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Chinese Sultan of Brunei?!

Author: Huang Baoxin (---.brunet.bn)
Date: 03-20-02 05:17

There was one Chinese who had made a name in the history of Brunei. He is Ong Sum Ping (Huang Senping 黄森平, he is better known by his hokkien-dialect name 'Ong Sum Ping'). This is his story;

According to the legend, Mandarins Ong Sum Ping and Ong Kang were ordered by the Emperor of China to get the precious dragon gem ball from the Dragon of Mount Kinabalu (in present-day Sabah, Malaysia).This story is recorded in the 'Tarsilah Raja-Raja Brunei' (Genealogy of the rulers of Brunei) and also in the 'Tarsilah Raja-Raja Suluk'(Genealogy of the rulers of Sulu).

According to Chinese records ('Nanyang Huaqiao Tongshi' pg 64, Wu Xiang Fei), Ong Sum Ping came to Brunei with his sister in the 8th year of Hongwu in AD 1375. Groeneveldt, W.P. in 'Notes on the Archipelago and Malacca Compiled from Chinese Sources' (1876) pg 102 says that he was from Fujian and came to Brunei with Admiral Zheng He on one of the latter's voyages to the southern seas.

Legend says that Ong Sum Ping succeeded in getting the dragon gem ball but later a quarrel broke out with Ong Kang as to who would present it to the Emperor. In the end Ong Sum Ping yielded and decided to stay behind in Brunei. In Brunei, he married the daughter (Princess Ratna Dewi) of Sultan Muhammad Shah, the first Sultan of Brunei. Ong Sum Ping was later bestowed the Bruneian title of nobility 'Pengiran Maharaja Lela' .

There are two versions of the story. One narrates that Ong Sum Ping was elected Chief of Kinabatangan (in present-day Sabah, Malaysia). This is recorded in the 325th Scroll of 'Ming Shi' (History of Ming dynasty) in Chapter 325:213. His sister married Sultan Ahmad (Pateh Berbai), the second Sultan of Brunei, the brother and sucessor of Sultan Muhammad Shah.

Another story relates that when Sultan Muhammad Shah died, Ong Sum Ping succeded him as the next ruler by the name of Sultan Ahmad. His daughter with Princess Ratna Dewi, Princess Ratna Kesuma, married Sultan Sharif Ali, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad, who later became the third Sultan of Brunei from whom the royal family of Brunei is descended.

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Re: Chinese Sultan of Brunei?!

Author: Huang Baoxin (---.brunet.bn)
Date: 03-20-02 05:20

The genealogy of the Sultans of Brunei can be viewed at:

http://www.bruneisultan.com/tree/1.htm

Ong Sum Ping's name appeared at the 2nd column from the top.

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Re: Chinese Sultan of Brunei?!

Author: guo zhongli
Date: 03-20-02 08:09

Interesting story, something that I've never heard about does it mean that Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is a descendant of Chinese too? But no Chinese traits are visible in him, perhaps today's Bruneian Sultans are from a different (Malay) line. Much of the Royalty and the Aristocracy of Java and Sumatra trace their ancestry to Muslim Chinese who introduced Islam to the region to set up kingdoms that owed their allegiance to the Ming Emperors until the Dutch took over the East Indies.

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Re: Chinese Sultan of Brunei?!

Author: Huang Baoxin (---.brunet.bn)
Date: 03-21-02 01:18

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is not a Chinese.

There are two versions of the story of Ong Sum Ping. One says that Sultan Ahmad (r.1408-1425), the 2nd Sultan of Brunei is Ong Sum Ping (Sejarah Melayu, etc.). Another says Sultan Ahmad is Pateh Berbai, the brother of Sultan Muhammad Shah (r.1363-1402) and not Ong Sum Ping.

The Brunei royal genealogy follows the version that says Sultan Ahmad was Pateh Berbai and not Ong Sum Ping.

The 'Tarsilah Raja-Raja Brunei' (Genealogy of the rulers of Brunei, first compiled in ) recorded that Ong Sum Ping married the daughter of Sultan Muhammad Shah, the first Sultan of Brunei and he was elected chief of Kinabatangan (Today Kinabatangan region in Sabah, Malaysia).

Ong Sum Ping's sister married Pateh Berbai, the brother of Sultan Muhammad Shah. And because Sultan Muhammad Shah had no male heir, he was suceeded by his brother, Pateh Berbai, who became Sultan Ahmad, the second Sultan of Brunei.

Sultan Ahmad and his Chinese consort (Ong Sum Ping's sister) had a daughter (Princess Ratna Kesuma), who married Sharif Ali, an Arab, (25th generation) descendant of Prophet Muhammad, from Taif, Arabia. Sultan Ahmad had no male heir and the throne was passed to his son-in-law, who ascended the throne as Sultan Sharif Ali (r.1425-1432), the 3rd Sultan of Brunei. Today, the royal genealogy of Brunei follows the male line from Sultan Sharif Ali. The royal genealogy of Brunei can be traced back 1,400 years to the Prophet Muhammad (AD 571-632). Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is the 18th generation descendant of Sultan Sharif Ali and 42nd generation from the Prophet Muhammad.

Even if Sultan Ahmad was really Ong Sum Ping, that doesn't make the royal family of Brunei Chinese, because (generally accepted) one's ethnicity is passed down through the male line of the lineage.

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