BEIJING, Sept. 20 -- After China's economic reform and opening-up drive began, some young intellectuals lamented in the mid-1980s that the nation was a "yellow civilization" - with people traditionally tilling the earth - rather than a "blue civilization" - which includes a rich seafaring heritage.

    But two decades later, Gavin Menzies, a former submarine commander of the British Royal Navy, published a book in 2003 titled "1421: The Year China Discovered America," claiming the Chinese went to the Americas and probably the Antarctic earlier than the Europeans.

    Within these two extremes, where is the truth?

    The truth, says Chen Gaohua, a historian and academic at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is that there has been a missing link in studies of Chinese history, a link that was buried under imperial court documents and official records and never attracted serious attention from historians.

    Said Chen: "While the Chinese might not have travelled as far as Menzies suggested, the nation has never been a yellow civilization."

    Studying ancient China's international contacts, especially trade and sea communications, has been Chen's interest for the past 20 years and has earned him fame as one of the country's foremost historians.

    There is still a lack of documentation to support Menzies' scenario, according to Chen. "But the sea trade of ancient China proved to be very prosperous from the 10th century," he noted. "Contrary to traditional beliefs, shipping lines were much more important than the Silk Road in linking the East and the West."

    Chen said his research has revealed that Chinese seaports were as busy as any modern one in the Song (960-1279), Yuan (1271-1368) and early Ming (1368-1644) dynasties.

    China's sea contacts with foreign countries, documented as far back as early in the 2nd century BC, enjoyed their prime time in the 600 years before the country shut its doors to the rest of the world in the 16th century.

    Then, there were more than 100 ships carrying at least 300 tons as well as thousands of smaller ones at any given time in major ports such as Guangzhou in the south and Quanzhou in the east. They were loaded with ceramics and textiles waiting to be exported, or perfumes, spices and medical herbs being imported from Egypt, India and the Philippines.

    Businessmen in these ports sold and distributed imported goods around the country. Ship owners bargained with traders about transport fees.

    Professional captains and sailors were employed by owners while customs officials examined the export and import implications. Tax officials took their cut from goods arriving by sea.

    There were even large communities of expatriates in a dozen port cities, each equipped with churches and mosques, schools and cemeteries, and self-governing bodies under the direct jurisdiction of provincial governments.

    Although ancient business documents are still hidden, financial services such as banking and insurance companies could have functioned as they did early on in Marseille, France or Genoa, Italy.

    Actually, sea trade was so important to the economy that taxes from it accounted for as much as 15 per cent of government revenue in the 12th century. The central governments of the Song and Yuan dynasties were so aware of maritime trade that they lowered tax rates from time to time during difficult periods.

    Many factors also contributed to the "golden" time of sea trade between the 10th and 16th century.

    These included an increase in agricultural production, the prosperity of the ceramics and textiles industries, improvements in shipbuilding skills and progress in navigational technology. Meanwhile, the Silk Road, following the "Gansu Corridor" in Northwest China and stretching along the edges of deserts and mountains until reaching Central Asia, was often cut off by unfriendly groups or countries during the Song Dynasty.

    "Even when caravans were able to travel easily along the Silk Road, they couldn't compare with the status of ships in the flourishing international trade at the time," Chen said. "Caravans, primarily involving camels, could transport only a limited number of goods, and it was difficult for them to deal with fragile ceramics the top export commodity of China," he explained. "Only ships were able to carry these goods in any great quantity over a long distance."

    Chinese trade ships usually followed two routes. The shorter one towards the northeast led them to Japan and the Korea Peninsula. The longer one towards the south reached the islands of Java and Sumatra first, then ships entered the Malacca Strait and crossed the Indian Ocean all the way to the east coast of Africa.

    Ships travelling the longer route, carrying between 120 and 300 tons, usually had 200 to 600 people on board, including the crew and businessmen accompanying their goods.

    Documents have been discovered that suggest in ancient times businessmen travelled with their goods until they were sold in foreign lands, Chen said. No records have been found of the traders consigning the goods to ship owners, as modern international traders do.

    "The businessmen usually slept on top of their goods which were piled up in the cabins," Chen said. "It could be a very narrow space."

    The trip could also be unbearably long, Chen said. In some cases it took two years to go from Guangzhou or Quanzhou in China to the west coast of India and back, and a couple more years to the Gulf or the Red Sea.

    This was because ancient wooden ships without engines could travel only with the help of monsoons. During a typical trip, a ship left Guangzhou in the winter, travelled south in the direction of the monsoon for 40 days and reached Sumatra. Then it had to stay one year until another winter monsoon pushed the ship further south and west for about 60 days before it anchored at one of the ports on the west coast of India.

    Once in India, Chinese sailors had to wait for the summer monsoon to go back home. At the very best, they might return to Guangzhou in June of the next year after their departure.

    "It is interesting to delve into the life of such a seaman," Chen said. "For him, it seems time went so slowly at sea and so fast in the rest of his life."

    No diaries of early traders or sailors have been found, and there are few records of their lives in the mountains of historical files. But a few travelogues of Chinese diplomats at the time have hinted that these people might have enjoyed their time waiting for monsoons.

    Zhou Daguan (1266-1346), a diplomat during the Yuan Dynasty, wrote in his travelogue of Cambodia that many Chinese sailors chose to stay there because "people didn't have to wear much, and it was easy to get food, women, houses and even riches."

    It was from the time of the Song Dynasty that Chinese businessmen and sailors began to stay in foreign lands in large numbers. They contributed to the formation of cities in Sumatra and Java as well as other places in Southeast Asia.

    But while many migrated to neighbouring Asian nations, almost none of the Chinese seamen stayed on the Arabian Peninsula, the African coastal region or further away in Europe, Chen said.

    "I can't explain exactly why they made such a choice, but this fact apparently hindered the further development of international trade in ancient China," he said.

    By contrast, Arabian and European businessmen had large communities in China's coastal cities, primarily Guangzhou and Quanzhou, between the 10th and 16th centuries. At one time during the Yuan Dynasty, there were three St Francis Society churches, one Nestorian church, two mosques, one Hindu temple and several Buddhist temples in Quanzhou.

    Foreign communities, under the direct jurisdiction of the provincial government, had a certain degree of autonomy. According to Chen, a foreigner was always appointed to manage the community, and was empowered to make judgements on less serious crimes.

    Foreigners stayed in ancient China primarily for the high profits in international trade. The country was importing more than 400 kinds of goods during the Song Dynasty, from exotic jewels and herbal medicines to large quantities of seashells used as currency in Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

    When a ship arrived back home, the city's government took about one-tenth of most kinds of goods and had some of them sent to the central government. These goods were sold to the public at market, and the revenue made up a significant share of government income during the Song and Yuan dynasties.

    Many of the imported goods, such as medical herbs and agricultural products, are now produced in China.

    "We have to admit that this country had a far too limited variety of resources," Chen said. "It was only through centuries of international trade that it became an interesting place."

(Source: China Daily)