Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-01T12:46:24.962Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Gauging the South China Sea: Route Books (genglubu) since 1974

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2019

Johannes L. Kurz*
Affiliation:
Historical Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Email: jolukurz@gmail.com.

Abstract

This research report traces the history of route books (genglubu) from their chance discovery in 1974. It assesses the credibility of these practical nautical guide books as historical sources employed by official agencies in mainland China to claim permanent Chinese occupation of islands in the South China Sea. The route books of Hainan fishermen have a rather short history, having been laid down in writing only in the early 20th century. As contemporary practical nautical guides, they complement the established order of pre-modern Chinese texts used in official publications to describe the South China Sea as historical Chinese territory.

摘要

该文章以追溯更路簿的历史为主题。自从1974 年偶然发现的,中国大陆当局使用了更路簿为声称中国永久占领南海的岛屿。此外中华人民共和国使用“更路簿”作为历史资料来证明涉嫌对南海的历史权利。然而海南渔岛民的更路簿历史比较短暂,仅在二十世纪初以书面形式出版。本文评估这些实用航海指南书的可信度。

Type
Research Report
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batchelor, Robert. 2013. “The Selden Map rediscovered: a Chinese map of East Asian shipping routes, c. 1619.” Imago Mundi 65.1, 3763.Google Scholar
Foreign Ministry of the PRC. 2000. “Historical evidence to support China's sovereignty over the Nansha Islands,” 17 November, http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/topics_665678/3754_666060/t19231.shtml. Accessed 16 June 2018.Google Scholar
Granados, Ulysses. 2006/07. “The South China Sea and its coral reefs during the Ming and Qing dynasties: levels of geographical knowledge and political control.” East Asian History 32/33, 109128.Google Scholar
Guangdong Provincial Museum. 1974. “Guangdong sheng Xisha qundao wenwu diaocha jianbao(Brief report on cultural relics in the Xisha Islands of Guangdong province). Wenwu 10, 129, and plates.Google Scholar
Guangdong Provincial Museum and the Cultural Bureau of Hainan Administrative Region, Guangdong. 1976. “Guangdong sheng Xisha qundao di erci wenwu diaocha jianbao” (Second brief report on cultural relics in the Xisha Islands of Guangdong province). Wenwu 9, 927.Google Scholar
Han, Zhenhua, Lin, Jinzhi and Wu, Fengbin (eds.). 1988. Woguo Nanhai zhudao shiliao huibian (Collected Historical Material on the South China Sea Islands). Beijing: Dongfeng chubanshe.Google Scholar
Hayton, Bill. 2019. “The modern origins of China's South China Sea claims: maps, misunderstandings and the maritime geobody.” Modern China 45(2), 127170.Google Scholar
He, Jisheng. 1981. “Hainan dao yumin kaifa jingying Xisha, Nansha qundao de lishi gongji” (The historical contributions of Hainan fishermen to the development and operation of the Xisha and Nansha Islands). Xueshu yanjiu 1, 3443.Google Scholar
Hsu, Mei-ling. 1988. “Chinese marine cartography: sea charts of pre-modern China.” Imago Mundi 40, 96112.Google Scholar
Li, Caixia. 2017. “Cong hanghai genglubu xiang yuye genglubu de yanbian: jian lun Nanhai genglubu de fenlei yu fenqi” (The evolution from navigational genglubu to fisheries genglubu: the theory of the South China Sea genglubu’s classification and instalment). Hainan redai haiyang xueyuan xuebao 1, 19.Google Scholar
Li, Xiaokun, and Liu, Xiaoli. 2016. “Ancient volumes show ‘ironclad proof of Chinese ownership’,” http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2016-05/24/content_25433846.htm. Accessed 3 March 2019.Google Scholar
Lin, Jinzhi. 1979. “Shitang changsha ziliao jilu kaoshi” (A study of the compilation of materials on stone embankments and sandbanks). Nanyang wenti 6, 100126.Google Scholar
Liu, Nanwei. 1985. “Nanhai zhudao Qiongren suming kao” (A study of the names people from Qiong(hai) use for the South China Sea Islands). Huanan shifan daxue 2, 2434.Google Scholar
Liu, Nanwei, and Zhang, Zhengsheng. 2015. “Xisha qundao he Nansha qundao tudiming yuanliu jiqi lishi wenhua jiazhi” (The origin and spread of folk place names of the Xisha and Nansha Islands and their historical and cultural value). Redai dili 2, 162–69.Google Scholar
Liu, Xiaoli, and Huang, Yiming. 2016. “Center set up to study fishermen's guide books,” 8 September, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2016-09/08/content_26732525.htm. Accessed 3 March 2019.Google Scholar
Pedrozo, Raul. 2014. “China versus Vietnam: an analysis of the competing claims in the South China Sea.” CNA Occasional Paper (August), https://southeastasiansea.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/china-versus-vietnam-an-analysis-of-the-competing-claims-in-the-south-china-sea.pdf.Google Scholar
Rhoads, Edward M. 1975. China's Republican Revolution: The Case of Kwangtung, 1895–1913. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Shen, Jianming. 2002. “China's sovereignty over the South China Sea Islands.” Chinese Journal of International Law 1.1, 94157.Google Scholar
State Council of the PRC. 2016. “China adheres to the position of settling through negotiation the relevant disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea,” 13 July, http://english.gov.cn/state_council/ministries/2016/07/13/content_281475392503075.htm. Accessed 20 September 2017.Google Scholar
Sudworth, John. 2016. “South China Sea: the mystery of missing books and maritime claims.” BBC News, 19 June, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36545565. Accessed 11 April 2017.Google Scholar
Wang, Qingyun, and Huang, Yiming. 2016. “Territory recorded in annals of the sea.” China Watch, 26 April, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/china-watch/society/12209162/territory-recorded-annals-sea.html. Accessed 15 June 2018.Google Scholar
Wu, Fengbin. 1985. “Song Yuan yilai woguo yumin dui Nansha qundao de kaifa he jingying” (The development and management of the Nansha Islands by Chinese fishermen since the Song and Yuan dynasties). Zhongguo shehui jingjishi yanjiu 1, 3442.Google Scholar
Xu, Chunmei, and Wang, Yi. 2012. “Tanmen lao chuanzhang Su Chengfen zai Nanhai de fenglang li chuangdang ban ge duo shiji” (The old captain Su Chengfen of Tanmen has spent more than half a century amid the winds and waves of the South China Sea). Nanhaiwang, 7 July, http://www.hinews.cn/news/system/2012/07/07/014610009.shtml. Accessed 28 January 2018.Google Scholar
Xu, Yongjie, and Fan, Yiran. 2012. “Zhongguo Nanhai zhudao kaogu shuyao” (A description of the archaeology of China's South China Sea Islands). Jianghan kaogu 1, 4047.Google Scholar
Yan, Kunlun, Zhao, Hongjie, Gao, Hong and Xu, Chunmei. 2012. “87 sui lao chuanzhang Su Chengfen: Nanhai shi women de zuzonghai” (87-year-old captain Su Chengfen: the South China Sea is our ancestral sea). Nanhaiwang, 19 July, http://www.hinews.cn/news/system/2012/07/19/014660885.shtml. Accessed 28 January 2018.Google Scholar
Yu, Weihui. 2016. Hainan ribao chixu baodao genglubu rang gengduoren dudong Nanhai tianshu” (Continuing reporting by Hainan ribao on route books lets more people read Arcane Book of the South China Sea). Hainan ribao, 7 March, http://www.hinews.cn/news/system/2016/03/07/030188083.shtml. Accessed 15 June 2018.Google Scholar
Zeng, Zhaoxuan, and Zeng, Xianshan. 1991. “Woguo gudai yilai youguan Nanhai jizhong genglubu bijiao yanjiu(A comparative study of several route books related to the South China Sea in ancient times). In Zhongguo kexueyuan Nansha zonghe kexue kaochadui (ed.), Nansha qundao lishi dili yanjiu zhuanji (Nansha Islands Historical Geography Research Collection). Guangzhou: Zhongshan daxue chubanshe, 198226.Google Scholar
Zeng, Zhaoxuan, and Zeng, Xianshan. 1996. “Qing ‘Shunfeng deli’ Wang Guochang chaoben ‘genglubu’ yanjiu” (A study of Wang Guochang's handwritten copy of a route book from the Qing entitled “Making use of favourable winds”). Zhongguo bianjiang shidi yanjiu 1, 86103.Google Scholar
Zhou, Weimin, and Tang, Lingling. 2015. Nanhai tianshu: Hainan yumin ‘genglubu’ wenhua quanshi (Arcane Book of the South China Sea: Cultural Interpretations of the Hainan Fishermen's Route Books). Beijing: Kunlun chubanshe.Google Scholar