西域番国志 was a report submitted by Ming dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

envoy Chen Cheng

Chen Cheng (Ming dynasty)

Chen Cheng , Ming dynasty diplomat, style name Zi Lu pseudonym Zhu Shan .-Biography:Born 1365 in Linchuan county of Jiangxi province...

 (陈诚) to Emperor Yongle about the eighteen countries and territories he traveled through during 1414-1415 as a member of an embassy contingency, to the kingdom of Timurid

Timurid Dynasty

The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...

 in Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

.

Contents

Xi Yu Fan Guo Zhi consists of 18 chapters:

• Herat
  Herat
  Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
  
  
• Samarkand
  Samarkand
  Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
  
  
• Andkud
• Balkh
  Balkh
  Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...
  
  
• Termiz
• Shahrokhia
• Sayram
  Sayram
  Sayram is a city located in southeastern South Kazakhstan Province on the Sayram Su River, which rises at the nearby 4000 meter mountain Sayram Su. In medieval times, the city and countryside were located on the banks of the Arys/Ares River, into which the Sayram Su river flows.The city...
  
  
• Tashkand
• Bokhara
• Kesh
  Shahrisabz
  Shakhrisabz , is a city in Uzbekistan located approximately 80 km south of Samarkand with the population of 53,000 . It is located at the altitude of 622 m. Once a major city of Central Asia, it is primarily known today as the birthplace of 14th century Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur...
  
  
• Yanghikend
• Bishbalik
• Turpan
• Ya Er
• Yamshi
• Khocho
  Gaochang
  Gaochang is the site of an ancient oasis city built on the northern rim of the inhospitable Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, China. A busy trading center, it was a stopping point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road...
  
  
• Lukchun
• Kumul

English Translation

There is no complete translation of the Xi Yu Fan Guo Zhi, however, there is an
English translation of the first chapter:

• Morris Rossabi: "A Translation of Ch'en Ch'eng's Hsi-Yü Fan-Kuo Chih," Ming Studies, 17 (1983): 49-59.

See also

• Morris Rossabi, "Two Ming Envoys to Inner Asia," T'oung Pao
  T'oung Pao
  T’oung Pao , founded in 1890, is the first international journal of sinology.It was originally named T’oung Pao ou Archives pour servir à l’étude de l’histoire, des langues, la geographie et l’ethnographie de l’Asie Orientale . It is published by the Leiden publisher E. J...
  
  , LXII/1-3 1976, 1-34.
• F. J. Hecker, A fifteenth-century Chinese diplomat in Herat, Joumal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd series p85-91, 1993.
• Emil Bretschneider
  Emil Bretschneider
  Emil Bretschneider was a Russian sinologist of Baltic German descent and a correspondent member of Académie française. He graduated from the medical school of University of Dorpat in Dorpat Estonia and was first posted as a physician by the Russian legation to Tehran...
  
  Mediaeval Researches vol 2, p 147.