“Truly a Distant and Dark Land”: the Rinan-Linyi Borderland in the Shuijing zhu

Abstract

Abstract This paper is about the depictions of the southern borderland of the Sinitic ecumene in the Shuijing zhu (written by Li Daoyuan in c. 515–524 ce) and the geographical concepts that frame this account. This borderland, in what is now central Vietnam, had been part of the classical Han empire (202 bce–220 ce) but began at the end of the second century to separate and form an independent state called Linyi (Lâm Ấp). In contrast to the stark boundaries depicted in Han imperial geographies, the Shuijing zhu describes the complexities of gradated frontiers and fluid borderlands. It explores the concept of environmental determinism in this exotic southern climate, and it reveals the challenges inherent in trying to expand geographical knowledge into new frontiers.