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History
Hang Li Po and all that by Geoff Wade Part 1 |
| The Polity of Melaka and Chinese
Texts IN THE MING SHI-LU, or Ming Imperial Annals, there is an entry dated to the equivalent of 28 October 1403, which reads as follows: The eunuch Yin Qing was sent to take an imperial proclamation for the instruction of the countries of Melaka and Cochin, and to confer upon the kings of these countries "spangled gold" silk gauze drapes and parasols, together with patterned fine silks and coloured silks as appropriate.1 This entry of 1403 appears to be the earliest reference to Melaka in any text, in any language, and corresponds with the rise of the polity of Melaka at the beginning of the 15th century. The Chinese texts written over the following approximately two and a half centuries until the formal end of the Ming dynasty in 1644 contain a large number of further references to Melaka, which will be discussed as a means of reconstructing, or indeed constructing, the history of the polity of Melaka. The use of Chinese texts in examining the history of Melaka is certainly not a new undertaking, and scholars in societies which use or have used Chinese scripts have been drawing on such references for centuries. The first published evidence of the use of a Ming text on Melaka, in a society beyond those which use Chinese script, appears to have been that by P. Amiot2 in the 1780s, just 60 years after the official Ming history - the Ming Shi - was published. Subsequently, in the latter part of the 19th century, W.P. Groeneveldt's famous work3 brought to scholarly attention some of the major Chinese texts containing references to Malacca, while in the first half of the present century, scholars such as Pelliot4 and Rockhill5 further demonstrated the importance of Chinese texts for studying the history of this polity. From the 1940s to the 1960s, a number of Chinese scholars, including Hsu Yun-ts'iao6, Chang Li-ch'ien7 and Chang I-shan8 utilized Chinese texts on Melaka in their researches. ______________________________________ 1 Ming Tai-zong Shi-lu, juan 24.5b (10-0440). 2 P. Amiot, "Introduction a la connaissance des peuples qui ont etc ou qui sont actuellement tributaires de la Chine", in Mem. cone, les Chimiis, XIV, 1789, pp 1-238. 3 W.P. Groeneveldt, Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca Compiled from Chinese Sources, VBG, Vol. 39(1877). 4 Paul Pelliot, "Le Hoja et le Sayyid Husain de l'hjstoire des Ming" Voting Pao, Vol. XXXVII (1948), pp 81-210, and "Les grands voyages maritimes chinois au debut du XV siecle", T'oung Pao, Vol. XXX (1933), pp 237-452. 5 W.W. Rockhill, "Notes on the relations and trade of China with the Eastern Archipelago and the coasts of the Indian Ocean during the 14th Century", T'oung Pao, Vols. XV, XVI (1914-15). 6 Hsu Yun-ts'iao, "San-bao Tai-jian Xia Xi-yang Kao", Journal of the South Seas Society. Vol. 5, No. 1 (1948), pp. 42-53. 7 Chang Li-ch'ien, Ma-liu-jia Shi, Shanghai, Commercial Press, 1941. 8 Chang I-shan, Ming-dai ZJioiig-guo yu Ma-lai-ya de Cuan-xi, Taipei, 1964 |
More recently, the works of Professors Wang Gungwu,9 Oliver Wolters10 and Paul Wheatley11, as well as those of J.V.G. Mills12 have examined Chinese texts on the Melakan period more critically and in a more comparative perspective, and the results of these researches are today being drawn upon by scholars around the globe. Tooru Nomura also researched Chinese texts on Melaka and presented a paper on the subject during the Minggu Kesenian Melaka at Uiversiti Malaya in 1986.13 There remain a number of Ming texts which have not yet been fully utilized in terms of their relevance to the history of Melaka and some of these texts are listed in Appendix I. The Ming Shi-lu, or "Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty", is the primary and most detailed text relating to the history of the Ming dynasty. The Ming Shi-lu The Ming Shi-lu (MSL) is actually a collective or generic name for the reign annals of the successive emperors of the Ming dynasty. At the death of each emperor, the records of his reign were collected and an office was established to write a history of that reign. That history is referred to as the shi-lu (or "Veritable Record") of the reign. Appendix II lists the various shi-lu of the Ming dynasty and the dates at which the extant editions were compiled. -Together the reign annals of the dynasty are referred to as the Ming Shi-lu. During an emperor's lifetime, his actions and words in his court life and in much of his private life were noted by official recorders. In addition, the bureaucracy maintained a wide archive of the memorials submitted and orders issued under that emperor. Thus, when it came to writing the shi-lu following the death of an emperor, there was a vast range of materials upon which to draw, and editors had to make difficult decisions about what to include and what to exclude. As many of the officials involved in the compilation were ministers during the reign of the deceased emperor, their prejudices often informed the shi-lu compilation. The compilers were of course most interested in the court and the capital, and in general, the further events occurred from the court, the less likely they are to appear in the reign annals. The references to Southeast Asian polities found within the shi-lu are contained in accounts of embassies arriving from those polities and of Chinese envoys being despatched abroad, memorials submitted to the court by officials in Chinese provinces bordering Southeast Asia, and in memorials submitted by officials referring to frontier/foreign policies. ____________________________________________ 9 Wang Gungwu, "The Opening of Relations between China and Malacca 1403-05", in J.S. Basdn and R. Roolvink (eds.), Malayan and Indonesian Studies: Essays Presented to Sir Richard Windstedt, London, OUP, 1964. "The First Three Rulers of Malacca" in JMBRAS, 41: 1(1968). "China and Southeast Asia 1402-1424" in J. Chen and N. Tarling (eds). Social History of China and Southeast Asia, CUP, 1970. 10 O. Wolters, The Fall ofSrivijaya in Malay History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1970. 11 P. Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese, Kuala Lumpur, 1961. 12 J.V.G. Mills, Ma Huan, Ying-yai Sheng-lan: the Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores [1433], Hakluyt Society, Extra Series No. XLII, Cambridge, 1970. 13 Nomura Tooru, "The History of Malacca Viewed from Chinese Sources," paper presented at Minggu Kesenian Melaka, Asrama Za'ba, Universiti Malaya, 1986. |
Within the various shi-lu are found over 100 references to Melaka, and as most of these are from the 15th century, they provide one of the few contemporary sources for Melaka during this period. A precis of these references is given in Appendix III. Characteristics of the Ming Shi-lu Every text is written in a particular social environment for a specific purpose, and the individual Ming Shi-lu (MSL) were written in a Chinese environment by members of the Chinese elite for the purpose of recording the reign of a Chinese emperor. A number of general characteristics need to be noted before examining the relevant references. 1. The imperial Chinese "world-view", with the explicit representation of recognition and enfeoffment of foreign rulers by the Chinese emperor, who was considered to be the son of Heaven, while trite and oft-repeated, did find expression in this official Ming historiography. An example is an entry from the MSL which reflects many of the elements of Chinese historiographical rhetoric and which portrays the Chinese "world-view" quite succinctly. It relates to an order supposedly sent in 1419 by the emperor of China to Samdec Boromrachathirat, the ruler of Ayudyha, in response to complaints by Melaka of an impending military attack from Siam: An envoy was sent with instructions for Samdech Boromrachathirat, the king of the country of Siam, as follows: "I reverently took on the mandate of Heaven and I rule the Chinese and the yi. In my rule, I embody Heaven and Earth's love and concern for the welfare of all things and I look on all equally, without distinguishing between one and the other. You, king, have been able to respect Heaven and serve the superior, and have fulfilled your tribute obligations. I have been greatly pleased by this for a long time. Recently, Iskandar Shah, the king of the country of Melaka, inherited the throne. He has been able to carry on his father's will and has personally brought his wife and children to the court to offer tribute. This loyalty in serving the superior is no different from yours. However, I have learned that without reason you have intended to send troops against him. With the dangerous weapons troops carry, when two sides meet in combat, it is inevitable that there will be great injuries on both sides. Thus, those who are fond of employing troops do not have virtuous hearts. The king of the country of Melaka has already become part of the empire and he is a minister of the court. If he has committed an offence, you should report details to the court. You must not rashly send troops on this account..."14 The account continues, but the main elements of the imperial rhetoric are already obvious. 2. As noted above, the personal and clique prejudices and preferences of the compilers and editors were often reflected in the shi-lu. However, these prejudices more frequently affected writing on domestic, rather than foreign, affairs. I can cite no example where such prejudices obviously affected what was recorded about Melaka. 3. A very important characteristic of the MSL is its chronological precision. The shi-lu are divided into monthly chapters and within each chapter the entries are dated by day. The dates provided can in many cases be checked against those provided in other official texts and documents. Thus they constitute a reasonably accurate external chronology against which Southeast Asian histories can be compared and contrasted. _____________________ 14 Ming Tai-zong, juan 217.1a-b (14-2161/62). |
Let us now examine what we can learn of Melaka from this text. The Founding of the Polity of Melaka The sending of a Chinese envoy to Melaka in 1403 indicates that some sort of Melakan polity was in existence by that time. Its absence from earlier Chinese texts does not of course preclude the possibility that it existed before this date, but it appears clear that the polity began its rise to prominence in the late 14th or early 15th century. Prior to this, the major power on the peninsula was probably the polity of Pahang, noted in Chinese texts in the last quarter of the 14th century.15 A 17th-century Chinese map - Melaka is an island in the sea 
What does the Ming Shi-lu tell us about the emergence of Melaka? The story of the origins of Melaka as related by the Sejarah Melayu is well known, with Sang Utama, a descendant of Raja Iskander, being anointed in Palembang as Sri Tri Buana, evacuating from Palembang and moving first to Bentan and then to Temasek, or Singapura. Subsequently his son Sri Sultan Iskander Shah was attacked by the forces of Majapahit and he fled north and founded Melaka.l6 Tome Pires, in his Suma Oriental, notes how Paramjcura, son of Sam Agi Palimbao (Sang Aji Palembang) was attacked in Palembang by the Javanese and then, after fleeing to Singapore, was further attacked by the forces of Siam, whereupon he fled to Muar and subsequently Bertam, situated inland from Melaka. His son Xaquem Darxa (variant spellings in the text, but referring to Iskander Shah) is noted as having subsequently established his base at Melaka.17 The Ming Shi-lu provides no direct details of the origins of the polity of Melaka. In fact, the period from the end of the 14th century to the beginning of the 15th century is poorly recorded in Chinese texts. The reason for this is related to the political events in China at that time. The first Ming emperor Zhu Yuan-zhang, also known by his reign title Hong-wu, reigned from 1368 until his death in 1398. He was succeeded by his grandson Zhu Yun-wen, who took the throne and assumed the reign title Jian-wen in June 1398. In the following year, his uncle Zhu Di, based in what is today Bei-jing, rebelled against the emperor, initiating a civil war aimed at dethroning his nephew. The civil war extended from August 1399 to July 1402, when Zhu Di,.having defeated his nephew, assumed the imperial throne with the reign title Yong-le. He immediately ordered the destruction of the Jian-wen archives, redesignated that year (1402) as the 35th year of the Hong-wu reign, and ordered the rewriting of the history of the Ming so as to show him as the legitimate successor of his father, the Ming founder. Through these actions the four-year Jian-wen reign was consigned almost to oblivion. Thus, even if the Chinese archives of the Jian-wen reign contained further information on the earliest days of Melaka, it is likely that any relevant texts were destroyed soon after they were written. _____________________________________________ 15 See, for example, Ming Tai-zu Shi-lu, juan 121.3b (5-1964). 16 As contained, for example, in C.C. Brown (trans.), Sejarah Melayu: 'Malay Annals', OUP Kuala Lumpur, 1970, pp. 1-42; and T.D. Situmorang & A. Teeuw, Sejarah Melayu menurut terbium Abdullah, Djambatan, Djakarta & Amsterdam, 1952, pp. 4-80. 17 A Cortesao (ed.), The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires, Hakluyt Society, Second Series No LXXXIX, London, 1944, Vol. II, pp. 229-242. |
However, from the shi-lu sources which are extant, we can gain some idea as to what was occurring in nearby areas over the period at the end of the 14th century. It appears from the Chinese texts that there was major political upheaval in the area of Palembang at the end of the 15th century. In 1374, for example, the Ming Shi-lu18 noted the arrival in China of an envoy sent by the ruler of San Fo-qi, the term used in earlier Chinese texts for Srivijaya. The name of the ruler given in this reference is Ma-na-da Bo-lin-bang, which can be safely reconstructed as Maharaja Palembang, suggesting that the polity of San Fo-qi was, at least in the 1370s, centered on Palembang. In 1377, in a reference to the same polity, we read of the investiture of a new ruler named Ma-na-zha Wu-li (Cantonese pronunciation: Ma-na-ze Mou-lei)19, which suggests the title "Maharaja Melayu". However, 28 years later in 1405, the Ming Shi-lu 20 informs us that the polity known to the Chinese as Old Port (Jiu-gang)21 , the successor polity to San Fo-qi and also centered on Palembang, was being ruled by a Chinese person named Liang Dao-ming, and that many of the residents were Chinese from Guang-dong and Fu-jian. Thus, the Ming Shi-lu references show that during the last quarter of the 14th century a number of changes had occurred in the area of Palembang. The polity of San Fo-qi had ceased to exist, a new polity known in Chinese as Old Port had arisen, and the former ruler of the area had been replaced by a Chinese. It is also recorded in the Ming Annals that in the late 1370s the king of Java had ordered the killing of Chinese envoys to San Fo-qi.22 These details agree quite well with accounts in Sejarah Melayu and Suma Oriental, according to which in this period Java was hostile to Palembang and had attacked it, resulting in the ruler fleeing. Professor Wolters has examined these episodes carefully in his work.23 While the founding of Melaka is not well-detailed in the Ming Shi-lu, its subsequent development is the subject of quite a few references, providing us with contemporary details unavailable elsewhere. These are discussed below under a number of headings: 1. The Rulers of Melaka; 2. Melaka's External Relations; 3. Envoys and Other Prominent Figures; 4. Society in Melaka; 5. Melaka and the Portuguese; 6. Huo-zhe Ya-san, Khoja Hassan, Cojacao; and 7. Other Chinese Sources. # __________________________________ 18 Ming Tai-zu Shi-lu, juan 93,4b-5a (4-1626/27). 19 Ming Tai-zu Shi-lu, juan 115.4b (5-1888). 20 Ming Tai-zong Shi-lu, juan 38.4b (10-0646). 21 Wolters prefers the translation "Old Channel", as argued in his article "A Note on Sungsang Village at the Estuary of Ihe Musi River in Southeastern Sumatra" in Indonesia, No. 27 (1979), pp. 33-56. 22 Ming Tai-zu Shi-lu, juan 134.3a (5-2125). 23 Wolters, (1970) op. cit. |
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From "Malacca in Ming Dynasty Texts" by Dr Geff Wade, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, published in Vol. 70, Journal of the Malaysian Branch, Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS). . Go to the top |
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Hang Li Po Letter to the editor Pigs legs |
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