The Shandong Peninsula in Northeast Asian maritime history during the Yuan-Ming transition

Ondertitel:U+5143U+660EU+4E4BU+9645U+4E1CU+5317U+4E9AU+89C6U+91CEU+4E0BU+7684U+5C71U+4E1CU+6D77U+6D0BU+53F2

In the Yuan dynasty (1271U+20131368), the government encouraged people to conduct maritime trade with other countries, and the Shandong Peninsula of China, especially Dengzhou, was an important region of exchange for international trade, knowledge and culture as well as human beings between China, Korea, and Japan. However, Wokou (lit. Japanese bandits) began to raid Shandong in the late Yuan, when civil wars disordered commercial activities in China. The causes of Wokou raids are very complicated, and we should put our research into a wider context of the East Asian region to analyze it from different perspectives. Besides these traditional reasons, such as the turbulent situation in Japan and the weakness of coastal defence in Korea and China, the influence of natural disasters including droughts, typhoons, epidemics, pestilence and inundations, especially temperature change, should be considered seriously at the same time. In my opinion, there is a close relation between temperature changes and Wokou raids. In the early Ming dynasty (1368U+20131644), Wokou continued to raid its coastal regions, which had a bad influence on peopleU+2019s life. In order to suppress Wokou, the Ming government initiated a maritime prohibition policy and strengthened its coastal defence in Shandong, and then Shandong became an important military base. From the above analysis, we can see the big different functions of Shandong Peninsula from an important commercial entrepôt in the Yuan to a crucial military base in Ming times. By studying the typical case of Shandong, which played a significant role in the development of the Northeast Asian maritime networks in ancient China, I hope my study can help scholars thoroughly understand the changes during the Yuan-Ming rupture in the larger geopolitical, global context of Northeast Asia.

Jaar van publicatie:2015

Toegankelijkheid:Closed