Two Chinese Rock Inscriptions in the Vicinity of Lasem (Central Java)
Résumés
Ce bref article traite de la redécouverte récente de deux inscriptions chinoises rupestres non datées dans les environs de Lasem. Après une étude de leur contenu, l’auteur envisage la question de leur datation et leur signification dans l’histoire des mentalités des migrants chinois à Java.
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My gratitude to Mau Chuanhui 毛传慧, Paola Calanca, Song Ge 宋鸽, Christian Lamouroux and Anthony Siu 萧国健, who took the time to discuss with me the problems posed by these two inscriptions.
- 1 C. Salmon, “Of the Use of Calligraphy in Sino-Javanese Communities (18th-Early 21th Centuries)”, Ar (...)
- 2 See for instance Robert E. Harris Jr., The Landscape of Words: Stone Inscriptions from Early and Me (...)
- 3 https://www.detik.com/jateng/budaya/d-7488012/2-batu-diduga-prasasti-aksara-cina-ditemukan-di-kebun (...)
- 4 https://harianmerahputih.id/baca-14941-dua-prasasti-kuno-bertuliskan-aksara-cina-ditemukan-di-perbu (...)
- 5 https://radarkudus.jawapos.com/rembang/694968014/menarik-begini-terjemahanprasasti-tionghoa-yang-ba (...)
- 6 It reads: “Seseorang yang bernama Dongming tertawa miris,
Orang-orang sering melihatku sebagai oran (...)
1We have already discussed the use of Chinese calligraphy in Java from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.1 These inscriptions were usually engraved on wooden panels kept in both public and private buildings. At that time, we had not found anything in nature reminiscent of the many inscribed cliffs or moya shike 摩崖石刻 (made by smoothing the rock face) in China and especially in Fujian.2 But the recent discovery or more likely rediscovery in Java of two inscriptions on rock walls, shanshibi 山石壁, of considerable size (respectively 144 cm high by 190 cm wide and 80 cm deep; and 216 cm by 110 cm and 105 cm.) has made it all the more interesting. This rediscovery was briefly reported and illustrated in the local press last summer in various newspapers, some of which are available online such as detikcom,3 Harian Merah Putih,4 both dated 13 August, 2024, and Radar Kudus,5 dated 17 August. The latter focuses on the second anonymous inscription discovered shortly afterwards to the west of the first, and even gives an Indonesian translation of it. 6
- 7 https://jatengprov.go.id/beritadaerah/prasasti-kuno-bertuliskan-aksara-cina-ditemukan-di-perbukitan (...)
2According to these reports, the two volcanic rocks are located on an eminence in the hamlet (dukuh) of Ngasinan, belonging to the village (desa) of Warugunung, in the kecamatan (district) of Pancur adjacent to the southeast border of the town of Lasem. Nearby are the remains of a Chinese cemetery with damaged nineteenth-century tombs. The area has now been planted with young teak trees by local residents. The latter are the ones who obviously drew the attention of the local authorities who sent people to examine the inscriptions.7 They have even taken the trouble to clear the moss from the stones. As far as we are concerned, we were informed by Pippo Agosto, who always takes the trouble to let us know about his discoveries of Chinese inscriptions in Java (usually old epitaphs). It is also to him that we owe the photographs of the two reproduced here, for which we thank him warmly.
3We will now present and translate these two inscriptions in order to better understand their extraordinary significance in the context of the South Seas and Lasem in particular.
- 8 One finds also the expression hakim Hong Soei.
- 9 There is however a sketchy portrait of one of them in a Sino-Malay novel by Thio Tjien Boen entitle (...)
4Both inscriptions are undated and only the first is claimed by a certain Lao Su 老蘇, very likely a fengshui 風水 specialist, dili xiansheng 地理先生 or sinsche Hong Soei in Sino-Malay.8 Specialists of fengshui were and still are found in the diaspora in communities of some size, but little is known about them.9
First Inscription in regular script (Fig. 1)
5 Photograph: Pippo Agosto, 2024
6The stone on which this inscription is engraved has been seriously damaged at the top, so that the first characters of lines 4, 6, 7 and 8, have virtually disappeared.
- 10 For a general view, see Frédéric Obringer, Fengshui, l’art d’habiter la terre. Une poétique de l’es (...)
7This inscription, written in seven-foot verses, deals with concepts of Chinese geomancy, fengshui, particularly those relating to the choice of a suitable site for tombs.10
- 11 Given the geomancy context, it is highly likely that the first two characters should read qushui [曲 (...)
- 12 In the Dili sanzi jing 地理三字经 by Huang Miaoying 黄妙应 of the Tang dynasty, this sentence and the prece (...)
- 13 Dungu 顿鼓 is a special term of fengshui describing a kind of mountain setting, so according to the r (...)
- 14 Other interpretation: It (i.e. the dragon) is surrounded by the three mountains.
- 15 Qushui chaotang is a fengshui expression, which means that if water is meandering a point can be fo (...)
- 16 We have not found the expression zhuiwei 坠位.
- 17 In other words: a burial site favorable to the descendants of the deceased. Three Dukes, San gong 三 (...)
Second Inscription in semi-cursive script (Fig. 2)
9 Photograph: Pippo Agosto, 2024
- 18 For a similar reflection on laughter, see Hu Shi 胡适 (1891-1962)’s poem Yixiao 一笑: https://baike.bai (...)
10While the previous text focuses on the power of geomancy in organising human space, the second text has to do with laughter as a means for an individual to deal with all the problems he or she encounters.18
11Its peculiarity is that it is punctuated with bullet points, according to ancient usage.
- 19 By giving dongming 洞明 its meaning of “to see clearly”, “clear understanding”, our translation diffe (...)
12Footnote: 19
Social Context
- 20 According to Th.G.Th. Pigeaud, Literature of Java. Catalogue raisonné of Javanese Manuscripts in th (...)
- 21 The first mention in the Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia… Anno 1640-1641 (Batavia, Lands (...)
- 22 Revolt waged in the 1670s by the Madurese prince Trunojoyo and fighters from Makassar against the M (...)
- 23 We owe these two photographs to Agni Malagina, who was kind enough to take them for us.
- 24 According to oral tradition a thundershower broke during Han Siong Kong’s funeral and his children (...)
- 25 See Lasem in W. Franke, C. Salmon and Anthony K. Siu, 萧国健, Chinese Epigraphic Materials in Indonesi (...)
- 26 Oei Liong Thaij, “Badean dari Lasem”, Sin Po Wekelijksche-Editie, First April 1939, pp. 20–21.
- 27 Inger McCabe Elliott, Batik Fabled Cloth of Java, Singapore, Periplus Edition, 2004 (First publishe (...)
- 28 P.J. Veth, Java, Geographisch, Ethnologisch, Historisch, Haarlem, De Erven F. Bohn, 2nd edition, 19 (...)
13The fact that the two authors chose this scenic spot to express their thoughts suggests that for the Chinese of Lasem, this hill was a place where they could meet up and where this kind of literature could be disseminated. This leads us to look at the city’s Chinese community. We know that there were Chinese settlers in the town in the early 17th century.20 The fact that Lasem was an important harbour trading with Batavia is confirmed in Dutch sources. Since 1641, the Dagh-Register regularly records the arrival of ships loaded with salt, sugar and rice.21 In 1678, Lasem as well as Rembang and Juana suffered a lot during the revolt of Trunojoyo.22 However, judging from the fact that Han Siong Kong 翰松公 (1673–1743), who came from Tianbao 天宝, Zhangzhou prefecture 漳州府 (Fujian), settled in Lasem at the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century, the city must have in the meantime recovered. His imposing tomb in Desa Babagan, repaired by his children in 1768, is so far the oldest one still in situ (Figs 3, 4)23, no other epigraph predating the 19th century has survived.24 However very little is known regarding further developments of the Chinese community.25 The traveller who visits Lasem is struck by the fact that its center still looks like a small traditional city of southern Fujian, hence its name of Tiongkok Kecil or “Little Cina”.26 Veth who wrote at the beginning of the 20th century, noticed that the Chinese were still the “masters” although they had lost their main source of revenue when opium smuggling was put to an end. He adds that the most profitable enterprise was the production of batik,27 which apparently started in the 1860s, and was controlled by Chinese, hence the numerous Chinese motives. They relied on some 2,000 Javanese women living in the villages surrounding Lasem.28 The city has three temples, which, in their present state, date from the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century. In the late 1920s, the population suffered much from the effects of the economic crisis, and many Chinese migrated to other places in Java.
Relative Dating of the Inscriptions
14The socio-cultural life of the Lasem Chinese as it appears to us from the above presentation suggests that the inscriptions date from the 1870-80s at the earliest and more likely from the last years of the 19th or even the first years of the 20th century. They were probably made by the more or less literate merchants of the Chinese community of Lasem about whom information is extremely scarce. To this day, they remain a unique case.
Fig. 3 – Overview of the tomb of Han Siong Kong (repaired in 1768), Desa Babagan, Lasem

Photograph: Agni Malagina, 2025
Fig. 4 – Epitaph of Han Siong Kong (funerary name, Chundu), repaired in 1768

Photograph: Agni Malagina, 2025
- 29 Hsiao-chun Hung, Hartatik, Tisna Arif Ma’ri, Truman Simanjuntak, “Mongol fleet on the way to Java: (...)
- 30 For the reproduction of these inscriptions, see Wolfgang Franke & Chen Tieh Fan 陈铁凡, Chinese Epigra (...)
15If we exclude a recently discovered stone inscription at Serutu which refers to an unusual voyage of the Mongol troops dispatched by Kublai Khan to conquer Java,29 the other known rock inscriptions in Insular South-East Asia are those found in the grounds of the Jile si 极乐寺, “Temple of the Supreme Happiness,” a Penang Buddhist temple located on Ayer Hitam Hills. It was founded by the monk Miaolian 妙莲 from Gushansi 鼓山寺 in Fuzhou 福州 (Fujian) in 1891. These inscriptions, apart those by Miaolian and other monks, emanate from scholars from China, among whom Kang Youwei 康有为 (1858–1927) who lived briefly on the island (dated 1903), and from eminent businessmen like Zhang Yunan 张煜南 (1850–1911), who made a fortune out of the rubber plantations in the region of Medan (dated 1904), and Foo Tse Choon 胡子春 or Hu Guolian 胡国廉 (1860–1921), who was a successful operator of tin mines in Malaya and a promotor of girls’ education (dated [1904]).30
- 31 Op.cit., p. 627.
16There is therefore nothing in common in the way these wall inscriptions from Jile si and those from Lasem were made. The former were part of a vast Buddhist project sponsored by the Manchu authorities and financed by major Chinese capitalists from the empire and the diaspora. An undated calligraphy in the hand of the Empress Dowager Cixi 慈禧 can be found in the temple.31 The two inscriptions at Warugunung, which are independent of each other, were created by people of much lower status who had the desire and the will to engrave their thoughts into the surrounding landscape, which is a novelty.
Notes
1 C. Salmon, “Of the Use of Calligraphy in Sino-Javanese Communities (18th-Early 21th Centuries)”, Archipel 100, 2020, pp. 143–173; 一, “Shiba shiji zhi ershi shijichu zhuawa huaren shufa shiyong yanjiu 十八至二十世纪初爪哇华人书法使用研究”, Asian Culture 45, Dec. 2021, pp. 18–38 (Translation by Liang Chingyun 梁静云).
2 See for instance Robert E. Harris Jr., The Landscape of Words: Stone Inscriptions from Early and Medieval China, Seattle and London, University of Washington Press, printed in China, 2008; Liu Jinzhu 刘金柱, Zhongguo gudai tibi wenhua yanjiu 中国古代题壁文化研究, Beijing, Renmin chubanshe, 2008.
3 https://www.detik.com/jateng/budaya/d-7488012/2-batu-diduga-prasasti-aksara-cina-ditemukan-di-kebun-jati-rembang. Retrieved on 25 August 24.
4 https://harianmerahputih.id/baca-14941-dua-prasasti-kuno-bertuliskan-aksara-cina-ditemukan-di-perbukitan-lasem. Retrieved on 25 August 24.
5 https://radarkudus.jawapos.com/rembang/694968014/menarik-begini-terjemahanprasasti-tionghoa-yang-baru-saja-ditemukan-di-pancur-rembang-satu-huruf-bisapunya-makna?page=2. Retrieved on 25 August 24.
6 It reads: “Seseorang yang bernama Dongming tertawa miris,
Orang-orang sering melihatku sebagai orang biasa (tak berbakat).
Namun sebenarnya aku bukanlah orang biasa.
Tapi... waktunya belum tiba karena emas telah tenggelam di dasar laut.
Belum juga bertemu nasib (baik) karena giok telah pecah hancur menjadi debu.”
7 https://jatengprov.go.id/beritadaerah/prasasti-kuno-bertuliskan-aksara-cina-ditemukan-di-perbukitan-pegunungan-lasem/, retrieved on 25 August 24.
8 One finds also the expression hakim Hong Soei.
9 There is however a sketchy portrait of one of them in a Sino-Malay novel by Thio Tjien Boen entitled Tan Fa Lioeng, atawa, Moestadjabnja sinsche Hong Soei Tan Fa Lioeng or “The efficiency of a specialist of fengshui”, Batavia, Favoriet, 1922, which we have not yet been able to read.
10 For a general view, see Frédéric Obringer, Fengshui, l’art d’habiter la terre. Une poétique de l’espace et du temps, Paris, Piquier poche, 2009. For a vision of fengshui among the Chinese of Java and China during the 19th century, see J.W. Young, 風水記 Hal Hong Soei atau pamilihan tempat2 pekoeboeran pada bangsa Tjina, Malay translation by R.J.M.N. Kussendrager, Batavia, Albrecht & Rusche, 1889. See also R.J. Smith, The Transnational Travels of Geomancy in Premodern East Asia, c. 1600 - c. 1900: PART I. Transnational Asia 2(1), 2019. https://doi.org/10.25613/uxwv-zpzd, retrieved on 15/11/2024.
11 Given the geomancy context, it is highly likely that the first two characters should read qushui [曲水], which appear in the expression qushui chaotang.
12 In the Dili sanzi jing 地理三字经 by Huang Miaoying 黄妙应 of the Tang dynasty, this sentence and the preceding one read: 三山齐出包藏内, 二水交流会合中 “Three mountains are all in one place, and two rivers are communicating and converging”, http://www.360doc.com/content/20/0215/05/18942698_892110497.shtml#google_vignette, retrieved on 17/11/2024.
13 Dungu 顿鼓 is a special term of fengshui describing a kind of mountain setting, so according to the rule of the poem, 囗钟 should also be a term of fengshui, e.g.[覆]钟.
14 Other interpretation: It (i.e. the dragon) is surrounded by the three mountains.
15 Qushui chaotang is a fengshui expression, which means that if water is meandering a point can be formed (此处结穴) by which the tomb is protected.
16 We have not found the expression zhuiwei 坠位.
17 In other words: a burial site favorable to the descendants of the deceased. Three Dukes, San gong 三公: from antiquity a collective reference to dignitaries who were officially considered three paramount aides to the ruler and who held the highest possible ranks in the officialdom.
18 For a similar reflection on laughter, see Hu Shi 胡适 (1891-1962)’s poem Yixiao 一笑: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%80%E7%AC%91/1039370. Retrieved on 17/11/2024.
19 By giving dongming 洞明 its meaning of “to see clearly”, “clear understanding”, our translation differs from the Indonesian one, which treats the term as a proper noun: “Seseorang yang bernama Dongming tertawa miris” or “A person named Dongming laughed sadly.”
20 According to Th.G.Th. Pigeaud, Literature of Java. Catalogue raisonné of Javanese Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden and other Public Collections in the Netherlands, Leiden, Leiden University Press, 1980, vol. 4, pp. 244–245, at the beginning of the 17th century the Bupati of Lasem was a Sino-Javanese by name of Singawijaya.
21 The first mention in the Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia… Anno 1640-1641 (Batavia, Landsdrukkerij & ‘s-Hage, M. Nijhoff, 1900) appears dated May 9-10, 1641.
22 Revolt waged in the 1670s by the Madurese prince Trunojoyo and fighters from Makassar against the Mataram Sultanate and its VOC supporters. See M.C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1300, Houndmills, Basingstoke RG21 2XS and London, The Macmillan Press LTD, Second edition, 1993, pp. 73–76.
23 We owe these two photographs to Agni Malagina, who was kind enough to take them for us.
24 According to oral tradition a thundershower broke during Han Siong Kong’s funeral and his children left the coffin in the forest in order to take shelter. The story goes on that the coffin was buried by a mysterious power. The deceased is believed to have taken revenge for the lack of filial piety of his children by calling down curses on them and their descendants; as a result, none of his descendants had ever dared to pass through Lasem. However, the tablet of Han Siong Kong is still kept in the ancestral temple of the Han family in Surabaya and three inscriptions indicate that members of the Han family still resided in Lasem during the 18th, 19th centuries. See C. Salmon, “The Han family of East Java, Entrepreneurship and Politics (18th-19th Centuries)”, Archipel 41, 1991, pp. 53–87.
25 See Lasem in W. Franke, C. Salmon and Anthony K. Siu, 萧国健, Chinese Epigraphic Materials in Indonesia / 印度尼西亚华文铭刻汇编, South Seas Society, Singapore, École française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris, Association Archipel, Paris, 1997, Vol. 2 Part 2, pp. 464–490.
26 Oei Liong Thaij, “Badean dari Lasem”, Sin Po Wekelijksche-Editie, First April 1939, pp. 20–21.
27 Inger McCabe Elliott, Batik Fabled Cloth of Java, Singapore, Periplus Edition, 2004 (First published by Clarkson N. Porter, Inc. New York, 1984), pp. 152–161.
28 P.J. Veth, Java, Geographisch, Ethnologisch, Historisch, Haarlem, De Erven F. Bohn, 2nd edition, 1912, Vol. 3, p. 527.
29 Hsiao-chun Hung, Hartatik, Tisna Arif Ma’ri, Truman Simanjuntak, “Mongol fleet on the way to Java: First archaeological remains from the Karimata Strait in Indonesia”, Archaeological Research in Asia 29 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2021.100327.
30 For the reproduction of these inscriptions, see Wolfgang Franke & Chen Tieh Fan 陈铁凡, Chinese Epigraphic Materials in Malaysia / 马来西亚华文铭刻汇编, Kuala Lumpur, University of Malaya Press, 1985, Vol. II, pp. 625–527, 630, 643–646.
31 Op.cit., p. 627.
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Titre | Fig. 3 – Overview of the tomb of Han Siong Kong (repaired in 1768), Desa Babagan, Lasem |
Crédits | Photograph: Agni Malagina, 2025 |
URL | http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/docannexe/image/7527/img-3.jpg |
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Titre | Fig. 4 – Epitaph of Han Siong Kong (funerary name, Chundu), repaired in 1768 |
Crédits | Photograph: Agni Malagina, 2025 |
URL | http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/docannexe/image/7527/img-4.jpg |
Fichier | image/jpeg, 177k |
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Claudine Salmon, « Two Chinese Rock Inscriptions in the Vicinity of Lasem (Central Java) », Archipel, 109 | 2025, 131-139.
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Claudine Salmon, « Two Chinese Rock Inscriptions in the Vicinity of Lasem (Central Java) », Archipel [En ligne], 109 | 2025, mis en ligne le 25 mai 2025, consulté le 08 juillet 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/7527 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/144x8
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