Zhu Fan Zhi, variously translated as A Description of Barbarian Nations, Records of Foreign People, or other similar titles, is a 13th-century Song Dynasty work by Zhao Rukuo. The work is a collection of descriptions of countries and various products from outside China, and it is considered an important source of information on the people, customs and in particular the traded commodities of many countries in South East Asia and around the Indian Ocean during the Song Dynasty.
A page from Zhu fan zhi, with description of Jiaozhi.
Zhao Rukuo, also romanised as Zhao Rugua, Chau Ju-kua, or misread as Zhao Rushi, was a Chinese government official and writer during the Song dynasty. He wrote a two-volume book titled Zhu Fan Zhi. The book deals with the world known to the Chinese in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; the first volume is a list of foreign places with descriptions of each place and the customs of its local people. The second volume is a catalog of trade goods.
A page from Zhu Fan Zhi