CHAO JU-KUA (1274)

Trade official whose two-volume work "Chu fan chih or Description of the Barbarians" is one of the best known and most wide-ranging accounts of foreign places and goods at the time of the Sung dynasty (960-1279).

Chao, a member of the Sung Imperial family, held the position of superintendent of customs at the great port of Ch´üan-chou in Fukien Province in southern China. There he met Arab and Indian merchants, from whom he gathered his geographical information.

His descriptions of places close to China are accurate but not so reliable for more distant places. In the first volume he writes of Japan, Korea, the Philippines, India, Africa, the Arab lands, and even Europe. Chao explains that if one travels north from Spain "for two hundred days, the days are only six hours long". This reference to northwest Europe is the first of its kind in Chinese literature. Other European nations, such as Sicily, are minutely described.

In his second volume, Chao details the various articles imported into China from foreign lands. His work not only shows the tremendous volume of trade between China and foreign countries during the Sung dynasty but also demonstrates the knowledge the Chinese had of Europe befor the Mongol invasion opened East Asia to European travellers sucha as Marco Polo.