gems, jade, ruby, sapphire, spinel, Burma, Myanmar, Chinese trade with Burma

A local gazetteer of Yongchang Prefecture (永昌府), in western Yunnan, an important region on the routes connecting China with Burma and Southeast Asia. The work records the prefecture’s administrative geography, history, settlements, mountains and rivers, population, customs, products and other local information. Of particular gemological interest are its notices concerning jade and other valuable materials associated with the Yunnan–Burma trade, for which Yongchang was an important commercial and administrative center. The gazetteer is consequently a useful Qing-period source for studying the movement of Burmese jade and other commodities into southwestern China. Sun Laichen: Volumes 23, 25, and 26 of the 1785 edition by Xuan Shitao contain several memorials from Ming and Qing times that touch upon Ming- and Qing-Burmese relations, a number of poems and records by Ming poets regarding Burmese precious stones and other products, and a short account of a Burmese letter to the Ming during the late 16th century. Volumes 65 and 66 of the 1884 edition by Liu Yuke includes several other poems on Ming- and Qing-Burmese relations. There are altogether four editions of this work, and I have so far gained access to only the two mentioned above. The other two were compiled in 1702 and 1826, respectively.