Maritime Frontiers, Territorial Expansion and Haifang 59
issue of coastal defense (haifang)^3 that subsequently became a major
policy concern for both the Ming and the Qing (1644‒1912) governments.
This chapter revolves around these observations. It begins with a long
view of the pre-Ming period that illustrates the formation of maritime
frontiers up to the Han and the subsequent consolidation from Han
times to the mid-Ming. The late Ming and the Qing prior to the Opium
War (1839‒42) will form the backbone of the present investigation.
Through the lenses of scholars of statecraft during the period in question,
the discussion hopes to reveal what were the actual approaches to the
haifang issue and the rationale behind them, instead of what should
have happened.
Boundaries, Frontiers and Lands Beyond
During imperial times, the Chinese rulers maintained a strong sense
of the empire’s boundaries. In his letter to King George III of England,
the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736‒95), explained that “the borders of the
heavenly empire are peremptorily drawn and their crossing by the
people from outside the boundaries is strictly prohibited.... Every length
of the land within the empire is covered by the register of population. The
boundaries are precisely drawn. Even the islets and shoals have also been
divided and demarcated. Each is under a particular jurisdiction.”^4 He was
not exaggerating the situation. As Owen Lattimore observes, there was an
inherent bias in the Chinese historical processes toward the evolution of
“rigid frontiers”.^5
This territorial concept contributed to the long tradition of compiling
and publishing numerous geographical writings to deβine the borders.
Maritime frontiers were no exception. The Yugong has often been
cited as an early work that describes what were known as the “nine
[geographical] divisions” (jiuzhou zhidi) under Yu the Great (according
to tradition, approximately the twenty-βirst century ćĈ). Some of the
divisions extended eastward to the sea from modern Shandong to
northern Fujian. During the Xia and Shang dynasties (c. 2100‒1028 ćĈ),
the eastern region where the Yi people resided was considered “a land
- A literal translation of the term is “sea defense”, but more precisely it meant
“coastal defense”. - Haiguo tuzhi 海國圖誌 [Illustrated gazetteer of the maritime nations], comp.
Wei Yuan 魏源撰 (1847 ed.; hereafter HGTZ), 48: 17b–18a. - See Owen Lattimore, Studies in Frontier History (Paris: Mouton & Co., 1962),
p. 98.