Siam Confederation (Xiān) 暹國 (Chinese) Xiān Guó
925–1438
Lower Menam Valley in the 13th century
Capital	Phraek Si Racha Ayutthaya Phetchaburi Suphan Buri
Common languages	OldMon Old Thai
Religion	Theravada Buddhism
Government	Mandala kingdom City-state confederation (11th century–1351) Mandalafederation (1351–1438)
Monarch
Historical era	Post-classical era
• First mentioned inFunan inscription	611
• Siamese settled inJava	800
• Founding ofAyodhya	944
• Fall ofAyojjhapura	946
• Haripuñjaya annexedLavo	1052
• Lavo moved the seat toAyodhya	1080s
• First mentioned inĐại Việt sources	1149
• First mentioned in Chinese sources	1178
• Siam dominant ofLigor	Late 1200s
• Joined confederative withLavo	1351
• Annexed ofSuphannabhum andSukhothai toAyutthaya	1438
• Demoted ofLigor toRattanakosin's province	1782
Preceded by Succeeded by Dvaravati Syamapura Siam city-states Ayutthaya Kingdom
Today part of	Thailand Malaysia Myanmar

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Siam Confederation, Xiān (Chinese:暹) orSiam (Thai:สยาม), not to be confused with theKingdom of Siam, was aconfederation of maritime-oriented port polities along the presentBay of Bangkok,^{[1]: 39, 41} includingAyodhya,Suphannabhum, andPhrip Phri,^[1]: 37 as well asNakhon Si Thammarat (Ligor), which became Siam in the late 13th century.^[2] It was the successor states ofQiān Zhī Fú atSi Thep. Previous studies suggested thatXiān in Chinese dynasty records only referred toSukhothai,^{[3]: 140 [4]: 102} but this presupposition has recently been rebutted.^{[1]: 37–9 [2][5]} According to the ChineseTongdian, the termXian was also used to refer to one of administrative levels ofTuo-he-luo (Dvaravati) in the 6th century.^[6]: 131

Xiān was formed from city-states on the westChao Phraya plain after the decline ofDvaravati in the 11th century.^[7] In 1178, the region was mentioned in the termSan-lo三濼,^[8]: 290 as recorded in the ChineseLingwai Daida,^[8]: 288 in which Thai scholars suggest it was plausibly referred toChaliang's new center,Sawankhalok.^[9]: 8 During the earlyTang Dynasty, a polity namedXiū Luó Fēn, which was said to be located west ofChenla, sent tribute to the Chinese court. It had a large number of troops and customs that were roughly similar to those ofGē Luó Shě Fēn,^{[10]: 22 [11][12]} which a Thai scholar identified withDvaravati's Nakhon Pathom^[13]: 59 orSambuka in the Bhavavarman II Inscription.^{[14]: 24–25, 30}

Xiān or Siam, which was also recorded asSuphan Buri andNakhon Si Thammarat in the late 13th century, joined afederation withLavo in 1351; this led to the formation of theAyutthaya Kingdom with thefederal seat atAyutthaya.Phip Phli was demoted to a frontier city following the federative formation and was then governed by Suphan Buri, which was completely annexed into the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1438, whereasNakhon Si Thammarat maintained itsvassal status throughout the Ayutthaya andThonburi eras with short periods of independence and was demoted toRattanakosin's province in 1782.

However, modern scholars suggest that the termXiān mentioned in several Chinese andĐại Việt texts from 1149 until the official establishment of theAyutthaya Kingdom in 1351 was potentiallyLavo's new capitalAyodhya^[15]: 46 rather thanSukhothai Kingdom,Suphannabhum, and other initial Siamese polities.^[16][17][18]

As described in the ChineseDaoyi Zhilüe,Xiān was surrounded by high mountains and deep valleys and was not located in the infertile land, which made the polities have to depend upon the neighborLuó hú (Lavo) for the rice supply. It supports the people by commerce.^{[1]: 39–40} Several studies propose that Xiān might refer to theSuphannabhum Kingdom centered in the presentSuphanburi Province^{[1]: 40 [19]} as some tributary missions sent to the Chinese in theHongwu era were done under the name of King ofSu-men-bang 蘇門邦 ofXiānluó hú, in which the termSu-men-bang has been identified withSuphanburi.^[1]: 40 In 1295, an envoy led by Xian's kingGan-mu-ding fromPi-ch'a-pu-li, which identified withPhetchaburi, visit the Chinese court.^{[3]: 140 [20]} These correspond with the ChineseThe Customs of Cambodia byZhou Daguan in 1296–1297, who records thatXiān is on the southwest ofChenla.^[21]

In theJinakalamali, a localPali chronicle of the northern Thai principality ofLan Na (Chiang Mai) mentionssiam-desa andsiam-rattha refer to the "area(desa) or state(rattha) of Siam," which one passage further identifies as theSukhothai region.^[22]: 71

Xiān city-states were formed around the 11th century following the fall ofQiān in the lateDvaravati period, which potentially declined due to theMenam Valley and the upperMalay peninsula being conquered byTambralinga's king Sujita in the mid-9th century,^{[8]: 283 [23]: 16} the invasion byAngkor from the east,^[24] as well as thePagan invasion ofMenam Valley around the mid-11th century.^[23]: 41 All of these are probably the causes of the decline of the initial states in this area.^{[8]: 283 [23]: 41} The region, as well as Junk Ceylon (Phuket) andTambralinga, were once raid by theMau Shans fromShan States in hisIndo-China raid campaign between 1220 and 1230.^[8]: 292

The Xian of Ayodhya, in the era before modern engineering, built the city at the center of the lowerChao Phraya deltaic plain, which was a floodplain that turned the city of Ayodhya into "islands in the middle of a sea" during the monsoon season. The Chinese court included Xian on a list of "maritime" kingdoms from which it demanded submission.^{[15]: 44–5}

Prince Damrong, who constructed a unilinear system ofThai history that was previously generally acknowledged in school textbooks, proposed in 1914 that the history of Thais in Siam proper began with establishing theSukhothai Kingdom in 1238. This first Siamese kingdom was succeeded byAyutthaya,Thonburi, andRattanakosin.^[25]: 222 His works were eventually translated and edited in 1924 byCœdès, who made this theory proliferated through his influential writings, such asThe Indianized States of Southeast Asia.^[26]: 191 However, the equation that Xian was long-believed Sukhothai was contested in 1989 by Tatsuro Yamamoto, who proposes that the term "Xian暹" found inDade Nanhai-zhi during the era of theYuan Dynasty (1297–1307) was probably another polity politically superior toSukhothai.^{[27][28]: 110} Several modern studies also declined the theory thatSukhothai was the first independent Siam polity.^{[1]: 37 [5]}

The termSiam, whose origin remains disputed, first occurs assyam inFunan–Chenla inscriptions of the 7th century. It is probably a toponym referring to some location in the lowerChao Phraya Basin.^[22]: 69 In surviving inscriptions of this period,syam occurs four times to designate female slaves ("ku syam", Inscriptions K557 (dated 611 CE), K127 (683 CE), K154 (685 CE),^{[29]: 21, 89, 123} and K904 (713 CE)^[30]: 54) and once to identify a landlord-official ("pon syam"), who donates rice fields to a temple (K79 639 CE).^[29]: 69 In one casesyam occurs in a list where the preceding entry has the wordvrau in the same sentence position (K127).^[29]: 89 The termvrau has been considered the name of anethnolinguistic minority group, possibly ancestors of the modemBru orBrau people.^[31]: 297 Therefore,syam may have similarly functioned at that time, perhaps as a toponym that could also be used to refer to people of the area.^[22]: 69

Siam later occurs in slave lists on inscriptions of theChampa andKhmer kingdoms, dated in the 11th and 12th centuries.^{[26]: 140 [3]: 124 [32]: 62} From about the same period there is also a well-known bas relief panel ofAngkor Wat showing mercenaries of the Khmer army, who are identified assyam-kuk, perhaps "of the land of Siam." One cannot be certain what ethnolinguistic group these mercenaries belonged to, but many scholars have thought them to beSiam people.^[22]: 70 At about the same time (from 1120 CE onwards) inPagan to the westsyam occurs over twenty times inOld Mon andBurmese inscriptions. Onesyam reference is toSaṁbyaṅ an Old Mon title for a high government official, but the term mainly occurs in lists of temple slaves, both male and female.^[3]: 124 SomeSyaṁ are identified by occupation, such as dancers, weavers, or carpenters.^[22]: 70

There was a record ofSiamese led byPassara, son of the king of Siam, settled inJava and established the city ofPassaraan in 800 CE after they failed to sail toMakassar onSulawesi due to the storm.^[33]: xvi

Xiān was first mentioned in Chinese recordYuán Shǐ元史 in 1278 whenYuan dynasty sentHe Zi-zhi何子志, a commander with 10,000 households, as an emissary toXian^{[1]: 38 [20]} but they were detained byChampa.^{[20][3]: 140}Xiān was on the list of the entities thatKublai Khan prepared to conquer, together withLavo and several kingdoms on theMalay peninsular,Sumatra,South India, andCeylon after his finalconquest of China in 1279.^{[3]: 139 [34]: 61}

Ten years later, the first tribute sent to China byXian was mentioned in 1292.^[20] The Chinese court dispatched emissaries to persuadeXian to submit the following year,^{[1]: 38 [20]} butXian refused.^[1]: 39 It is recorded that an imperial order was issued again to summon and persuade the king ofXian in 1294.^[1]: 39

Due to such a persistent persuasion, the king ofXian namedGan-mu-ding (Kamrateng,กมรเต็ง) fromPi-ch'a-pu-li city (Phip Phli; presentPhetchaburi)^{[3]: 140 [20]} personally appeared at the Chinese court to present the tribute with a golden plate in 1295.^{[1]: 39 [20]} The tribute was sent fromXian again the following year.^[20] In 1297, emissaries fromXian,Luó hú (羅斛,Lavo), andJambi (Srivijaya) were recorded. In 1299, bothXian andSù gǔ chí (速古漦,Sukhothai) sent tribute to China. These last two records indicate thatXian is notSukhothai^[35][36] and the polities in theChao Phraya River basin at that time consisted of at least 3 polities, includingLavo,Sukhothai, andXian.^[20]

In 1304, theDade Nanhai-zhi大德南海志 mentions thatSù gū dǐ (速孤底,Sukhothai) rely onXian: "Xian controlledSù gū dǐ, which is located upstream." (暹国管 上水速孤底).^{[15]: 45–6} This makes Tatsuro assume that Sukhothai was controlled byXian.^[1]: 38 However, a Thai academic, Keatkhamjorn Meekanon, proposes that Sukhothai may have had to useXian to export.^[20] Xian additionally sent tribute to China in April and July 1314, 1319, and the last one in 1323.^{[1]: 39 [20]} As described inDaoyi Zhilüe (1351), the export items of Xian includedsappanwood, tin,chaulmoorgra, ivory, and kingfisher feathers.^[1]: 39

Xian appearing in Chinese dynastic history is found in the biography ofChen-yi-zhong in theSung-shi. It reads, "In the 19th year of theZhi-yuan至元 era (1282–83) the Great Army attackedChampa and[Chen] Yi-zhong fled toXian, where he died eventually."Chen-yi-zhong was a defeated minister of theSouthern Sung Dynasty who tried unsuccessfully to find a haven inChampa, which was eventually invaded by theYuan army.Chen's subsequent flight toXian might suggest thatXian was a commercially flourishing port in the post-SrivijayanSoutheast Asian trade order, where theSouthern Sung Dynasty minister could find a settlement of compatriots.^{[1]: 38 [22]: 70}

Another termSan-lo三濼 in theLingwai Daida, written in 1178, is believed to have been an early Chinese attempt to transcribe the name of the country or the people of the upper and centralMenam, which Khmer inscriptions had calledSyam and which the Chinese were soon to callXiān andXiānluó.^[8]: 290

In theShū yù zhōu zī lù [zh]殊域周咨錄, written in 1583, states that when theSui dynasty dynasty send an embassy toChi Tu probably between 605 and 618, the kingdom was already renamed toXian, as the quote below.^[28]: 115

暹古名赤土, 羅斛古名婆羅剎也.暹國土瘠不宜耕種, 羅斛土田平衍而多稼.

The ancient name ofXiān isChì Tǔ, and the ancient name ofLuó Hú isPóluó Shā. The land inXiān is barren and unsuitable for farming, but the fields ofLuó Hú are flat and full of crops.

According to theDaoyi Zhilüe,Luó hú (Lavo) annexedXiān in 1349;^[1]: 40 this was consistent with the establishment ofAyutthaya, which was said to be formed by the merging of Lavo and Siam'sSuphan Buri. The new polity was recorded by the Chinese asXiānluó hú暹羅斛 and was later shortened toXiānluó暹羅. This confederation performed 41 tributary missions to the Chinese court during theHongwu era, 33 in the name ofXiānluó hú and asXiānluó for the remaining.^{[1]: 40 [22]: 70}

During the 1334–1336Trần dynasty invasion ofAi Lao [zh],Xiān and other countries paid tribute toĐại Việt, as mentioned in theKhâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục Volume 9.^[38] In another Vietnamese chronicle,Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư,Xiān is also mentioned during theLý dynasty andTrần dynasty periods, as follows:

Note

Xian or Siam people are described as maritime-oriented groups as said in the ChineseDaoyi Zhilüe,^[1]: 39 which conforms to the record of a Chinese Ma Huan who visited Ayutthaya in 1421/22 that says the people of Ayutthya like to practise fighting on water, and their king constantly despatches his commanders to subject neighbouring countries.^[15]: 49

Its people are aggressive. Whenever they see another country in a state of disorder, they immediately dispatch as many as one hundred ships full of sago to invade it. Recently more than seventy ships invadedDān mǎ xī (單馬錫, identified as far as Tumasik, orSingapore), andXī lǐ (昔里)^{[1]: 39 [15]: 48–9}

When someone dies, mercury will be injected into the body to preserve. The people, both men and women, dress in the same way as theLavo(tire hair in a bun, wrap it with a cotton turban, and wear a long shirt) and use shell coins as currency.^[43]: 62

At the end of the 13th century, an emerging Xian seems to have started a southward advance to the cost of theMalay peninsular. The well-known Chinese imperial admonition issued in the year 1295 well reflects such a move, reading "do not harm Ma-li-yü-êrh (Melayu).^{[1]: 39 [3]: 140} The maritime Xian also attackedSamudera Pasai Sultanate onSumatra probably between 1299–1310, but failed. The troops might have been launched by the southernmost Xian ofNakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom with eitherTakua Thalang orTrang orSyburi/Kedah as the navy bases.^[2] Xian also raidedChampa in 1313.^{[40]:line 148}

InThe Customs of Cambodia written byZhou Daguan, who visitedZhenla as part of an official diplomatic delegation during 1296–1297, also referred to Siam people as:^[21][44]

In recent years people fromSiam have come to live inCambodia, and unlike the locals, they engage insilk production. Themulberry trees they grow and thesilkworms they raise all come from Siam. (They have noramie, either, onlyhemp.) They themselves weave the silk into clothes made of a black, patterned satiny silk. Siamese women do know how to stitch and darn, so when local people have torn or damaged clothing they ask them to do the mending.

The people in the early Xian proper—based on inscriptions dated to theDvaravati period, found in the area together with the existing Dvaravati evidence—were probably the BuddhistMon.^{[45]: 21 [46]} The migration of theTai-speaking people from the north to theChao Phraya River basin happened around the 9th century.^[47] It was speculated that the trade interaction between the polities as well as theintermarriage caused alanguage assimilation among the people in this area.^[48]

According to the Chinese records, the early Xian or Siam probably consisted of at least two main polities, includingPhip Phli, which sent emissaries to theYuan dynasty during the late 13th century to the early 14th century,^{[1]: 38–39 [20]} andSu-men-bang (Suphannabhum), which later joinedLavo in theAyutthaya Kingdom formation.^[1]: 40Ligor became Siam proper after the precedingTambralinga fall due to the losses in the1247–70 wars in Sri Lanka, the 1268–69 invasion of theJavaneseSinghasari, and the 1270 plague.^{[47]: 42–43} It was revived by the Siam people fromPhip Phli and evolved to theNakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom.^[49]: 81

Although archaeological studies specify that the region was once a vibrant trading spot controlling long-distance maritime trade between theIndian Ocean and theSouth China Sea since the beginning of the 1st millennium,^{[23]: 6–7 [50]: 28} the historical records about them were rarely found, and most of the existing evidence is local legends. The ancient entities mentioned in the Chinese records potentially located in the region are the five cities ofTun Sun^{[50]: 28 [8]: 259 [51]: 34} and its northern neighborChin Lin.^[52] This is most likely owing to the change in maritime trade routes, which no longer need to cross theKra Isthmus as before 500 C.E., as well as the degradation of paper, which is more favored as a recording material in theBuddhist-dominated area.^{[23]: 12–3}

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