Lung-t'sing 龙精

In the Hirth and Rockhill translation of the Chu-fan-chi (Zhufanzhi) of Chau Ju-Kua, the title of the king of Sanfotsi (Sanfoqi) is given:

They style their king Lung-ts'ing (龙精). He may not eat grain, but is fed on sha-hu; should he do otherwise, the year would a dry one and grain dear. He also bathes in rose-water; should he use ordinary water, there would be a great flood.

Various explanations have been offered to explain the title Lung-ts'ing (long jing) including translations of local Sanfotsi words. Suggested meanings include "Dragon Sperm" and "Perfected Dragon."

More likely the term is an attempt to transliterate a native word. Hirth and Rockhill suggest the first part "lung" might be related to Malay arung "kings."

If we take the southern pronunciations, merchants from Quanzhou may have used something closer to "Lungzing," while "Lungzeng" would be a possible Canton version. The character ts'ing or jing 精 in the South would be pronounced zing, zeng, zin, etc. Lungzeng or Lungzing could have been an early corrupt rendering of "Lusung" or "Lusong." Otherwise the latter name appears correctly starting in the Ming Dynasty.

Thus, Lung-ts'ing may come from a title like "King of Luzon (Lusung)."

The name Lusung, as we have discussed previously in this blog, would refer to the sacred mountain of the Sanfotsi kingdom. There exists today other mountains, hills and geologic formations in the region with names that are cognate to lusung "mortar" including Mt. Lusong in Benguet, northern Luzon; Mt. Lesong in Bali and Batu Lesong in Malaysia. These names probably derive from the mortar-like shape of the landmarks.

The lusung or mortar-shaped sacred volcano in this case would be Mt. Pinatubo (and Mt. Arayat) located in the region and kingdom known as Sambali, the latter word giving rise to the Chinese name Sanfotsi (saam-bat-zi) in our estimation. The location was described as rich in alluvial gold. During the mid-10th century, Akbar al-Sin states that

"near Zabaj is a mountain called the Mountain of Fire, which it is not possible to approach. Smoke escapes from it by day and a flame by night, and from its foot comes forth a spring of cold fresh water and a spring of hot water."

The palace of the king of Zabag, again the Arab name for Sanfotsi, was described in Muslim texts as located at the water's edge of an estuary close enough to the "bay of Zabag" that saltwater flowed during high tide and freshwater during ebb. Such an estuary, it's been suggested earlier, was known in the local language as sapa, sabang or sapang from which the Arab place-name "Zabag" would be derived. Abu Zayd said that the kingdom of Zabag faced China, probably referring to the southern port of Canton, which would have been directly across the Nanhai (South Sea) to the northwest. This geographical description is confirmed by Mas'udi who states that the kings of the Khmer kingdom (Cambodia) face toward the kingdom of Zabag during their morning prayers i.e., toward the East, the sunrise.

As an aside, on Chau Ju-Kua's statement above that the king must eat sha-hu (sago) and bathe in rose-water to avoid famine and flood respectively, this is an example of the sacred king seen as an embodiment of nature and the kingdom. We find this concept widely spread in the galactic polities of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Hirth, F. and W. W. Rockhill. Chau Ju-kua. His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the 12th and 13th Centuries, entitled Chu-fan-chi, St. Petersburg, 1911.

Image of a Ruson-tsubo

I found this image of a ruson-tsubo, an earthenware jar from Luzon used in Japan for aging tea leaves, on Kenichi Tsunoda blog "Ken's Green Tea Salon."


Click on image for full-size version

The jar was imported in the 16th century and is made of lightweight, low density clay. The porous clay "breathes" making it ideal for tea leaf fermentation. Traditionally leaves were picked in the spring and aged until about November.

European observers in the 16th century noted that it was the 'homely' earthenware jars that were most valued often commanding outrageous prices. Luzon jars became popular in the Muromachi Period, and at least one source claims they were imported as early as Sung Dynasty times. Some of these jars were considered magical and animate in the Philippines and neighboring Borneo.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Rusun (Glossary)

Rusun is the Japanese name used for the kingdom of Lusung on the island known today as Luzon in the Philippines. It is also rendered as Roson, Rokusan, Roxon, Ruson, etc.

Arai Hakuseki's narrative on the captivity of Pere Sidotti written in 1710 states:

"...Roxon from the time of the So and Gen until now being written Roson, jars that have come from that country are thought convenient by my countrymen to keep tea in, and the name Roson jars is understood by every one..."

The So and Gen mentioned by Hakuseki are the Sung and Yuan dynasties of China. Certainly by the early Muromachi period of Japan (1334—1467), imported tea pottery from the Namban or "Southern Barbarian" regions including Rusun was popular among the upper classes.

It could be argued though that Japan had much longer relations with the South if we conclude that the location of the Fusang Tree in Chinese tradition was found in Southeast Asia, or specifically in Rusun/Luzon. Most of the notices of travel to the location of the Fusang Tree use the kingdom of Wa, the ancient Chinese name for Japan, as a reference point, including the time of sailing from Japan to that southern region.

Also, Japanese legends of fairy lands like Yominokuni, Nenokuni and Tokoyonokuni are linked in the literature with the Chinese locations of the Fusang Tree, the Land of Yellow Springs and Penglai (Horaisan), which were generally envisioned as somewhere beyond the Southeastern Sea of Chinese texts.

This might explain why the tea jars and canisters of Rusun came to be so highly-valued aside from any practical qualities they may have possessed. It was from the earth of a sacred mountain on one of these fairy lands that the Emperor Jimmu was told to make sacred sacrifical jars during his military expeditions.

Japanese legend tells of ancient people from southern Kyushu like the Hayato or "Falcon People" who were a type of dog-man folk said to bark (inugoe) like dogs. Eventually in their role as an imperial guard caste they formally dressed like dogs and performed dog barking rituals to drive away malevolent spirits from the court, or to announce the arrival of the Emperor across provincial borders.

Another people from southern Kyushu, cousins of the Hayato, are said to have sailed to their home along the Kurushio Current. It was this "Black Tide" that brought people from the fairy lands to the Ryukyus and Japan. The Japanese might have retained knowledge of the location of this ancient region, or they just might have surmised the location later as the Kuroshio Current passes along the eastern coast of Luzon.

Rusun and Japanese Christianity

It might come as a surprise to many that Japan's "Hidden Christians" (Kakure Kirishitan) came to view Mary and Jesus as natives of Rusun, as well making Mary the wife of the King of Rusun after giving birth to Jesus!

However this is exactly what is relayed in the Tenchi no Hajimari no Koto "Beginning of Heaven and Earth," the gospel of the Kakure Kirishitan probably first printed in 1823, from earlier oral texts. The oral traditions continued even after the printed form came into being.

There have been various explanations as to why the Christian gospel would be partly localized in Rusun as well as ethnologized to the people of Rusun. The most obvious explanation to this author is the connection with the indigenous Japanese concepts of heavenly "other worlds" like Takamagahara, which they located to the south along the Kuroshio Current.

In the Tenchi, Maruya (Mary) is born in Rusun (Roson), where she eventually comes to be courted by the King of Rusun. However, as she has vowed to remain a virgin, she refuses his advances and instead ascends into Heaven. The king dies of a broken heart, and Mary is asked by God (Deusu) to return to earth so she can bear him as a child. She agrees and on one night Deusa descends in the form of a butterfly and enters the mouth of Maruya, who immediately conceives. She then undertakes a long quest to Bethlehem (Beren) where she gives birth to the child and the story connects somewhat at this time with the orthodox version.

Later, the Holy Mother Maruya asks Deusa to save the King of Rusun, which he does giving the king the title of Zejusu, and marrying Maruya and the King.

The lofty position of Maruya agrees with that of indigenous Japanese belief in Amaterasu. Maruya's ascent into Heaven could derive from the ascent of Amaterasu to Takamagahara "Plain of the High Heaven" where she bears the ancestors of the imperial family with her brother Susanoo.

Interestingly most of the Christian converts in Japan were natives of Kyushu with its traditional ties to the South. When the persecution of Japanese Christians broke out, many fled to Luzon and other parts of the Philippines where many of the missionary orders and groups in Japan were based. Those who stayed behind became the Kakure Kirishitan community of hidden Christians.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Arai, Hakuseki and W.B. Wright (translator). "The capture and captivity of Giovanni Batista Sidotti in Japan from 1709 to 1715," Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Asiatic Society of Japan, 1874, pgs. 156-72.

Hooker, Richard. Jimmu Tenno, http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ANCJAPAN/JIMMU.HTM, 1996.

Seattle Art Museum. International Symposium on Japanese Ceramics: Transcript, Seattle Art Museum. 1973, p. 172.

Whelan, Christal. The Beginning of Heaven and Earth: the sacred book of Japan's hidden Christians, University of Hawaii Press, 1996.

Glossary: Lusung

Although the kingdom of Lusung first becomes prominent in the Ming annals, it is highly likely that the Chinese knew of a related kingdom from the same area as Sanfotsi (the Zabag of the Muslims).

As discussed previously, Sanfotsi/Zabag was explicitly placed in the eastern South China Sea by both the Chinese and Muslim writers. The Chinese located it due south of Quanzhou (Tsu'an-chou) and the Muslims said that the kingdom lay in the eastern part of the Sea of Champa.

Muslim writers state that the capital of Zabag faced Champa, i.e., it was on the western side of the island, and was situated in a delta or estuary region effected by ocean tides.

In Hirth and Rockwell's translation of Chau Ju-Kua they give a contemporary Chinese account of the journey from Toupo, which was likely Toubak (old Cotabato in Mindanao), to China.

Two areas are of importance in locating Sanfotsi -- Lingyamon and Mai.

I have suggested that Lingyamon was Lingayen in northwest Luzon. It is described as the first major port one arrives at after leaving Quanzhou and is said to border Sanfotsi.

While Mai is sometimes equated with Panay in the Bisayas, it is more likely the island of Mindoro, northeast of the important isle of Palawan, where Chinese merchants sought highly-prized aphrodisiac bird's nests.

The directions from Toupo state that ships first headed northwest until reaching Mai, from Mai they continued northwest for a few days until reaching Sanfotsi.

Thus, Sanfotsi is located somewhere on the western coast of Luzon between Mindoro and Lingayen. Without a doubt, this would point to the riverine settlements around the Manila Bay.

At some point, the name Lusung is used to describe the kingdoms of this region.

The first mention of Lusung in the Ming-shi is in 1373. The country still had close relations with Quanzhou in modern Fukien province. By the middle of the 16th century, tens of thousands of Chinese merchants mostly from Fukien had come to trade or settle in Lusung.

"Lusung is situated in the southern seas not far from Chang-chou (in Fukien)...In the past, thousands of Fukienese merchants lived there for a long period without returning home, because the land was near and rich. They even had children and grandchildren."

-- Ming-shi (Dynastic annals of the Ming Dynasty)

The tradition of settling in Lusung continued even after the Spanish colonization. Traditional genealogies known as tsu-p'u tell of different families over many generations during the Ming era migrating to Lusung.

So close was the relation between Lusung and Quanzhou that, according to Tome Pires, Malay and Javanese ships were not allowed to enter Quanzhou, but the Luções could travel freely to the port city.

The Chinese in Lusung mainly lived across the Pasig River from the old fortress of Manila in an area now known as Binondo and the Parian.

The Japanese also maintained a presence in the Philippines before the arrival of the Spanish although apparently smaller than that of the Chinese. When the Spanish conquered Lusung, the lords of Pampanga conspired with Manila and then Tondo, with the help of local resident Japanese. One of their main efforts was to request help from the Taiko of Japan.

Later, the Japanese seem to have made Pampanga as one their main settlement areas. According to local tradition, Japanese merchants even founded the town of Mexico in Pampanga. This is logical as Mexico (Masicu) was an important port along the Abacan River for collecting deerskins and beeswax from the Sambal region-- two products highly valued by the Japanese. The local deer like the crococile of the Pampanga river system were eventually driven to extinction during Spanish times.

We find later that Japanese often served together with Kapampangans in the local armed forces and constabularies formed by the Spanish in the Philippines.

Lusung had very close relations with Brunei, and Pires describes the two as "almost one people."

Rui de Brito Patalim (1514), Alvarez (1515), Jorge de Albuquerque (1515) and da Costa (1518) all describe the inhabitants of Brunei as "Luções."

In Malacca, where a colony of Lusung traders was located at Minjam, a Lusung prince known as Regimo de Raja, was established by the Portuguese as temenggong (armed forces commander) and leader of the Malays until he died in 1513. He was the brother-in-law of pepper trader Surya Diraja. It appears that even before the Portuguese arrived, the Luções were handling all trade between Malacca and China.

Earlier it was mentioned that the Luções were viewed by the Portuguese as great "discoverers" who helped them with their explorations of Asia. The case of Black Henry who accompanied Magellan was also described.

One of the contentions of this blog is that the traditional lords of Lusung were interested very early in providing geographical information about the region to outsiders. Their purpose apparently to help stem the Muslim tide coming toward their own kingdom and swamping their old stomping grounds. By the time the Portuguese arrive on the scene, Lusung itself is already partially Islamicized. However, apparently there was much discord in the kingdom, something noted in European writings. It was this dissension that played a major role in the Spanish decision to attack Luzon.

However, we still continue to see what may be evidence of geographical assitance during this period.

Thomas Suarez in Early Mapping of Southeast Asia mentions that Thomas Cavendish obtained a Chinese-style map in the Philippines in 1588. And as late as the mid-1700s Alexander Dalrymple reported receiving a mysterious but accurate map from his servant of Luzon origin. However, the nature of the map is not known. By the late 1700s, the British had become very active in the region, even sacking Manila for a few years.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

E.J. Brill. Development and Decline of Fukien Province in the 17th and 18th Centuries, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990.

Ming-shi. (A translation of sections concerning Lusung can be found in: Felix, Alfonso. The Chinese in the Philippines, Manila, New York: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1966-69.

Reid, Anthony. Sojourners and Settlers: Histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese, University of Hawai`i Press, 1996.

Glossary: Luções

Luções was the Portuguese name for the people of the island of Lução, which is still the Portuguese name for Luzon island in the Philippines.

In Latin maps, Luzon was known as Luçonia or Lussonia both derived from Lução.

The word originates from Lusung (呂宋)), the Chinese name during the Ming dynasty for a kingdom in Central Luzon. Present-day Chinese in some areas still use the name Lusung for the city of Manila, the area surrounding Manila Bay, the island of Luzon and more generally for the nation of the Philippines.

Lusung (or Lusong) probably originates from a native word referring to a mortar used to pound rice. This device seems to have made it all the way to Guam along with rice culture from the Philippines.


A Chamorro woman in early Guam with a stone lusong rice mortar

Among the Chamorros, the term can also refer to artificial pools created along rivers. It is postulated these may have provided water for people pounding rice in the stone mortars. The lusong were usually carved out of river rock and may have also acted as bathing pools.

I have suggested that the name Lusung may be derived from a lake that once existed at Pinatubo, the sacred volcano of Central Luzon and different than the current one, that was thought of as a type of baptismal pool similar to the Krater of the early Greek alchemists.

As mentioned earlier in this blog, stone metates were found in the famed Pandanan wreck off the coast of the Philippines. The metates resembled the lusong of the Chamorro. Why were these simple mortars sought as trade items? Could it have been their value was augmented by the perceived sacred nature of the stone used to make them as I have also suggested was the case with earthernware Luzon jars?

Whatever the case, the name of the kingdom seems to have been derived from these rice mortars. Other theories postulate that the island of Luzon or the Manila Bay was perceived as having the shape of a lusung, or that the kingdom was famed as a rice granary.

The importance of the Luções during the Ming dynasty period and the arrival of early European explorers in Southeast Asia is apparent in their role as intermediaries throughout the region.

Luções were everywhere during this period acting as merchants, mercenaries, adminstrators, etc. from India to Japan according to varied sources.

In the 1500s, Portuguese writers mention a colony of Luções in Malacca sponsored by the Sultan of Malacca. They included many important personnel in the government of the sultan and merchants like one Surya Diraja a pepper trader who annually sent 175 tons of the valued spice to China. The sultan also hired a Lusung fleet when he attempted to wrest control of his city from the Portuguese in 1525.

The Sultan of Aceh hired Lusung ships and warriors when he attempted to gain control of the Straits of Malacca in 1529. The Luções also reportedly fought for the Menangkabau kingdom, and for both sides during the war between Burma and Siam in 1547.

In 1550, the Ming dynasty banned overseas trade as part of their overall anti-trade policy. According to Spanish sources during the Philippine invasion of Miguel Lopéz de Legaspi it was the Luções who filled in the gap handling the trade in Chinese goods throughout the region from their ports in Lusung. Apparently some junks still managed to reach Lusung Dao ("Golden Luzon") famed for its gold despite the Ming ban.

In 1545, the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fidalgo was driven to Luzon from Brunei by a storm and describes it as lying between nine and 22 degrees north latitude at its most southern and northern tips respectively. According to Fidalgo, the island was so rich in gold that the natives would give two pezoes in gold for one in silver despite the fact that they were acquainted with the relative value of these metals in China.

The gold was an important part of trade with the sultanate of Brunei with which Lusung had special relations. When Magellan arrived in this area, the Sultan of Brunei was highly dependent on a Lusung prince, who was widely feared throughout the region and who acted as "captain-general" of the sultan's fleet. Even across the bay from Brunei, the sultan reportedly had a fearsome "heathen" enemy whose city equaled that of the sultanate's capital.

Lusung ships carrying spices, gold, Chinese goods and other items regularly plied the seas of Southeast Asia and their pilots became important to the Portuguese in making contacts with both China and Japan. Lusung ships including some of Surya Diraja played a vital role in the first official Portuguese visit to China.

Bras Bayão, the Portuguese crown representative in Brunei, recommended Lusung pilots as "discoverers" for missions beyond China to Japan and indeed these seafarers played that role in the first official visit to Japan in 1543.

Lusung was known to the Japanese as Rusun, probably stemming from the native Kapampangan term lusung rather than Tagalog lusong.

According to the historical work the Tokiko, Japanese tea lovers cherished the Rusun no tsubo (Luzon pots) and Rusun no chaire (Luzon tea canisters). Multiple sources confirm that the most valuable of these were simple earthernware containers that the Japanese often gilded and embellished with gems. Like the metates/lusung, the value of these pots as trade items was not readily apparent. One master trader known as Rusun Sukezaemon made a fortune selling Luzon wares including some that he presented to the sengoku daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The record of the Luções in the 16th century indicate that they were very actively involved in the geopolitical events of the region, which was now the focus of the eyes of the "Old World." According to the Ming annals, the kingdom of Lusung was considered important enough for emperor Yung Lo, in the second year of his reign, to send the famed admiral Zheng Ho to attack Lusung and neighboring regions. The Chinese fleet made three attempts to subjugate Luzon prior to the arrival of the first Europeans on the scene about a century later.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Land of Sacred Jars

The pot of elixir was generally depicted as a globular vessel similar to the purna kalasa or "full pot" motif used in Hindu-Buddhist art, and often appearing in a reddish or brownish hue. Sometimes the pots used in ghata worship of the goddess as during the Devi and Durga puja rituals has the same shape. Similar pots occur in the early forms of the vessel of flowing water found in Mesopotamian art.

In the representations of this "merveilleux symbole qui etait comme le Saint-Graal de l'epopee chaldeenne," to quote the words of one of the greatest scholars of Sumerian antiquities, there can be recognized an "evolutionary" and more or less chronological sequence of types. At first there are plain globular vases, held by standing or seated personages, one hand below and the other on the vase.

-- Ananda Coomaraswamy, Yaksas

The amrita kumbha or "pot of elixir"

The sacred earthenware pots of Lusung were also generally of a globular shape and brownish or reddish color. They were of medium size that could be easily carried even when full of water.

In Japan, where we find the world's oldest known pottery, sacred jars are mentioned in the literature detailing the founding of the empire. The Japanese used these jars for storage and also for ritual sacrifice. In the Nihongi, the first emperor Jimmu Tenno meets a divine visitor during a war with his enemies and is told to make a great pot sacrifice to gain victory:

The Emperor, indignant at this, made prayer that night in person, and then fell asleep. The Heavenly Deity appeared to him in a dream, and instructed him, saying, "Take earth from within the shrine of the Heavenly Mount Kagu, and make from it eighty Heavenly platters. Also make sacred jars and sacrifice to the Gods of Heaven and Earth. More over pronounce a solemn prayer. If you do this, the enemy will render submission of their own accord."

In Southeast Asia, sacred jars were of several types. In addition to those used to store beverage and food, others were used for the practice of secondary burial. Both of these types of jars could also be handed down as sacred heirlooms known in Indonesia as pusaka. Jars were important status symbols and were used especially during marriage negotiations as one of the most coveted forms of bride wealth.

Pot worship was especially important in the Philippines, Borneo, Taiwan, among the Moi of Indochina and in certain other areas of Indonesia. Pottery is often the most important burial item in these regions where it is sometimes broken first, so the animistic spirit may accompany the deceased.

In latter times, Chinese celadons and large vessels known as dragon jars a type of stoneware, which, though of obvious Chinese influence, may have been of Southeast Asian manufacture. The simple earthenware pots became neglected and forgotten by the local people, but cherished by those abroad who had coveted them for ages.

Many fantastic traditions surround the sacred jars in insular Southeast Asia. In Borneo, the jars are said to be made of the gods from the same clay used to make the Sun and Moon (and sometimes also the Earth). Among the Tinguian of the Philippines, a certain jar named Magsawi was said to be able to converse, to take long journeys and even eventually got married to a female jar from a neighboring province. They eventually had a child jar with the same characteristics! According to the Tinguian, the sacred jars are the products of Kabonian, a deity with solar affinities.

Another tale of living jars comes from the tale of Gimbangonan:

Not long after he started, and when he arrived in the pasture, all the jars went to him, and all the jars stuck out their tongues; for they were very hungry and had not been fed for a long time. The jars were somadag, ginlasan, malayo and tadogan, and other kinds also. When Aponitolau thought that all the jars had arrived, he fed them all with betel-nut covered with lawed leaves. As soon as he fed, he gave them some salt. Not long after this they went to the pasture, and they rode on the back of a carabao [water buffalo].

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento