In the 3rd century CE, after defeating Tun Sun to control the trans-Kra Isthmus trade route and encircle Chin Lin,[1]: 20, 25 [2]: 258 king Fan Man of Funan attempted to seize Chin Lin,[1]: 20 but failed due to his illness.[3]: 258 [2]: 269
Location
The location of Chin Lin remains unclear. It was first mentioned around 9 – 22 CE during the late Western Han period, a Chinese emperor Wang Mang sent an embassy to visit Chin-lin. Later in the 3rd century, Chin Lin was again mentioned in the account of Funan king Fan Shih-man's conquests in the Chinese text Liáng Shū, which states that Chin Lin was located 3,000 li north of the kingdoms of Ta-k'un (Ch'ü-tu-k'un) and Chü-li (Chiu-chih),[2]: 258 speculated to be Kou-chih of Kole polis in present-day near Kuantan of Malaysia.[1]: 26–27 Palmer Briggs proposes that Chin-lin and its southern neighbor, Tun Sun, was the Mon countries. The boundary between this two entities was ill-defined, but probably not far above the present-Mergui-Tanintharyi Region.[2]: 259
