Claudine Salmon
A Tentative Interpretation of the Chinese Inscription (1231) Engraved on a Bronze Gong Recovered in Muara Jambi (Central Sumatra) (*)
In order to better appraise the inscription, we will first briefly present the archaeological site of Muara Jambi, the circumstances of the gong's recovery, and the significance of the discovery in the Chinese and the Insulindian contexts of the time. We will also reflect on the gong from a technical point of view, emphasizing its unusual features as compared to other recovered instruments, and provide a brief overview of uses of gongs in Song times; finally we will present the inscription and elaborate on its contents.
The setting
Muara Jambi is located to the northeast of the present Jambi, capital of the province of the same name, at a distance of about 25 km, on the left bank of the Batang Hari River. The antiquities, located a few hours downstream, were first noticed by the English lieutenant S. C. Crooke who visited the place in 1820. He writes: (2)
Moeara Djambi is said to have been a capital town, and to have in its vicinity ruins of brick or stone buildings, containing images and other sculpture; but time was wanting to
1. We are indebted to Deng Xiaonan i$ /Jn $jf, Claude Guillot, Christian Lamouroux, Michèle Pirazzoli-t'Serstevens, Geoff Wade, Yang Baoyun |§ ^ £§ for several discussions, to P.-Y. Manguin for his photographs, M.-F. Dupoizat, Daniel Perret, and François Picard for having provided information, and to Mary Somers Heidhues for her editing of the text.
2. Quoted from F.-M. Schnitger, Forgotten Kingdoms in Sumatra, introduction by John N. Miksic, Singapore, Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press, Oxford in Asia Paperbacks, 1964 (first published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1939), p. 12.
Archipel 66, Paris, 2003, pp. 91-112
