhu Fan Zhi take information from an older work from 1178, Lingwai Daida by another geographer, Zhou Qufei ({{lang-zh|t=周去非|p=Zhōu Qùfēi|w=Chou Ch'ü-fei}}). However, a significant part of the book came from what he gathered from foreign and Chinese traders.
Although Zhao had not travelled outside of China, the book contained valuable information on various countries in the thirteenth century for modern scholars.{{harvnb|Wyatt|2011|p=36}} The countries ranged from those nearby such as Japan, to the various kingdoms in South East Asia, such as Srivijaya and Brunei, places in India, to the Islamic heartland of Arabia and Mecca, as well as countries in Africa, and as far as southern Spain.{{harvnb|Hansen|Curtis|2015|pp=267–270}}
See also
Notes
{{reflist|2}}
References
- {{Cite book
| last = Cœdès
| first = George
| authorlink = Georges Coedès
| title = The Indianized states of Southeast Asia
| publisher = University of Hawaii Press
| year = 1968
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iDyJBFTdiwoC
| isbn =9780824803681 }}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tv5skyrvzP4C&pg=PR41 |title=Treatises of the Supervisor and Guardian of the Cinnamon Sea: The Natural World and Material Culture of Twelfth-century China|last1=Fan|first1=Chengda|last2=Hargett|first2=James M|publisher=University of Washington Press |date= 2011 |isbn=978-0295990798 }}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OaGaBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA267 |title=Voyages in World History|last1= Hansen|first1=Valerie|authorlink1=Valerie Hansen |last2= Curtis|first2=Kenneth R. |date=January 2015|isbn=9781305537705}}
- {{cite book |title=Chau Ju-kua: His Work On The Chinese And Arab Trade In The Twelfth And Thirteenth Centuries, Entitled Chu-fan-chï |last1=Hirth|first1= Friedrich | last2=Rockhill|first2=William Woodville|authorlink1=Friedrich Hirth|authorlink2= William Woodville Rockhill|date=1911 | publisher = Imperial Academy of Sciences |url= https://archive.org/stream/cu31924023289345#page/n49/mode/2up }}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xuq7QCmY6jQC&pg=PA30 |title=A History of Overseas Chinese in Africa to 1911|last1=Li|first1=Anshan|publisher= Diasporic Africa Press |date=6 April 2012 |isbn=978-0966020106 }}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-8gAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA51 |title=Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre-Modern Asia|last1=Park|first1=Hyunhee |isbn= 978-1107018686 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year= 2012}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IfIyAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA459 |title=The Lineaments of Islam: Studies in Honor of Fred McGraw Donner|last=Vorderstrasse|first=Tasha|editor-last=Cobb|editor-first= Paul|publisher=Brill | date= 22 Jun 2012|isbn= 9789004231948}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=colwNdOiiCQC&pg=PA35 |title=The Blacks of Premodern China|last1= Wyatt|first1=Don J. |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780812203585 }}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0g8bzU2lYjsC&pg=PA209 |title=China on the Sea: How the Maritime World Shaped Modern China|last= Zheng|first=Yangwen|publisher=Brill |year=2011 |isbn=978-9004194779 }}
{{Song dynasty topics}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhao, Rukuo}}
Category:Historians from Zhejiang
Category:Song dynasty historians
Category:Song dynasty government officials