Place
Tuong Lam
The southernmost district of Nhat Nam commandery, bordering Lam Ap; by the Lam Ap ky as quoted in the Thuy kinh chu, in 43 Ma Yuan set up two bronze pillars at its southern edge as the southern frontier of the Han.
At a glance
- Location
- By the Lam Ap ky, the district’s southern edge marked the border with the kingdom of Tay Do; the small-print note in the Jin shu, under the district’s name, records that there are bronze pillars there now, likewise set up by the Han as a boundary marker, without naming Ma Yuan12
- Type
- The southernmost district of Nhat Nam commandery, bordering Lam Ap1
- Dates
- In 43, by the Lam Ap ky, Ma Yuan set up two bronze pillars at the southern edge of this district1
About the place
The old chronicles say
The Thuy kinh chu of Li Daoyuan, from the early sixth century, quotes the Lam Ap ky: in 43, Ma Yuan set up two bronze pillars at the southern edge of Tuong Lam district, marking the border with the kingdom of Tay Do, as the southern frontier of the Han. Tuong Lam was the southernmost district of Nhat Nam commandery, bordering Lam Ap. Both of the passages in that section that cite a source, Yu Yiqi’s letter and the Lam Ap ky, put the two pillars in that far south, and neither has an oath.1
A small-print note in the Jin shu, under the name of Tuong Lam district, also records: there are bronze pillars there now, likewise set up by the Han as a boundary marker — without naming Ma Yuan. By the Linh ngoai dai dap of 1178, the earliest place with the oath among the books examined, the pillar stands in Kham Chau, no longer at the southern edge of Tuong Lam.23
Mentioned in
Sources for this page
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