江苏太仓元代《昆山州重建海宁禅寺碑》所载南海交通史事拾遗

On the Historical Records of Transportations Through South China Sea in Kunshan Zhou Chongjian Haining Chansi Bei Built in Taicang,Jiangsu in Yuan Dynasty

江苏太仓现存元延祐二年(1315)《昆山州重建海宁禅寺碑》,记载了延祐元年(1314)上都国师经由太仓附市舶往阇婆国觅藏的史事,是反映元代海外交通的有价值的史料,但学者关注不多。整理碑文并结合元代海外交通的一般状况及相关传世文献记载,可知时值元廷海禁之后的开禁;或许可以推测早在延祐元年太仓就有市舶分司的设置;上都国师很可能是一位藏僧,所居可能在上都乾元寺;而此时的爪哇佛教仍然流行。

Kunshan Zhou Chongjian Haining Chansi Bei(The Stele of the Reconstruction of the Haining Zen Sect Temple in Kunshan Prefecture)was made in the second year of Yanyou of the Yuan Dynasty(1315),which stands in Taicang city of Jiangsu Province today.This stele recorded that Shangdu Guoshi(Buddhist master teacher of the empire who lived in Shangdu,the second capital of the Yuan Dynasty)waited in the Harbor of Taicang to take an official foreign trade sea boat to Shepo Guo(Java)for seeking the Tripitaka.This is a valuable record of the South China Sea transportation in the Yuan Dynasty,but historical Scholars didn’t pay enough attention to it though they knew this stele.Based on the content of the stele and other historical records,we can guess that the ban of foreign trade through maritime way was rescinded then,an import and export trade branch company was probably set up in Taicang as early as the first year of Yanyou(1314),the Shangdu Guoshi was probably a Tibetan monk who perhaps lived in Qianyuan Temple in Shangdu,and at that time Buddhism also prevailed in Java.