Page 62 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

Chapter 2
The Cultural Change of Kilns
and Contents of Export Ceramics
on the Perspective of Development
of Zhangzhou Seaports During Ming
and Qing Dynasties

Miao Liu

In the middle period of Ming Dynasty (since early 16th century), the retreating of
the sea ban policy of imperial court encouraged the developing of the maritime
trade controlled by the private merchants in the southeast coast of China, especially
Quanzhou (!!), Zhangzhou (!!) in south of Fujian (!!), and Chaozhou
("!) in the east of Guangdong ("!). These maritime merchants from southern
Fujian gradually became the mainstay of maritime trade in East Asia of that time.
The oceanic areas in south of Fujian, including Anhai (!!) of Quanzhou, Haicang
(!") and Yuegang (!!) of Zhangzhou, and Meiling (!!) of Zhao’an (!!),
Zhanglin (!") and Nan’ao (!#) of Chaozhou, were the main maritime seaports
where maritime trade was carried out by the private merchants. These generalized
Zhangzhou Bay (!!") maritime area included two sub-regions as the west part
from Nan’ao to Yuegang, and the east part from Xiamen ("!) to Anhai. After the
changing of the sea ban and opening of the maritime trade in Jiajing (!!) period,
Yuegang developed to be the most important seaport of legal maritime trade and
reached its historical peak in the maritime history. During the alternative period of the
Ming and Qing dynasties, the Zheng family maritime trade group (Koxinga, "!!)
raised and controlled maritime trade of East Asia, promoting the flourishing of
overseas trade of Anhai, Xiamen and Taiwan (#"). After middle Kangxi (#!)
period, Xiamen seaport continued and replaced the important role of Yuegang seaport
in the maritime trade in the South China Sea.
The prosperity and cultural change of these seaports in Zhangzhou Bay had
promoted the development of traditional handcraft industries for oversea exporting.
The maritime export porcelain production in Fujian had been the most important
one of these industries during Ming and Qing dynasties. The kilns for these export
porcelains developed and represented a trend of concentrating and transferring to

M. Liu (&)
The Department of History, Xiamen University, Fujian, China
e-mail: liumiao@xmu.edu.cn
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 29
C. Wu et al. (eds.), Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaports and Early Maritime
Globalization, The Archaeology of Asia-Paci!c Navigation 2,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9248-2_2