Oceans of History, Seas of Change: Recent Revisionist Writing in Western Languages About China and East Asian Maritime History During the Period 1500–1630

Abstract

This article focuses on recent revisionist scholarship demonstrating that China's maritime history in the period 1500 to 1630 is no longer a case of ‘missed opportunity’, a viewpoint fostered by earlier writing dominated by state-centric and land-focused models. To challenge this perspective, this study first reviews analyses demonstrating the far-reaching commercial networks between Ming China and localities in Southeast and Northeast Asia, and then considers the impact of the metaphor of Fernand Braudel's ‘Asian Mediterranean’ and his ideas about ‘world economy’ on the study of East Asian seafaring history. Secondly, this investigation reveals the dimensions of Chinese trade networks which the mid-Ming government officially sanctioned, as well as the extent to which literati from the southern provinces challenged the state's involvement in overseas commerce of trade and exchange. Finally, the article assesses how modern historians have studied late Ming maritime defense policies as security along the littoral lapsed.

Inventing the ‘Maritime Silk Road’

“… 9 For analysis on the historiography of Chinese maritime history, see Chang (1992), Lai (1995), and Zurndorfer (2016). A detailed study of Chinese-language scholarship on the topic within the framework of the ‘Maritime Silk Road’ is Gong et al.…”