dynasty from 502 to 557 CE, Southeast Asian kingdoms quickly
responded. Official missions arrived to establish the diplomatic condi-
tions essential for trade promotion and protection.
From the seventh to the tenth centuries China was unified
under the Sui and Tang dynasties. Under the Sui, the demand for
luxury products from Southeast Asia was artificially stimulated by the
extravagance of the court. As supplies were limited, prices rose. The
Chinese response was twofold: to seek to control by aggressive use of
force those regions within striking range of Chinese fleets and armies;
and to use diplomacy to promote trade with kingdoms further afield. In
605, a Chinese army sacked and looted the Cham capital, while five
years later a Chinese fleet raided Liu-qiu (the Ryukyu islands).
In 607, the first official Chinese embassy for more than three
centuries departed in a substantial fleet for the Southern Ocean. Its
goal was to make contact with the new kingdom of Chitu that had
arisen on the Malay peninsula with the decline of Funan. The mission
was entirely successful, for the king of Chitu needed little urging to
promote trade with China. Two tribute missions were dispatched in
successive years to establish the necessary protocol, and missions from
smaller kingdoms in the region soon followed, including from as far
away as east Java (or Bali).
The Tang dynasty that seized power from the Sui in 618 was of
mixed Chinese and Turkish descent and created an empire that
extended deep into central Asia. It was remarkably open to external
cultural influences, particularly to Buddhism.^5 Foreign merchants, mis-
sionaries and adventurers flocked to the Tang capital of Changan,
which became the most cosmopolitan and populous city in the world.
Most came overland along the Silk Road through central Asia, but two
other land routes were also travelled: one from India via Tibet and
Nepal; the other from Burma via Yunnan.
The confident and outward-looking Tang dynasty encouraged
official foreign relations as a means at first of managing foreign trade,
though in time limitations on private trade were relaxed. The early
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia