The Perception of Maritime Space in Traditional Chinese Sources

The Perception of Maritime Space in Traditional Chinese Sources
Author: Angela Schottenhammer
Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9783447053402

The present collection of essays has originally been prepared for an international conference entitled "Maritime Space in Traditional Chinese Sources" which has been convened by the editors at Munich University in February 2005. The contributions included here introduce various aspects related to East Asian seas - from the Japanese Sea to the South China Sea, with the Yellow and East China Seas constituting the core regions of the entire area - and some of its "adjacent" areas. Although Braudelian categories are inherently present in the discussion and directly addressed in one or two papers, the focus lies on a set of more "basic" variables, which are intimately linked to the idea of contact zones, or alternatively, the parallel (and apparently older) notion that the sea should be seen as a protective belt around the mainland. This volume is consequently primarily concerned with the perception of maritime space in traditional Chinese sources, the division of this space into oceans and seas, the existence, usage and management of trade routes, and, above all, of China's coastal waters, or maritime periphery. For this purpose, in addition to textual sources, maps will be examined as well. As the perception, division and management of maritime space cannot be completely disassociated from other themes - such as trade and travel, diplomacy and military controls, or even daily life during a sea voyage - these aspects were also touched upon in the discussion. But they are of secondary importance and subordinated to the general issue of "geography". With this in mind, following an introductory essay by Angela Schottenhammer, the contributions are divided into three sections: (1) Maritime Space: Trade and Defence; (2) Maritime Space: Coasts, Routes, Oceans; (3) Maritime Space and Maps. The articles by Chang Pin-tsun, Jane Kate Leonard and Jung Byung-chul fall into the first category. Those by Chen Bo / Liu Yingsheng, Sally K. Church, Christine Moll-Murata, Li Tana and Mathieu Torck belong to the second group, while the last section is comprised by the papers of Li Xiaocong, Claudine Salmon and Roderich Ptak.There are many "cross connections" between these essays. Geographically, some of them pertain to the northern spheres, especially the Liaodong-Korea region, others look at the South China Sea, or even at areas far beyond these two. Some are case studies, others deal with general dimensions. The military element, usually in the form of coastal defence, is not only present in the first section, but also in the "cartographic" segment, and in one or two contributions which appear in part two. Furthermore, readers will find that the idea of contact zones, associated with a good degree of open-mindedness towards the "outer world", is present in some texts, just as they will discover that in other cases, the sea still appears as a kind of barrier.

The Blue Frontier

The Blue Frontier
Author: Ronald C. Po
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108424619

Argues that Qing China was not just a continental empire, but a maritime power protecting its interests at sea.

China and the Silk Roads (ca. 100 BCE to 1800 CE)

China and the Silk Roads (ca. 100 BCE to 1800 CE)
Author: Angela Schottenhammer
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2023-09-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004523723

The book investigates China’s relations to the outside world between ca. 100 BCE and 1800 CE. In contrast to most histories of the Silk Roads, the focus of this book clearly lies on the maritime Silk Road and on the period between Tang and high Qing, selecting aspects that have so far been neglected in research on the history of China’s relations with the outside world. The author examines, for example, issue of 'imperialism' in imperial China, the specific role of fanbing 蕃兵 (frontier tribal troops) during Song times, the interrelationship between maritime commerce, military expansion, and environmental factors during the Yuan, the question of whether or not early Ming China can be considered a (proto-)colonialist country, the role force and violence played during the Zheng He expeditions, and the significance the Asia-Pacific world possessed for late Ming and early Qing rulers.

The Sea and the Sacred in Japan

The Sea and the Sacred in Japan
Author: Fabio Rambelli
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2018-07-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350062871

The Sea and the Sacred in Japan is the first book to focus on the role of the sea in Japanese religions. While many leading Shinto deities tend to be understood today as unrelated to the sea, and mountains are considered the privileged sites of sacredness, this book provides new ways to understand Japanese religious culture and history. Scholars from North America, Japan and Europe explore the sea and the sacred in relation to history, culture, politics, geography, worldviews and cosmology, space and borders, and ritual practices and doctrines. Examples include Japanese indigenous conceptualizations of the sea from the Middle Ages to the 20th century; ancient sea myths and rituals; sea deities and sea cults; the role of the sea in Buddhist cosmology; and the international dimension of Japanese Buddhism and its maritime imaginary.

The South China Sea

The South China Sea
Author: Bill Hayton
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2014-10-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300189540

China’s rise has upset the global balance of power, and the first place to feel the strain is Beijing’s back yard: the South China Sea. For decades tensions have smoldered in the region, but today the threat of a direct confrontation among superpowers grows ever more likely. This important book is the first to make clear sense of the South Sea disputes. Bill Hayton, a journalist with extensive experience in the region, examines the high stakes involved for rival nations that include Vietnam, India, Taiwan, the Philippines, and China, as well as the United States, Russia, and others. Hayton also lays out the daunting obstacles that stand in the way of peaceful resolution. Through lively stories of individuals who have shaped current conflicts—businessmen, scientists, shippers, archaeologists, soldiers, diplomats, and more—Hayton makes understandable the complex history and contemporary reality of the South China Sea. He underscores its crucial importance as the passageway for half the world’s merchant shipping and one-third of its oil and gas. Whoever controls these waters controls the access between Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Pacific. The author critiques various claims and positions (that China has historic claim to the Sea, for example), overturns conventional wisdoms (such as America’s overblown fears of China’s nationalism and military resurgence), and outlines what the future may hold for this clamorous region of international rivalry.

The East Asian Mediterranean

The East Asian Mediterranean
Author: Angela Schottenhammer
Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2008
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9783447058094

The present volume is a collection of papers originally presented for the concluding conference of the research project The East Asian 'Mediterranean' entitled "The East Asian 'Mediterranean' - Maritime Crossroads of Culture, Commerce and Human Migration" and held at Munich University from November 2-3, 2007. The papers in this volume have been arranged according to thematical sections, that is "Mediterranean Seas - from East Asia to East Africa", "Merchants and merchant networks", "Commodities and transport", and finally "Trade parameters and perceptions" - each section covering a different aspect of trade, diplomacy and perceptions across and within the East Asian and Asian waters. In order to show the variety and the different qualities of interaction and exchange relations we have selected case studies with a main focus lying on Sino-Japanese, Sino-Ryukyuan, and Japanese-Korean relations as well as the involvement of Muslim merchants in the Asian waters. The volume in particular tries to draw the readers' attention to the necessity and the advantages of international cooperation and interaction investigating topics of Asian history.

Rethinking South China Sea Disputes

Rethinking South China Sea Disputes
Author: Katherine Hui-Yi Tseng
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2016-12-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317374762

The proposed book draws on the on-going South China Sea dispute, and the multifaceted challenges wrought by the South China Sea issue that requires an inter-disciplinary perspective. It employs legal-analytical methods, to emphasize the nuances of the role and interpretation of international law and treaties by China in different periods, while taking into account policy and strategic concerns, which generally cast great sways in decision-making. The re-introduction of interdisciplinary concerns straddling law and history illustrates that the historical dimension, which has long been neglected, is an emerging concern that poses looming dangers that may unexpectedly radicalize the friction. Contributing to debunking the mystique wrought by confrontations between a historical and a law-dominated perspective, these perspectives are supported by a more nuanced analytical framework, featuring theoretical concerns with a tinge of practicality. The South China Sea Dispute aims to unveil a nuanced evolution of the issue with a confluence of inter-temporal law, policy and maritime practices in the South China Sea.

Twenty Years of BIMSTEC

Twenty Years of BIMSTEC
Author: Prabir De
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2019-10-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000759229

This book reviews the past and provides new strategies to help BIMSTEC achieving a new paradigm of integration. It primarily deals with the regional cooperation and integration issues, and assesses policy priorities, effectiveness, implementation imperatives and challenges. Each chapter in this book tries to capture essential features of the crosscutting issues and attempts to draw some policy implications. The subject of this book will be of special interests to policy planners, development organisations, academicians, researchers as well as potential investors. Please note: T&Fdoes not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Voyages, Migration, and the Maritime World

Voyages, Migration, and the Maritime World
Author: Clara Ho
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2018-09-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110587688

This is a multi-author volume resulted from an international conference focusing on topics related to our understanding of the role of China in the global history. Apart from introductory chapters exploring methodological issues and providing big pictures of framing China in the world in particular time zones, this volume also covers rich discussions on the following themes from the ancient period to the twentieth century: organized water transport, cultural interactions, navigators, port cities, smuggling activities, customs service, foreign relations, migration, and diasporas. Written by scholars of different generations who are based in diverse regions including Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, the UK and the US, the chapters in this volume either address old questions from new perspectives, or table new topics that were largely ignored in previous scholarship. Some go further to brainstorm possible research directions in the future. This thought-provoking volume will be beneficial to readers who are interested in rethinking China's position in the global historical stage against the backdrop of Post-Orientalism.

Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”

Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”
Author: Sujung Kim
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2019-11-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0824877993

This ambitious work offers a transnational account of the deity Shinra Myōjin, the “god of Silla” worshipped in medieval Japanese Buddhism from the eleventh to sixteenth centuries. Sujung Kim challenges the long-held understanding of Shinra Myōjin as a protective deity of the Tendai Jimon school, showing how its worship emerged and developed in the complex networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”—a “quality” rather than a physical space defined by Kim as the primary conduit for cross-cultural influence in a region that includes the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the East China Sea, and neighboring coastal areas. While focusing on the transcultural worship of the deity, Kim engages the different maritime arrangements in which Shinra Myōjin circulated: first, the network of Korean immigrants, Chinese merchants, and Japanese Buddhist monks in China’s Shandong peninsula and Japan’s Ōmi Province; and second, that of gods found in the East Asian Mediterranean. Both of these networks became nodal points of exchange of both goods and gods. Kim’s examination of temple chronicles, literary writings, and iconography reveals Shinra Myōjin’s evolution from a seafaring god to a multifaceted one whose roles included the god of pestilence and of poetry, the insurer of painless childbirth, and the protector of performing arts. Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” is not only the first monograph in any language on the Tendai Jimon school in Japanese Buddhism, but also the first book-length study in English to examine Korean connections in medieval Japanese religion. Unlike other recent studies on individual Buddhist deities, it foregrounds the need to approach them within a broader East Asian context. By shifting the paradigm from a land-centered vision to a sea-centered one, the work underlines the importance of a transcultural and interdisciplinary approach to the study of Buddhist deities.