What were the cultural exchanges between China and Myanmar in Yuan Dynasty?

/kloc-In the second half of the third century, three major wars took place between the Yuan Dynasty and Myanmar: the first time was in 1277, the second time was from 1283 to 1287, and the third time was in 1300. After the war, official contacts between China and Myanmar gradually increased. According to statistics, Myanmar sent at least 13 envoys to the Yuan Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty also sent people to Myanmar six times. The strengthening of political ties has naturally promoted economic and cultural exchanges between the two countries. China's calendar and customs spread to Myanmar, and had an impact on the development of agricultural production in Myanmar. Today, the solar terms in the calendar in Myanmar are still similar to those in China, and there are leap years, which are called "Vattani" in Burmese. Similarly, the Myanmar New Year Songkran Festival is also popular in China, Xishuangbanna and dehong autonomous prefecture. During the festival, people splash water on each other to bless each other and carry out activities such as worshipping Buddha and dragon boat racing. The Songkran Festival is closely related to the calendars and agricultural festivals of the two countries, reflecting the cheerful mood of the working people of the two countries before the busy spring ploughing. At the same time, splashing water also means sprinkling water to wash dust, avoid disasters, help rain and pray for a bumper harvest.

In A.D. 1285, the army of the Yuan Dynasty was attacked from all sides, and the king of Myanmar sent the monk Sindbamak as a special envoy to Dadu (now Beijing) to make peace with the Yuan Dynasty. As a respected Buddhist leader and diplomatic talent, Xindi Babamako finally persuaded the devout Buddhist believer, Emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty, to stop fighting against Myanmar and won diplomatic victory. After the king of Myanmar returned to China, he issued a decree to give him 400 mu of dry land, 400 mu of farm animals and serfs. Babamako in Xindi donated all these gifts as merits to Siti Pagoda (also known as Auspicious Pagoda) in Minguela, and the details of Zhu An's missionary work in China were engraved on the inscription in Babamako in Xindi. In the inscription, China is called "Delu", which is the dual of Mongolian "Dalujia" and also called "Dalu Huachi" (that is, the official who manages the people). Since then, "Drew" has become a proper noun in China and China.

It is also mentioned in the inscription of "Xindi Bamao" that when Kublai Khan sent his Prince Melissa Zhou to Myanmar in A.D. 1286, he took a huge monk group (composed of monks from more than 70 temples) and entered Taigong City after entering Myanmar. It seems that Kublai Khan is well aware of Myanmar's national conditions: a country that believes in Buddhism cannot conquer the hearts of the people by military force alone, so he wants to conquer the Buddhist believers in Myanmar by religious force. The king of Myanmar chose Sindabamok, a monk, as the chief representative to go to China for peace talks, also hoping to achieve the purpose of peace talks with the help of Buddhist teachings. As a result, both sides won, which is a rare example of the two countries applying Buddhist culture to military and diplomacy. At that time, a Tibetan Lama accompanied the delegation to Myanmar. Today, the word "Lama" in Burmese was handed down from China in the Yuan Dynasty.

The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty paid more attention to commerce and foreign trade than any previous dynasty. Wang Dayuan, a navigator of the Yuan Dynasty, described in detail the maritime trade between the Yuan Dynasty and Myanmar in his "A Brief Introduction to the Island": China ships from Quanzhou, Fujian and other places docked at some seaports in the lower reaches of Myanmar, engaged in trade activities, and exchanged China's silk, porcelain, musical instruments, gold, silver, copper and iron for Myanmar's ivory, pepper, rice and other specialties. Because doing business there is easier to make a profit, and you can live there more stably, so "ten times nine times the land sold is not returned." These China people who stayed in Myanmar lived with the local people, intermarried and multiplied, and were the ancestors of overseas Chinese in Myanmar. Of course, they also became disseminators of China culture. Up to now, there are still many Chinese loanwords in Burmese, such as chopsticks, tofu, fried ghost (fried dough sticks), lychee, sailing boat, rough plate and so on. Most of them are spelled with Fujian pronunciation.