Kunlun or blacks appeared in the writings of the Tang Dynasty and after, both fiction and non-fiction, including dynastical histories (Xu Yongzhang, 1983, pp. 96-98; Ai Zhouchang 1987, pp. 49-55, 82). Writings of officials of the time are also important sources of information on African places, food and customs, including the Song Dynasty official Zhao Rukuo, or Fei Xin and Ma Huan who both worked in Zheng He's Ming Dynasty fleet as a naval officer and interpreter respectively (Xu Yongzhang, 1980 pp. 52-61; Wilensky, 2002, pp. 4-20).  
Opinions differ about the origin of the term Kunlun. Zhang Xinglang (Chang Hsing-lang) made a contribution to the study of China's foreign relations with his English publication on the importation of blacks in the Tang Dynasty, an academic source at home and abroad. Although Kunlun Ren (black people), not Kunlun nu (black slave), appeared in 636 CE, Zhang used the subheadings "verification of Kunlun nu", "origin of Kunlun nu" or "trade of Kunlun $n u$ to China" in his work, suggesting all Kunluns at the time were slaves, a statement that would influence future studies. He regarded Kunlun as African (Zhang Xinglang, 1928, pp. 101-119; Zhang Xinglang, 1977 [1930]). If they were African, how did they come to China? Since a sea route from East Africa to China was recorded in Xin Tangshu（新唐书，1060CE），or History of the New Tang Dynasty, they probably came by sea (Cen Zhongmian, 1945; Jing Zhaoxi, 1998, pp. 51-54). Kunluns were either tributes to Chinese authorities, or left in China by foreign envoys, or slaves sold in the coastal regions (Cheng Guofu, 2002,
![img-2.jpeg](img_ref_3)  
FIGURE 2. Black Pottery figure in Mme Pei's tomb (850 A.D) found in 1954 in Xi-an
pp. 79-84). Ge Chengyong's article in 2010 probed the origin of the blacks of the Tang Dynasty, arguing that the theory of their "African origin" was not convincing, and they were not Negroid from Africa but Negrito from Southeast Asia (Ge Chengyong, 2001, pp. 1-27).