as the Tang had done, the Ming tried to circumscribe it. After the
expeditions of Zheng He, the dynasty no longer looked upon the
distant world beyond China’s frontiers as a source of tribute and
knowledge. Some of the records of Zheng He’s voyages were actually
destroyed; others were filed away and forgotten. From the mid-
fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries, official China became
progressively more isolationist and inward-looking.
No attempt was made to maintain even a reduced naval presence
in Southeast Asian waters, let alone in the Indian Ocean. As a result,
the number of tribute embassies rapidly declined. The last mission
from Bengal arrived in 1438 and from Sri Lanka in 1459. Embassies
from Southeast Asia, including Champa, Cambodia, and Melaka, con-
tinued with reduced frequency. No mission arrived from Sulu after
1421, from Brunei after 1426, or from Samudra-Pasai in Sumatra after
- In their place an extensive Southeast Asian shipping network
supplied the China trade.
This regional trade network comprised two parts: a western
route linking Champa to ports on the Malay peninsula and northern
Java (Surabaya, Gresik and Tuban); and an eastern route linking the
Ryukyu islands (Liu-qiu), the Philippines (Luzon), Sulu and Borneo
(Brunei).^3 Most of the inter-island trade was in Indonesian vessels,
but the China connection from Champa or Siam and the Ryukyus
was sailed by Chinese. The earlier Java network was coordinated by
long-established Chinese communities on the north Java coast,
while the later Ryukyu network was controlled by merchants from
Fujian. Trade goods came from as far away as the Sunda islands and
Timor, including sandalwood, tortoise-shell, shark fins, pepper, and
spices. They reached China either illegally or as tribute trade accom-
panying official missions from those countries that continued to
dispatch embassies on a regular basis: every year from Vietnam, every
two years from the Ryukyus, and every three years from some more
distant kingdoms, such as Ayutthaya, though some sent missions
more frequently.
Enter the Europeans