# Chinese records of the Somali coast, 800s–1200s: Po-pa-li, Pi-p'a-lo and Chung-li > What Tang and Song Chinese writers recorded about the Somali coast between the 800s and 1225, in their own words, with the full texts. Source page: https://calankii.com/en/history/chinese-records-of-the-somali-coast/ Last checked: 2026-11-12 Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com) ## In short Chinese writers knew of the Somali coast centuries before any European wrote about it in detail. Their reports came from Arab and Persian sailors and merchants in the ports of southern China. The two key texts are by Duan Chengshi (mid-800s) and Zhao Rugua (1225). Both were translated into English by Friedrich Hirth and W. W. Rockhill in 1911; the quotations below are from that edition ([Hirth and Rockhill, *Chau Ju-kua*, 1911](https://archive.org/details/chaujukuahiswork00chauuoft)). ## Po-pa-li: Duan Chengshi, mid-800s Duan Chengshi was a Tang dynasty official and writer. His *Youyang zazu* ("Miscellany from Youyang"), written in the middle of the 9th century, has the earliest known Chinese account of the Somali coast. He called it *Po-pa-li* (in Cantonese *Pat-pat-lik*). Hirth and Rockhill translate it in full (p. 128, note 1): > "The land of Pa-pa-li is in the south-western Ocean. They do not eat any cereals, but they eat meat; more frequently even they prick a vein of one of their oxen, mix the blood with milk and eat it uncooked. They have no clothes, but they wrap round their waists a sheep's skin which hangs down and covers them. Their women are clear-skinned and well-behaved. The people of this country make their own countrymen prisoners whom they sell to strangers at prices many times more than they would fetch at home. The products of the country are elephants' tusks and *a-mo* perfume [ambergris]." He describes how trade was done: > "When Po-ssi [Persian] traders wish to enter this country, they form a caravan of several thousand men, and after having made the natives a present of strips of cloth, all of them both young and old draw blood by pricking themselves and take an oath, after which they trade their goods." And how the land defended itself: > "From of old this country has never been subject to any foreign power. In fighting they use elephant's tusks, ribs, and wild cattle's horns as spears, and they have corselets, and bows and arrows. They have twenty myriads of foot-soldiers. The Arabs are continually making raids on them." "Twenty myriads" is 200,000. The *New Book of Tang* (*Xin Tang shu*) repeats this account in shorter form (Hirth and Rockhill, p. 129). ## Pi-p'a-lo: Zhao Rugua, 1225 Zhao Rugua was a member of the Song imperial family and the inspector of foreign trade at Quanzhou, then one of the world's busiest ports. In 1225 he wrote the *Zhufan zhi* ("Description of the Foreign Peoples"). Chapter 25 is on *Pi-p'a-lo*, which the translators identify as "Berbera, the Somali coast generally" (Hirth and Rockhill, pp. 128–129): > "The country of Pi-p'a-lo contains four cities; the other places are all villages which are constantly at feud and fighting with each other. The inhabitants pray to Heaven and not to the Buddha. The land produces many camels and sheep, and the people feed themselves with the flesh and milk of camels and with baked cakes." > "The other products are ambergris, big elephants' tusks and big rhinoceros horns. There are elephants' tusks which weigh over one hundred catties, and rhinoceros horns of over ten catties weight. The land is also rich in putchuck, liquid storax gum, myrrh, and tortoise shell of extraordinary thickness, for which there is a great demand in other countries." He also describes the ostrich ("camel-crane"), the giraffe (*tsu-la*, from the Persian), and the zebra, "a kind of mule with brown, white and black stripes", hunted by the people "with poisoned arrows". The translators suggest the four cities were "probably Berbera… Zeila… Magadoxo [Mogadishu]… and possibly Brawa", and that "inhabitants pray to Heaven" means the people of the four cities were Muslims (p. 129, notes 1–2). ## Chung-li: Zhao Rugua, 1225 Chapter 27 is on *Chung-li*. Hirth and Rockhill write that "there is no doubt… that the region to which it is applied is the Somali coast, but it included the island of Socotra", and that "the town in which the king of Chung-li lived may well have been Magadoxo" (pp. 131–132, note 1). Zhao Rugua writes (pp. 130–131): > "The inhabitants of the Chung-li country go bareheaded and barefooted, they wrap themselves in cotton stuffs, but they dare not wear jackets, for the wearing of jackets and turbans is a privilege reserved to the ministers and the king's courtiers. The king lives in a brick house covered with glazed tiles, but the people live in huts made of palm leaves and covered with grass-thatched roofs. Their daily food consists of baked flour cakes, sheep's and camel's milk. There are great numbers of cattle, sheep and camels." > "Among the countries of the Ta-shi this is the only one which produces frankincense." *Ta-shi* is the Chinese name for the Arab and Muslim lands. He also records: - **Funerals.** Mourners came with swords and asked how the dead person died. If killed by someone, "we will revenge him on the murderer with these swords". If the death was "by the will of Heaven, they throw away their swords and break into violent wailing." - **Whales.** Huge dead fish washed ashore were used for oil to caulk boats and light lamps, and their bones for rafters, doors and mortars. - **Sorcerers.** People said some could stop a ship until a trade dispute was settled; "the government has formally forbidden this practice." - **A mountain or island** on the border of Pi-p'a-lo, "four thousand li around", yielding dragon's-blood resin, aloes, tortoiseshell and ambergris. The translators take this to be Socotra. ## What archaeology adds Sada Mire reports Chinese ceramics from the Yuan (13th–14th century) and Ming dynasties in surface finds at the ruined town of Fardowsa near [Sheekh](/en/regions/sheikh/), along with Sasanian pottery of the 8th century. She writes that China traded with this region "from the Tang dynasty (indirectly)", and that by the Song and Yuan, China "had a very detailed knowledge of places like Berbera… as well as other southern Somali towns such as [Barawa](/en/regions/barawa/)… and Mogadishu", citing the Chinese historian Li Anshan ([Mire 2015, *African Archaeological Review* 32](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-015-9184-9)). ## Related pages - [Frankincense and myrrh: the ancient Somali incense trade](/en/history/ancient-frankincense-and-myrrh-trade/) - [Before 1300: the ancient Somali lands](/en/history/ancient-somali-lands-before-1300/) - [Mogadishu, Zeila, Berbera and Barawa, 1331–1586](/en/history/somali-coast-towns-1331-1586/) --- I want to help with this: email hello@calankii.com. Fix this page: email hello@calankii.com with the page link and your source.