Shilifoshi, San foqi, and Malayu

Chinese scribes used the transcription Shili foshi for Srivijaya until 742, after which references cease. In 905 the Chinese began to record a new tributary kingdom in southeast Sumatra: San foqi.

The character san might have meant literally “the Three Vijayas,”^[1144] denoting a new Chinese perception of the multicentric nature of the political structure of southeast Sumatra. It is possible that the name Srivijaya was still used in Palembang in the eleventh century, but the invasion of the Straits of Melaka by the Chola ar­mada in 1025 may have applied the coup de grace to both the empire and the name by which it had been known for almost 350 years. In 1225 Zhao Rugua, harbor­master of Quanzhou, listed Palembang as one of San foqi’s 15 tributary kingdoms. The fact that he lists neither Jambi nor Malayu suggests that San foqi’s king lived in Jambi, not Palembang.^[1145] Possibly the Chinese changed the name from Srivijaya to “Three Vijaya(s)” when Jambi, Barus, and Kedah sent envoys to China, dissolving the diplomatic ascendancy which Srivijaya enjoyed as the sole kingdom in the Malay realm recognized by China.