It was reasonable to anticipate that in such records information would be found regarding the condition of Ceylon as it presented itself from time to time to the eyes of the Chinese; but unfortunately numbers of the original works have long since perished, or exist only in extracts preserved in dynastic histories and encyclopaedias, or in a class of books almost peculiar to China, called “tsung-shoo,” consisting of excerpts reproduced from the most ancient writers.  M. Stanislas Julien discovered in the Pien-i-tien, ("a History of Foreign Nations,” of which there is a copy in the Imperial Library of Paris,) a collection of fragments from Chinese authors who had treated of Ceylon; but as the intention of that eminent Sinologue to translate them[1] has not yet been carried into effect, they are not available to me for consultation.  In this difficulty I turned for assistance to China; and through the assiduous kindness of Mr. Wylie, of the London Mission at Shanghai, I have received extracts from twenty-four Chinese writers between the fifth and eighteenth centuries, from which and from translations of Chinese travels and topographies made by Remusat, Klaproth, Landresse, Pauthier, Stanislas Julien, and others, I have been enabled to collect the following facts relative to the knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Chinese in the middle ages.[2]

[Footnote 1:  Journ.  Asiat. t. xxix. p. 39.  M. Stanislas Julien is at present engaged in the translation of the Si-yu-ki, or “Memoires des Contrees Occidentales,” the eleventh chapter of which contains an account of Ceylon in the eighth century.]

[Footnote 2:  The Chinese works referred to in the following pages are.—­Sung-shoo, the “History of the Northern Sung Dynasty,” A.D. 417-473, by CHIN-Y[)O], written about A.D. 487,—­Wei-shoo, “a History of the Wei Tartar Dynasty,” A.D. 386-556, by WEI-SHOW, A.D. 590.—­Fo[)e]-Kou[)e] Ki, an “Account of the Buddhist Kingdoms,” by CH[)Y]-F[)A]-HIAN, A.D. 399-414, French transl., by Remusat, Klaproth, and Landresse.  Paris, 1836.—­Leang-shoo, “History of the Leang Dynasty,” A.D. 502-557, by YAOU-SZE-LEEN, A.D. 630.—­Suy-shoo, “History of the Suy Dynasty,” A.D. 581-617, by WEI-CHING, A.D. 633.—­HIOUEN-THSANG.  His Life and Travels, A.D. 645, French, transl., by Stanislas Julien.  Paris, 1853.—­Nan-she, “History of the Southern Empire,” A.D. 317-589, by LE-YEN-SHOW, A.D. 650,—­Tung-teen, “Cyclopaedia of History,” by TOO-YEW, A.D. 740.—­KE-NE[)E] si-y[)i]h hing-Ching, “Itinerary of KE-NE[)E]’s Travels in the Western Regions,” from A.D. 964-979.—­Tae-ping yu-lan, “The Tae-ping Digest of History,” compiled by Imperial Command, A.D. 983.—­Ts[)i]h-foo yuen-Kwei, “Great Depository of the National Archives,” compiled by Imperial Command, A.D. 1012.—­Sin-Tang-shoo, “A New History of the Tang Dynasty,” A.D. 618-906, by GOW-YANG-SEW and SING-KE, A.D. 1060.—­Tung-che,