Manshu/Translator's Note

Other sources
Other sources for the Nanzhao period that could inform the translation include the following.


 * Stelae (碑)
 * The Dehua Bei (德化碑): A very large format inscribed tablet that is (was?) housed in a village between modern Dali and Xiaguan. My impression is that this chiefly records an account of Nanzhao's battles with the Tang.
 * A significant collection of stelae at the Dali Museum, including those in Sanskrit, some of which are not currently on display. It is unclear how to gain access to a list of these or published impressions.
 * Graves
 * There are a lot of funerary goods from different periods available. Some may hold information pertaining to the events or places described within the text.
 * Grottos (石窟)
 * Shizhongshan Grottos (石钟山石窟) in Jianchuan (剑川) county, today the southern portion of the Shibaoshan (石宝山) complex. Some famous historical poet fellow said the north has such-and-such famous Buddhist carvings (Something huge, like Datong), and the south has Shibaoshan. Well, it's so small they couldn't possibly have been drawing a literal equivalence but historically people from other places were still impressed. These days in my view the main draw is the undocumented yoni or oversized female genitalia, a rarely discussed if set-in-stone (and thus not quite concrete!) Hindu cultural link. Sixteen caves created from 850—1179 contain 139 statues including statues of kings, illustrations depicting politics of the monarchy, and statues of Guanyin, Pusa, and Mingwang. "The most representative items are Xi Nuluo Ji Hou Fei (illustration of Xi Nuluo with his queen and concubines), Yi Mouxun Yi Zhen Tu (illustration of Yi Mouxun discussing political affairs), Mingwangtang Badahufa Tu (illustration of the eight diamond-kings, or bodhisattvas, in their representations as fierce guardians of Vairocana), and Huayan San Sheng (illustrations of Vairocana, Manjusri, and Samantabhadra). These carvings not only reflect the influence of Buddhist principles but also show that the Nanzhao Dali rulers possessed a considerably high religious status." — more info from Academica Sinica in Taipei over here and over here.
 * Jizushan (鸡足山) in Binchuan (宾川) county has some inscriptions in Tibetan, which probably date from later periods. However, it may also have records from the Nanzhao period within its various constructions.
 * Illustrated scrolls... featuring black-skinned people with funny topknot hairdos.
 * Extract_of_the_Nanzhao_Tujuan_scroll.jpgNanzhao Tujuan (9th—10th century, 31.5cm x 5.8m) held at the Yurinkan Museum (有鄰館) in Kyoto, Japan. I don't think I have ever seen this published. I flew to Japan in April 2016 but could not view it or acquire a copy. Apparently it "describes the story of Xinuluo, the founder of Nanzhao. In it, he worships an iron post with eight other tribal leaders and was assured by Guanyin that his wife would attain Buddhahood. Later, Guanyin appears seven times to enlighten the Nanzhao Kingdom, making it the guiding regime of the entire southwest region of China." — Academica Sinica. Another report from an old page at Massey University, New Zealand claims this is "a scroll which bears dates corresponding to AD 899 and 946, but is probably a 12th-century copy of a 9th-century original - illustrated and analyzed in Chapin & Soper’s article."
 * Extract_of_Zhang_Shengwen's_Huajuan_Scroll.jpgZhang Shengwen - Huajuan (張勝溫 畫卷) (1180; 30 cm x 16m; held at the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院) in Taiwan). Allegedly  it "depicts the King of Nanzhao Dali Kingdom as worshiping the Buddha, and the Buddhist Diagram of the Dharmadhātu. This piece expresses an even more complicated and blended view of Buddhist cosmology and offers an extra account of the development of Dali Kingdom's Buddhist monarchy." — Academica Sinica. There are fragments of this online, hopefully, a high-resolution version will eventually be made available. I bought a copy of this at the National Palace Museum in 2010 — however it may be the Tujuan scroll and is currently in storage on another continent and inaccessible.
 * Other texts
 * The Nanzhao Yeshi (南詔野史) is a history of Nanzhao reportedly published in the Ming Dynasty by but possibly of earlier origin. It appears to be divided into a former (上卷) and later (下巻) scroll. The former has three parts, and the latter has four. It was produced in 1775. An edition was produced by the Yunnan People's Publishing House in 1990 under the title 南詔野史会証. Most but not all of this edition is available online at Nagoya University. A second, alleged complete copy of the text is available online at ctext.org.
 * The Yiwu Zhi (异物志; literally: "Record of Foreign Matters"), also known as the Jiaozhou Yiwu Zhi (交州异物志), Nanyi Yiwu Zhi (南裔异物志), Jiaozhi Yiwu Zhi (交趾异物志) and Yangyilang Zhushu (杨议郎著书) amongst others, is a treatise written by Eastern Han court advisor Yang Fu (杨孚) covering the people, geography, fauna, rice cultivation, fruit, trees, grass, bamboo, insects and fish of the South China Sea region. It is the first written Chinese account of the Lingnan area's produce, production methods, and Aboriginal customs. The Book of Sui and the New Book of Tang both cite from the Yiwu Zhi but from the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) the book became lost, although scattered references to it remain in works such as: Beitang Shuchao (北堂书抄)，Taiping Yulan (太平御览)，Extensive Records of the Taiping Era，Yiwen Julie (艺文聚类)，Commentary on the Water Classic，Qi Min Yao Shu，Guangyun, Taiping Huanyu Ji，Hailu Suishi (海录碎事)，Compendium of Materia Medica，Guang Qunfang Pu (广群芳谱)，Guangdong Xinyu (广东新语), and Guangzhong Tongzhi (广东通志) amongst others. In the first year of the Qing Daoguang Emperor (1821), Zeng Zhao (曾钊) produced a version of Yangyilang Zhushu (杨议郎著书) from ancient textual sources than in 1849 the Yiwu Zhi. In March 1947, The Commercial Press in Shanghai published a compendium of works based on the Yiwu Zhi followed in 1991 by the Guangdong Publishing Group (广东省出版集团) issuing the Lingnan Cultural Archive (岭南文库), which included Wu Yong zhang's (吴永章) work Yiwu Zhi Jiyi Jiaozhu (异物志辑佚校注).

About the translation
Hi there. I'm not a 'professional translator' but have lived in the Yunnan area on and off for 15 years and have some (very) limited academic background in ancient Chinese history and maintain it as an interest. Regarding this text, there are allegedly pre-existing translations in English, French and Vietnamese. I have also learned of a recent annotated publication of a different but related text — Fan Chuo, Yunnanzhi Buzhu (Supplementary annotation to the Record of Yunnan), annotated by Mu Qin (昆明 雲南人民出版社).

None of those works were viewed or consulted before or during the preparation of this translation, with the exception of the introduction to Gordon H. Luce's 1961 publication for which I received an online source after translating up to chapter 4 already. Basically it confirms my own impressions, which is a good sign, though it has some errors and has helped me to realize many of my own.

I've also been drawing maps as I go to help narrow down identifications and visually clarify geographic references, visiting some of the locations, and incorporating vintage imagery to add some context and depth to the text.

I hope you enjoy the translation. If you would like to get in touch with comments, corrections or suggestions then you are welcome to leave me a message. The translation began in Feburary 2015 and is progressed through 2018 to about 90% completion, at least as far as a 'first run' translation plus 10% of the secondary process of reviewing the translation against the previous English translation by Gordon H. Luce. This worryingly but thankfully turned up some interesting errors in the digital source text. I took field trips to some of the areas discussed, flew to Japan to try to look at a related source (but the 'museum' was locked and locals had no idea of how to gain access or if it was ever open!), and plan to do another field trip as well. I sure hope someone gets some use out of all this work!

Unfortunately some Wiki person decided to come and delete all of the maps on the basis they did not believe backgrounds topography was fair use. These were a cornerstone of the text and are now lost until I can obtain once more access to the original data which is in another country. It is doubtful if this will occur in the near term. Thus, the heart of the translation has been destroyed. I am so deeply saddened by this that I cannot continue.

However, it is heartening that multiple people did contact me with sympathy and support. In 2022 I was made aware of not one but two new translations, after this work. The first is also a 2022 creative commons licensed translation by Mr. Ludwig M Brinckmann of Yunnan Explorer which credits this translation and adopts a similar mode of presentation, and the second is a translation by the late Professor Bu Shaoxian of Dali University which was apparently completed in 2015 but only published in 2018. Therefore, should you be a scholar interested in furthering your knowledge of the text, those are probably excellent resources and no doubt in many ways superior to my own imperfect and now tragically cartographically eviscerated efforts.

Editions of the original
The real original is lost. The existing editions are partial or recompilations.

Chinese Wikipedia notes at least eight editions of the source text.

We are using a digital version (complete with its own newly introduced errors!) derived from the Wu Ying (Palace Museum Library) Jewelled Edition《武英殿聚珍版》. The transliterators of that version often refer to a Nanzhao chapter in the History of the Later Tang Dynasty 《新唐書》, which has some similar content but with which nontrivial semantic differences exist, and generally appear to trust these as well-reasoned corrections. They also draw corrections from Comprehensive mirror to aid in government《資治通鑒》, Book of the Eight Zhao 《八詔篇》 and other sources.

The existing (Gordon H. Luce) English translation is also based on the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries《四库全书》 — as well as a second source text only identified in broken Wade-Giles Pinyin as Chien-hsi-ts'un-she ts'ung k'o (from which a previous, lost translation was made by the same author). It is assumed that the French and Vietnamese versions are also most probably based on one of the first three.


 * Yongle Encyclopedia《永乐大典》— Commissioned by the Ming dynasty emperor Yongle in 1403 and completed by 1408.
 * Complete Library of the Four Treasuries《四库全书》— Height of the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century CE. This version is available online via Zhejiang University Library and archive.org.
 * Wǔyīng diàn jùzhēn bǎn (roughly Wu Ying (Palace Museum Library) Jewelled Edition)《武英殿聚珍版》— a movable type edition compiled in 1774, the basis of our translation.
 * Línláng mìshū cóngshū《琳琅秘书从书》
 * Jiànxīcūn shě cóngshū《渐西村舍从书》
 * Yúnnán bèi zhēngzhì《云南备征志》
 * Zhībùzú zhāi《知不足斋》
 * Mánshū jiàozhù《蛮书校注》— Published by the 中华书局 in 1962.

Differences with Gordon H. Luce's Previous translation
As well as specific differences in translation, this translation has the following benefits.


 * Typographic improvements


 * Paragraph-by-paragraph comparison of the source text, the translation and Luce's previous translation.
 * Inline Chinese.
 * Introduction of logical sections.
 * Bold place and personality names.
 * Use of modern Hanyu Pinyin.
 * Inset antique imagery for greater background context.
 * Numerous notes describing background information, research and translation-related decisions.
 * Hyperlinks to external references.


 * Superior maps


 * Our maps include both Chinese and English (using standard modern Hanyu Pinyin, except where a differing ancient pronunciation has been established), are based on accurate modern topographic satellite mapping, and are divided by route for additional clarity.
 * Translator's note: Note this cornerstone of the text was eviscerated by destructive wiki people, thus to my great dismay and alarm is no longer present.
 * Luce's previous translation, by contrast, offered Wade Giles romanizations on only a single line-drawn map for the whole volume which inexplicably appears to feature many place names that have no presence in the text whatsoever, while skipping over those that do.