Yongle Islands

Yongle Islands

The Yongle islands, located in the South China Sea, belong to a group of islands in the Paracel Islands. They are formerly called the eight islands or the eight West islands, which are located in the range of 15 degrees 46 '- 17 degrees 07', and 111 degrees 11 'to 112 degrees 06' in the East. In 1947, to commemorate the activities of Zheng He's fleet in the South China Sea Islands, the Chinese government named the islands "Yongle islands".

Yongle atoll is the main body and center of Yongle archipelago, including North reef in the north, Huaguang reef in the south of the middle, Yuzhuo reef in the East, panshiyu island in the South and Zhongjian island in the southwest. There are 13 islands. There are also six gates for internal lagoons and open sea shipping.

Yongle islands Management Committee is located in Jinqing island. In history, coral island is the first island in Yongle archipelago. Ships from Hainan island came to this island first. Sansha Yongle Dragon Cave is located in the middle of Jinqing Island Shiyu reef, an affiliated island of Yongle islands.

Historical evolution

Pre Qin Dynasty: in the "Neolithic Age" and "fishing and hunting age" 7000 years ago, the ancestors living in the coastal areas of southern China relied on ships to obtain survival information from the South China Sea. During the Yin and Zhou dynasties 3000 years ago, the indigenous Yue people along the South China Sea began to communicate with the Central Plains. Since then, Chinese fishermen have been sailing and fishing in the South China Sea all the year round. They first discovered the islands in the South China Sea, which are recorded in a special manuscript called "Geng Lu Bu" (or "Shui Lu Bu") and passed down from generation to generation as a navigation guide. At least in the pre Qin period, Hainan Island and the South China Sea Islands belonged to the Central Plains Dynasty.

Qin Dynasty: in the first year of the first emperor (221 BC), the first emperor ruled the country and divided the country into 36 counties, among which Nanhai County, Guilin county and Xiang county were set up in Lingnan area. According to records of Qin Shihuang, the three counties are mostly on the northern and western waters of the South China Sea, namely the Dongsha Islands and the Paracel Islands sea area.

Han Dynasty: in the 18th year of Jianwu in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 42), Fubo General Ma Yuan went to "Qianli Changsha" during his southern expedition. In 1973, the South China Sea was first marked on the Han Dynasty topographic map.

During the period of the Three Kingdoms: Wu Sun Quan sent Kangtai and Zhu Ying to Funan (now Cambodia) and other countries. The two envoys of Kangtai and Zhu visited some islands in the South China Sea and observed "coral island" carefully. Funan Zhuan is the first scientific description of the causes of coral island in the world.

Jin Dynasty: in the Western Jin Dynasty, Pei Yuan recorded the diurnal tide and semidiurnal tide in the South China Sea. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Bao Liang, the prefect of Nanhai Prefecture, visited Nanhai and Nanhai islands regularly.

Southern Dynasties: Xie Lingyun of the Song dynasty recorded in the memorial to Emperor Wu that in the sixth year of the reign of emperor Yi Xi of Jin Dynasty (410 and 411 AD), Liu Yu of Emperor Wu of Song Dynasty had a battle with Lu Xun. His main battlefield was the islands in the South China Sea under his jurisdiction.

Sui Dynasty: "Sui Shu" records that three years to six years (607 to 610 years) of the great career of the Sui Dynasty, Suiti sent Chang Jun and Wang Junzheng to the country of red earth (now the southeastern part of Malay Peninsula, Thailand), passing through the "Jiao Shi Shan" of Paracel Islands and the west side of Spratly Islands.

In the Tang Dynasty: the geography records of the old Tang Dynasty records: the territory of Zhen Zhou (Sanya, Hainan province) is now "three thousand miles southwest to the sea", which obviously includes the Paracel Islands. Volume 21 of hanchangliji records the jurisdiction of Lingnan Jiedushi during the reign of emperor Mu Zong of Tang Dynasty. It says: "the state of Lifu is as far as 3000 Li, separated by mountains and seas Duozhou island. " In Tang Dynasty, Nanhai islands not only became a part of Zhenzhou administrative division, but also were administrated by Lingnan Jiedushi.

Song Dynasty: the military system and national defense major of Zeng Gong Liang in the Northern Song Dynasty assigned the nine breasts (Paracel Islands) to the coastal areas of the Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the chronicles of the Song dynasty recorded that the Southern Song Dynasty was two years old (AD 1277), and December was on the day of Bing Zi, and the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty had been stationed in the Paracel Islands (seven seas).

Yuan Dynasty: to sixteen yuan (AD 1279), Guo Shoujing, a fellow of academician Tai Shi, went to the South China Sea to make a survey. From the Yuan Dynasty to the 4th year to the seven year of Yan you (1311-1320 AD), Zhu Si Ben painted and Luo Hongxian's "Guang map" was painted with thousands of miles of Changsha (Paracel Islands) and Wan Lishi Tong (Spratly Islands).

Ming Dynasty: the Zheng He navigation map compiled by Ming Xuan de five years (AD 1430) painted Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands in the Daming version. It is recorded in the "territory" article of Zhengde Qiongtai Zhi written by Tang Zhou in Ming Dynasty that Qiongzhou has "Qianli Changsha" and "Wanli Shitang". According to the records in Qiongtai waiji written by Wang Zuo (1465-1505 A.D.), Wanzhou governs Changsha and Shitang.

Qing Dynasty: for example, Jin Guangzu's general records of Guangdong, Jiang Tingxi's collection of ancient and modern books, Hu duanshu's Wanzhou annals, and Mingyi's Qiongzhou capital annals placed Yongle islands under the jurisdiction of Wanzhou, Qiongzhou's capital. The general map of the world was published in 1724 (the second year of Yongzheng), 1755 (the 20th year of Qianlong), 1767 (the 32nd year of Qianlong), and 1817 (the 22nd year of Jiaqing) The "great unified world map" and so on all painted Paracel Islands in the administrative area of China's territory. The official map of the Qing Dynasty, the general map of the prefectures, prefectures and counties of the Qing Dynasty, is the earliest map that included the Yongle islands in the territory of China and set up the jurisdiction of the government. In 1879, Wang Zhichun drew a complete picture of the world in the Qing Dynasty. It is a world map with China as the center, and details the Yongle islands. The Yongle archipelago is a government level administrative unit under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province, which was printed in 1904 A.D.

Republic of China period: after the revolution of 1911, the Guangdong provincial government announced that Yongle islands would be under the jurisdiction of Ya county (now Sanya City) in Hainan. In 1935, the government of the Republic of China announced the name of kuleshengte archipelago. After the surrender of Japan, on November 24, 1946, the Nationalist government sent two naval ships "Yongxing" and "Zhongjian" to take over the Yongle islands and set up a memorial for the recovery of Xisha. The entire South China Sea Islands, including the Yongle islands, were temporarily subordinate to the naval headquarters. In the thirty-six years of the Republic of China (AD 1947), the Ministry of defense of the Republic of China held a meeting on the construction of the Nansha Islands in May, and named the islands as Yongle Islands (including 14 islands, 1 sandbars and 4 reefs). At the meeting, it was decided that the Yongle islands would be administered by the Hainan Special Administrative Region.

After the founding of new China: Hainan Island was liberated in May 1950. In the administrative division, Yongle archipelago still belongs to Guangdong Province, and the administrative relationship is subordinate to the Hainan administrative region of Guangdong province. In March 24, 1959, the South China Sea islands including Yongle islands were approved by the central and Guangdong authorities, the Guangdong islands Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands and the Zhongsha Islands office, the government's residence was Xisha Yongxing island; and March 4, 1969, renamed Guangdong Xisha. The Zhongsha Islands, the Zhongsha Islands the Zhongsha Islands Revolutionary Committee (not a level political power); in 1974, the Guangdong provincial Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands and Zhongsha Islands Revolutionary Committee were revoked, and the administrative committee of the CPC, the Committee of the China's Communist Party's "Zhongsha" and "Zhongsha Islands", actually fulfilled their administrative jurisdiction over the area. "" In 1979 the Zhongsha Islands Revolutionary Committee (not a level government) was restored to Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands and the Zhongsha Islands in Guangdong province. In October 22, 1981, the office of Paracel Islands, Paracel Islands and Zhongsha Islands in Guangdong province was restored (not a first-degree regime), and in 1983, the People's Republic of China government announced the name Yongle archipelago. The Zhongsha Islands in China, including the Yongle islands, were renamed as "Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands, Zhongsha Islands office" in September 19th after the establishment of Hainan in 1988. "The Hainan River, Spratly Islands, Zhongsha Islands" office.

In June 21, 2012 the Zhongsha Islands Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a notice of the State Council's approval of the city of Hainan, and cancelled the offices of Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands and Zhongsha Islands, and set up the third level city of the prefecture level, which included Paracel Islands, the Zhongsha Islands, the island reef and its sea area, including Yongle islands.

In July 2013, the Yongle islands Management Committee of Sansha city (hereinafter referred to as Yongle Management Committee) was established, and worked with the Yongle islands Working Committee of Sansha city of the Communist Party of China (hereinafter referred to as Yongle Working Committee). The Yongle Working Committee and the management committee, on behalf of the Sansha municipal Party committee and the Sansha municipal government, have jurisdiction over all the islands and reefs of the Yongle islands and their waters.

geographical environment

Location context

Yongle archipelago is a group of western islands in the Paracel Islands of Sasha City, located at about 40 nautical miles southwest of Yongxing island. It is distributed between 15 degrees north latitude, 15 degrees 46 '- 17 degrees 07', east longitude 111 degrees 11 '- 112 degrees 06', the main body is Yongle Atoll, and Hainan fishermen are commonly known as "West eight island" or "lower eight island".

Chinese PinYin : Yong Le Qun Dao