Commodity and Market 19
engaged in a two-way trafβic”, as K.N. Chaudhuri puts it.^62 The sea route
from the Red Sea, passing by way of the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf,
Malabar, Ceylon, the Gulf of Bengal and the Straits of Malacca to the South
China Sea and ending up in South China witnessed the busiest shipping
and carrying trade in the world.
When did the Chinese begin to participate in the outbound long-
distance shipping trade? Existing scholarship gives even a casual reader
the impression that, despite all the hard work done by researchers, our
current knowledge about this topic remains insubstantial and what
information there is is somewhat contradictory. The following three
illuminating observations, for example, testify to the dilemma. Although
one of the authors is more certain about the presence of Chinese long-haul
shipping, the other two differ to a certain extent. On the basis of an Arab
source cited by another researcher, Ch’en Kuo-tung argues that Chinese
ships were in βirm control of the long-distance shipping stretching from
Guangzhou to Kalah from the ninth century.^63 Kalah was located at the
northern end of the Straits of Malacca and was a transfer station for
ships sailing between India and the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago. In
support of his view, the author cites a late twelfth-century Song text that
mentions visits to Koulam (Gulin) on the southwest coast of India by
Tang trading junks (Tang bo). From there the junk traders transferred
to smaller vessels bound for Dashi (Arabia). The text is silent about the
home port of the smaller vessels sailing between Koulam and Dashi.^64 In
fact, a much earlier contemporary eyewitness-account written around
Ćĉ 851 by an Arab traveler unmistakably testiβies to the arrival of
Chinese ships in Koulam. For this reason, Ch’en’s view can be placed on
a βirm basis.^65
A different suggestion is made by Chang Pin-tsun, examining the rise
of South Fujianese sea merchants in the Nanhai trade. Chang believes
- K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean, p. 34.
- Ch’en Kuo-tung, Dongya haiyu yiqian nian, p. 58. The phrase “主导” (leading) is
used to depict the dominant Chinese position. - Ibid., pp. 59–60, quoting Zhou Qufei 周去非, Lingwai daida 嶺外代答 [Answering
the queries from beyond the mountain range], annotated by Yang Wuquan 杨
武泉 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1999), section on “Gulin guo” 故臨國 (State of
Gulin), pp. 90–1. - See Zhongguo Indu jianwen lu 中國印度見聞錄 [An eye-witness account of
China and India], translated and annotated by Mu Gen Lai 穆根来, Wen Jiang
汶江and Huang Zhuohan 黄倬汉, from a French edition (Beijing: Zhonghua
shuju, 1983), Chapter 1, p. 8. Clearly, this Arab author was writing about China
and India from his Arab perspective. It is unlikely he could have mistaken his
countrymen for Chinese.