NOTES

INTRODUCTION

1. 1. Đại Nam Thực Lục Chính Biên 大南寔錄正編, part 2, 160:36. Hereafter ĐNTL.

2. 2. The mother of the first emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty was named Lan, using the same character in Cai Tinglan’s name (蘭). Following the custom of tabooing the names of royal family members, the character lan was replaced in official records with 香 (Ch. xiang; V. hương). Ngô and Poisson, Nghiên Cữu Chữ Húy Việt Nam qua Các Triều Đại, 124–28 and 326–27.

3. 3. The two most comprehensive studies of Cai Tinglan’s life are Cai Zhubin, Cai Tinglan zhuan; and Chen Yiyuan, Cai Tinglan jiqi Hainan zazhu.

4. 4. In 1727, Penghu was defined as a subprefecture (ting 廳) of Fujian Province. For the history of Penghu, see Cai Zhubin, Cai Tinglan zhuan, 24–37.

5. 5. Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model, 174.

6. 6. For a comprehensive survey of the civil examinations in late imperial China, see Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China, especially 659.

7. 7. Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model, 171–72.

8. 8. The Vietnamese did not hold formal school examinations for youth, so we have not provided the Vietnamese transliteration. Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model, 176.

9. 9. Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China, 659; Cai Zhubin, Cai Tinglan zhuan, 40–41.

10. 10. Wang Dezhao, “Qingdai de keju rushi yu zhengfu,” 6. For provincial examinations in Fujian and the examinees from Taiwan, see Ding Xingyuan, “Mingdai Fujian xiangshi luodizhe de chulu jiqi yingxiang,” 28–33; Liu Haifeng, “Taiwan juren zai Fujian xiangshi zhong de biaoxian,” 68–77; Dai Xianqun, “Qingdai Fujian xiangshi yu Taiwan juren,” 37–42.

11. 11. Cai Zhubin, Cai Tinglan zhuan, 52.

12. 12. For the shipwreck and Cai’s adventure in Vietnam, see Chen Yiyuan, Cai Tinglan jiqi Hainan zazhu, 57–62; Huang Meiling, “Yiliao zhi wai de yiyu zhi lü”; Li Shuhui, “Lüyou, jiyi yu lunshu”; Tang Xiyong, “Chuannan yu haiwai lixian jingyan.”

13. 13. In fact, there were several shipwreck cases on this route recorded during the Qing dynasty. See Tang, “Chuannan yu haiwai lixian jingyan,” 467–80. For the records of hurricanes and storms of the Penghu region, see Li Zhijun, Fengxia zhi hai.

14. 14. ĐNTL II, 121:13.

15. 15. ĐNTL II, 143:2.

16. 16. ĐNTL II, 166:22.

17. 17. ĐNTL II, 170:13.

18. 18. ĐNTL II, 13:9.

19. 19. ĐNTL II, 71:18. It was precedent to provide funds to merchants stranded in Vietnam. For example, in 1833, Minh Mạng ordered that a ship of Cantonese merchants who drifted to Quảng Nam be given three hundred strings of cash and three hundred fang of rice. ĐNTL II, 88:3.

20. 20. You Jianshe 尤建設, “17 shiji houqi,” 19.

21. 21. Kuang Lu’s 1634 Chiya was the first literati account of Guangxi. Miles, “Strange Encounters on the Cantonese Frontier.”

22. 22. For surveys on the editions of Hainan zazhu and how they were produced, see Chen Yiyuan, Cai Tinglan jiqi Hainan zazhu, 73–84; Yu Xiangdong, “Hainan zazhu de zuozhe yu banben,” 93–96; Lin Jiahui, “Cai Tinglan Hainan zazhu yanjiu,” 2–6. For a brief Vietnamese overview of Cai Tinglan’s life, the publication history of the book, and its significance, see Vu Hướng Đông and Đinh Văn Minh, “Vài nét về tác giả và văn bản Hải Nam tạp trứ.”

23. 23. The National Library of China holds a first printing of the first edition, under call number 地 983.83/864; it holds a first printing of the second edition under the call number 地 983.83/864.1. The National Library in Taipei has only an incomplete copy of the second run of the second edition.

24. 24. The above information is drawn from Chen Yiyuan, Cai Tinglan jiqi Hainan zazhu, 73–87. His authoritative study can be consulted for more detailed information about textual history, including the specific changes between editions. The French translation can be found in Leroux, Recueil d’itinéraires et de voyages dans l’Asie Centrale et l’Extrême Orient.

25. 25. Cai Tinglan and Xia Deyi, Hainan zazhu 海南雑著.

26. 26. Gotō Hitoshi, “Sai Teiran Kainan zaccho to sono shiyaku.”

27. 27. https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=107349. Also see the digital version of Cai Tinglan and Xia Deyi , Hainan zazhu 海南雑著 at http://tcss.ith.sinica.edu.tw/cgi-bin/gs32/gsweb.cgi/ccd=OIi5ab/ebookviewer?dbid=EB0000000042&db=ebook.

28. 28. Chen Lunjiong, Haiguo wenjian lu, 31.

29. 29. White, History of a Voyage to the China Sea, 95–96.

30. 30. Cooke, Li, and Anderson, Tongking Gulf through History.

31. 31. Wheeler, “Placing the ‘Chinese Pirates’ of the Gulf of Tongking at the End of the Eighteenth Century.”

32. 32. Po, The Blue Frontier, 17.

33. 33. Translated and quoted by Po, 64.

34. 34. The classic comparison of Qing and Nguyễn governments is Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model.

35. 35. Taylor, History of the Vietnamese, 403.

36. 36. See also Zhu Yunying, Zhongguo wenhua dui Ri Han Yue de yingxiang, 546–47.

37. 37. Wheeler, “An Offshore Perspective on Vietnamese Zen,” 145.

38. 38. Wheeler, “Interests, Institutions, and Identity.” Wang Gungwu’s study shows the ways in which Chinese overseas, including the Minh Hương in Vietnam and the Peranakan or Straits Chinese, adopted local customs, adapted their own customs to fit in, intermarried, and entered government office, all while maintaining a sense of separate identity. Wang Gungwu, The Chinese Overseas, 80–82. For a pioneering study on the topic of overseas Chinese in Vietnam, see Fujiwara Riichirō, Tōnan ajiashi no kenkyū, 191–282. Also see You Jianshe, “17 shiji houqi”; and Qiu Puyan, “Yuenan Huaqiao shehui de xingcheng yu fazhan,” 82–87.

39. 39. Reid, “Chinese Trade and Southeast Asian Economic Expansion,” 23.

40. 40. Cooke and Li, Water Frontier, 3–6

41. 41. Zhu Yunying, Zhongguo wenhua dui Ri Han Yue de yingxiang, 548.

42. 42. For a discussion of the term sojourn in migration studies, see Wang Gungwu, “Sojourning.”

43. 43. Zhu Yunying, Zhongguo wenhua dui Ri Han Yue de yingxiang, 549.

44. 44. Qiu Puyan, “Yuenan Huaqiao shehui de xingcheng yu fazhan,” 82–83, 85. Also see Teng Lanhua and He Zhe, “Yuenan youli ji zhong suojian de Yuenan Beiqi Huaqiao Huaren tanxi.” 62–68. Initially, Gia Long wanted the Minh Hương to join the bang, but they successfully resisted, arguing that their Vietnamese matrilineage set them apart from more recent arrivals. Wheeler, “Identity,” 157.

45. 45. For example, Hakka does not indicate any particular region but rather designates a language group or ethnicity. In another case, Fuzhou should be part of Fujian Province in Qing China, but it was separated probably because the distinctive Fuzhou dialect of Hokkien was spoken there.

46. 46. Wheeler, “Identity,” 157.

47. 47. Kuhn, Chinese among Others, 44.

48. 48. For the text of the inscription in the temple, see Trịnh, Nguyễn, and Papin, Tổng Tập Thác Bản Văn Khắc Hán Nôm, 280.

49. 49. Wheeler, “Interests, Institutions, and Identity,” 157. For a Nguyễn prohibition on Qing merchants bringing Vietnamese women back with them to China as wives, see Đại Nam Thực Lục Chính Biên II, juan 62, 2.

50. 50. Kuhn, Chinese among Others, 12.

51. 51. Macauley, Distant Shores, 9.

52. 52. Macauley, Distant Shores, 74.

53. 53. Pomeranz. The Great Divergence.

54. 54. Macauley, Distant Shores, 11–12. For the role of Chinese settlers in developing the Saigon region, see Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mạng, especially 38–39.

55. 55. Chin, “The Junk Trade between South China and Nguyen Vietnam, 53–54, 63. Choi Byung Wook suggests that Vietnamese traders were less visible to Western visitors, contributing to their assumption that the Chinese dominated trade. South China under the Reign of Minh Mạng, 74–75.

56. 56. Wang Gungwu, “Merchants without Empire.” The Nguyễn did struggle to control the illegal export of rice, tax evasion by traders, and the smuggling of drugs. See Choi, South China, 74–81.

57. 57. Xing Hang, “The Evolution of Maritime Chinese Historiography in the United States.”

58. 58. Miles, Upriver Journeys, 8–15.

59. 59. Po, The Blue Frontier, 7.

60. 60. Macauley, Distant Shores, ix.

61. 61. Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model, preface, np. For a study of one nineteenth-century Vietnamese scholar’s intellectual engagement with the Confucian commonwealth, see Baldanza, “Books without Borders.”

62. 62. For “Sinophographic cosmopolis,” see King, “Ditching ‘Diglossia’”; page 6 has a discussion of various terms and their rationales. For “Sanskrit Cosmopolis,” see Pollack, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men.

63. 63. For James Matisoff’s division of the origins of elite cultural influence in the Southeast between the Sinosphere and the Indosphere, see “Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Present State and Future Prospects,” 469–504. The term Sinograph was coined by Zev Handel. See his Sinograph, 10–11.

64. 64. Millward, “We Need a New Approach to Teaching Chinese History.”

65. 65. Choi Byung Wook, “The Nguyen Dynasty’s Policy toward Chinese,” 93–95.

66. 66. Vũ Đường Luân and Li Tana, “Chinese Merchants and Mariners in Nineteenth-Century Tongking,” 150.

67. 67. Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Yuyan Yanjiusuo, Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Minzuxue Yu Renleixue Yanjiusuo, and Xianggang Chengshi Daxue Yuyan Zixunkexue Yanjiu Zhongxin , Zhongguo yuyan ditu ji juan, map B1–15, B2–6; 111; Fujiansheng difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui,Fujiansheng zhi, 98–99. For the relationship between Min dialects and their adjacent dialects, see Ding Bangxin and Zhang Shuangqing, Minyu yanjiu jiqi yu zhoubian fangyan de guanxi. For the history of Hokkien and the Min dialect in general, see Norman, “The Mǐn Dialects in Historical Perspective”; Du Jialun, Minyu lishi cengci fenxi yu xiangguan yinbian.

68. 68. Zhongguo yuyan ditu ji, Map B1–15; B1–18. For a comprehensive list of people whom Cai encountered, see Dai Kelai and Yu Xiangdong, “Cai Tinglan.”

69. 69. Simmons, “Whence Came Mandarin?,” especially 72; Zhang Weidong, “Shilun jindai nanfang Guanhua de xingcheng jiqi diwei,” 73–78.

70. 70. It is unclear whether Cai asked Sim about what happened or if it was just Cai’s assumption. Theoretically, there were many reasons that Sim might not have been able to interpret. For example, they might have been speaking a specific dialect that Sim could not understand. Alternatively, they could simply have told him that they preferred to have a written conversation with Cai through literary Chinese, since that was a common mode of communication among the literati in East Asia. In this way, they could also verify his identity as a Qing government–sponsored student. Note that this verification of his identity happened later during his trip.

71. 71. For languages in early China, particularly Old Chinese, see Baxter, A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology, 1–5; and Pulleyblank, Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar, 1–2.

72. 72. See Gao Mingshi, “Bingong ke de qiyuan yu fazhan”; Wu Zongguo, Tangdai keju zhidu yanjiu, 25–35, 149–54; Miyazaki Ichisada, Kakyo, 1–18.

73. 73. See, for example, Baldanza, Ming China and Vietnam, 179–98; Ge Zhaoguang, Xiangxiang yiyu, and Zhai zi Zhongguo, 157–65; Pore, “The Inquiring Literatus.”

74. 74. Brush talks were so natural for Vietnamese officials that they also attempted to communicate with Western visitors in written Latin. The American crew of John White’s ship that visited Vietnam in 1823 called up their schoolboy Latin to communicate with two mandarins who had learned it from French missionaries. White, History of a Voyage, 79.

75. 75. For the linguistic situation of Vietnam, see DeFrancis, Colonialism and Language Policy in Viet Nam. For a description of the Nôm script, see pages 24–26.

76. 76. See Ngô Đức Thọ and Hoàng Văn Lâ’s Vietnamese translation for a more comprehensive accounting of such mistakes: Trần Ích Nguyên (陳益源), Thái Đình Lan & tác phẩm Hải Nam Tạp Trứ.

77. 77. Alistair Lamb, Mandarin Road to Old Hué.

78. 78. Chin, “The Junk Trade,” 61.

79. 79. Lamb, 33; White, 65.

80. 80. See Choi Byung Wook, South China under the Reign of Minh Mạng, 87–88.

81. 81. For a more comprehensive description of the clothing of Nguyễn officials, see Trần Quang Đức, Ngàn Năm Áo Mũ, 297–334.

82. 82. Cai may have misheard bản thổ công 本土公, “local deity.” The eighteenth- century Catholic priest Adriano di St. Thecla described the worship of Thổ Công, five brothers who were deified for killing a problem tiger. Di St. Thecla, Opusculum de Sectis apud Sinenses et Tunkinses, 147.

83. 83. Wickberg, The Chinese in Philippine Life, 193–94.

84. 84. Li, “Between Mountains and the Sea,” 71–72.

85. 85. Li, “Between Mountains and the Sea,” 73.

86. 86. Dutton, The Tay Son Uprising, 45; Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mạng.

87. 87. Wheeler, “Placing the ‘Chinese Pirates,’” 51. Following the Vietnamese historical record, Wheeler refers to He Xianwen as He Xiwen in his article. See also Murray, Pirates of the South China Coast.

88. 88. Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model, 298n22; Kelley, Beyond the Bronze Pillars, 79n26.

89. 89. Kelley, Bronze Pillars, 78–9. See also Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam, 45n1.

90. 90. For an interpretation of the economic and political underpinnings of the Nông Văn Vân rebellion, see Vũ Đường Luân, “The Politics of Frontier Mining.” See also Davis, Imperial Bandits, 16, 18, 30.

91. 91. For the use of hainan as nanhai, see Fujian tongzhi 福建通志 (Taipei: Taiwan Yinhang jingji yanjiushi, 1960), 239 and 822. It is true that hainan could be used to indicate Vietnam as in the eleventh-century text by Zhao Rushi 趙汝適, Zhufan zhi 諸蕃志 (Taipei: Taiwan Yinhang jingji yanjiushi, 1961), 57. However, in the text, Cai also hints that the name is related to nanhai. Moreover, the first chapter does not record his travel in Vietnam, but only his journey on the South Seas. Therefore, “South Seas” captures the multiple connotations better.

92. 92. Li, “Between Mountains and the Sea,” and personal communication, July 3, 2019. Ngô Đức Thọ’s Vietnamese translation also transliterates this word as phố.

93. 93. Vũ Đường Luân, “The Politics of Frontier Mining,” 38.

94. 94. We are grateful to Dr. Vũ for sharing these citations, personal communication, February 23, 2021.

95. 95. Choi Byung Wook, “The Nguyen Dynasty’s Policy toward Chinese,” 90.

96. 96. Taylor, History of the Vietnamese, 1–5.

97. 97. Roberts, Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat, 182.

ZHOU’S FOREWORD

1. 1. Đại Nam Thực Lục Chính Biên 大南寔錄正編, part 2, 160:36.

LIU’S FOREWORD

1. 1. Su Shi 蘇軾, Su Shi shiji 蘇軾詩集 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1982), 43:2366.

2. 2. During the Qing dynasty, Qiongzhou was under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province.

SECOND DEDICATION

1. 1. Bai Juyi was a Tang poet (772–846) whose fame reached even Silla (57 BCE–935 CE), a kingdom located on the Korean peninsula.

RECORD OF PERIL ON THE HIGH SEAS

1. 1. One watch is two hours and twenty-four minutes long.

2. 2. See the introduction for a discussion of these places.

3. 3. The goddess Mazu protected sailors and maritime enterprises and was especially popular along the southeast coast of China and in Chinese diasporic communities across Southeast Asia.

4. 4. A li is approximately a third of a mile. From the Tang dynasty to 1929, one li was defined as 1,800 bu 步, which was 1,800 chi. Since in Qing China, one chi was often equal to 0.32 meter, one li could be 576 meters.

5. 5. This term remains a common label for Chinese in Canton, Hokkien, and Teochew.

6. 6. The name in the original is 占畢羅嶼, which indicates the modern day Chàm islands (Cù lao Chàm).

7. 7. This is one of a small number of lines that changed between the first and second editions. We chose to translate this line from the first edition: 而以詩自鳴於海外之國. In the revised line, 因以擴見聞於海外之國, the emphasis changed from earning fame through poetry composition to enlarging one’s knowledge of a foreign country.

TRAVELOGUE OF THE FIERY WASTELAND

1. 1. For an 1823 description of Vietnamese official garb by a lieutenant in the US Navy, see White, History of a Voyage to the China Sea, 37. He describes officials wearing wooden sandals and wide black trousers with a red silk sash, with black crepe turbans. A similar description was made by Thomas Wade in 1855, in Lamb, Mandarin Road to Old Hué, 317; and in Roberts, Embassy to the Eastern Courts, 181.

2. 2. Now called Sa Cần station, at the mouth of the Trà Bồng River in Quảng Ngãi Province. Ngô and Hoàng, Thái Đình Lan, 171n16.

3. 3. The British army officer Charles Chapman similarly writes that Vietnamese rowers sang “a song not destitute of harmony” during a trip upriver to Hội An in 1778. Anthologized in Lamb, Mandarin Road to Old Hue, 105. John White writes that Vietnamese rowers who approach his ship are “cheered by a measured and monotonous recitative” but later finds out that they are in fact jeering “mot quan,” or one string of cash, their paltry monthly salary allotted by the government; History of a Voyage, 60 and 212.

4. 4. Here, in referring to “prefectural governor,” Cai used the phrase futangguan 府堂官. He is speaking generally of leading officials in the prefecture. Later in this text, Cai used the same phrase to refer to two different official titles, namely, provincial magistrate and the officials of Imperial Household Department, or neiwufu 內務府.

5. 5. “Vạn” denotes a river market. In the original, Cai Tinglan was using Han characters to transcribe what he heard. We are following Li Tana’s transcription. Ngô Đức Thọ and Hoàng Văn Lâu’s 2009 translation transcribes it instead as Đò Ván.

6. 6. China followed the same naming practice, so it is not clear why Cai Tinglan is specially calling attention to it.

7. 7. According to Ngô Đức Thọ, this place name is in error. Perhaps Cai Tinglan heard Chính Mông, the name of the hamlet that contained Quảng Ngãi city, and mis-transcribed it. Cù Mông is the name of a mountain range south of Cai’s route (Ngô and Hoàng, Thái Đình Lan, 176n29). The place he is in is Quảng Ngãi city.

8. 8. Here we translate the lines in the Sino-Nom Institute’s copy (HVv.80). Later editions changed these lines to say, “I followed them into the city, and gawkers lined the street.”

9. 9. This version is from HVv.80. Later editions say, “They both rose and leaned forward with folded hands in response to my bow.”

10. 10. For Fujian Association, or Fujian bang 福建幫, Philip A. Kuhn’s definition: “‘Bang’ (gang, or sojourner association) is an organized, hierarchical urban group based on dialect, devoted to promoting the business interests of its members and protecting its economic turf from rival dialect groups. It is typically headed by a prominent and wealthy man”; Chinese among Others, 54n67.

11. 11. Cai Tinglan, following Chinese practice, refers to the Vietnamese ruler as a king (wang/vương 王). Vietnamese sources use the term emperor.

12. 12. The four core texts of the Confucian canon and basis of the civil service examinations: the Analects, the Mencius, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Great Learning.

13. 13. Here Cai Tinglan is using a Chinese character to transcribe the sound of thầy, a polite term of address for men. Here we are following Ngô and Hoàng, Thái Đình Lan, 180n38.

14. 14. Woodside writes that teachers trace characters on boards covered with soil or clay, and their pupils would then trace the characters themselves. Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model, 188

15. 15. “Vạn” suggests a river market comprised of house boats. Many of these traders would have been Chinese traders involved in the transshipment of forest products. See Phú Bình, “Tứ Bàn từ ‘man’ đến ‘chợ.’”

16. 16. Cai used the word xunfu guan 巡撫官 to refer to the relevant officials in Vietnam instead of the more commonly used word xunfu 巡撫 for the official in charge of a province. Therefore, we translate xunfu guan as “provincial governor” and use “governor” to refer to the xunfu position in the Qing dynasty.

17. 17. Phan Thanh Giản (1796–1867) became a palace graduate in 1826 and traveled to China as an envoy in 1832. A southerner descended from Minh hương families from Fujian on both sides, Phan Thanh Giản went on to have important positions in the Nguyễn government, including governor of Nam Ngãi, soon after meeting Cai Tinglan. He is most remembered today for negotiating the Treaty of Saigon with France in 1862, traveling to France in 1863, and dying by suicide after France invaded the southern territories, then under his governorship, in 1867. See Ngô Đức Thọ et al, Các Nhà Khoa Bảng Việt Nam, 653.

18. 18. This is an alternate name for Ngũ Hành Sơn, or the Marble Mountains. We are grateful to Drs. Le Thi Mai and Li Tana for verifying this.

19. 19. There must be a corruption in the text here because two feet is not the right unit of measurement for a mountain.

20. 20. 1 chi = 32 cm in Qing China.

21. 21. Hải Sơn Quản 海山關. The name is now Ocean Cloud Pass (Đèo Hải Vân).

22. 22. Xingxing 猩猩.

23. 23. Wei is an approximate measure word for the perimeter of objects. It usually stands for the perimeter of a circle as big as the length of ones’ arm span or as small as that from one’s thumb to the index finger of the same hand. In this case, it seems to refer to the latter length.

24. 24. The stream he is referring to is the Perfume River. Cai tends to use the word xi 溪, meaning stream or creek, when he does not record the proper name of the river. He probably uses “stream” here for that reason and not because it appears small.

25. 25. For a similar description of Huế, circa 1778, see the account of Charles Chapman, anthologized by Alistair Lamb in Mandarin Road to Old Hue, 109. Chapman visited during the Tây Sơn period, and the city walls were repaired well before Cai Tinglan arrived decades later. John Crawfurd’s account from 1822 describes the city’s defenses as “truly extraordinary” and claims that most of their artillery was cast in Cochinchina; Mandarin Road, 246.

26. 26. The second edition changed “I wrote a congratulatory essay” to “I brought my name card” 攜名版. Here the “prefectural governor” or futangguan refers to the prefect of Thừa Thiên.

27. 27. The revised edition substitutes “and my friends questioned me closely” 交致研詰 instead of “met with praise.”

28. 28. Sheji tan 社稷壇. This is an altar where the emperor would make sacrifices to benefit the state.

29. 29. 午門 Wumen (Ch.), Ngọ Môn (V.). Woodside calls it the “Zenith Gate,” Vietnam and the Chinese Model, 128. There are four main gates; this is the southern gate.

30. 30. Hongyi pao 紅衣炮. This refers to a muzzle-loading style cannon first introduced by the Dutch and English and then produced in improved form in China. Red refers to Dutch, nicknamed “red-haired barbarians” in Chinese. Originally, this style of cannon was called hồng di pháo 紅夷炮, “red barbarian cannon,” but red coat cannon came into common use during the Qing because Manchus objected to the term barbarian. See Andrade, The Gunpowder Age, 197–201.

31. 31. Literally, the text says that he was a tributary student, indicating that he studied at the Quốc tử giám or Imperial College, located in Huế during the Nguyễn dynasty.

32. 32. Here Cai Tinglan uses a character in the Vietnamese demotic script chữ Nôm for chợ, market (𢄂), suggesting that someone wrote down the name for him. Immediately below, for Chợ Ròn 洊市, he uses the Chinese character for market and a Nôm word to transcribe Ròn. It seems likely that Cai did not understand how the Nôm script was used in Vietnam.

33. 33. Present-day Đèo Ngang, at the border of Quảng Bình and Hà Tĩnh Provinces.

34. 34. Present-day Kỳ Anh County in Hà Tĩnh.

35. 35. Present-day Vĩnh.

36. 36. Fanjiang 番薑.

37. 37. Here Cai is using Holland to mean from overseas or from Western traders more generally.

38. 38. Cai Tinglan may have misunderstood this. The governor-general of that time was not surnamed Nguyễn or related to the royal family.

39. 39. As noted by James M. Hargett, this bird is a member of the pheasant family and is sometimes called peacock-pheasant. They existed in great numbers in neighboring Guangxi in the twelfth century but can no longer be found. Fan Chengda, Hargett, Treatises of the Supervisor of the Cinnamon Sea, 60n3.

40. 40. Although there is a famous Nguyễn official named Ông Ích Khiêm (1829–1884), he would have been a child at this time. The identical name must be a coincidence or a mistake.

41. 41. Present-day Phủ Lý in Hà Nam.

42. 42. Here futang guan is used as another way to refer to provincial magistrate, instead of prefectural governor as previously mentioned.

43. 43. This distance appears to be in error.

44. 44. We use Jyutping to transcribe Cantonese pronunciations. For the tones, see glossary.

45. 45. The Red River (sông Hồng).

46. 46. The rebellion of the Trưng sisters (Hai Bà Trưng) against Han dynasty rule from 40 to 43 CE remains one of the most celebrated events in Vietnamese history. The earliest extant source about the rebellion is the Hou Han Shu (History of the Later Han 後漢書), which records that the Han general Ma Han had the sisters beheaded. The temple Cai Tinglan visited was commissioned by Lý Anh Tông in the twelfth century after the Trưng sisters appeared to him in a dream as rain spirits.

47. 47. It is not clear what places Cai Tinglan is referring to here.

48. 48. A mountain pass in the southern part of Lạng Sơn Province. Vietnamese: Quỷ Môn Quan.

49. 49. 薏苡 or ý dĩ. Also commonly known as coix seeds. Used as both a food and medicine.

50. 50. Yin and yang, or heaven and earth.

51. 51. Legend has it that Ma Yuan erected two bronze pillars to mark the southern border of the Han empire after he conquered Giao Chỉ (northern Vietnam). Although no trace of them has ever been found, the story and purported location were repeated throughout the imperial period.

52. 52. It is not clear who Cai Tinglan means by “the governor of Bianzhou,” and it is probably a mistake. He most likely is referring to the ultimately unsuccessful 1788–89 Qing invasion of northern Vietnam to depose the Tây Sơn dynasty (1778–1802) and restore the Lê dynasty.

53. 53. This refers to the uprising of Nông Văn Vân, a local tusi/thô ty who rebelled when the Nguyễn state attempted to remove him from his position, resulting in fighting between 1833–35.

54. 54. Ngô Thì Nhậm (1746–1803) was a prominent scholar-official of the Tây Sơn who earned his Presented Scholar degree in 1775. His father Ngô Thì Sĩ (1725–80), an important historian, was governor of Lạng Sơn in 1780. It is possible that Cai Tinglan is mixing up father and son. In fact, Ngô Thì Ngậm developed the cave system and had temples dedicated to the three religions, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.

55. 55. Lê Hữu Dung (1745–?) passed the examination as palace graduate in 1775 and served as an envoy to the Qing dynasty. See Ngô Đức Thọ et al, Các Nhà Khoa Bảng Việt Nam, 630.

56. 56. Tam Thanh, or Sanqing 三清, is a Daoist concept originally indicating the three heavenly realms, Yuqing 玉清 (Jade Clarity), Shangqing 上清 (Highest Clarity), and Taiqing 太清 (Great Clarity). Later it indicates the three deities from the three realms, respectively: Celestial Worthy of Original Commencement (Yuanshi tianzun 元始天尊), the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure (Lingbao tianzun 靈寶天尊), and the Celestial Worthy of the Way and Its Virtue (Daode tianzun 道德天尊). See the entry “Sanqing 三清” written by Livia Kohn in Pregadio, The Encyclopedia of Taoism, 840–44.

57. 57. “Water without roots” (wugen shui 無根水) refers to water that is not from the ground, such as rain drops or dew.

58. 58. Su Ruolan, also known as Su Hui, was a fourth-century CE poet. Cai Tinglan likely thinks this is ridiculous because Su Ruolan was known to have lived in Shaanxi and Gansu, nowhere near Vietnam. Dou Tao was her husband. As early as the fifteenth century, this story was localized in Vietnam. For an explanation, see Hieu M. Phung, “Land & Water,” 54–56. For a discussion of Awaiting Husband Boulders in neighboring Guangxi, associated by Kuang Lu with Chinese merchants married to native women in Guangxi, see Miles, “Strange Encounters,” 142–45.

59. 59. Nhị Thanh (二青, literally, “two green”) and Tam Thanh (三青, “three green”) are named such because of natural markings on the cave walls that looked like those characters. They remain popular sightseeing destinations in Lạng Sơn and can be found in English language guidebooks as Nhi Thanh and Tam Thanh Grottoes. It is unclear what cave Đại Thanh (大青 “big green”) refers to.

60. 60. In the first edition, this is 310 li.

61. 61. The Jianwen emperor was the second emperor of the Ming dynasty (r. 1398–1402). One of his uncles rebelled and ascended the Ming throne as the Yongle emperor. Although the Yongle emperor maintained that the Jianwen emperor had died in a fire and presented his body, rumors persisted that the former emperor was living in hiding in the South as a monk.

62. 62. Xiangshan Island, renamed Zhongshan Island in the twentieth century.

63. 63. Anqi Sheng was a legendary immortal who lived in the sea, mentioned in several early Chinese texts.

64. 64. Meaning that in Huizhou, the clouds block the view of the peak, while farther away in Guangzhou, only the peak is visible.

65. 65. The mausoleum of the famous Song dynasty poet and statesman Su Shi’s (1037–1101) concubine Wang Zhaoyun.

66. 66. While certain terms such as horizon (diping 地平) and procedures point to the armillary sphere technique introduced by Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1591–1666) and others, it is unclear what the other terms Cai uses refer to. For more information on this technique, see Zhang Baichun, “The Introduction of European Astronomical Instruments.”

67. 67. Zhao Shenzhen received the palace graduate title in 1796 and died in 1822. He served as governor-general of Zhejiang and Fujian and had a particular interest in promoting worthy scholars.

68. 68. Round communal houses found only in Fujian Province, unique to the Hakka.

69. 69. Zhu Xi (1130–1200), a neo-Confucian scholar born in Fujian Province.

70. 70. The name Yangzhi 仰止 is from the line in “Che xia” 車舝 of the Book of Poetry (Shijing 詩經): “Behold a high mountain with awe” 高山仰止. This line was famously used by Sima Qian 司馬遷 (145–? BCE) to praise the virtue of Confucius. See Sima Qian, Shiji, 47:1947.

VIETNAM CHRONICLE

1. 1. A watch is two hours and twenty-four minutes, so approximately two hundred hours or eight days.

2. 2. Tây Kinh, literally “western capital,” was the name used by the Hồ dynasty for their capital in Thanh Hóa. However, Cai Tinglan is mistakenly placing it in Quảng Nam. Đông Kinh is a historical name for Hà Nội , literally “eastern capital,” which is usually written in Western languages as Tonkin or Tongking. Although this term refers to a city, it is also used to designate the larger region.

3. 3. Legendary emperors from the third millennium BCE.

4. 4. In this paragraph, Cai Tinglan is listing the Đinh dynasty (968–80), the Early Lê dynasty (980–1009), the Lý dynasty (1009–1225), and the Trần dynasty (1225–1400) by founding emperor. The Yuan dynasty attacked Trần-era Vietnam three times, but each campaign ended in failure. Cai Tinglan miswrote the final name: Trần Quang Nhuế 陳光昺 should be Trần Hoảng 陳晃.

5. 5. More commonly known as Hồ Hán Thương.

6. 6. More commonly known as Lê Huyền Tông.

7. 7. We have corrected the text here. He wrote 阮光年 rather than 阮光平, an alternate name of Nguyễn Huệ.

8. 8. The above historical overview uses the names used in Chinese historical records rather than Vietnamese records and is generally written from a Chinese perspective. It seems more likely that Cai derived his understanding here from Chinese texts than from conversation with Vietnamese people.

9. 9. This is Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (1762–1820), who took the reign name Gia Long after establishing the Nguyễn dynasty in 1802.

10. 10. Historical names for Sài Gòn, now Hồ Chí Minh City. Cai Tinglan is transcribing what he heard or what he was shown. Lũng Nại is more recognizable in Vietnamese as “Đồng Nai 鹿野” (Donnai) but does seem to reflect a contemporary pronunciation. George Staunton, secretary to the Lord Macartney mission to China of 1793, refers to “the province of Donai, or southern part of Cochin-china,” in his account, 376. See also the 1822 journal of John Crawfurd, head of British mission to Siam and Cochinchina: “Two American ships have obtained full cargoes at the Port of Saigon, or Longnai, as it is called by the Chinese.” Crawfurd, Journal, 44. For the history of the place-name Đồng Nai, see Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mạng, 23.

11. 11. Thái Đức is the reign name of Nguyễn Nhạc (r. 1778–1888), one of the founding brothers of the Tây Sơn dynasty (1778–1802). We have corrected where the text reverses the order of the characters as Định Bình. This is referring not to the current province but to the port city now known as Quy Nhơn that is the capital of the province.

12. 12. Nguyễn Huệ, one of the Tây Sơn brothers, who reigned as the Quang Trung emperor from 1788 to 1792.

13. 13. In fact, Thái Đức (the reign name of Nguyễn Nhạc), Quang Trung (the reign name of Nguyễn Huệ), and Nguyễn Lữ, the founders of the Tây Sơn, were biological brothers. There is no textual evidence that they became blood brothers with Nguyễn Ánh, the future Gia Long emperor.

14. 14. Cai Tinglan slightly misunderstands the political situation, but in a way that is revealing of how people thought at the time. See introduction.

15. 15. The junior mentor Trần Quang Diệu and the grand minister of the masses Vũ Văn Dũng were two of the most important Tây Sơn generals. Both were captured (see below) and beheaded in Huế in 1802.

16. 16. The events that Cai Tinglan is describing, the siege of the citadel of Quy Nhơn, occurred in 1800–1. The son-in-law was actually Gia Long’s brother-in-law (married to his sister), Võ Tánh. Võ Tánh in fact blew himself up with gunpowder as part of negotiations for the Tây Sơn to spare his soldiers.

17. 17. He Xianwen or Hà Hiến Văn 何獻文. This person is mostly likely He Xiwen (Hà Hý Văn 何喜文), actually a native of Sichuan, who was active in Fujian and Guangdong before arriving in Vietnam.

18. 18. In fact, Quang Trung had died in 1792. Cai Tinglan is most likely mixing him up with his son, Nguyễn Quang Toản.

19. 19. Đông Kinh and Thăng Long are two historical names of the city now called Hà Nội. Thăng Long is also written with the characters 昇龍, “Ascending Dragon.”

20. 20. This refers to the Lê Văn Khôi revolt, 1833–1835.

21. 21. The Nông Văn Vân 農文雲 rebellion, 1833–35. Incidentally, Nông Văn Vân was Lê Văn Khôi’s brother-in-law.

22. 22. The second edition changed this line to “The people I spoke with about this all blamed Tang people.”

23. 23. The Quang Trung emperor’s son Nguyễn Quang Toản reigned from 1792 until his execution in 1802. His two reign names were Cảnh Thịnh and Bảo Hưng. In the text, the character hưng 興 is mistakenly written as điển 典. Cai Tinglan also mistakenly thinks these names describe two different people. He is also probably mixing up Nguyễn Quang Toản with his father. The Quang Trung emperor did not lead a gang from the mountains, having died in 1792 at the height of Tây Sơn power. His son did have to flee before the Nguyễn army, although he also did not lead a gang in the mountains.

24. 24. Meaning government control cannot reach faraway places.

25. 25. This refers to the fact that unlike the Qing dynasty, the palace examinations in Nguyễn Vietnam did not grant the special titles for the top three winners. See the introduction for the contemporary situation in Qing China.

26. 26. John White described these contraptions thusly while in Saigon in December 1819: “There are no wheel-carriages in Cochin China, either for pleasure or utility. Persons of distinction are carried in hammocks of cotton netting, generally blue, in which is a mattress and pillows to recline upon. The hammock is suspended to a pole, over which is placed a canopy resembling a huge tortoise-shell, and made impervious to the weather by a glossy black varnish; the vehicle is carried by four or six men, one half at each end.” White, History of a Voyage, 319.

27. 27. For a longer description and illustrations of soldiers’ uniforms, see Trần Quang Đức, Ngàn Năm Áo Mũ, 345–47.

28. 28. Later editions insert this line: “They always use rattan switches for flogging. For petty crimes people wear a bamboo cangue and for more serious crimes they wear a wooden cangue with handcuffs.”

29. 29. Here Cai Tinglan uses the Chinese characters luanba 亂霸 phonetically to represent the Vietnamese phrase “nằm vạ.”

30. 30. Elephant and tiger battles were indeed staged for the royal family in an open field, as described in Cai. In 1830, the Hổ Quyền arena was built outside Huế, and hosted the fights until 1904.

31. 31. The character for chú is 叔.

32. 32. Here the text uses Jiutian Yuannü 九天元女 instead of the more common 九天玄女 Jiutian Xuannü.

33. 33. Here Cai Tinglan is using Chinese characters to phonetically represent Vietnamese sounds, but it is not entirely clear what word he is writing. There is also variation between editions. The second edition has bản khấu本扣.

34. 34. The term used here, luantong 孌童, is often translated as catamite and implies sexual availability.

35. 35. The term tianmo wu 天魔舞 literally means the “dance of the heavenly monsters,” but here it has a Buddhist connotation.

36. 36. This story comes from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo yanyi, fourteenth century).

37. 37. The character Cai Tinglan uses is 喃喃, the same character, transcribed as Nôm, used to designate the Vietnamese demotic script. Cai, however, never mentions Nôm in his account, so his use of the character is probably coincidental.

38. 38. For more on this shipbuilding technique, see Preston, “The Use of Basketry,” 23–58.

39. 39. By saying the “Western ships are terrified,” the text refers to the woven ships in battle against the Dutch. See the relevant passage by the contemporary of Cai Tinglan, Xu Feng’en 許奉恩 (ca. 1862) in Licheng, 9:256.

40. 40. Peanuts here are called first luohuasheng 落花生 and then tudou 土豆. Tudou usually means potato, but it was a variant for peanut in Taiwan.

41. 41. Da Zhang walked across China from east to west and Shu Hai walked from north to south. This myth can be found in early Chinese texts such as Shanhai jing 山海經, Huainanzi 淮南子, and the Wuyue Chunqiu 吳越春秋.

POSTSCRIPT ONE

1. 1. Liu Hong’ao 劉鴻翱 (1778–1849) was the surveillance commissioner of Taiwan in 1836, when this postscript was written.

2. 2. Xiong put Cai among great authors in traditional China who experienced exile and died by drowning: Qu Yuan (?–278 BCE) was exiled twice, to Ankang of modern day Shaanxi Province, and Qingyang of modern day Anhui Province, respectively; Wang Bo (650–675 CE) visited his exiled father in Vietnam and died on the way back; Li Bai (701–762 CE) was sentenced to be exiled to Yelang in modern day Guizhou Province and was pardoned on his way there.

3. 3. Shizhou 十洲, literally, “ten isles.” This phrase evokes distant places filled with amazing things.

POSTSCRIPT TWO

1. 1. The circuit intendant and the prefect refer to Zhou Kai and Liu Hong’ao, respectively. However, it is worth mentioning that in his preface, Liu was already promoted to surveillance commissioner of Shaanxi Province.