Xi yu fan guo zhi explained

西域番国志 (Pinyin: Xi Yu Fan Guo Zhi or Hsi-yü fan-kuo chih; literally "A Record of the Barbarian Countries in the Western Region.") was a report submitted by Ming dynasty envoy Chen Cheng (陈诚) to the Yongle Emperor about the eighteen countries and territories he traveled through during 1414–1415 as a member of an embassy contingency, to the kingdom of Timurid in Central Asia.

Contents

Xi Yu Fan Guo Zhi consists of 18 chapters:

• Herat
• Samarkand
• Andkud
• Balkh
• Termez
• Shahrokhia
• Sayram
• Tashkent
• Bukhara
• Kesh
• Yanghikend
• Bishbalik
• Turpan
• Ya Er
• Yamshi
• Khocho
• Lukchun
• Kumul

English translation

There is no complete translation of the Xi Yu Fan Guo Zhi, however, there is an English translation of the first chapter:

• Morris Rossabi: "A Translation of Ch'en Ch'eng's Hsi-Yü Fan-Kuo Chih", Ming Studies, 17 (1983): 49–59.

See also

• Morris Rossabi, "Two Ming Envoys to Inner Asia," T'oung Pao, LXII/1-3 1976, 1-34.
• F. J. Hecker, "A fifteenth-century Chinese diplomat in Herat", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd series p85-91, 1993.
• Emil Bretschneider Mediaeval Researches vol 2, p 147.