當為轉輪聖王，王四天下：《梁書‧諸夷傳》脈絡中的南洋表文=Becoming the Wheel Turning King: Southern East Asia Official Correspondence in the Context of the "Records of Various Barbarians" in the Book of Liang
南洋表文=diplomatic documents of Southern East Asia; 六朝外交=diplomacy of Southern Dynasties; 佛教外交=Buddhist diplomacy; 梵文大都會=Sanskrit cosmopolis; 早期海上絲綢之路=the early maritime silk road; 歷史書寫=historiography
After leaving the Central Plains, the Southern Dynasties gradually established connections with Southern East Asia through religion and trade, and many diplomatic documents are preserved in historical records. Since the official correspondence from those countries had strong Buddhist influences, previous studies have focused on the role of Buddhism in diplomacy, considering it as a rhetoric intentionally employed by envoys and merchants to cooperate with the rulers of the Southern Dynasties. This article, examines the historical context of the writing and distinguishes the different meanings of the official correspondence within the indigenous Indian cultural sphere and in the context of Chinese historiography. Furthermore, it explores how the historians embedded this unfamiliar rhetoric and the underlying imagination of the Buddhist nation into the narrative of Buddhism. Specifically, this article focuses on the "Records of Various Barbarians" in the Book of Liang, using the concept of the " Sanskrit cosmopolis" to explain the linguistic conventions of the official correspondence. It then highlights the similarities and differences between the official correspondence recorded in the Book of Liang and the Book of Song, and places this textual phenomenon back into the context of the "Records of Various Barbarians," illustrating how the transmitted documents transformed the praises of the official correspondence into a confirmation of the achievements of Emperor Wu's Buddhist worldview, through the narrative of the spiritual resonance surrounding the Ashoka Stupa. This article argues that, contrary to conservative views on the interactions of trade with Southern East Asia in the past, although it did not completely break free from the constraints of traditional rhetoric of the universal order, the "Records of Various Barbarians" in a positive manner affirms Liang Emperor Wu's new diplomatic policies shaped by the Buddhist worldview.
