Xitu
Xitu was the Chinese designation for a historical region or a Chamic polity or kingdom that was first mentioned in the mid of fifth century AD, is believed to be one of the predecessors of Champa Kingdom. It has been proposed to be located in the Thu Bồn River Valley, present-day Quảng Nam Province, Central Vietnam.
Background
The Thu Bồn River Valley was known for being one of many sanctuary zones of the Sa Huỳnh culture, a seafaring culture that was distributed across the Central Vietnam coast and had links across the South China Sea to the other side in the Philippines archipelago and even with Taiwan, which now most archaeologists and scholars have consentient determined and no longer hesitant in linking with the ancestors of the Austronesian Cham and Chamic-speaking people.Ancient Central Vietnam is said, during the regency of Duke of Zhou, there was a tribe called Yuèshāng 越裳 brought two black pheasants and one albino to the court of Zhou dynasty, presented as tributes. The Nanyue kingdom based from present-day Guangzhou, was founded by Zhao Tuo, a former Chinese general of Qin Shihuangdi. Nanyue projected its power into present-day northern Vietnam, which eventually then was becoming the southernmost part of Nanyue. The region was annexed by the Han emperor Wudi in 111 BC, who incorporated those territories corresponding to modern-day north and central Vietnam into the Han Empire. Central Vietnam from south of Ngang Pass in Hà Tĩnh then became known as Rinan province, meaning "south of the sun."
In 192 AD, a revolt in Rinan led by Khu Liên, son of a local official, killing the Han magistrate in Xianglin county. Khu Liên then established a kingdom known to the Chinese as Lâm Ấp or Linyi. Lâm Ấp left no textual record. As reported by Chinese documents, there were several 'dozens' of small chiefdoms south of Lâm Ấp, such as Xitu, Boliao, and Quduqian. Quduqian sent an embassy to the Jin court in Luoyang in 286 AD.
By the fourth and fifth centuries AD, the first Sanskrit and Old Cam epigraphs emerged at the Thu Bồn River Valley and in Chiêm Sơn, Quảng Nam, south of Lâm Ấp. King Bhadravarman I who left these inscriptions, was either identified as various figures in Chinese annals. Mỹ Sơn and nearby Trà Kiệu could have been the center of Cham and precedent Sa Huỳnh culture, whence their settlements initially had already begun in the 1st-2nd century, with gradually Indian Hinduism and Buddhism diffusion might have reached there via neighboring Funan kingdom in the Mekong Delta and the maritime networks.
Georges Maspero identified Bhadravarman with Fan Huda in the Book of Jin. George Coedès speculates that Bhadravarman could be Fàn Fó. Most recently, British palaeographist William Southworth and French scholar Anne-Valérie Schweyer conjecture the profile of Bhadravarman with a man named Fan Dānggēnchún /Jiū Chóuluó, a Funanese refugee who then usurped the throne of Lâm Ấp, recorded in the History of the Southern Dynasties. Fan Dānggēnchún was a king of Xitu and conquered Linyi with support of rebels. He was bestowed by the Chinese Qi dynasty titles Chijie 持節, Dudu Yanhai Zhujunshi 都督沿海諸軍事, Annan Jiangjun 安南將軍, and Linyi Wang 林邑王.
Chinese sources provided very faint descriptions of Linyi and did not give an explanation why the border of Linyi got expanded southward in the 6th century. 18th-century Vietnamese geographer Le Quy Don thought that Xitu was merged into Linyi. Modern historians, such as Rolf Stein,, and, believe vice versa that early Xitu might be the actual Champa, while Linyi could have been subsumed by Xitu in the late fifth to sixth centuries. Andrew Hardy, a historian of Vietnam, suggests that the Linyi of what Chinese scribers had described was likely not a Chamic state and later, similar to what Southworth and Schweyer believing, it was absorbed by Champa/Chamic kingdom as Champa's power expanded north.
Xitu in Chinese sources
The Chinese trade treatise Account of foreign countries to the south of Jiaozhou cited in the Imperial encyclopedia Taiping yulan gives a description of Xitu: "There are ten small kingdoms nearby, all of which are dependencies of Xitu. About two thousand barbarian families subsist here." Another stereotyped passage in the Shui Jing Zhu describes Xitu as one of 10 states surrounding Linyi, and Xitu also had its own ten vassal states and chiefdoms in adjacency.and link Bhadravarman of what-to-be Campa with Fan Danggenchun /Jiu Chouluo, supposedly ruler of Xitu. He was a Funanese émigré. With the help of rebels in Lâm Ấp/Linyi, Fan Danggenchun conquered the country and assassinated the current king of Linyi, apparently that king might be Manorathavarman and his lineage, who originated from Huế. Schewyer hypothesizes that the Gangaraja dynasty of early Champa originally could have come from Linyi but then migrated south to Xitu. In 484, the king of Funan Jayavarman sent a request to the Qi court to launch a punitive expedition against Linyi, whose throne reportedly had been usurped by a slave who had fled from Funan, however the Chinese just politely declined.
In 530, king Rudravarman I, a son of the daughter of the sister of king Manorathavarman, was recognized by the Chinese as the king of Linyi. He might have tried to reconquer the lost territories of Linyi from his base in Xitu, even though he was originally from Linyi, according to Schewyer. In 541 he invaded the Jiude/Cửu Đức province. Xitu historians assume this event to be the incorporation of Linyi into Xitu. According to the Campa epigraphic inventory of the École française d'Extrême-Orient, inscription C. 73A at My Son concerning Rudravarman's son Sambhuvarman and grandson Kandarpadharma is the first to omit several designations collectively referring entirely to the Chamic realm: Campādeśa, Campāpura, campā, campāpr̥thivībhuj.
The city of Kandarpapura near Huế City might have only been established during the reign of Kandarpadharma, when he supposedly had already subjugated the remnant of Linyi, so it assuredly was not the name of the capital of former Linyi. Territorial extent of early Champa is not precisely attested because of prerequisite fluctuation.
When the Chinese Sui dynasty launched an invasion of Linyi in 605 AD led by general Liu Fang and pillaged the capital, which Southworth presumes as Trà Kiệu, the Chinese seized numerous war trophies including royal archives and a library of 1,350 Buddhist books written in Kunlun language, perhaps Chamic/proto-Cham/Austronesian. Michael Vickery anticipates that "Kunlun was almost certainly Mon-Khmer rather than Austronesian." He predicts that the old remnant of Linyi when being chased by Rudravarman, consisted of predominantly Mon-Khmer chiefs, might have moved north and defected to Ly Bon, maintaining themselves as a high status group.
Location
Xitu is said to be 200 li south of Linyi, south of the Hải Vân Pass, roughly situated in present-day Thu Bồn River Valley. Its center should have been Trà Kiệu in Duy Xuyên District, Quảng Nam Province. Archaeologists maintain the mainstream thesis that Trà Kiệu is a Linyi/Lam Ap site, whilst Xitu-theory historians contend "it should be freely admitted that the Thu Bồn valley had no direct connection with Linyi." Central Vietnam, where early multi-ethnic societies and later Champa formed, is notoriously difficult to sustain local civilization and state crafting. Its long coastal area lies directly along the safe maritime route connecting China and the Southern states. The Annamite mountains with many steep slopes cut through the coast, creating many small, narrow plains and short rivers. Boundaries between those plains are extreme terrains, commonly limestone mountains covered with thick jungles. Societies there had to withstand natural hazards, such as drought, flood, and tropical cyclones. Subsistence agriculture alone could not sustain state development, and so communities had to trade with each other via maritime networks, with other places, and sometimes, became competing trade rivals. Since Chamic peoples and Austronesians in general, have been famously known for being masters of the ocean, trade activities connecting given mainland, the Philippines and the Indonesian archipelagos, had been there long before the Chinese.The Thu Bồn River Valley is a particularly large and flat plain among them. It lies along the South China Sea and receives the ever largest amount of precipitation in Indochina, especially during the rainy season. The valley should be able to stimulate the development of a strong trade-oriented estuarine economic power during the late Sa Huỳnh era. In fact, the most valuable commodities in early Imperial China–ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise-shell, sandalwood and eaglewood–were sold in large quantity from Central Vietnam, far surpassing that of any other region in Southeast Asia, with the single exception of the Red River Delta. The foundation of Linyi in 192 AD, according to, "was almost certainly a loose alliance of river-based chiefdoms aimed at maximizing profits from trade with the Chinese while vigorously opposing any direct imposition of Chinese state control."
Still, the relationship between Linyi and Sahuynhian Tra Kieu is unclear. Tra Kieu and nearby Go Cam were excavated in 1999-2003 are surprisingly rich in the amount of Chinese culture or trade dominance ranging from the first century BC to the third century AD, with almost artifacts having Chinese style motifs and Chinese inscriptions, including Wang Mang era coins. Most Western Han bronze mirrors frequently dating from the first century BC to the first century AD are found in the west of the Hoi An area. Dong Son Heger type I drums dating back to 100 BC are being found scattered around Sa Huynh, near the terminus of Sa Huynh zone, and pre-Funan Go O Chua sites, reflects pre-state trade and connection between these early communities. Early centuries AD Indian wares and Kendis-bronze kettle, are also presented in Tra Kieu and Go Cam.
By the third century, inland Trà Kiệu may have replaced Hoi An to become the main center of political power in the Thu Bồn River Valley. Communities here seemed to be absorbing Indian culture, not by happenstance, but through slowly diffusion via neighboring Funan and maritime networks utilized by Chamic seafarers. By the fifth century, it is irrefutable that the Chamic elites were accustomed to Indian religions and Indian culture. Four out of five fifth-century Sanskrit and South Brahmic epigraphs of Bhadravarman I were discovered in Quảng Nam, with one exception in Chợ Dinh, Đà Rằng River in Phú Yên province, some five hundred kilometers to the south. This inscription attests a sacrifice to the god Bhadreśvara proselytized at My Son. One of them renders Old Cham language, the first native language of Southeast Asia being written down. Bhadravarman confessed himself dharmmamahārāja, "Great King of the dharma."
Architecture and art style for this period are indeed Cham, but also a significant amount of Chinese influence as well. Cham kings constructed citadels and palaces by combining Chinese and Indian styles with their indigenous components, with Indian influences, which can be observed clearest on multifaceted roof tiles, motifs, and decorations. Hinduism might have reached through diffusion from Funan and left an impact to a larger extent than Buddhism in Trà Kiệu, compared to the Lung Khe citadel site in Northern Vietnam. Traces of Indian influence and Funanese art styles also found their way to the north, indicating a certain existence of South-North cross-cultural exchange and trade networks in 5th-6th century Vietnam. Based on the remaining materials compared to other corpora of inscriptions, mitigates the scale of early Champa to a small princely state. However, he considers that polity was not necessarily called Champa.