Two descriptions of Brunei in the Ming Period
Chinese sources play an important role in the historiography of ancient Brunei. The earliest known description of Brunei can be found in the book of Liang. During the Liang dynasty in the 6th century AD, many Chinese monks sailing to India landed in Brunei. During the Ming dynasty, Brunei was described in accounts of various Chinese travellers, such as Huang Xingzeng’s book Xi Yang Chao Gong Dian Lu (Tributes from the Western Countries) and Zhang Xie’s book Dong Xi Yang Kao (Studies on the Eastern and Western Oceans). They contained outlines of Brunei’s history, geography and trade, and they described the country’s diplomatic relations with China.
