Zhao Rukuo ( zh, t=趙汝适, s=赵汝适, p=Zhào Rǔkuò; 1170–1231), also romanised as Zhao Rugua, Chau Ju-kua, or misread as Zhao Rushi, was a Chinese government official and writer during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

. He wrote a two-volume book titled '' Zhu Fan Zhi''. The book deals with the world known to the Chinese in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; the first volume is a list of foreign places with descriptions of each place and the customs of its local people. The second volume is a catalog of trade goods.

Biography

Zhao was a member of the

imperial clan, an eighth-generation descendant of Emperor Taizong in the lineage through the younger brother of

Emperor Zhenzong Emperor Zhenzong of Song (23 December 968 – 23 March 1022), personal name Zhao Heng, was the third emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 997 to his death in 1022. His personal name was originally Zhao Dechang, but was change ...

. He was born in Tiantai County in

Taizhou, Zhejiang Taizhou is a city located at the middle of the East China Sea coast of Zhejiang province. It is located south of Shanghai and southeast of Hangzhou, the provincial capital. It is bordered by Ningbo to the north, Wenzhou to the south, and Shao ...

in 1170. He began his career as a bureaucrat in 1190, and rose through the ranks. In 1224, he was appointed the supervisor of maritime trade (市舶司, ) in

Quanzhou Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

province. He also held the posts of prefect for Quanzhou as well the southern administrator. He died in 1231 and was buried in Linhai County in Zhejiang.

''Zhu Fan Zhi''

While working in Fujian, Zhao noted the commodities from various countries, and he had the opportunity to meet foreign merchants from whom he gathered information on various countries around the world. He also studied maps, and with the information that he collected, he wrote the book, which he finished around 1225. Many entries of ''Zhu Fan Zhi'' take information from an older work from 1178, '' Lingwai Daida'' by another geographer, Zhou Qufei ( zh, t=周去非, p=Zhōu Qùfēi, w=Chou Ch'ü-fei). However, a significant part of the book came from what he gathered from foreign and Chinese traders. Although Zhao had not travelled outside of China, the book contained valuable information on various countries in the thirteenth century for modern scholars. The countries ranged from those nearby such as

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, to the various kingdoms in South East Asia, such as

Srivijaya Srivijaya (), also spelled Sri Vijaya, was a Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia) that influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important ...

and

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

, places in India, to the Islamic heartland of Arabia and

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, as well as countries in Africa, and as far as southern Spain.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhao, Rukuo 1170 births 1231 deaths Historians from Zhejiang History of Kerala Song dynasty historians Song dynasty government officials Writers from Taizhou, Zhejiang Historians of India

Biography

''Zhu Fan Zhi''

See also

Notes

References