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Tuan Ch'eng-Shih (863)
(Yu-yang-tsa-tsu)
(assorted dishes from Yu-Yang)
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Duan Chengshi 段成式; Tuan Ch'eng-shih (d863) was a Chinese poet and writer of the Tang Dynasty. He was born to a wealthy family and his family background enabled him to obtain office without taking the Imperial exams. As a poet, he was associated with Li Shangyin and Wen Tingyun. His book: Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, was published shortly after he returned to Chang'an after his term of acting Governor of Jizhou. Duan is also known for describing in his written work of 863 AD the slave trade, ivory trade, and ambergris trade of Bobali, which believed to be what is now Berbera in Somaliland.

 

The picture left is from the 1600 Ming encyclopedia. The picture with the cow and two men has written on the top: 拨拔力国 Bo ba li guo . The text reads: These people in the south seas are not acquainted with the five cereal crops. They eat only meat, and are accustomed to pierce their cattle for blood, and this they drink unboiled with milk. They do not wear clothes, but use sheepskins to cover their lower parts. The other picture of two black man carrying a third one: Bo si guo 波廝國 These are extremely short black man. The king wears on the head the skin of a tiger, he is riding basket out of the soft side pocket of the elephant they take fresh meat, also the valuable things and other items.

Text taken from:- Freeman Grenville: Selected Documents
                           -Esmond Bradley Martin:History of Malindi
                           -Duyvendak: China's discovery of Africa
                           -Neville Chittick : East Africa and the Orient.
Also called Duan Chengshi

N-SOMALIA

Southwest from Fulin
(the roman orient), after one traverses the desert for two thousand miles is a country called Ma-lin. (is not Malindi) Its people are black and their nature is fierce. The land is pestilentious and has no herbs, no trees, and no cereals. They feed the horses on dried fish, the people eat hu-mang (the Persian date). They are not ashamed of debauching the wives of their fathers or chiefs, they are the worst of all barbarians. In the seventh moon they rest completely (Ramadan). They then do not send out nor receive any trade and sit drinking all night long.    

BERBERA

The land of Po-pa-li (Bobali) is in the south-western Ocean. The people do not eat any of the five grains but they eat meat: more frequently even they pick a vein of one of their oxen, mix the blood with milk and eat it raw. They have no clothes, but they wrap around their waists a sheep's skin which hangs down and covers them. Their women are clean and well behaved. The people of the country themselves kidnap them and sell them to strangers at prices many times more then they would fetch at home (1). The products of the country are ivory and "a-muat"
(ambergris)(he is the first Chinese to mention it).
When Possu
(Persian) traders wish to enter this country, they gather about them several thousand men and present them with strips of cloth. All, whether old or young, draw blood and swear an oath, and then only do they trade their goods.
From of old this country has not been subject to any foreign power. In fighting they use elephant's tusks, ribs, and wild buffaloes' horns as spears, and they have cuirasses and bows and arrows. They have twenty myriads of foot soldiers. The Arabs are continually making raids on them
.

 

 Taken from : https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/酉陽雜俎/卷四

 

(Yuan 16) The Possu call the ivory tusk white (bai'an) and dark: rhinoceros is dark (hei'an)

Note the Possu (Bosi) here is a different one; in Sumatra. 

(1) Other authors writing on enslaving (children): Tuan Ch'eng-Shih (863); Jahiz: Sudan (869); Abu Zaid al Hassan (916); Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad (1017); Marvazi (1120); Mudjmal al -Tawarikh wa-l-qisas (1126); Al Idrisi (1150); Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi (1434); Ibn al Wardi (1456); Al Himyari; (1461).