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B A Y O F B E N G A L

I N D I A
A R A B I A N S E A Honavar
Madras
Mailapur
Kanchi
Mangalore
Mt. Delly
CALICUT (Kozhikode) Chidambaram
Sacri ce rock
Coimbatore Nagapattinam
Androth
Kalpeni COCHIN (Kochi) Pt. Pedro
L A C C A D I V E
I S L A N D S QUILON Old Kayal
(Kollam) SRI
Minicoy LANKA
Batticaloa rDandra
Negombo Kandy
Kelai Colombo head
Tiladummati atoll Beruwala Little Basses
Galle Dandra Great Basses
Head
Fadi olu atoll
M A L D I V E
I S L A N D S
Male or
Sultan’s island
I N D I A N O C E A N
Mulaku atoll

Haddummati atoll
N
0 2 5 0 kilometres
Plate 3.2 Map of southern India
on the Malabar coast, another eunuch emissary sent by the at these sites. While the support for Melaka came at the
Yongle emperor, Yin Qing 尹慶 (active 1400–10), had visited expense of supplanting Samudera as the main chokepoint in
the region. The Ming Veritable Records reports that in 1403 the the Straits of Melaka, Cochin may have been chosen over
Ming court sent Yin Qing to Melaka (Manlajia 滿剌加) and Calicut for its pepper supplies and as a base for westward
Cochin (Kezhi 柯枝, now Kochi) to ‘confer upon the kings of exploration of the Indian Ocean.
these countries “spangled-gold” silk gauze drapes and When Yin Qing returned with the ‘rulers’ of Samudera,
parasols together with patterned fine silks and coloured silks Melaka and Calicut, the Ming court ‘commanded that these
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as appropriate’ (Pl. 3.1). Yin Qing returned to China in native leaders all be enfeoffed as kings of their countries, that
1405, with ‘rulers’ of Samudera (Sumendala 蘇門答剌), they be provided with seals and patents and that variegated
Melaka and Calicut. While during the Zheng He silks and clothing be conferred upon them’. Ma Huan 馬歡
10
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expeditions, rulers of several maritime polities seem to have (d. c. 1460), who accompanied Zheng He in 1413, 1421 and
personally led tributary missions to the Ming court, it is 1431, seems to suggest that this enfeoffment of the ruler of
more likely that the people Yin Qing brought with him were Calicut was carried out by Zheng He in 1407, when he
simply officials or traders from the three foreign polities. delivered a silver seal and gifts of ‘hats and girdles of various
The aim may have been to legitimise Yongle emperor’s grades’ to the ministers of Calicut. Ma Huan also describes
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accession through the display of foreign tributary missions at how the Calicut king, planning to send tribute to the Ming
the court. This was, in fact, the first time after the Yongle court, ordered foreign craftsmen residing in his land to make
emperor usurped the Ming throne that envoys had arrived a jewelled girdle for the Chinese emperor. This girdle,
in China from these three polities. studded with precious stones and large pearls, was made
Yin Qing’s destination in South Asia, as noted in the with 50 liang of ‘fine red gold’ that had been processed into
Veritable Records, was Cochin (Pl. 3.2), which was not yet a threads ‘as fine as a hair’.
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major port or commercial site on the Malabar coast. Neither The embassies sent by Calicut offered local products to
was Melaka an important centre of trade or maritime the Ming court, which in return presented various gifts to
communication when Yin Qing arrived. Rather, it was the South Asian envoys and treated them to lavish banquets.
during the course of Zheng He’s expeditions that both Paper money, copper cash, silk gauzes and other silk fabrics,
Cochin and Melaka developed into nodal points of Indian gilded brocades and porcelain were frequently presented to
Ocean interactions. In fact, the Ming court played a critical the envoys and the rulers of Calicut. The list of return gifts,
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role in transforming these two sites from obscurity to which were often more valuable and in greater quantities
preeminence in their respective regions. This was perhaps than the tribute offerings, clearly indicates the Ming court’s
done in order to access local resources and establish Ming attempt to induce foreign polities to send tributary missions
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bastions at key locations of the Indian Ocean world. The on a regular basis. Embassies from Calicut continued to
Ming court’s objectives entailed displacing existing powers arrive at the Ming court until about 1435, but a decline in

28 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450