REVIEWS ‘silk’ is only one of several possible similes, such as ‘spices’ or ‘ceramics’. Roderich Ptak, Die Maritime While the vast ocean is an entity defined Seidenstrasse. Küstenräume, Seefahrt by physical conditions, its numerous und Handel in vorkolonialer Zeit. various segments are distinguished by Munich, C. H. Beck, 2007, 368 pp., 46 cultures and histories of exchange. The ills, 14 maps (Historische Bibliothek segmentation recorded in texts of the der Gerda Henkel Stiftung). Song Period (960–1281) is apparently based on Arab categorization. European Literally translated, the title reads ‘the advances connecting the Asian, Atlantic maritime silk road, its coastal areas, sea- and Pacific regions of the globe confine faring and trade in pre-colonial times’. the time frame of this presentation. This, as in the original German wording, Through an essay rather than an does not reveal the book’s rather semi- introduction, the author offers a nal approach and gist, which challenge discourse of the Mediterranean model the European-trained perspective and, by Fernand Braudel (La Méditerranée much more importantly, almost close a et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque gap while studiously pinpointing certain de Philippe II), a seminal work that has lacunae. reinforced interest in historical research The coastal area of present-day China into maritime relations elsewhere. is dotted with entrepôts that established Though triggered by this academic and operated maritime links across the stimulus, the Asian physical, geo- oceans, roughly between the longi- graphical factors require a distinctively tudes of 35ºE (the Red Sea) and 132ºE different approach, coupled with a (Kyushu, Japan and Moluccas, Indone- perspective originating from the East. sia). The researcher and author, profes- In great detail, ocean and drift currents sor of sinology at the Ludwig-Maximil- as well as wind directions are described ian University in Munich, Germany, in relation to challenges posed by reefs draws a parallel between Rome reaching and atolls, and examples given of the out towards the East, in succession to the time required for certain sea passages. Greeks, at a time when China began to Research findings are presented in make westward seaborne contacts with chronological order, however, in an India, in the epoch covered by Pliny the east-west direction, to probe how and Elder (p. 73). On the choice of the term in which way the sub-regions traversed ‘maritime silk road’, the author refers by the ‘maritime silk road’ grew to- to the recent publication by Liu Yingsh- gether, which structures emerged, which eng titled Silu wenhua. Haishang juan, changes occurred, and what particular presented in two volumes, one cover- perceptions were kept on record. ing maritime routes and the other land The maritime space covered by this routes (p. 18). As pointed out by Ptak, book encompasses Asia’s eastern oceans Journal of the Siam Society 2008 Vol. 96 243 244 Reviews with the Gulf of Bohai, the Yellow Sea, and the Caliphate of the Sassanids, and the East China Sea; the South China followed by the Omayyads, then Sea and Sulu Sea; the East Indonesian Abbasids, Asia’s eastern oceans were Seas; the Melaka Straits, the Andaman dominated by the Tang. Seaborne trade Sea and the Gulf of Bengal; the Arabian reinforced the spread of Buddhism Sea and the coast of East Africa; and the towards the east, while the South China Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Sea became the scenario of encounters Likening this maritime space to an between Southeast Asians, Chinese (oriental) tapestry carpet, the author and ‘Persians’. Also, across the Eastern traces what evolved from the early Indic / Indian Ocean trade and cultural beginnings to the turn of the present era transfer between India and Southeast AD, with foci on East Asia’s coasts into Asia intensified. From the west, Islam the Han Period (206 BC–220 AD); the spread across the lands bordering the virtually terra incognita of Southeast Red Sea and Persian Gulf, from where Asia; the underrated South Asia; and it reached out into the Western Indic the seemingly known coasts of West /Indian Ocean region (p. 138). Asia and East Africa. Han sources Around 950/1000, the maritime describe vessels designed, built and used space became absorbed by the pull of in warfare, implying technical expertise, the Far East, which held sway until knowledge of logistics, and navigation 1350, under the leadership of the Song skills (p. 60). After all, the settling of and Yuan, initially in Asia’s eastern migrants from present-day Indonesia oceans and expanding across the South on Madagascar did, in all likelihood, China Sea and the East Indonesian Seas, depend on proven navigation skills, and then reaching further east. At the suitable vessels, and rigid organization same time, trade links were extended (p. 62). across the Eastern Indic/Indian Ocean The growing together, ca. 1–600 AD, and beyond into the Western Indic/ of the ‘Eastern Ocean’ (Dongyang) Indian Ocean, as far as the Red Sea and and the ‘Southern Ocean’ (Nanyang), Persian Gulf, within the coordinates of followed by the unfolding of the West- Aden and Hormuz, Gujarat and Kerala, ern Ocean (Xiyang), as recorded in as depicted on the Jiuling shouling tu, a Chinese annals, and encompassing in map dated 1125 (p. 170). Period sources the Western Ocean, first, the Eastern report on improvements of the compass Indic / Indian Ocean and, then, linking- and inventions for navigating. For the up to the Western Indic / Indian Ocean, Song economy, profits from overseas complete with the Red Sea and Persian trade were substantial. Its pull effect Gulf, resulted in what the author para- made Hangzhou probably the biggest phrases as the Mare Euro-Asiaticum. maritime entrepôt worldwide. The use During the span of time of the Tang of Song coins in Southeast Asia sig- Empire in China (ca. 600–950/1000) nals the start of monetization (p. 165). Journal of the Siam Society 2008 Vol. 96 Reviews 245 Among the travellers and geographers created by that first-ever statal might was Wang Dayuan who, in the 1330s, ruling the seas of Asia, including reported in his Daoyi zhilüe about a political interventions far away from Chinese pagoda built in 1267, during the power base, logistics, control of the Song Period, near Nagapattinam on rear links, and state-run depots called India’s Coromandel Coast (pp. 191– ‘official places’ (guanchang) in such 192). Towards the end of the thirteenth locations as Palembang, Kalikut or and early in the fourteenth centuries, Melaka, or ‘official islands’ (guanxu) when the Mongols ruled over China and (pp. 241–242). Persia, the coasts of East Asia and Iran While the first to fourth decades of were under the control of one and the the fifteenth century saw the grand and same power. Early in the fourteenth cen- mighty seaborne missions of the Ming tury, there were virtually no obstacles to crossing the oceans and calling on ports maritime traffic between Quanzhou and near and far, other seafarers also plied the ports of West Asia (p. 204). the various maritime segments from The following 150 years are char- early in the fifteenth century onward. acterized as an epoch of turning points Increasingly, the Ryukyu Islands and in the course of fragmentation after Ayutthaya gained in importance. the end of the Mongol domination (ca. A conspectus highlights two distinc- 1350–1400). Of great significance was tive though related matters: the funda- the Ming state-run seafaring, beginning mental trends germane to Asians and early in the fifteenth century, upon the Portuguese in the maritime world after ascension of Emperor Zhu Di, known 1500, and a comparison of the Ming as the Yongle Emperor, in 1403, and state-run seafaring with the Estado da the start of an enormous ship-build- Índia of the Portuguese. ing programme, resulting in numerous Virtually contravening the author’s fleets, complete with ‘treasure vessels’ resolve to highlight the whole, pre- (baochuan) (p. 234). Among several cisely because it is more than the sum admirals, Zheng He and Wang Jinghong of its parts, a few salient points with a gained lasting fame. Zeng He com- focus on the part of Southeast Asia that manded seven large fleets across the eventually constituted early Siam are ‘Western Ocean’ (Xi yang), 1405–1433. highlighted here. Most probably, priority was given to The Gulf of Siam was probably one trade and diplomacy, with occasional of the busiest maritime trading zones military interventions of secondary for several centuries (p. 36). Chinese importance. This is substantiated by the texts report on sea links across the surge in tributary embassies received by ‘Little Western Ocean’ (Xiao Xiyang) Emperor Yongle, which characteristi- with the east coast of the Malay Peninsu- cally also entailed private transactions. la and onward via overland connections The author highlights innovations to its west coast, reasoning that vessels Journal of the Siam Society 2008 Vol. 96 246 Reviews from China could not directly navigate vessels enhance the reader’s perception. around its southern tip, owing to equa- Two appendixes enrich the presentation, torial calms (pp. 38–39, 46). The Nan one describing commodities in great Yue Kingdom was in contact with the detail, and another introducing various Malay Peninsula via seagoing vessels types of ships and ship-building, com- (p. 61). Han sources relate trade with plete with illustrations. Commodities Southeast Asia. References to the tanned discussed in extenso include cloves, seafarers of Southeast Asia (Kunlun ren) nutmeg, camphor, various woods, in Chinese texts attest to early Chinese spices, precious stones, animals, and scholars’ interest in the maritime world many more. The reference literature and seaborne exchange (p. 65). (pp. 334–351) is categorized into larger Chinese records contain intensive regions and epochs, and compendia on references to Srivijaya from the end of themes or regions such as commodi- the seventh century (p.