Chapter 24 Chapter VII Ancient Maritime Powers

Our ancestors had a relationship with the sea very early on.In recent years, artifacts of the painted pottery culture and black pottery culture created in the Neolithic Age in the primitive society of mainland my country have been discovered in places such as Taiwan Island.This shows that my country had already had navigation activities in the late Neolithic Age at the latest.When the Zhou Dynasty became king, "Yue clothes offered pheasants, and Japanese people paid tribute" (Wang Chong: "Lunheng").Yueshang is the name of the ancient South China Sea country, and Waren refers to the ancient Japanese.This also reflects that sea voyages were common in the Western Zhou Dynasty.From the earliest ancient books in our country, "Book of Books", "Zuo Zhuan", and Zhongzhong, it has been shown that the working people in our country had frequent contact with the sea in the pre-Qin period.The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were a period of great social turmoil in our country, and fierce wars put forward higher requirements for the navigation industry.During this period, my country's navigation activities were most developed mainly in the coastal areas from Shandong to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and some coastal areas developed into excellent seaports.Among them, Wu State, Yue State and Qi State were the main maritime vassal states.In the middle of the 7th century BC, Duke Huan of Qi appointed Guan Zhong as his prime minister to reform the internal affairs.With the geographical convenience of being close to the sea and the benefits of great fishing and salt, Qi State developed marine resources, which gave it a great economic advantage, and finally wiped out more than 30 vassal states one after another.In 651 BC, Duke Huan of Qi convened a meeting of many princes in Caiqiu (in Lankao County, Henan Province), and King Zhou also sent representatives to attend, and Qi's supremacy was recognized.Qi State has become a maritime power that can directly control the navigation around the Shandong Peninsula and the Bohai Sea, and even control the routes as far as the East China Sea and the mouth of the Qiantang River.The geographical environment of Wu State is also very superior, with a long history of maritime transportation, and it is known as a country that "cannot be used for a day without boats and boats".In 496 BC, King Yunchang of Yue died, and his son Goujian succeeded him.King Helu of Wu took the opportunity to attack Yue, but the Wu army was defeated. Helu was injured and died on the way back to his army.After his son Fu Chai succeeded to the throne, he did not forget the humiliation of the past. In 494 BC, he worshiped Wu Zixu and others as generals, and personally led the navy to attack Yue from Taihu Lake.Gou Jian did not adopt the advice of the doctor Fan Li and Wen Zhong, and when his strength was far inferior to that of Wu, he was defeated by Fujiao (now the West Dongting Mountain in Taihu Lake) in a battle with Wu. .Since then, King Fuchai of Wu actively marched northward to strive for supremacy.The Yue people have been good at sailing since ancient times, and they are relatively skilled in shipbuilding and sailing technology.The ships they built included Ge boats suitable for naval warfare, as well as flat boats, light boats, and linglings for civilian use.After Gou Jian was defeated by the state of Wu, he suffered a lot and struggled hard for more than ten years under his leadership, and the state of Yue finally became strong.In 482 BC, Goujian took advantage of the opportunity of Fuchai, the king of Wu, to lead his elite soldiers northward to meet in Huangchi (near Fengqiu, Henan Province), and captured the empty Wu capital Gusu (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province) in one fell swoop, killing Prince You. He also sent an army across the sea to the north and entered the Huaihe River, cutting off the retreat of Wu Wang Fucha.It can be seen that the nautical activities at this time have reached a considerable scale.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the development of the maritime industry also strengthened the exchanges between my country and neighboring countries such as Korea and Japan.In the Western Zhou Dynasty, Jizi, an aristocrat of the Shang Dynasty, was entrusted to North Korea. During the Warring States Period, people from Yan and Qi migrated to North Korea in batches from land or sea in order to resist feudal rule.Bronze bells, bronze swords, etc. have been unearthed in the Korean Peninsula. According to textual research, some of them are Chinese cultural relics from the Warring States Period.These show that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the working people of our country were able to sail in the Yellow Sea.In addition, many Chinese crossed the sea to Japan to escape the disaster of war.They brought with them production tools such as bronze and iron tools and rice cultivation techniques.Cultural relics such as Chinese bronze swords and currency knives and coins from the Warring States Period have been found in Japan.The Yue people on the southeast coast of our country also often carried out sailing activities in the South China Sea, and carried out maritime trade through Panyu Port (now Guangzhou).Nautical practice has expanded people's knowledge of geography and astronomy.Coastal residents divide the sea into several sea areas such as the East China Sea and the North Sea, and they are well aware of the importance of marine meteorology, especially wind direction, to navigation safety.The development of astronomy provides the conditions for the orientation and positioning of navigation.

The Qin Dynasty ended the split situation in the Warring States Period and enabled the further development of the navigation industry.Qin Shihuang attached great importance to navigation.After the unification of the country, he visited various places five times, including four cruises at sea.For example, the first cruise on the sea was in the twenty-eighth year of Qin Shihuang (219 BC).This is the first planned and organized large-scale voyage in the ancient history of our country.He first went to Zouyi Mountain (in today's Zouxian County, Shandong Province), erected stones to praise his merits, and then sealed Mount Tai (the building of an altar to worship the sky is called Feng) and Zen (the place where the foundation is sacrificed is called Zen) Liangfu (the hill under Mount Tai), and then traveled east to the sea. , to the two ports of Huang (now Huang County, Shandong Province) and Youyou (now Fushan County, Shandong Province) in Bohai Bay, and to Chengshan (now Chengshantou, Shandong Peninsula) and Zhifu (now Yantai City, Shandong Province) in the east.From there, they went south to Langya Port (in today's Jiaonan County, Shandong Province) and stayed for three months. They built Langya Terrace and ordered 30,000 households to relocate from the inland to Langya Terrace, exempting them from taxes for 12 years.Later, he crossed the Huaihe River and floated on the Yangtze River to Dongting Lake and returned to Xianyang.After that, Qin Shihuang went on three cruises on the sea, and died of illness on the way the last time.His cruising at sea had its political, military and economic purposes, and also accelerated the development of my country's navigation industry.In addition to Qin Shihuang's parade on the sea, the Qin Dynasty also had several large-scale navigation activities.Xu Fu's journey to Japan is one of the important events.Xu Fu was an alchemist from the Qi State at the end of the Warring States Period. In order to get funding, he lied to Qin Shihuang that he had gone to Penglai to find the elixir of life.He also said that he once asked the gods how much it would cost to ask for medicine?The god said: You must bring a lot of grains and thousands of men and women. "Qin Shihuang was very happy, and sent three thousand (children) men and women to work with all kinds of food and all kinds of labor." ("Historical Records · Huainan Hengshan Biography") As a result, Xu Fu never came back after he went to sea for the second time.According to textual research, Xu Fu probably started northward from Langye Port, went westward to Zhifu Port and Penglaitou through Chengshanjiao, continued northward along the Miaodao Islands, passed Laotieshan at the southern end of the Liaodong Peninsula, and went southeast to the southwest coast of the Korean Peninsula. Go east to Busan in the southeast corner of the Korean Peninsula, go southeast through Tsushima Island, cross the Tsushima Strait, reach the coast of Kitakyushu, Japan, go east into the Seto Inland Sea, go east to Osaka Bay, and finally arrive at Kumanotsu, Wakata Shingu Town.According to the records in Japan's "Historical Sites and Names of Heshange County", Xu Fu's tomb is in Xingong Town, and there is a stone tablet in front of the tomb, on which is engraved "Qin Xufu's tomb".I still remember: "It is said that in the past, when the first emperor of Qin Dynasty, Xu Fu led five hundred boys and girls, carrying grain seeds and farming tools to Japan, landed in Kumanojin, engaged in farming, raised men and women, and his descendants became the elders of Kumano, and crossed safely. Japan." Xu Fu led boys and girls to Japan to the east, indicating that my country's navigation ability in the Qin Dynasty was in the leading position in the world.Their overseas pioneering spirit is a great inspiration to future generations.They brought China's advanced culture and production technology to Japan, enabling Japan to quickly enter the stage of a civilized society, and strengthening the friendly exchanges between the people of China and Japan at sea.In short, the Qin Dynasty ushered in a new era of my country's navigation industry.If it is said that Xia, Shang, and Zhou were the start-up periods of my country's navigation industry, then after Qin unified China, my country's navigation industry entered a new period of development.

The Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty were two prosperous and powerful eras in the history of our country. During this period, shipbuilding and navigation technology have made great progress.During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty dispatched a powerful navy to conquer the local separatist forces such as Dongou (now southeast of Zhejiang), Minyue (now part of Fujian), and Nanyue (part of Guangdong and Guangxi), consolidating the sea area and laying a foundation for the development of coastal routes. Unblocking created conditions and opened up the north-south coastal route from Dandong, Liaoning in the north to the Bailun River Estuary in Guangxi, the route from the coast of Shandong to North Korea and Japan through the Yellow Sea, and the famous Maritime Silk Road.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty tried his best to open up sea traffic. He himself patrolled the sea seven times, sometimes once a year. He was still patrolling the sea until he was 68 years old two years before his death.During the Three Kingdoms period, Soochow was located in the most developed area of ​​navigation in the history of our country.In the several large-scale voyages organized by Soochow, the number of people was more than 10,000, and the maximum number was more than 30,000.The fleet has successively arrived in Liaodong, Hainan, Taiwan, Korea and Southeast Asian countries.The most worth mentioning is the voyage to Yizhou in the east.Yizhou is the sacred territory of Taiwan Island.Soochow also dispatched three large-scale fleets to open up a direct route from the Yangtze River Estuary to North Korea.Although it did not arrive in Japan, it laid the foundation for the opening of the China-Japan South Route during the Southern Dynasties.The China-Japan South Route starts from Jiankang, crosses the Yangtze River estuary and Chengshan Mountain in Shandong, then crosses the Yellow Sea, passes through southern Korea and Tsushima Island, to Fukuoka, Japan, passes through the Kanmon Strait and the Seto Inland Sea, and finally reaches Osaka.This route is much closer than the China-Japan North Route, and of course the navigation skills are also more demanding.During the Liu and Song Dynasties of the Southern Dynasties, Japan sent envoys to China eight times via the Nandao route to "offer things" and ask for imperial edicts.During the exchanges, in addition to a large amount of Chinese culture and production technology being introduced to Japan, Sima, a Han Chinese during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang, also brought Indian Buddhism to Japan. Since then, Japanese culture has been influenced by Buddhism.

Coastal navigation during the Han and Tang Dynasties was relatively safe and reliable.The boatmen have accumulated rich experience and can conduct correct pilotage according to the situation of mountains and rivers.Especially in the Tang Dynasty, navigation technology reached a very high level.Chinese sailors are famous for their superb seamanship.They not only mastered the laws of the southeast trade winds and monsoons in Asia, but also had a certain amount of nautical and astronomical knowledge.Around the fifth year of Zongdali in the Tang Dynasty (770 A.D.), Dou Shumeng, a native of Zhejiang, also wrote the earliest tidal monograph "Haitao Zhi" in my country.The study of tide theory also reflects the prosperity of the navigation industry in the Tang Dynasty.In addition to taking advantage of the Chinese coastal routes opened up by the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Tang people also opened up routes to the Kamchatka Peninsula through hardships, and increased the number of sea routes between Japan and my country to as many as eight or nine.

The Song and Yuan Dynasties were one of the most prosperous periods in Shanghai's history. The shipbuilding and navigation industries were very developed, and there were major breakthroughs in both shipbuilding and navigation technology.However, in terms of coastal shipping, the Song Dynasty mainly used the waterways opened up by the Han and Tang dynasties, and there was no expansion of coastal shipping routes.What needs to be emphasized here is the coastal shipping business of the Yuan Dynasty.Before the Yuan Dynasty, although grain was transported by sea, the frequency was relatively small.Large-scale shipping of grain grains began in the Yuan Dynasty.In order to overcome the difficulties of river transportation and supplement the shortage of river transportation, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty paid more attention to another main line of water transportation-sea transportation.They sent Zhu Qing, Zhang Xuan and others to supervise the construction of 60 sea-going ships, recruit Cao Ding and Cao Fu, and open up sea routes for transportation.At its peak, the annual transportation volume reached 3.6 million stones.At that time, grain was transported by sea along the coast from south to north, and there were many shoals and hidden reefs on the channel, and tragedies of shipwreck and human death often occurred.According to the suggestion of the boat owners, Kaido Prefecture set up a beacon ship at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and set up a flag on the ship to guide the entry and exit of grain ships.Later, flags were set up in some ports, and mounds of earth were built high. Banners were hung on the mounds during the day and lights were hung at night to direct the grain ships to travel.The setting of these buoys is another creation in the history of my country's shipping.It plays an important role in ensuring the safety of navigation.

In the early Ming Dynasty, my country was prosperous and powerful, and the shipbuilding and navigation industries reached the peak of ancient Chinese shipping history.The durable, high-performance large warships showed their prowess in Qi Jiguang's war against the Japanese and in Zheng Chenggong's recovery of Taiwan.At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the princes of Kyushu, Japan gathered frustrated warriors, businessmen, pirates, etc., and harassed the southeast coast of China.People called them "Japanese pirates".Qi Jiguang, the national hero, led the Qi family army and let Fuchuan, Guangzhou and Shachuan make great achievements in the anti-Japanese struggle. Finally, in 1565 AD, the Japanese pirates along the southeast coast were completely wiped out and the sea area was successfully defended.Another national hero, Zheng Chenggong, used Kinmen and Xiamen as his bases to train sailors. In 1661, he personally led 350 warships and 25,000 soldiers to cross the strait and fought fiercely with the Dutch colonialists who invaded Taiwan. In 1662, the governor of the Netherlands Kui Yi and his defeated generals were expelled from Taiwan, and Baodao, which had been occupied for 38 years, returned to the embrace of the motherland.However, in order to obstruct Zheng Chenggong's struggle against the Qing Dynasty and cut off the contact between mainland people and Zheng Chenggong, the Qing government issued a sea ban in the twelfth year of Shunzhi (AD 1655), prohibiting private overseas trade activities.Since then, my country's coastal shipping industry has been in a slump.