Srivijaya, la Chine et les marchands chinois (Xe-XIIe s.). Quelques réflexions sur la société de l'empire sumatranais

Claudine Salmon During the last decades several studies that were aimed at analysing the relations between Srivijaya and China, and more especially the tributary missions, have appeared. More recently the emphasis has been placed on the images of Srivijaya in the Chinese sources of the 13th and 14th centuries. In this paper we intend to reappraise the Srivijayan tributary missions to China, as reflected in the Chinese sources of the time. In so doing, we try to cast some lights on the rather complex relations between the two countries, as seen at the cultural and economic levels and to emphasise the subtile part played by the merchants of Chinese origin at the court of Srivijaya. These merchants who were commuting between Sumatra and South China, and who apparently mastered the cultures of the two States, were in fact the real carriers of the Srivijayan diplomacy towards the Song. On the one hand, they elaborated a sophisticated religious schemes - such as construction of a Buddhist temple in honor of Emperor Zhenzong in Srivijaya, repair of an Imperial sanctuary in Canton, etc. - that were aimed to please the Chinese emperors who in turn provided them with trade facilities. On the other hand, they acted on behalf of the rulers of Srivijaya, whose personalities remain shadowy in the Chinese sources, but who apparently contented themselves with the benefits they received in return. Worth noting is the fact that for the Song period there already existed a merchant community, engaged in commerce on an international scale. And depending on the needs of the day, these merchants acted in the name of one State or of the other. This may explain why the Song sources easily "confuse" the ethnic origins of these merchants. One may infer from this that during the Song a socio-economic model of the kind well known in later periods already existed.