Ming Shilu
Stone epigraphy in temples, which had been the primary source for Khmer history, is already a rarity throughout the 13th century, ends in the third decade of the fourteenth, and does not resume until the mid-16th century. Recording of the Royal Chronology discontinues with King Jayavarman IX Parameshwara (or Jayavarma-Paramesvara), who reigned from 1327 to 1336. There exists not a single contemporary record of even a king’s name for over 200 years. Construction and maintenance of monumental temple architecture had come to a standstill after Jayavarman VII's reign. According to author Michael Vickery there only exist external sources for Cambodia’s 15th century, the Chinese Ming Shilu (engl. veritable records) annals and the earliest Royal Chronicle of Ayutthaya, which must be interpreted with greatest caution. Wang Shi-zhen (王世貞), a Chinese scholar of the 16th century, is noted as having remarked: "The official historians are unrestrained and are skillful at concealing the truth; but the memorials and statutes they record and the documents they copy cannot be discarded."