[Note] \Defense\ is a series that revolves around dialogues on new books in the humanities, inviting young scholars to write reviews on newly published historical and literary research works in both Chinese and English academia, with responses from the original authors, aiming to promote the exchange and dissemination of historical and literary research results.

In this issue, we invite Professor Yang Bin from the Department of Chinese and History at City University of Hong Kong, along with two young scholars, to discuss his new book \The Forgotten Discovery: Maldives in Chinese History\ (Discovered src=\https://imgpai.thepaper.cn/newpai/image/1748787821000_1A4TkE_1748788278361.jpg?x-oss-process=image/resize,w_1024\/>

The Forgotten Discovery: Maldives in Chinese History (Discovered src=\https://imgpai.thepaper.cn/newpai/image/1748788507000_CiciA5_1748788519477.jpg?x-oss-process=image/resize,w_1024\/)>

Zheng He's navigational chart (partial enlarged reproduction). This is the sea chart used by Zheng He during his last voyage to the Western Seas in the fifth year of the Xuande era of the Ming Dynasty (1430). The original chart is a long scroll, with the author unknown. The entire map starts from Nanjing in Jiangsu today and extends as far as the east coast of Africa, including more than five hundred place names. The chart depicts the mountains, rivers, and urban areas along the route. The sailing route is in the form of compass bearings, indicating the compass points and the distance traveled.

After the sixteenth century, China's knowledge production about the Indian Ocean almost came to a halt. The last two chapters of this book review the knowledge writing about the Indian Ocean after the sixteenth century and the cultural heritage of exchanges between Ming Dynasty China and the Indian Ocean. Chapter 16 takes Luo Maodeng's \The Western Ocean Record of the Three-Jeweled Eunuch\ as an example to discuss how knowledge about the Western Seas was reproduced through literary texts after Zheng He's voyages ceased. At the same time, the Western world was also imagining and perceiving China through the Chinese elements that permeated the Indian Ocean. In Chapter 17, the knowledge construction of Chinese \fish eagle\ (i.e., cormorant) fishing is used as an entry point to reveal this process. In the 16th century, French travelers in the Maldives heard that the locals had captured a large water bird that could catch fish, and they claimed it came from China. Yang Bin keenly pointed out that since the direct connection between China and the Indian Ocean had long been severed at that time, this water bird obviously did not come from China, but cormorant fishing was indeed an invention of China. The news of cormorant fishing spread to Europe in the 14th century and became a Chinese trick that Westerners enjoyed talking about (p. 266). These associations and rumors about China reflect the cultural cognition and imagination of the distant China in the Indian Ocean region. Regrettably, these imaginations exist and spread because, after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, due to the \sea ban\ policy and the influence of Western colonial expansion, China \lost\ the Indian Ocean it had discovered. In the \Complete Library of the Four Treasuries\ compiled during the Qing Dynasty, the records about the Maldives (Liushan State) still remain at the level of knowledge from the Zheng He era. This stagnation in knowledge is precisely the result of the increasing estrangement between China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Indian Ocean world.

In recent years, many scholars of maritime history and global history, such as Eric Tagliacozzo and Tansen Sen, have advocated for a more holistic perspective on the study of Asian seas, with particular attention to China's maritime connections with the Indian Ocean and even Africa. \The Forgotten Discovery\ is another significant work in this field, reflecting several important trends in the study of China's maritime history and making unique contributions in these areas. First, the book emphasizes the maritime knowledge, technology, and achievements before Zheng He's voyages to the Western Seas. Although Zheng He's voyages are seen as a milestone in the history of Chinese navigation, in fact, his voyages largely depended on the accumulated maritime experience of predecessors such as Wang Dayuan. This indicates that the maritime technology and foreign traffic of the Song and Yuan dynasties are still worth in-depth study. Second, the book adopts a decentralized perspective on maritime history, emphasizing the agency of the seas themselves. Whether discussing the tropical products of the Maldives or analyzing the societies of maritime ports, Yang Bin places the maritime world at the core. This perspective allows us to re-examine the importance of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and its exchanges with China from multiple dimensions of the history of knowledge, the history of technology, and environmental history. Finally, the book pays special attention to the Indian Ocean world. After Zheng He's voyages to the Western Seas, Chinese sailing ships gradually withdrew from the Indian Ocean, and even during the Qing dynasty, there was a saying that \Qing ships do not pass Malacca.\ This phenomenon has led to less focus on the connection between China and the Indian Ocean in the study of maritime history during the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, as Yang Bin reveals in the fourth part of this book, even if direct maritime connections were interrupted, China's cognition and imagination of the Indian Ocean world were still transformed and internalized in different knowledge systems, forming a unique diasporic knowledge.

As a colleague also researching maritime history, I would like to take this opportunity to ask Professor Yang Bin a few questions about this book. First, is there any record in Chinese historical materials about the Maldives earlier than Wang Dayuan? It is well known that the history of Chinese voyages to the Indian Ocean can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. In the \Book of Han - Geographical Treatise,\ there is an important account of foreign traffic: \From Rinan Zhangsai, Xuwen, Hepu, it takes five months by boat to reach the country of Du Yuan; another four months by boat to reach the country of Yilu Mei; another twenty days by boat to reach the country of Chenli; and more than ten days on foot to reach the country of Fugan Dulu. From Fugan Dulu, it takes more than two months by boat to reach the country of Huangzhi, whose customs are roughly similar to those of the Pearl River Delta. The region is vast, with a large population and many exotic goods, and since Emperor Wu, they have all been presented. There is a translator who belongs to the Yellow Gate, and together with volunteers, they go to the sea to buy pearls, jade, and other strange stones, carrying gold and mixed silks. The countries they visit provide food as a couple, and the barbarian merchant ships transport them. They also profit from trade, rob and kill people. They also suffer from shipwrecks and drowning, and those who do not return come back after several years. The largest pearls are less than two inches in diameter. In the first year of Emperor Ping's reign, Wang Mang assisted in governance, wanting to show his power and virtue, and generously gave gifts to the King of Huangzhi, ordering him to send envoys to offer live rhinoceroses. From Huangzhi, it takes eight months by boat to reach Pizong; it takes eight months by boat to reach the border of Rinan and Xianglin. South of Huangzhi, there is the country of Yichengbu, and the Han Dynasty's translators return from here.\ Many scholars have previously examined this passage and confirmed it as a record of the outbound and return voyages to the Indian Ocean. The \Huangzhi\ mentioned in the text is believed to be the capital of the Dravidian state, Kanchipura, and therefore the \Yichengbu\ country south of Huangzhi is believed to be today's Sri Lanka. However, Professor Yang Xiaochun from Nanjing University published an article titled \A New Examination of the Country of Huangzhi\ in the 22nd issue of \Historical Geography\ (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2007). He re-examined from the aspects of pronunciation and products, believing that \Huangzhi\ should be the island of Sri Lanka. If this theory holds, then the \Yichengbu\ country south of Huangzhi could possibly refer to the Maldives. The Han Dynasty's translators returned from here, possibly because the Maldives' unique thousand-island topography, like a vast stone pond, its strange dangers and obstacles, prevented the Han envoys from sailing further west. However, I have not found any Sanskrit evidence that can be phonetically matched with \Yichengbu,\ so I can only make a slight speculation.

Secondly, regarding the records of Malé, the capital of the Maldives, in Zheng He's literature—\Guan Yu Liu,\ Teacher Yang Bin believes that the character \Guan\ mainly represents its status as the political center of the Maldives. However, recent research indicates that \Guan Chang\ and \Guan Chang\ in Zheng He's navigation routes often imply that the fleet had established bases or supply centers there. Considering that Zheng He's fleet had intervened in the Battle of Ceylon and established supply stations in other places such as Sumatra, is there a possibility of using Malé as a strategic supply location? In other words, does \Guan Yu Liu\ not only mark the political center but also likely reflect the actual operational needs of Zheng He's voyages?

Thirdly, how should we understand the \forgetting\ of the Maldives and even the Indian Ocean by China during the Ming and Qing dynasties? Was this an active \forgetting\ or a forced \abandonment\? The common view on the saying \Qing ships do not pass Malacca\ is that the maritime prohibition policies of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the colonial expansion of the West squeezed the maritime survival space of Chinese sailing ships. Looking at the discussion of the flow of goods in the third part of this book, the interest of the Ming court in the Maldives and the Indian Ocean seems not to be out of strategic considerations, but more out of the demand for exotic treasures. When the Portuguese could introduce ambergris on their behalf, the direct connection between the Ming court and the Indian Ocean world became insignificant. Does this mean that the \forgetting\ of the Indian Ocean by China after Zheng He was not due to technical or capability limitations, but because in the new pattern of the global trade network, direct voyages to the Indian Ocean no longer had practical benefits? After entering the Qing dynasty, the expansion of the Dutch and British East India Companies in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia allowed Chinese merchants to indirectly obtain Indian Ocean products through Western merchants in Southeast Asian ports such as Batavia, Penang, and Manila. Therefore, should this \forgetting\ be understood more as an adjustment to the changes in the global trade pattern, rather than being solely due to maritime prohibition policies or external pressures?