Like the Greek geographers, the earliest Chinese authorities grossly exaggerated the size of Ceylon: they represented it as lying "cross-wise" in the Indian Ocean[1], and extending in width from east to west one third more than in depth from north to south.[2] They were struck by the altitude of its hills, and, above all, by the lofty crest of Adam's Peak, which served as the land-mark for ships approaching the island. They speak reverentially of the sacred foot-mark[3] impressed by the first created man, who, in their mythology, bears the name of Pawn-koo; and the gems which are found upon the mountain they believe to be his "crystallised tears, which accounts for their singular lustre and marvellous tints."[4] The country they admired for its fertility and singular beauty; the climate they compared to that of Siam[5], with slight alterations of seasons; refreshing showers in every period of the year, and the earth consequently teeming with fertility.[6]
1: Taou-e ché-lëŏ, quoted in the Hae-kwŏ-too che, Foreign Geography, b. xviii. p. 15.
2: Leang-shoo, b. liv. p. 10; Nan-shè, b. lxxiii. p. 13; Tung-tëen, b. clxxxviii. p. 17.
3: The Chinese books repeat the popular belief that the hollow of the sacred footstep contains water "which does not dry up all the year round;" and that invalids recover by drinking from the well at the foot of the mountain; into which "the sea-water enters free from salt." Taou-e ché-lëŏ, quoted in the Hae-kwŏ-toô-ché, or Foreign Geography, b. xxviii. p. 15.
4: Po-wŭh Yaou-lan, b. xxxiii. p. 1. WANG-KE, Sŭ-Wan-hëentung-kaou, b. ccxxxvi. p. 19.
5: Tung-tëen, b. clxxxviii. p. 17. Tae-ping, b. dcclxxxvii p. 5.
6: Leang-shoo, b. liv. p. 10.
The names by which Ceylon was known to them were either adapted from the Singhalese, as nearly as the Chinese characters would supply equivalents for the Sanskrit and Pali letters, or else they are translations of the sense implied by each designation. Thus, Sinhala was either rendered "Seng-kia-lo,"[1] or "Sze-tseu-kwŏ," the latter name as well as the original, meaning "the kingdom of lions."[2] The classical Lanka is preserved in the Chinese "Lang-kea" and "Lang-ya-seu" In the epithet "Chĭh-too," the Red Land[3], we have a simple rendering of the Pali Tambapanni, the "Copper-palmed," from the colour of the soil.[4] Paou-choo[5] is a translation of the Sanskrit Ratna-dwipa, the "Island of Gems," and Tsĭh-e-lan, Seĭh-lan, and Se-lung, are all modern modifications of the European "Ceylon."
1: Hiouen-Thsang, b. iv. p. 194. Transl. M.S. Julien.