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The rise and fall of the Jiaozhi Ocean

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 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE JIAOZHI OCEAN REGION
LI Tana

In Angela Schottenhammer and Roderich Ptak ed. The Perception of Maritime Space in Traditional
Chinese Sources, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, ISBN 3-447-05340-2, pp. 125-140.

Introduction

When surveying the scattered literature on the Sino-Vietnamese maritime connections we face one
major term, the Jiaozhi Yang or Jiaozhi Ocean. Two interesting issues surfaced when we try to
understand the context in which the term had emerged. The first concerns the famous port of
Jiaozhou. Jiaozhou had a long reputation as China's major port, attracting a large share of maritime
commerce of the South China Sea, from the Han period onward. In the Tang dynasty it shared
Guangzhou’s fame as one of the two major ports and sometimes even surpassed Guangzhou by
attracting most of the latter's share of overseas trade. Yet as famous as it was, astonishingly, nobody
seems certain of the location of this prosperous Jiaozhou port,1 while Guangzhou’s location on
the other hand has always been beyond doubt. This mystery raised a series of questions on
travelling routes and travellers, which lead to the second issue I will be considering, namely, the
disappearance of Muslim traders from the Jiaozhi Ocean region from the fifteenth century. This
disappearance coincided with the decline of the Tongking Gulf as part of the major South China
Sea trade, and above all, with the decline of the well-known Western Route.2 This article reviews
this early maritime space located in the south of China, and argues that the Gulf of Tongking area
was an extension and an integral part of the Jiaozhi Ocean, an active trading zone which, up to the
fifteenth century, was largely dominated by Muslim traders from South, West, and Southeast Asia.
The Jiaozhi Ocean was located right in the heart of the Western Route of the South China Sea,
and the commerce of this trading zone formed a crucial part of the foundation of the early
Vietnamese states.

I want to start with introducing an area that played a crucial role in the chronology of the Jiaozhi
Ocean, the region of modern central Vietnam, which for centuries before its conquest by the Le
king Thanh Ton in 1471 formed part of the kingdom of Champa. This cross-road area linked
Jiaozhou with Han China on the one hand, and Southeast Asia, South and West Asia on the other.
Although Jiaozhou was well known as a commercial international centre from the Han to the Tang
eras, before the Song dynasty there was no real seaport as such in the Tongking Gulf. Maritime
travel between Jiaozhou and overseas went through this region, known at the time as Rinan 日南,
with several ports likely to have been involved rather than one.

Central Vietnam was important both because it brought together the sea and the mountains. One
could recall the famous overland route recorded in the Xin Tang shu, which ran across the Truong
Son Mountains to the Khmer Land, from where it connected to the sea.3 Interestingly, when one

1 For example, see different opinions over the location by H.Maspero, "Le protectorat general d'Annam sous les
T'ang", tran. in Feng Cheng Jun, Xiyu nanhai shidi kaozheng yicong sibian 西域南海史地考证译丛四编, (Shanghai:
Shangwu, 1940), pp.73-80; and Dao Duy Anh, Dat nuoc Viet Nam qua cac thoi dai, (Hanoi: Khoa Hoc, 1964), pp.72-
74; and James Chin in discussing Kuwabara Jitsuzo's opinion over Lukin. James K. Chin, "Ports, Merchants,
Chieftains and Eunuchs: Reading Maritime Commerce of Early Guangdong", in Shing Muller et al. (ed.), Guangdong:
Archaeology and Early Texts (Zhou-Tang), (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz KG, 2004), p.221.
2 Denys Lombard, "Une autre 'Mediterranee' dans ''Asie du sud-est", Herodote, 88 (1998): p.191. My thanks to Nola

Cooke for translating the article into English.

3
Ouyang Xiu 欧阳修 et al., Xin tangshu 新唐书, 20 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975), IV, j.43, pp.1151-52.
marks this route to the map, it is revealed as connected to the Western Route 西洋航路, the most
ancient long distance route for traffic between the Indian Ocean and China. Transport on this
route was in the hands of South and West Asian merchants; while the later-developed Eastern
Route was mostly used by Chinese and Southeast Asian vessels. 4 In other words, unlike the
Eastern Route, the more ancient Western Route that was used by merchants from the Indian
Ocean was most likely a combination of sea and overland routes, with central Vietnam its cross-
roads.5

This would locate upper central Vietnam and the Gulf of Tongking area, and their mountainous
hinterlands, right on the Western Route. The close distance between the Gulf of Tongking and
China, and the minimum trade carried out in this area in the early modern era, has helped form its
image as the backwater of the South China Sea. But this erroneous reading back into history has
blurred the connections of this region with South and West Asian merchants and travelers, and its
key connections with the outside world right up to the fifteenth century.

Central Vietnam was thus the "common or party-wall' (mitoyenne) zone", as Lomband put it, where
Chinese and Indian influences have historically met each other, from whence emerged the fruitful
concept of "Indochina".6 Located between Jiaozhou and Champa and at the loose end of the
political control of both, central Vietnam provided a space where travellers operated easily and
where structures were less rigid.

In this paper I will first consider how the Gulf of Tongking was connected to central Vietnam,
why for thousand of years the Gulf itself did not have a seaport of its own, and the context against
which the Jiaozhi Ocean emerged. Putting Vietnam's maritime history back into the large context
of the rise and decline of the Western Route of the South China Sea allows a bird’s-eye view from
the Gulf of Tongking to central Vietnam, and their connections crossing Yunnan, Guangxi,
Champa, Laos and Cambodia. It was on these connections that Jiaozhi established itself as a major
commercial center of the region. In this context it is worthwhile considering the characteristics of
Jiaozhou and Guangzhou, when they shared the fame of maritime trade of the Tang era. It seems
increasingly clear to me that, while Guangzhou attracted a large share of the maritime trade of
South and West Asia, Jiaozhou's strength came more likely from the mountainous regions of
Yunnan, Laos and Cambodia. This mountain connection was most evident with the horse trade
between Yunnan, Guangxi and Jiaozhi, which I will turn to later.

There are two related characteristics about the term "Jiaozhi Yang" that I also want to note. First,
the term Jiaozhi Yang has never appeared in the official Chinese records or chronicles, and
secondly, the location actually referred to seems to have moved during different historical eras.
The clearest indication of Jiaozhi Yang's location is found in Lingwai daida: "The route [to China]
from Srivijaya takes the direction of north-north, passing the Upper and Lower Zhu islands and
the Jiao [zhi] Yang. Those going to Guangzhou would enter by Tun Men, and those going to
Quanzhou would take Jiazi Men". 7 Clearly “Jiaozhi Yang” here was referring to the central

4
R. Ptak, "Jottings on Chinese Sailing Routes to Southeast Asia, Especially on the Eastern Route in Ming Times", in
China, the Portuguese, and the Nanyang, (Ashgate, 2004), VII, p.109.
5
Central Vietnam's place in the Western Route is reminded that, in the first attempt of establishing maritime contacts
with China, the presents sent by the envoys of the Roman king Aurelius Antonimus were "elephant tooth, rhinoceros
horns, and hawksbill turtles," all of which were typical commodities of central Vietnam of this time.
6
Denys Lombard, "Une autre 'Mediterranee' dans ''Asie du sud-est", p.184.
7
"三佛齐之来也,正北行舟,历上下竺与交洋,乃至中国之境.其欲至广者入自屯门,欲至泉州者入自甲子门." Lingwai
daida xiaozhu 岭外代答校注,written by Zhou Qufei 周去非,annotated by Yang Wuquan 杨武泉, (Beijing: Zhonghua
shuju,1999), j.3, p.126.
Vietnam coast, from where travellers would pass to the southeast of Hainan Island to China,
without touching the Gulf of Tongking area.

One would be puzzled by another statement, however, in the same source that referred to the
southwest of Hainan as Jiaozhi Yang: "The Qin River in Guangxi splits into two when it reaches
the sea. The southwest branch goes to the Jiaozhi Sea (交阯海), and southeast one to the Qiong
(Hainan) and Lian Sea (琼廉海)".8 The inclusion of the Gulf of Tongking in the Jiaozhi Yang is
clearer in this statement: "the sea at the southwest of the four prefectures of Hainan is called
Jiaozhi yang." (海南四郡之西南, 其大海曰交阯洋).9 These contradictions in usage of the term
took me a long time to figure out; however, understood as I will argue here, they must have
revealed the long-lost historical reality of relations between upper central Vietnam and the Gulf of
Tongking, and their important place in the maritime history of Asia.

Central Vietnam: the pivot of maritime travel

The common impression of Sino-Southeast Asia maritime connections is that while most of
Southeast Asian countries came to China through the South China Sea, Vietnam and China were
largely connected by the Gulf of Tongking. Looking back in history, however, we find it reported
that in the Han period Jiaozhi's tributes were sent by the 涨海, the Great Sea.10 The Gulf of
Tongking area was in fact avoided in sea travel between Jiaozhi and Han China. Ma Yuan, the
Wave Pacifying General (伏波将军), for example, actually opened channels through mountains
to avoid this sea (" 马伏 波 … 乃 凿 石 穿 山 , 以 避 海 路 "). 11 When Gao Pian (Cao Bien in
Vietnamese) defeated Nanzhao in 866, the sea transportation in the Gulf region was still as
dangerous as could be: "The waterway [from Annam] south to the Yong prefecture (in Guangxi)
runs fast and dangerous, and the way is blocked by huge rocks", reported by Gao Pian.12 "One
must give up hope of coming back alive, as soon as he boarded a ship [in this area]" ("才登一去
之舟, 便作九泉之计"), was how dangerous the sea seemed in this famous governor's eyes, when
he asked permission from the court to open the sea route.13 That the Great Sea mentioned in the
Han records was indeed not the Gulf of Tongking is shown by Jiaozhi's tribute, which did not go
through Guangdong and Guangxi, but far away through today's Fuzhou, the provincial capital of
Fujian.14 This route, though unsafe, was probably quite common among travelers, so that the Han

8 "钦江南入海, 凡 72 折. 南人谓水一折为遥(迳),故有 72 遥之名. 72 遥中, 有水分为二川. 其一西南入交阯

海, 其一东南入琼廉海." 岭外代答, p.35.
9"海南四郡之西南, 其大海曰交阯洋". 岭外代答, p.36.
10 "交趾七郡贡献, 皆从涨海出入." (唐) Xu Jian 徐坚 Chu xueji 初学记, 3 vol. (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1962), I,

j.6, p.115.
11
"Tianwei jing xinzuo haipai bei" "天威径新凿海派碑", in Phan Van Các & Claudine Salmon, Épigraphie en chinois
du Viêt Nam = Van kh´ac Hán Nôm Viêt Nam (Paris: Presses de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient; Hà Nôi: Vien
nghiên c´u´u Hán Nôm, 1998), pp.33-40.
12安南高骈奏: "南至邕管, 水路湍险, 巨石梗涂, 令工人开凿讫, 漕船无滞者." Liu Xu 刘昫 Jiutangshu 旧唐书,

19 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975), V, j 19, p.661.

13
(宋) Sun Guangxian 孙光宪, Beimeng suoyan 北梦琐言, "高骈开海路", collected in Congshu jicheng chubian 丛书集
成初编, (Shanghai: Shangwu, 1936), j. 2, p.9.
14 "旧交趾七郡贡献转运, 皆从东冶泛海而至, 风波艰阻, 沈溺相系. 弘奏开零陵, 桂阳峤道, 于是夷通, 至今

遂为常路". Fan Ye 范晔, Houhan shu 后汉书, 12 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1965), VI, j. 33, p. 1156. 东冶, 今
福州.
court made a special rule of not allowing the Governors of Jiaozhi to travel on the Great Sea (旧
令: 刺史行部, 不涉涨海)15, but rather to travel by overland routes.16

Taking note of the arrival port calls our attention to the departure point of the journey. It would
have taken considerable effort for Dai Viet rulers to take their tributes from the Red River Delta,
go around Hainan Island, then up to Fujian. But it would be entirely different if the journeys
started from central Vietnam. Once we start thinking about the possibilities of central Vietnam
rather than the Red River delta as the departure point, many historical accounts of international
travels involving Vietnam began to make sense.

This leads our eyes to a well-known port, the Rinan area. This was an important maritime
destination, where the envoys of India and the Roman Empire entered Han China in the second
century AD.17 Earlier, it was also the landing point for Khmer and Javan envoys.18 While the phrase
频从日南徼外来献 could be translated as "the foreign envoys often entered Han territory from the
Rinan region [and travelled up via the Red River Delta]", another translation is equally possible,
that the envoys sailed [directly] from the Rinan (Nghe-Tinh) area, and both routes were probably
used. From the well-known Han maritime route "either the barricades of Rinan, or Xuwen, or
Hepu, traveling five months one would reach the Duyuan Kingdom", ("自日南障塞, 徐闻, 合浦
船行可五月, 有都元国."), it is clear that all the three places listed were seaports. In other words,
Jiaozhi in the Red River Delta was not considered the starting point of a maritime trip.19

Although the term "Rinan" was vague and the territory it referred to shifted over time between
the Han and Tang eras, most scholars tend to think that it was the present Quang Tri-Thua Thien
area. As maritime histories of both Southeast Asia and China prove, major ports often moved
from time to time, and since central Vietnam's sovereign status was so unstable, it is most likely
that the port of Rinan moved a few times along the central coast.20 In seeking to pin down where
Rinan was, an old Vietnamese name 南界海门 (The Gate of the Southern Border) should not be
overlooked. According to Dao Duy Anh, the Vietnamese authority on the relevant historiography,
南界海门 was Cửa Sót 漏海口(Sot Seagate) in Nghe Tinh.21 Certainly, large numbers of Han
tombs have been found in Nghe Tinh, proof of direct and frequent contacts between the area and
China.

The question is, once the foreign envoys and merchants arrived in central Vietnam, how did they
proceed to China? Did they cross the ocean passing around Hainan Island to China, or take the
trip by rivers? One clue can be found in the records of warfare between Dai Viet and Champa

15
Yao Zhiyin 姚之駰, Houhan shu buyi 后汉书补逸, 文渊阁四库全书内联网版, 史部, j. 9.
16 For a survey of historical routes to Jiaozhi, see Chen Yulong 陈玉龙, "Lidai zhong yue jiaotong dili kao" (A study
on the historical routes between China and Vietnam", in Dongnan ya shi lunwen ji 东南亚史论文集 (Zhengzhou:
Henan Renmin, 1987), pp.91-123.
17 "天竺国…频从日南徼外来献". 后汉书, j. 88, p.2920: "西域传". "大秦王安敦遣使自日南徼外献象牙, 犀角,

瑇瑁, 始乃一通焉."
18后汉书, "日南徼外蛮夷究不事人邑豪献生犀, j.76, p.2839; 后汉书, "日南徼外叶调国贡献", j.6, p.258.
19
This view agrees with that of the Japanese scholar 藤田丰八 who thought that the port Kattigara in Ptolemy's
Geographia should be somewhere in the central Vietnam, rather than in the Tongking Gulf near Hanoi, as held by
Yule and Hirth. See 藤田丰八, Zhongguo nanhai gudai jiaotong congkao 中国南海古代交通丛考, tran. He Jianmin 何健
民, (Shanghai: Shangwu Press, 1936), pp.543-545.
20
The Rinan district of the Jin and Tang periods, for example, was in today's Nghe An. See Dao Duy Anh, Dat nuoc
Viet Nam qua cac thoi dai, pp.69-70.
21 Dao Duy Anh, Dat nuoc Viet Nam qua cac thoi dai, p.175.
throughout centuries,22 and in the route followed by the seventeenth century Japanese Red Seal
ships that visited Tongking. All typically called in at Nghe An, from where they sailed north along
the coast before entering the Red River delta.23

The Nghe-Tinh area was a real link between the Han China and Southeast Asia, South and Central
Asia. As Momoki Shiro points out, in contrast to the present image of a poor and undeveloped
central Vietnam, the Nghe Tinh area during the Dai Viet period was "a rich trading entrepot where
Chinese, Chams, and Khmers gathered".24 Nghe-Tinh straddled land and sea trade routes. By sea
the maritime route went east of Hainan Island to Fujian and Guangdong, while by the overland
route, which became the basis of a well-known the eighth century route, crossed the Truong Son
Mountains to the Lu Chenla (Land Khmer).25 Because of this connection, Nghe-Tinh also served
as Cambodia's primary point of access to the South China Sea, something that helps explain why
the Khmer kings sent "tribute" more often to Dai Viet (nineteen times) than they did to Song
China (five times).26 Traders using this route are specifically mentioned as being of Vietnamese
origin in early Khmer inscriptions as, for example, in a 987 AD inscription from Phum Mien on
the lower Mekong.27

More evidence that central Vietnam served as the maritime access of Jiaozhi can also be found in
the story of Trong Thuy and My Chau, perhaps the best-known piece of Vietnamese folklore
recorded in the Vietnamese chronicle. When King An Duong Vuong was chased by the army of
Trieu Da, "he ran to the seaside and could not find any ship or boat to escape". Significantly, the
place of his defeat was Dien Chau, in Nghe An.28

There embodied the historical wisdom when Lingwai daida referred both southwest and southeast
of the Hainan Island into the Jiaozhi Ocean. Although never spelt out, the Tongking Gulf area
must have been considered as the extension of the Jiaozhi Ocean, which was along the central
coast and had for thousands of years been the pivot of the travel between the East and West.

Right up until the late Tang period the difficult sea route between the Tongking area and
Guangdong and Guangxi was still one to be avoided, although three governors in succession had
tried, before Gao Pian, to open it. Each effort had cost several thousand lives.29 As late as the mid-

22
See Dai Viet su ky toan thu for the abundant evidence on this.
23 Momoki Shiro 桃木至朗, “Dai Viet and the South China Sea Trade from the 10th to the fifteenth century”,
Crossroads, 12 (1), p.12.
24 Momoki Shiro, “Dai Viet and the South China Sea Trade", p.14.
25 新唐书, j.43, pp.1151-52. Maspero thinks that the route across the Keo Ngua Pass to Laos, while Dao Duy Anh

thinks that it was more likely from the Quy Hop area. Quy Hop was the most important contacting point between
Vietnam and Laos throughout the centuries.
26 Momoki, "Dai Viet and the South China Sea Trade", p.15.
27Kenneth Hall, Maritime Trade and State Development in Early Southeast Asia, (University of Hawaii Press, 1985), p.184,

quoted from George Coedes, Inscriptions du Cambodge, vol.6, pp.183-186. Hall reckons that the Viet traders used a
Mekong river route to enter Cambodia, from Nghe An through the Ha-trai pass and down the Mekong, p.173.
28
"王至海滨, 途穷无舟楫…世传演州高舍社夜山是其处." 大越史记全书 [Dai Viet su ky toan thu in
Vietnamese, hereafter Toan Thu], edited and collated by Chen Chingho 陈荆和, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Institute of
Linguistic Studies, Keio University, 1984), I, p.103. The importance of the sea-river connection between the north
and central Vietnam is supported by studies of Vietnamese historical anthropology. Most of the major cattle trading
centres of northern Vietnam were located in Nghe An, and the largest market in the region was in Nghi Loc district
near Vinh, the provincial capital of Nghe An. The cattle seemed to be brought by junks from Laos by the Ca River
to the market on the coast, then being transported to the Red River Delta. The junks would bring back the big terra-
cotta jars produced from the Delta. Nguyen Duc Nghinh, "The Village Markets", in Vietnamese Traditional Villages,
Phan Huy Lê ( ed.) .(Hanoi: The Gioi, 1993), pp.324-25.
29
"天威径新凿海派碑", pp.33-40.
ninth century, therefore, the sea connecting Annam and China was still largely considered to be
the South Sea.30

The difficult conditions on the coast also partly explained why the early Dai Viet polities centred
on the upper delta, which was also where the most famous Buddhist temples concentrated. As
Whitmore points out, the Ly Dai Viet, like Angkor and Pagan, was focused on the upper, mid-
river portion of its territory and paid relatively little attention to the lower, deltaic, coastal segment
downriver.31

The emergence of the Jiaozhi Yang

It was no coincidence that the term 交阯洋 appeared only in the Song period. It was at this time
that travel conditions between the Gulf of Tongking and Guangxi were greatly improved, thanks
to Governor Gao Pian, under whom most hidden rocks along the coast were removed. While in
the Tang era this coast was precisely what should have been steered away from (少为风引, 遵崖而
行,必瓦碎于三险之下),32 after Gao Pian in the Song era the coast was so that people from Jiaozhi
"all came by small boats. Once leaving the harbour, they would hug the coast and travel along it
and enter the port of Qin." (遵崖而行,不半里即入钦港).33 Thanks to this great improvement and
with the shift of the Song capital south in 1126, we see the development of lively trade carried out
by both the large merchants and small traders in Qinzhou in the Song period.

There were only limited pre- Song accounts on trade and interactions between Dai Viet and China
in this area, but from the Song dynasty they became plenty.34 The Jiaozhi Yang area during this
period opened up many possibilities; first and foremost among them it became a workable space
for coastal dwellers. The most representative account of this comes from the Lingwai daida:35

All of Jiaozhi’s everyday wares depend on Qinzhou, thus ships go back and forth forever
between the two. The boyi [trade] field is in the east of the river outside the town. Those
who came with sea products to exchange for rice and cotton fabric in small quantity were
called the Dan of Jiaozhi [cf. the dan in Guangdong]. Those rich merchants who came to
trade would come from its border area of Vinh Yen prefecture and yi die to Qinzhou, this

30"[王]勃往交趾省父,…渡南海,堕水而卒 ".旧唐书, "王勃传", j.190, p.5085. This is not to say that the Hainan
Strait was completely unused between Jiaozhi and Guangdong, but it was so difficult that the Guangdong merchant
ships trading to Jiaozhi were often forced to abandon their ships and come back by the land route of Leizhou,
according to the Lingbiao Luyi of the Tang period. (唐) Liu Xun 刘恂, Lingbiao luyi 岭表录异 :"每岁广州常发铜船
过安南贸易,路经调黎…交趾廻乃舍舟取雷州缘岸而归,不憚辛苦,盖避海鰌之难也", in 丛书集成初编, p.19.
31
John Whitmore, "The Rise of the Coast: Trade and State in Early Dai Viet", paper given to symposium
'Trading in the Southern Sea of the Song Dynasty,' 50th meeting of the Toho Gakkei, Tokyo, 20 May 2005.
32
Although the "天威径新凿海派碑" does not say where Gao Pian's project was being carried out, it is clear that it
was on the coast. The Lingwai daida, when mentioning the Inscription, made it clearer: "One is bound to lose his life
if he is carried away by the wind and go along the coast." 岭外代答, p.33.
33
"交人之来,率用小舟.既出港, 遵崖而行,不半里即入钦港. 正使至廉,必越钦港….交人之至钦也,自其境永
安州, 朝发暮到". 岭外代答, p.53.
34 The easy and frequent water communications through the salt boats in the area could be glanced from this from

the Song huiyao jigao 宋会要缉稿 "番夷 4":"安南入贡所过州县差夫数多,窃见自静江府水路可至容州北流县,兼

有回脚盐船,若量支水脚和雇无不乐从.又自北流遵陆 120 里至郁林州, 自有车户运盐牛车可以装载. 自郁林
州水路可至廉州,其处亦有回脚盐船.自廉航海一日之程即达交阯. 若由此途则从静江而南 2000 余里可以不
役一夫而办.自临安至静江其间节次亦有可通水路". Xu Song 徐松, Song huiyao jigao 宋会要缉稿 , 8 vols.
(reprinted Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1957), VIII, p.7738.
35
岭外代答, p.196.
 is called 'small present' (xiao gang). The 'large quantity present' (da gang) refers to the envoys
sent by the court [of Jiaozhi] to trade here.

It was no coincidence that Van Don, the major port of Dai Viet, opened in the twelve century, as
the improved conditions of maritime travel brought merchants from Java, Angkoria Cambodia,
and Siam directly to the Tongking Gulf. Vietnamese chronicles recorded very frequent "tributes"
paid by the Khmers between the eleventh and twelve centuries.36 As Michael Vickery argued, this
was the time when the Southern Song were expanding maritime trade in Southeast Asia, and since
Khmer's largest roads network was towards the area of valuable produce, it may be inferred that
they were "trying to occupy, physically collect, and transport by road those products which could
be sold profitably to China, through the ports of Champa."37 It is exciting to realise that Angkor
contributed a big part to Dai Viet's prosperity, indicating it was no coincidence that both Dai Viet
and Angor kingdom enjoyed their golden era at the same time.38

It was also thanks to these improved trade conditions and the smoother sea route that the Dai
Viet navy launched its massive invasions of the Qin, Lian and Yong prefectures in 1075 and 1076.
Song records described the momentum of the Dai Viet navy vividly: "when their war ships
anchored at our coast and their army drums knocked at the gate of our town, it was as if they came
into a no man's land and [our army] had no capability to fight".39

The much-improved sailing conditions in the Jiaozhi Yang also became a nurturing ground for
Sino-Viet elites. The Qinzhou trading field was where the royal Tran family first made its way to
Vietnam,40 and the Gulf of Tongking was the point of entry for the Mac family, who ruled northern
Vietnam for most of sixteenth century, after originally coming from Guangdong (near Hong
Kong) long before by sea. 41 Clearly the Jiaozhi Yang, or the Gulf of Tongking, trading area
provided an arena in which an immigrant family likes the Tran could successfully outdo its
competitors.42 It is also important to realise that it was this Song trade that led to a major change

36
Dai Viet su ky toan thu, years 1019-1124.
37
Michael Vickery, "Cambodia and its Neighbours in the fifteenth century", ARI working paper no.27, June 2004, p.8.
38
In making a special kind of perfumed bracelet, for example, the Jiaozhi craftsmen would "mould aroma mud into
bead shape, altered with glass beads in between and threaded them with colour silk. When brought to Canton for sale
they were loved by the women there." The two crucial ingredients of making this bracelet - the glass beads and the
aroma woods - had to come from overseas, which were reportedly from Champa. Fan Chengda 范成大, Guihai yuheng
zhi 桂海虞衡志, "志香":"香珠,出交阯, 以泥香捏成小巴豆状, 琉璃珠间之, 彩丝贯之, 作道人数珠．入省地
卖，南中妇人好带之.＂(Nanning: Guangxi Minzu chuban she, 1984), p.10. Muslim merchants from the Middle
East and Champa were known for managing aroma trade in Song China. Not only did they engage in the import of
the alloewoods but also the making of the aroma products. As late as in the 1960s the Pu family in China was still
specialised in making joss-sticks and bracelets made of perfumed beads. Zhuang Weiji 庄为玑, "Quanzhou song
chuan yu pujia xiangye"泉州宋船香料与蒲家香业，in Quanzhou ysilan jiao yanjiu lunwen xuan 泉州伊斯兰教研究论
文选 (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chuban she, 1983), p.236-237.
39"及其战舰抵岸，军鼓叩城，如入无人之境，略无交锋之备". Xu zizhi tongjian changbian 续资治通鉴长编，j. 276, 文

渊阁四库全书内联网版,史部, 编年类.
40Qidong yeyu 齐东野语, "安南国王": "[永平寨] 居邑，宜间，与交趾邻近．境有弃地数百里，每博易，则其

国贵人皆出为市". Quoted from Gudai zhongyue guanxi shi ziliao xuanbian 古代中越关系史资料选编 , (Beijing:
Zhongguo shehui kexue chuban she, 1982), p.187.
41
莫敬曙口供:"…小的祖籍是广东东莞县茶乡村人".军机处录副奏折: 抄录雍正十年李天保案内莫敬曙口
供, VOL.7775, NO.25, kept in the National Archives no.1, Beijing.
42 Whitmore, “It would not be surprising if the Tran gained from the region’s trade and its Chinese connection in their

rise to power. The Tran gained entrance to the capital through marrying into the royal family,” in Hall, Maritime Trade,
p.131.
in the Vietnamese state and marked the beginning of major cultural changes in Vietnamese society,
as Whitmore points out recently.43

This observation leads to a phenomenon worth pondering on the Jiaozhi Yang area. It is clear
from Han and Tang records that Hainan Island did not have horses.44 Yet when we come to the
Song era, Hainan became well known for producing local ponies.45 By the Ming period Hainan was
reputed as one of the major sources for horses, according to the Ming Shilu.46 So where did the
Hainan horses come from? While there might have been several sources rather than one, it is
possible that Jiaozhi was one of them, and that they arrived across the Jiaozhi Yang, as primary
sources clearly show a sea connection between the Jiaozhi and Hainan. Hainan's main local
goddess “Li Mu” (黎母, the Mother of the ethnic Li people), was described as follows:47

She had eaten fruits of the mountains and lived in the tree. Then there was a man from
Jiaozhi who crossed the sea and came to Hainan to gather eaglewood. She married him
and they had many children and grandchildren. Only then did they start opening land and
growing foodstuffs.

The horse connection leads me to ponder a bit more on the Han-Tang context and on Jiaozhi's
overland connections. The sources of this period seemed to suggest that before the Song the
mountains or overland connections occupied the crucial part in the political thinking of the Sino-
Viet elites, and it was on these connections that Jiaozhou established its fame of the commercial
center of the region.

The macro region at work: The Jiaozhi horse trade

In the Ly dynasty horses were one of the most important commodities that Champa obtained
from Dai Viet; and this trade can be traced back to the Later Han period. Shixie, the governor of
Jiaozhi (187-226), was said to have often sent rich tribute to the Wu kings, often including on the
list several hundred horses at a time.48

Up until the Song period Jiaozhi seemed to be the main source of horses for Champa. The Song
Huiyao recorded that Chams traveled "on elephants or palanquins made by cotton fabric, or else
[rode on] horses which were traded from Jiaozhou." 49 The Ming source Dongxi Yangkao also
confirmed that, "During the Song period Champa often bought horses from Jiaozhi, therefore
Jiaozhi had horse tails as one of its local commodities".50

43
John Whitmore, "The Rise of the Coast: Trade and State in Early Dai Viet", paper given to symposium 'Trading
in the Southern Sea of the Song Dynasty,' 50th meeting of the Toho Gakkei, Tokyo, 20 May 2005, p.1.
44
Ban Gu 班固 et al., Hanshu 汉书, 8 vols. (Beiing: Zhonghua shuju, 1970), IV, "地理志": 朱崖儋耳"亡马与虎", j.
28, p.1670; (唐) 岭表录異:" 琼州不产骡马, 人多骑黄牛." 丛书集成初编, p.15.
45
"土产名香, 槟榔, 椰子,小马,翠羽,黄蜡,苏木,吉贝之属".岭外代答,p.71.
46
See Li Guoxiang 李国祥 et. al., (ed.) Mingshilu leicuan 明实录类纂.广东海南卷, (Wuhan: Wuhan Press, 1993), the
part on 海南.
47 Liu Yi 刘谊, Ping Li ji 平黎記, written in the Ming period, in Fangyu shenglan 方舆胜览 j.43, 文渊阁四库全书内联

网版, 史部, 地理类. See also Han Zhenhua 韓振華, Zhu Fanzhi buzhu 諸蕃志補注, (Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press, 2000), p.459.
48"[士]燮…壹时贡马凡数百匹". Chen Shou 陈寿, Sanguo zhi 三国志, 5 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1965), V,

j.49, "士燮传", p.1193.

49"国人多乘象或软布兜, 或于交州市马".宋会要缉稿. "藩夷 4", XIII, j. 8116, p.1.
50 "物产:马尾-宋时占城多从交阯市马,则马故所自出". Zhang Xie 张燮, Dongxi yangkao 东西洋考,

(Beijing:Zhonghua, 1981), p.15. Horses must have been numerous in Jiaozhi for ordinary people to use as a vehicle.
In 1128 the Ly court issued an edict forbad people riding on horses, as a gesture of national mourning of Ly Nhan
But horses were not produced locally in Jiaozhi. Instead, they obtained this commodity from the
Man peoples residing in today's Yunnan and Guangxi border area. 51 Vietnamese sources give
specific localities where horses could be obtained. In 1012, when the Man peoples came to the
Kim Hoa and Vi Long areas to trade, the king Ly Thai To (r.1009-1028) "ordered to capture the
Man people and their more than 10,000 horses".52 In such raids, which were sometimes led by the
Viet kings themselves, horses seem to have been one of the most desirable items sought. Viet Su
Luoc recorded that in 1008, the king "lead a raid his royal self to the two districts of Tu Luong and
Vi Long, captured Man people and few hundred horses."53 In both cases the area of Vi Long stands
out from the records as a crucial source of horses for Dai Viet.54 This seems to explain, at least in
part, why for centuries the Ly court turned a particularly keen eye on the area, and married various
of its princesses to the local chief, the He (Ha in Vietnamese) family.55

The most common commodity that the Viet people traded for horse was salt. A thirteenth century
source Lingwai daida recorded that, "The Fan peoples sold horses to the government yearly in
exchange for commodities, salt and oxen, failing that they would block the horse routes". 56
Interestingly, Viet people themselves did not necessarily produce the salt they exchanged for
horses. The Dang Chau 藤州 and Khoai Chau 快州(Hung Yen), the most important local salt
producing areas,57 were largely not under Dai Viet control as late as the thirteenth century. Viet Su
Luoc, compiled in the thirteenth century, reveals that, as late as 1206, a large part of the coastal area
was ruled by local chiefs, and some of them were recorded as “Liao”獠, a Chinese character which
could be “Lao”, but at any rate non-Viet.58

From this point of view, the horse trade, one of the key links in the mountain-sea exchange chain
of this region, was an important component of the Viet economy. Only in this context would one
understand why Nanzhao and the routes to Nanzhao59 occupied the thinking of contemporary

Ton (r.1072-1128), the king who had recently passed away. Yue shilue 越史略:"天顺元年, 诏以国哀禁国中不得骑
马."从书集成, ̣(Shanghai: 1936), p.47
51
For example, "宋为凭祥洞，元属思明路．．．编户二里…，贡马." Gu zuyu 顾祖禹 (ed.) Dushi fangyu jiyao
读史方舆纪要，6 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1955), V, j.111，p.4527; 镇安府：编户二里，…，贡马." 读
史方舆纪要，V, j.111，p.4513.
52 1012:"蛮人过铜柱, 至金华步及渭龙州贸易, 帝使人擒获蛮人及马万余匹." Toan Thu, p.210. Kim Hoa Bo

was today's Quang Uyen district, Cao Bang province, Dao Duy Anh, Dat nuoc Viet Nam qua cac thoi dai, p.189; Vi
Long Chau was today's Chiem Hoa district, Tuyen Quang province. Dao Duy Anh, Dat nuoc Viet Nam qua cac thoi
dai, p.92.
53越史略 1008 AD:"王亲征都良,渭龙二州,俘蛮人及马数百匹," p.23.

54 Another reference recorded that in 1006 Vi Long district presented a white pony to the Former Le king. "渭龙州

献白驹"，Toan Thu, p. 200．

55 1036:Truong Ninh cong chua was married to the governor of Vi Long, Ha Thien Lam 何善覧, Toan Thu, p.226;

1082, Kham Thanh cong chua married to the governor of Vi Long Ha Di Khanh 何彝庆, 越史略, p.40; Toan Thu,
p.250; 1180: married Hoa Duong cong chua to the chief of Vi Long Ha Cong Phu 何公辅. 越史略, p.55. See also
Phan Van Các & Claudine Salmon, Épigraphie en chinois du Viêt Nam, p.93.
56岭外代答．"僚俗":"诸蕃岁卖马于官，道其境，必要取货及盐，牛，否则梗马路," p.416.

57 Ngannan tche yuan 安南志原 or the lost Ming official publication Jiao zhi zong zhi 交阯总志 (A general gazette of

Jiao Zhi) by Hoang Fu 黄福, (Hanoi: Imprimeried'Extreme-Orient, 1932), j. 2, p.89. See Zhang Xiu Min 张秀民,
Zhong yue guan xi shi lun wen ji 中越关系史论文集 (A collection of papers on history of Sino-Viet relations), (Taipei:
Wen shi zhe, 1992), pp.139-144.
58 Such areas were located between today’s Nam Dinh 南定, Ninh Binh 寧平 and Hung Yen 興安 areas. See Viet Su

luoc, vol.3, p. 51 for Dai Hoang (west of Nam Dinh and north of Ninh Binh); for Dang Chau 藤州 and Khoai Chau
快州(Hung Yen), pp.61-63. For the location of these areas, see Dao Duy Anh, Dat Nuoc, pp.91-93.
59 See the detailed routes and distances of each between Annam and Yunnan, recorded in the Manshu 蛮书. Fan

Chuo, the author of the book was an officer of the Annam Protection Office and lost all his family during the
Vietnamese and Chinese governors alike; and why a kingdom that seems so remote from modern
Vietnamese could invade the Viet capital four times (846, 860, 862 and 863 AD) and occupy it for
two years. Horses were in fact the very reason for the local chiefs to invite the great Nanzhao to
invade their country, when the Governor of Annam, Li Zhuo (853-856), enforced an unreasonably
low price on horses for salt.60 In the same vein, one could argue that it was the Nanzhao invasions
that greatly weakened Tang rule in Vietnam and paved the way for the Viet independence of 939
AD. Yunnan continued to play an important role in Viet politics into the 12th century, when Dali
royalty adopted a Ly prince by a concubine of Ly Nhan ton (r.1072-1127), gave him a royal name
(Zhao) and assisted him with troops when he attempted to claim the throne upon Ly Nhan ton's
death.61

This leads back to a consideration of the major features of Jiaozhi as an international port. As we
noted above, Jiaozhou and Guangzhou were both famous as Tang era trading centres, but how
these two ports differed has never been clear, or at least clearly spelt out. It might not be too far
from the historical facts to say that while Guangzhou served most of the trade by sea, Jiaozhou
established itself more on its mountain and overland trade, through its connections with Khmer,
Cham, Laos, and the Yunnan region, all of which was facilitated by its river-sea interconnections,
in which central Vietnam played an important role. This is underlined by the contents of the list
of "tributes" that Nguu Hong (today's Hung Hoa) and Laos sent to Dai Viet in 1067: "gold, silver,
aromatic woods, rhinoceros horn and elephants tusks". These commodities, for which Jiaozhi was
famous throughout centuries, were thus largely not its own local products.62

Putting all the foregoing evidence together, it seems to me that the Jiaozhi Ocean was in fact a
macro-region which included both the mountains and the sea. Horses from Yunnan and
surrounding areas, for example, were exchanged with salt from the coast, at the time occupied by
the non-Viet ("Liao") people. Horses from the mountains were then traded with Cham merchants
for their aromatics. According to the Lingwai daida, the so-called Jiaozhi alloewood (交阯沉香)
that appeared in Guangxi mostly came from Champa.63 The aromatic woods were often exchanged
with Chinese for coins, as a Song account points out: "The goods of gold and aromatics [with
Jiaozhi] had to be exchanged for the coins." (贸易金香, 必以小平钱为约).64 It was thus noted
that "nearly all the coins which were in circulation up to the fifteenth century were actually cast in

Nanzhao attack of 863. Fan Chuo 范绰, Manshu 蛮书, annotated by Xiang Da 向达, (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1962), pp.1-10.
60 "[安南]都护李琢贪暴，强市蛮中，牛马一头止与盐一斗." Toan thu, p.163. See also Keith Taylor, The Birth

of Vietnam, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), pp.240-241; Edward Schafer, The Vermillion Bird,
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), p.67; J.K. Whitmore, “Colliding Peoples: Tai/Viet Interactions in
the 14th and 15th centuries,” AAS, San Diago, 2000.
61宋会要. "藩夷 4":" 广西经略安抚司言, 探得李乾德有妾生一子, 奔入大理国寄养, 改姓赵名智之, 自号平

王. 知阳焕死,天祚为郡王, 大理国遣还,见在安南龙令州驮河驻扎,要与天祚交割王位, 天祚领兵战敌…".

VIII, j. 10123, p.3; Jianyan yilai xinian yaolu 建炎以来系年要录, 10 vols. (Taipei: Wenhai chuban she, 1968), VI, p.4102-
03" "其庶子智之奔大理，更姓赵，号平王．闻其兄阳焕死，与天祚争国，大理以兵三千助之"．Toan Thu：
"卜者申利自谓仁宗子，率其党由水路抵太原州”, p. 285．Another evidence of the Viet-Dali connections is
found in the Toan Thu, which says that a slave from Dali who was a magician was used for the conspiracy of killing Ly
Nhan ton, in 1096. Toan Thu, p.253.
62
Toan Thu, p.244.
63岭外代答.沉水香:" 交阯与占城邻境, 凡交阯沉香至钦, 皆占城也." p.241.
64
建炎以来系年要录：in 1133 AD＂广南…奏：邑州之地，南邻交阯．其左右诸峒，多有亡赖之徒，略
卖人口，贩入其国．又闻邑，钦，廉三州，与交阯海道相连，逐年规利之徒，贸易金香，必以小平钱为
约；而又下令其国，小平钱许入不许出.＂IV, j. 69, p.2271.
the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian, and brought directly to Annam in Chinese
junks. The coins this imported were smaller than the ordinary Chinese cash.”65

The disappearance of the Jiaozhi Yang

By the Ming dynasty the 交阯洋 only referred to the southeast of Hainan, and the Gulf of
Tongking disappeared from the scene. Both the routes to the Nanyang recorded in Dongxi yangkao
(17th century) and Shunfeng Xiangsong (sixteenth century66) indicate that the Jiaozhi Ocean was now
located somewhere between the Duzhu Mountain 独猪山 (Dazhou Island, Wanning district of
Hainan) and the Cham Island in central Vietnam. 67 The Map of Zhengho’s Voyage (Zhengho
Hanghai Tu) situated Jiaozhi Yang even further south, where it was portrayed as next to today's Cu
Lao Re Island, that is, between Quang Ngai province and the Paracels. 68 Perhaps even more
interesting, the term Jiaozhi Yang appeared in none of the routes from Fujian or Ningbo to Van
Don, the main port of Jiaozhi under the Tran dynasty (r. 1225-1400),69 both of which went around
Hainan Island from the South China Sea and up to Van Don in the Gulf.

The exclusion of the Tongking Gulf from the Jiaozhi Yang might have represented the
accumulation of maritime knowledge of the Chinese, which accelerated since the Song dynasty.
The Lingwai Daida observed:70

I was told from the sea merchants that, 'it is easy to travel from Guangzhou eastward, but
difficult from Guangzhou westward, and it is especially hard to travel from the Qin and
Lian prefectures [of Guangxi] westward'. The reason is that there are many harbors along
Fujian and Zhejiang, and if there is a storm the ships can dash into the harbors nearby for
protection. The situation along the Guangxi coast is that it is sandy without many harbors,
thus when storms come, there is nowhere to hide. As for the southwest of Qin and Lian,
there are many huge rocks in the sea and they make it hard to travel.

Thus the disappearance of the term “Jiaozhi yang” may have occurred because of the growth of
maritime knowledge along with trade in the area. Before the Song people might have had little
concrete knowledge upon which to articulate such differences along the coasts, but by the
sixteenth century such knowledge and the vocabulary of maritime travel based on it had been so
enriched that mariners had given specific and accepted names to individual islands rather than
referring to the whole area with a vague and generous name such as Jiaozhi yang.

Several elements contributed to the decline of the Jiaozhi yang. The Vietnamese king Le Thanh
Ton's successful attack on Champa in 1471 had the unintended consequence of effectively
removing Cham merchants as intermediaries between Dai Viet's trading world the Archipelago,

65
Toda, E, “Annam and its Minor Currency”, Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 17, 1 (1882),
pp.65-66, 79-80.
66 According to Xiang da 向达. See Xiang da 向达 (ed.), Liangzhong haidao zhenjing 两种海道针经, (Beijing:

Zhonghua shuju, 1982), "Preface", p.4.

67 "独猪山用坤未针, 十更, 取交阯洋. 打水 70 托, 用坤未针,取占笔罗山,是广南港口." 东西洋考, p.173; 顺风

相送：七州山…独猪山…交趾洋…尖笔罗"．两种海道针经, p.33.
68
Xiang Da 向达 (ed.), 郑和航海图, (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1961), p.41. This raises a question of the
completion date of the 郑和航海图. In the fifteenth century, when the map was supposedly drawn, the Quang Ngai
area was still a part of Champa, not in any case Jiaozhi.
69 See, for instance, "福建往交趾针路"& "回针", 顺风相送, p.49; "宁波往东京针路",指南正法, p.190.
70尝闻之舶商曰:"自广州而东,其海易行;自广州而西,其海难行;自钦廉而西,则尤为难行."盖福建,两浙濒海

多港,忽遇恶风,则急投近港.若广西海岸皆砂土, 无多港澳, 暴风卒起, 无所逃匿. 至于钦廉之西南,海多巨石,

尤为难行." 岭外代答, p.37-38.
and from there beyond as far as the Middle East where Dai Viet ceramics were prized
commodities.71 As a consequence Cham products such as aromatic woods no longer came to
China by the way of Dai Viet. At the same time Dai Viet's agricultural products became increasingly
competitive rather than compatible, as it used to be in the Tang and Song periods, with that of
Guangdong and Guangxi.

Losing the Cham and Muslim intermediaries was particularly damaging to Dai Viet, which was
generally passive in pursuing maritime commerce and relied more on the outsiders. More
important, from the eleventh century, as Hall points out, rather than covering the entire journey
between the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, merchants began to "specialise in one portion of
the route, and transferred their goods to and interacted with merchants from other sectors of the
route in a sea polity".72 This meant losing the agents in one section would break the whole chain
of trade. It was from this time that Vietnam began to lose out in this new round of the international
commerce.

More significantly, the rupture of the Viet-Cham-Archipelago connections coincided with the
decline of the ancient Western Route, which had been the preference of merchants from South
and West Asia. As Lomband noted, "the 1471 taking of the Cham capital Vijaya by the Vietnamese
confirmed the decline of the western route". In these changed circumstances the Gulf of Tongking
area declined from its pivotal point under the Han and the Song into the backwater of the Nanyang
trade, while the countless islands around the Qinzhou area became the safe haven for the pirates.73

The former Jiaozhi Yang area however continued to serve as the meeting point of small regional
traders. Wang Anguo, one of the Qing governors in Guangdong put it accurately:
While theoretically it should be easy to control the trade between Guangdong and Annam,
as the two are connected by one corner only, the difficulty is that the whole province [of
Guangdong] ends up with the sea at the south. The coast runs for 3000 li from Chaozhou
at the east and Lian at the west. There are countless poor people at the coast who live on
the sea trade or on the boats. … [W]hat is more, there are so many sea inlets in the area
that no checkpoints are enough to patrol. Thus, although those small boats who engaged
in smuggling would have difficulty to go far away to the western barbarians places, they
could go to Annam with great ease when the wind is with them."74

I would like to end with a metaphor about water that kept coming to my mind when I was doing
this study. The establishment of modern borders and of scholarship focused on separate and well-
defined sections of histories (of the Tang, Song and Ming periods, or of China, Vietnam and
Champa, etc) have left us with a sea full of solid icebergs. It has become hard to imagine that these
apparently separate icebergs, before they drifted apart, came from a single glacier or ice-shelf, and

71
See Li Tana, "A View from the Sea: Perspectives on the Northern Vietnamese Coast", in Toyoshi kenkyu, special
issue on the maritime commerce in Asia, no. 3, vol.63, (2004), pp.107-131.
72
Hall, "Local and International Trade and Traders in the Straits of Melaka Region, 600-1500", in Journal of Economic
and Social History of the Orient, vol.47, no.2, (2004), p.235.
73
"至于防城, 有龙门 72 迳, 迳迳相通. 迳者,岛门也,通者,水道也,以其岛屿悬杂,而水道皆通. 廉多沙, 钦多
岛." Chen Lunjiong 陈伦炯, Haiguo wenjian lu 海国闻见录, (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou guji shuban she, 1984), p.25.
The 72 water gates discussed in the Qing period were the ones described during the Song period:" 钦江南入海, 凡
72 折. 南人谓水一折为遥(迳),故有 72 遥之名.72 遥中,有水分为二川. 其一西南入交阯海, 其一东南入琼廉
海." 岭外代答, P.35.
74
"广东陆路与安南接界者止此一隅, 一应潜出躥入之弊禁止尤易, 惟是全省地势皆南尽于海,东起潮州, 西
至廉郡, 海疆凡三千里, 各府贩出洋贸易及沿海贫民操舟为生者难以数计…且沿海小汊甚多,营讯不能遍
设民间,小船间有偷载出口者虽不能远至西番诸国,若遇便风至安南甚易." (原广东巡抚王安国摺, 乾隆 9 年
1 月), 军机处录副奏折, 中国第一历史档案馆 (Chinese National Archives No.1), 7773:7.
 thus were interconnected. The beauty of not limiting one's search to one specific period, such as
this workshop allows us to do, and of avoiding taking a particular section of history as a given,
means we can try to treat the region and its history as an entirety, a global approach that can give
new perspectives and unexpected results.

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