The Silk Roads and Pre-Modern The Silk Roads and Pre-Modern Africa-China InteractionsAfrica-China Interactions

Emerging Course Module for HIS-1121, Global History to 1500

Yuegen Yu, Central State University

Silk Roads Institute, East West Center, 2010

Maritime Silk Roads

Guiding Questions and Learning ObjectivesGuiding Questions and Learning Objectives

Study briefly the 1,500-year history of the overland and oceanic trade networks extending over 8,000 miles known as the Silk Roads; comprehend the diversity and interactions of people and civilizations across the “Old World” of Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Discover the largely overlooked pre-modern trade, cultural, and political relations between Africa and China along the Silk Roads; understand more generally the early globalization process.

Appreciate the early on development of Sub-Saharan African civilizations, in particular the Swahili; find out how interactions between Swahili and Arab and Chinese cultures has enriched one another in history.

Assigned ReadingsAssigned Readings

Dreyer L., Edward. “Sailing to Africa,” in Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007, 75-97.

Kristof, Nicholas. “1492: The Prequel.” The New York Times Magazine, The Third of Six Special Millennium Issues, Into the Unknown, June 6, 1999. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/millennium/m3/kristof.html.

Nurse, Derek and Thomas Spear. The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800-1500. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985.

Up to Tang: The Up to Tang: The KunlunKunlun 昆仑 昆仑 in Chinese in Chinese History and FictionHistory and Fiction

Origin: the word Kunlun was first used to describe dark skinned people in History of the Jin (265-420): Empress Li “was tall and her coloring was black. All the people in the place used to call her Kunlun.” When black Africans were brought in by Muslim traders, they were referred to as Kunlun Nu (slave).

Tang Dynasty pottery figures, unearthed in Xian region, 1940-50s; and image of Mo Le: mysterious, exotic, with strength and power.

-Kunlun Nu, a Tang martial art novel written by Pei Xing (c. 880): Mo Le, a black servant highly intelligent and masterful in martial art, helped a young couple escape from an official’s compound. With only a dagger, Mo Le flied over the city wall while 50 soldiers shooting arrows at him.

Limited Tang Knowledge of AfricaLimited Tang Knowledge of Africa

杜環《經行記》云：摩鄰國，在秧薩羅國西南，渡大磧行二千里至其國。其人黑，其俗獷，少米麥，無草木，馬食乾魚，人餐鶻莽。鶻莽，即波斯棗也。瘴癘特甚。諸國陸行之所經也，山胡則一種，法有數般。有大食法，有大秦法，有尋尋法。其尋尋蒸報，于諸夷狄中最甚，當食不語。其大食法者，以弟子親戚而作判典，縱有微過，不至相累。不食豬、狗、驢、馬等肉，不拜國王、父母之尊，不信鬼神，祀天而已。其俗每七日一假；不買賣，不出納，唯飲酒謔浪終日。其大秦善醫眼及痢，或未病先見，或開腦出蟲。

. . . The people there are black, and their customs are bold. There is little rice and cereals, with no grass and trees on this land. The horses are fed with dried fish, . . . Subtropical diseases are widespread . . . every seventh day is a holiday . . . when they drink alcohol, and behave in a ridiculous and undisciplined way during the whole day. . . .

The first Chinese to travel (?) and write about Africa: Du Huan in his Jing Xing Ji (Travel Records). He was captured by Arabs in the Battle of Talas (751) and lived in Najaf, Iraq for 12 years until his return to Guangzhou by sea in 762.

Song: Commerce and Official ContactsSong: Commerce and Official Contacts

The first African country to establish official contacts with China was Ceng Tan (Tanzania): its envoys visited Guangzhou in 1071 and 1083, Song emperor granted him 2,000 pieces of silver. (“Ceng Tan Records,” History of the Song).

The Quanzhou Wreck and trade: discovered in 1973-74, this 114/32 feet Southern Song ship (sank ca. 1272) carried a cargo with materials such as cowries, ambergris, cinnabar, betel nut, pepper, and tortoiseshell, all attributed to sources in Somalia.

Ambergris: a wax-like secretion of the intestines of the sperm whale, found floating in tropical seas and used in perfume manufacturing ($100 a gram today)

Ming: Zheng He’s Voyages to AfricaMing: Zheng He’s Voyages to Africa

Fifth Voyage (1417-1419, 63 ships, 28,560 men): three African countries visited – Mogadishu, Brava (Somalia), Malindi (Kenya), received zebra, lion, camel, ostriches, elephant, rhinoceros, and giraffe (qilin) as tributes.

Sixth Voyage (1421-1422): two African countries visited – Mogadishu and Brava, perhaps by a detached squadron without Zheng He.

QilinsQilins and Official Missions from Africa and Official Missions from Africa

Zheng He statue and tomb (empty?) in Nanjing; resident of the Kenyan island Pate claiming to be descendent of Zheng He’s sailors; and a qilin (giraffe) from Malindi;

African missions to Ming China included: Sultan of Misr (Egypt), Sonalia (Somalia), King of Malindi (fell ill and died in China in 1420, buried in Fujian Province).