Page 41 - Ming_China_Courts_and_Contacts_1400_1450 Craig lunas

YAPAPATUNA
Javakakotte
KINGDOM
OF JAFFNA
Mánnarama
Mantota

Tirikunamale
ANURADHAPURA V I N N I

• Puttalama P R I N C I
KINGDOM
OF
Salavata Sat UDARATA M a ha v e l i G a n g a BINTENNA P A L I
Korale
Madampe
Menikkadavara
Migamuva Satara Korale Senkadagala nuvara Kandy:
Ke lani G anga Gampola UVA Site of the tooth relic
WELLASSA T I E S
K I N G D O M
KOLONTOTA Sitavaka Adam’s peak
KOTTE
Panadura
Panama
Yala
Galle: Site of the trilingual W a l a w e G a n g a
O F K O T T E
(Chinese, Tamil, Persian)
inscription laid by N
S A B A R A G A M U V A
Zheng He in 1410-11 Galle
Veligama
0 500 1000 kilometres
Plate 3.5 Map of Sri Lanka
and captured Yaliekunaier, and took him back to the Ming Trading for the court
court. While Yaliekunaier was pardoned, the Ming court The ban on maritime trade by the Hongwu emperor, as
placed its own representative, a person whose name is pointed out above, triggered an outflow of Chinese traders
recorded in Chinese as Yebanaina 耶巴乃那 from the coastal regions of Ming China to locations in
([Parākramābahu] Apana?), in charge of the region. In Southeast Asia, including places such as Sumatra and Java.
28
addition to perhaps trying to exert control over the strategic In Palembang, for example, there seem to have been several
location in the Indian Ocean through an appointed such groups of Chinese settlers who traded with the Ming as
representative, the military conflict with Yaliekunaier, as representatives of foreign regions. These traders
noted below, may have been connected to the Yongle subsequently expanded their networks into the Bay of
emperor’s intention to also procure the famous Tooth Relic Bengal and the Arabian Sea regions. The Chinese
of the Buddha from Kandy. settlements in Southeast Asia were places where traders
The outcome of the Ming court’s diplomatic interactions from other regions of the Indian Ocean also congregated.
with South Asian polities, its interference in local disputes By the time Zheng He embarked on his first expedition,
and even the military conflict in Sri Lanka is not clear. merchants based in Southeast Asia, Chinese as well as
Tribute missions from South Asia were most frequent non-Chinese, may have been controlling much of the
during the first six expeditions of Zheng He, which took maritime trade between South Asia and Ming China. The
place in tandem with missions led by several other eunuchs. Zheng He expeditions resulted in the introduction of a new
The display of naval power, the use of military force and, as pattern of trading interaction that was conducted under the
outlined in the next section, official trade may have supervision of Ming officials. The commodities procured
triggered these tribute missions. Soon after the Zheng He through these official transactions were not all meant for
expeditions ended, however, the tribute missions from South markets in Ming China. Rather, the selling of these goods at
Asia to the Ming court also declined. The Ming rulers who other foreign ports by the Ming representatives was also
succeeded the Yongle emperor did not need to legitimise common. Thus Zheng He and the Ming court through its
their rule; there was also little support at the Ming court for naval expeditions played a significant role in intra-Asian
the expensive maritime expeditions that augmented the commerce between 1405 and 1433.
power of the eunuchs. Without the presence of the Ming The Hongwu emperor’s ban on maritime trade did not
naval armada, South Asian polities, even those that prevent foreign merchants from conducting business in
benefited from the intervention of the Ming court, found it Ming China. This can be discerned from an entry dated
unnecessary to send tribute missions or engage in official 1403 in the Ming Veritable Records. When a Muslim named
trade. As a consequence, after the mid-15th century Hazhi Mahamo Qilanni 哈只馬哈沒奇剌泥 and others
networks of private traders emerged as the only maritime came from the polity called Lani 剌泥 to offer tribute of
links between South Asia and Ming China. local products, it was pointed out by the court official that

Diplomacy, Trade and the Quest for the Buddha’s Tooth: The Yongle Emperor and Ming China’s South Asian Frontier | 31