Sino-Malay Trade and Diplomacy from the Tenth through the Fourteenth Century » (1)

Derek Heng is an assistant professor of history at the Ohio State University at Marion. He is the editor of New Perspectives and Sources on the History of Singapore: A Multi-disciplinary Approach.

Sino–Malay Trade and Diplomacy from the Tenth through the Fourteenth Century examines how changes in foreign policy and economic perspectives of the Chinese court affected diplomatic intercourse as well as the fundamental nature of economic interaction between China and the Malay region, a subregion of Southeast Asia centered on the Strait of Malacca. This study’s uniqueness and value lie in its integration of archaeological, epigraphic, and textual data from both China and Southeast Asia to provide a rich, multilayered picture of Sino–Southeast Asian relations in the premodern era. Derek Heng approaches the topic from both the Southeast Asian and Chinese perspectives, affording a dual narrative otherwise unavailable in the current body of Southeast Asian and China studies literature.

List of Illustrations vii

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1

1 Sino-Malay Interaction in the First Millennium AD 19

2 China's Economic Relations with Maritime Asia in the Song and Yuan Periods 37

3 The Malay Region's Diplomatic and Economic Interactions with China 72

4 Malay and Chinese Foreign Representation and Commercial Practices Abroad 111

5 China as a Source of Manufactured Products for the Malay Region 149

6 China's Evolving Trade in Malay Products 191

Conclusion 211

Appendix A Chinese Imports to the Malay Region, Tenth through Fourteenth Century 218

Appendix B Ceramics Data from Temasik-Period Sites, Singapore (Empress Place and Old Parliament House) 222

Appendex C Malay Imports to China, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries 224

Abbreviations 227

Notes 229

Bibliography 261

Index 281