Wang Dayuan

Wang Dayuan

Wang Dayuan was a civil navigator in Yuan Dynasty. The word is Huan Zhang. Nanchang people (now wangjialong, Shiyao village, Qingyunpu District, Nanchang City). In 1330, at the age of 20, Wang Dayuan sailed for the first time from Quanzhou on a merchant ship. He went through Hainan Island, Zhancheng, Malacca, Java, Sumatra, Myanmar, India, Persia, Arabia and Egypt, crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Morocco, then returned to Egypt, crossed the Red Sea to Somalia and Mozambique, crossed the Indian Ocean and returned to Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Java It took five years from Australia to Kalimantan and the Philippines to return to Quanzhou. In the third year of Zhiyuan (1337), Wang Dayuan sailed from Quanzhou again, passing through the Nanyang islands, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Mozambican Strait in Africa and all parts of Australia, and returned to Quanzhou in the fifth year of Zhiyuan (1339). He sailed twice.

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Famous navigator of Yuan Dynasty

Wang Dayuan

There are many anecdotes in the south of Nanchang City: "there are many anecdotes in the south of Nanchang City, general ferry bolianbo hey; the scenery on the source of Xianghu is good, so Shi Jiayao goes to row a dragon boat; old Prime Minister Wang comes to greet you, and the prime minister's daughter sits in Hualou Luo hey.". The Wangs live on the seafaring boat and sail across the ocean to Yizhou! After Wang Dayuan came back from his second voyage to the sea, at the request of Quanzhou local officials, he began to sort out his notes and write a brief history of the island. The book is divided into 100 pieces, 99 of which are his personal experiences,

Involving more than 220 countries and regions

It has an important reference value for the study of the history and geography of the transportation between China and the West and the countries of Haidao in the Yuan Dynasty, and has attracted the attention of the world. After 1867, many western scholars studied the book and translated it into many languages. They recognized its great contribution to world history and geography. " Western scholars call him“

eastern

Marco Polo

”。

Life of the characters

Childhood

Wang Dayuan was born in 1311, the fourth year of the reign of emperor Wuzong of the Yuan Dynasty. He was smart and studious when he was young. He was deeply loved by his parents. He hoped that he would grow up and become a talent, so he chose "Huanzhang" in the Analects of Confucius. As expected, Wang Dayuan became a world-famous navigator.

youth

He first visited Quanzhou, the largest commercial port in southern China at that time and one of the largest commercial ports in the world at that time. It's very interesting to see people of all kinds of skin color and languages coming one after another; to see a great variety of Chinese and Western strange goods piled up like mountains; to see ships of all sizes from all over the world moored in the harbor; especially the foreign customs spoken by Chinese and foreign businessmen and sailors. All of these deeply touched Wang Dayuan's curiosity, and later contributed to his two ocean voyages.

In 1330, Wang Dayuan, only 20 years old, sailed out from Quanzhou port by Quanzhou ocean going merchant ship.

A group of people arrived at Hainan as a transfer station. And then across Paracel Islands, past coda and Zhan Cheng to arrive at the contemporary Kampuchea coast. During the period of Angkor Dynasty, Wang Dayuan witnessed the luxurious and weird Buddhist temples. In front of the king's palace, there are gold elephants, white elephants, golden peacocks, jade monkeys and other treasures, which make people feel dazzling. Due to the warm climate all year round, the land here is fertile and the agricultural products are abundant. The noble's household and eating utensils were made of gold, so that they were particularly gorgeous in the eyes of outsiders at that time.

In order to maintain trade, many Nanyang monarchs paid special attention to the main suppliers of goods. Wang Dayuan, a native of the Tang Dynasty, found that the situation here was similar to that of Zhan Po. Even if he killed himself, he didn't have to pay for his life. However, if the natives kill themselves or their companions, they need one life to pay for another. Therefore, many people left their hometown ahead of time to avoid the war of the Yuan Dynasty and the Song Dynasty. Local women also retained the primitive customs of Nanyang area, and needed to go to nearby temples to break places when they were adults. Men will also sell their wives to foreign guests and take pride in the bullish market.

Later, Wang Dayuan left this happy land for men and visited Siam, where the people were fierce. Then I took a boat from the Gulf of Thailand to the contemporary island of Singapore, and Kalimantan, which is closer to the south. These civilian ships will be equipped with soldiers to resist attacks. Through crossbows and primitive firearms, the frequent Malay pirates are shot back.

In Boni and Brunei, Kalimantan, the Chinese still receive warm hospitality from local tribes. Even if you drink at a banquet, your luggage will still be fine when you wake up. There is almost no threat of war in these Nanyang Buddhist countries, and all of them are bathed in the mercy aura of Buddhist culture. The national government affairs are also relatively simple. Only one tax official can manage the revenue and expenditure in an orderly way. Due to the hot climate, residents will choose to rest in the daytime and wait until sunset to work. Although the working hours are not long, the local pozzolanic soil has strong fertility, which can ensure enough agricultural output. Foreign businessmen can trade in silver, red gold or iron in exchange for hawksbill, plum blossom, nutmeg, xiaodingpi and other special products. These spices will also lead western colonists to plunder and fight here in a few centuries.

It was also in the Gulan mountain on Kalimantan island that Wang Dayuan and his companions found the remnant of the Yuan Dynasty expeditionary army. They may come from the hometown of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Central Plains or the northern part of the Great Wall. Now, under the torment of tropical climate and disease, they are surrounded by local people. In addition to struggling to make a living, there is no chance to see the hometown of Jiangnan and Northern China.

During his subsequent trip to Sumatra, Wang Dayuan visited the kingdom of sanfoqi, which was very popular for a time. Although it is also in a mild climate, but the domestic people are fierce and aggressive, the monarch must adopt the system of severe punishment. Moreover, the domestic people should always respond to the call for conscription, so they are a Nanyang bully that everyone reveres. But in order to cope with the seasonal storm disaster, local civilians are shipowners. In case of ebb tide, storm precursor or tsunami, they will move to calm area in time to reduce the loss.

During the journey, Wang Dayuan also saw some resources that people didn't attach much importance to at that time. For example, on the island of songbawa in little Sunda, black viscous liquid will emerge from the soil by the sea. It can be processed into ink, used as heating fuel, and even used in the manufacture of flash tank. We know that the black liquid of our time is this kind of oil. Indonesia is still the most abundant and important crude oil producing region in Southeast Asia.

Of course, some places seem to be gentle townships, but in fact they are very dangerous to outsiders. For example, in East Timor, where the water quality is poor, not only malaria is prevalent, but also lithiasis is common. The local chieftains often sail boats carrying women for fun, but it is easy to cause an epidemic of infectious diseases. Foreign merchants are extremely vulnerable to infection and are killed in batches on the way back.

After leaving the hinterland of the Southern Ocean, Wang Dayuan's boat made use of the Indian Ocean winter wind to cross the Strait of Malacca. In this process, the huge storm made the compass fail for a time. Although the group passed the test, the keel and broken wood chips on the sea suggested that someone had been killed because of the weather.

After the ordeal of death, the world of the vast Indian Ocean began to appear in front of Wang Dayuan. In the multilateral trade of Asia, Africa and Latin America, they will see many caravans from Italy and Arabia. These people often sell European jewelry, weapons and crafts to North Africa, and then sell East African slaves and horses from North Africa and West Asia to India. Finally, precious minerals such as gems from the subcontinent were brought back to their hometown for sale.

On the coast of coromand in southeast India, Wang Dayuan saw local men and women wearing headscarves or saris. Some women from the chadili caste are also good at using spears and taking snake venom to help fight. Local agricultural conditions and economic model are also rich and thrifty, depending on the degree of land fertility and dependence on foreign trade. They even saw large brick towers built in 1267 on the coast of nagapatam. It was a monument left by the envoys of the Southern Song Dynasty during their visit. In Wang Dayuan's time, it was also used as a sign by mariners.

Kalikat, on the southwest coast of India, is famous for its pepper. The land here is also fertile, and people like to travel with bows and arrows. However, other areas along the Malabar Coast are not rich in natural resources. Many islands in the sea are infested with insects and snakes, making it difficult for human beings to get close to them. However, certain small islands are rich in expensive rubies, which are valuable in overseas markets.

In order to find more trading opportunities, Wang Dayuan then moved towards the Persian Gulf. Later, he made a temporary landing and went to the Arab port of Basra. Most of the local residents are like fish scales. They are slender and handsome. They like to wear white clothes made of camel hair to resist the huge temperature difference between day and night. In municipal planning, these places are often clean and beautiful, and a large number of public pools and fountains are also beautiful. People live on rice, wheat and mutton. They are cheap in their means of livelihood and like to fight for interests. This gives Wang Dayuan ample opportunities to bargain and trade the rich materials from the three continents.

Then Wang Dayuan went up the grassy Tigris River and came to Malag in Western Persia. They were surprised to find that a Han Chinese surnamed Chen was the Lord. He used to be a local official in the Yuan Dynasty, and later he went to sea to support himself. Under his administration, the Malag region was strong and powerful, and often sent cavalry to sweep the surrounding small countries and tribes. However, as a wild force who abandoned the system and went out to develop on his own, his achievements have not been officially recognized and recorded, so only through the folk records can he remain famous in later generations.

After that, Wang Dayuan returned to the Persian Gulf South and visited the Holy Land in the eyes of Muslims

Chinese PinYin : Wang Da Yuan