ABSTRACT Raja Bersiong, the Fanged King, is a cannibal monarch in the Kedah epic literature Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (HMM). By looking closely into the character of Raja Bersiong, this article examines the underlying ambition of the Kedah Sultanate in commissioning the HMM as a rhetorical statement of power, presumably around the early 19th century. By the late 18th century, Siamese predation had greatly destabilised Kedah. Lacking military capacity to deny Siamese suzerainty, Kedah plunged into double-dealing: through writing, the HMM downplays Siamese power by masking Kedah’s subordinate status to Siam as a relation of kin, and by considering Siam as an offshoot of Kedah’s royal legacy. Adopting an approach informed by Hendrik Maier, this article interprets the HMM as an ambiguous text that alludes to the diplomatic desperation of a small state. Such critical lens enables a more complex understanding of court writing as a historical source. In the face of geopolitical insecurity, Raja Bersiong figures as the abject, the symbolic surrogate for Siam to be expelled from Kedah, embodying a dialectics between Kedah and Siam, self and other, civility and savagery.

中文翻译：

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Raja Bersiong 或尖牙国王

摘要 Raja Bersiong，长牙国王，是吉打史诗文学《Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (HMM)》中的食人君主。通过仔细研究 Raja Bersiong 的性格，本文考察了吉打苏丹国委托 HMM 作为权力的修辞声明的潜在野心，大概是在 19 世纪初。到 18 世纪后期，暹罗捕食极大地破坏了吉打的稳定。由于缺乏否认暹罗宗主权的军事能力，吉打陷入双重交易：通过写作，HMM 通过掩盖吉打对暹罗的从属地位作为亲属关系来淡化暹罗的权力，并将暹罗视为吉打皇室遗产的一个分支。本文采用亨德里克·迈尔 (Hendrik Maier) 提出的方法，将 HMM 解释为一个含糊不清的文本，暗指一个小国在外交上的绝望。这种批判性的视角使人们能够更复杂地理解作为历史来源的法庭写作。面对地缘政治的不安全感，Raja Bersiong 扮演下贱者，象征暹罗被驱逐出吉打的代理人，体现了吉打与暹罗、自我与他人、文明与野蛮的辩证法。