Zhou Daguan

• Chinese: 周達觀 (Zhou Daguan)

Zhou Daguan was a Chinese scholar-official dispatched by the Yuan Dynasty Court to accompany an embassy to Zhenla (Cambodia) in 1295. His record of his journey was published in English translation in 2007 as A Record of Cambodia - The Land and its People.

Very little is known of Zhou's biography.

He records that the Yuan established a province in Champa (southern Vietnam), and sent a general and a senior commander there, who were then seized and never returned. In 1295/6, the Yuan Emperor sent an official ambassador to investigate, and to deliver an imperial edict related to the matter; Zhou Daguan was among those who were to accompany the embassy. They departed from the city of Mingzhou in 1296/2, setting sail on 2/20. The embassy arrived in Champa on 3/15, finally making their way to Cambodia in the seventh month (autumn). After spending roughly eleven months in Cambodia, the embassy departed for home in 1297/6, arriving at Mingzhou by 8/12 of that year.

References

• Zhou Daguan, Peter Harris (trans.), A Record of Cambodia - The Land and its People, Silkworm Books (2007), 44-85.