DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION:
CHINA AND PORTUGAL IN ASIA
DIRECTIONS
The following question is based on the accompanying documents. (The documents have
been edited for the purpose of this exercise). The question is designed to test your ability to
work with and understand historical documents. Write an essay that:

Has relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the documents.

Uses all or all but one of the documents.

Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as possible and
does not simply summarize the documents individually.

Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the authors’ points of view.
PROMPT
Compare Portuguese and Ming Chinese motivations and perceptions, which influenced
their expeditions in the Indian Ocean. Assess how Portugal came to dominate the Indian
Ocean while China did not.
Based on the following documents, discuss naval expeditions to the Indian Ocean. What
types of additional documentation would help determine why Portugal succeeded.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
After the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty and the expulsion of the Mongols from China,
early Ming policy reflected a determination to further Chinese foreign interests. The Ming
Dynasty expanded Chinese frontiers into Vietnam and Korea. This expansion was
especially true of the Ming Emperor Yung-lo. He sent trade and diplomatic missions to
neighboring countries and authorized naval expeditions. From 1405 until 1433, a year after
his death, the Chinese sent out seven great treasure fleets under the command of a Chinese
Muslim eunuch named Zheng-He. In 1433, just as the Portuguese were beginning their
Atlantic expansion, the Ming Court ordered an end to any further voyages. In 1498,
Portugal finally reached the Indian Ocean. For the next one hundred years, Portugal, a
nation of less than one million inhabitants, dominated an area larger than Europe.
Copyright @ 2007 by Paul William Philp
John Paul II High School
VOCABULARY: CHINA AND PORTUGAL IN ASIA
1. MIDDLE KINGDOM; RULER OF ALL THAT IS UNDER HEAVEN
2. CONFUCIANIST VIEWS ON FAMILY AND TRAVEL
3. CONFUCIANIST VIEWS ON AGRICULTURE, TRADE, WEALTH
4. MING DYNASTY, RESTORATION
5. YONG-LE EMPEROR; YONGLE ENCYCLOPEDIA
6. COURT SCHOLAR OFFICIALS vs. COURT EUNUCHS
7. ZHENG-HE, TREASURE FLEETS, STAR RAFTS
8. CHINESE IDEA OF TRIBUTE, TRIBUTARY STATES vs. TRADE
9. CHINESE VIEWS OF NORTHERN NOMADS; XENOPHOBIA
10. CH’I-LIN (UNICORN, GIRAFFE)
11. PORTUGAL
12. PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR; ROYAL SUPPORT
13. PORTUGUESE TECHNOLOGIES: SHIPS, SAILS, GUNS
14. VASCO DA GAMA
15. CATHOLIC NOTION OF THE CRUSADE
16. ROLE OF MISSIONARIES IN ASIA
17. GOD, GLORY, GOLD = STATUS, SOCIAL ADVANCEDMENT
18. INFLUENCES OF MARCO POLO AND PRESTOR JOHN
19. BREAKING MONOPOLIES OF OTTOMAN TURKS, ITALIAN CITIES
20. TRADING ENTREPOTS, FACTORIES, FORTS
21. 1516: PORTUGUESE REACH GUANGZHOU (CANTON)
22. CHINESE, PORTUGUESE INFLUENCE ON INDIAN OCEAN PEOPLES
Copyright @ 2007 by Paul William Philp
John Paul II High School
Document 1
The Way and the Power, a favorite passage of the founder of the Ming Dynasty,
the Hongwu Emperor, 1368-1398
“Let the state be small and the people few:
So that the people . . .
fearing death, will be reluctant to move great distances,
and, even if they have boats and carts, will not use them.
So that the people . . .
will find their food sweet and their clothes beautiful,
will be content with where they live and happy in their customs.
Though adjoining states be within sight of one another
and cocks crowing and dogs barking in one be heard in
the next,
Yet the people of one state will grow old and die
without having had any dealings with those of another.”
Document 2
Gomes Eannes de Azurara, Portuguese explorer and sailor, from his The
Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, fifteenth century CE
“And you should know well that the noble spirit of this Prince, . . . [Henry]
always kept ships well armed against the Infidel (Muslims), both for war and
because he had to know the land that lay beyond the isles of the Canaries . . .
The second reason was that if . . . some population of Christians, or some
havens [could be found] into which it would be possible to sail . . . many kinds
of merchandise might be brought to this realm, which would find a ready
market . . . which traffic would bring great profit to our countrymen. The
third reason was that the power of the [Muslims] was greater than was
commonly supposed . . . and [Prince Henry] exerted himself . . . to make it
known determinately how far the power of the infidels extended . . . He sought
to know if there were . . . any Christian princes . . . that would aid him against
those enemies of the faith. The fifth reason was his great desire to make increase
in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring him all the souls that could be
saved . . . But over and above these five reasons, . . . this is the inclination of
the heavenly wheels.”
Copyright @ 2007 by Paul William Philp
John Paul II High School
Document 3
King Manuel of Portugal, his instructions to Viceroy Francisco de Almeida, 1505
“It seems to us nothing would serve us better than to have a fortress at the mouth
of the Red Sea or near to it – rather inside it than outside might afford better
control – because from there we could see to it that no spices might pass to the
land of the sultan of Egypt, and all those in India would lose the false notion
that they could trade any more, save through us . . .”
Document 4
The Debate on Salt and Iron, 81 BCE, often quoted during the Ming Dynasty
“We have heard that the way to rule lies in preventing frivolity while
encouraging morality, in suppressing the pursuit of profit while opening the
way for benevolence and duty. When profit is not emphasized, civilization f
flourishes and the customs of the people improve. Recently a system of salt and
iron monopolies, a liquor excise tax, and an equable marketing system have
been established . . . These represent financial competition with the people
which undermines their native honesty and promote selfishness. . . . Few
people take up the fundamental pursuits [farming] while many flock to the
secondary [trade and industry].”
Document 5
Comments by Liu Daxia, Ming Minister of War, 1477
“The expeditions of San Bao (Zheng-He) to the West Ocean wasted tens of
myriads of money and grain and moreover the people who met their deaths [on
the expeditions] may be counted in the myriads. Although he returned with
wonderful precious things, what benefits was it to the state?”
Copyright @ 2007 by Paul William Philp
John Paul II High School
Document 6
Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza, Catholic Missionary, in his 1585 History of China
“The Chinese have found by experience that to [leave] their . . . kingdom to
conquer others is the spoil and loss of much people, and expenses of great
treasures, besides the [work] and care which continually they have to sustain
that which is got, with fear to be lost again; so that in the meantime whilst they
were occupied in strange conquests [Zheng-He’s expeditions], their enemies [the
Mongols and Turks] and other [bordering] kings . . . did trouble and invade
them, doing great damage and harm . . . [so] they found it [necessary] for their
quietness and profit . . . to leave all [that] they had got and gained out of their
kingdom, but [e]specially such countries as were far off.”
Document 7
PORTUGUESE ROYAL INSTITUTIONS AND POLICIES
TO FACILIATE TRADE
Feitoria
Licenses
Land Grants
Trade Monopolies
Cartazes
Viceroy
Secretario da India
Mesa de relacao
Casa dos cantos
Alfandega
Municipal Council
Casa da India
Insurance
Navigation classes
Translations
Fortified trading posts and factories with royal patents
To carry on commerce under royal patent
To settle area and establish plantations to grow cash crops
Given to certain feitoria in a region
Permits for Asian merchants to trade in Portuguese areas
King’s Asian representative; no practical limits on power
Bureaucracy to run Indian possessions
Supreme court for Indian Ocean
Treasury to manage funds in Indian Ocean
Customs and toll collector in the Indian Ocean
Civilian municipal governments in important settlements
Trade monopoly within Europe for Asian products
Maritime insurance against loses in trade with Asia
Classes required for all Portuguese pilots
Foreign treatises on science, navigation, and travel logs
Copyright @ 2007 by Paul William Philp
John Paul II High School
Document 8
Zhang Xie, customs official, from his survey of countries and trade in South East
Asia, 1617
“It was said that people along the coast fear the tortoise dragon [crocodile]. It
stands four hands high, has four feet, with a scaly body and long protruding
teeth. It bites people whenever it encounters them, and no one can escape death.
In the mountains they fear the black tiger [leopard]. It is slightly smaller than a
tiger, rather like human form. It slinks into market places in broad daylight and
if discovered is caught and killed. Today these could, along with the Portuguese,
be called the ‘three terrors of Malacca.’”
Document 9
Answer to a Memorial by Censor Wang I-chi, from the Ming Shi lu (Veritable
Records of the Ming Dynasty) written shortly after the emperor’s death, 1524
“Whenever barbarians come to present tribute, the inhabitants along the coast
communicate and even entice them resulting in trouble. . . . Now it is proper to
strictly enact regulations to the following effect:
1. Upon the coming of the barbarian tributary ships, those people who . . .
meet them and trade with them before . . . the examination of the ships,
shall be punished;
2. Those people who trade [and] borrow from them . . . shall be punished;
3. Those people who have privately purchased contraband goods on behalf of
the barbarians shall be punished;
4. Those people who have . . . buil[t] seagoing vessels for sale to barbarians
shall be punished. . . . For those who are obdurate and irreclaimable, their
families shall also be exiled.”
Document 10
From the Rajavali, the Chronicles of the Kings of Sri Lanka (Ceylon), 1498
“And now it came to pass that a ship from Portugal arrived at Colombo, and
information was brought to the king that . . . they have guns with a noise like
thunder and a ball from one of them, after traversing a league, will break a
castle of marble.”
Copyright @ 2007 by Paul William Philp
John Paul II High School
FOOTNOTES: CHINA AND PORTUGAL IN ASIA
1.
Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China (Berkeley, California,
1998), v.
2.
Gomes Eannes de Azurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, trans. and ed. by
Charles Raymond Beazley and Edgar Prestage, two volumes (London: Hakluyt Society, 1896), I: 27-30.
3.
Boyd C. Shafer, Herbert Heaton, and Burton Stein, eds., Europe and the World in the Age of Exploration,
vol. 1, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire by Bailey W. Diffie and George D. Winius (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1977), 227.
4.
Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405 – 1433 (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 179-180.
5.
Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Chinese Civilization and Society: A Sourcebook (New York: The Free Press,
1981), 23-24.
6.
Levathes 1994, 180-181.
7.
Shafer, Heaton and Stein 1977, 102, 301-337 passim.
8.
Brook 1998, 122.
9.
Kwan-wai So, Japanese Piracy in Ming China during the Sixteenth Century (East Lansing, Michigan:
Michigan State University Press, 1975), 44-45.
10. Carlo M. Cipolla, Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European
Expansion, 1400-1700 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1965), 107.
Copyright @ 2007 by Paul William Philp
John Paul II High School
BIBLIOGRAPHY: CHINA AND PORTUGAL IN ASIA
1. Anderson, Mary. Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China. Buffalo, NY:
Prometheus Books, 1990.
2. Andrea, Alfred J. and James Overfield. The Human Record: Sources of Global History,
two volumes. Vol. 2: Since 1500, 2nd edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Co., 1994).
3. Boxer, Charles R. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1975.
4. Brook, Timothy. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China.
Berkeley, California, 1998).
5. Cipolla, Carlo M. Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early
Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700. New York: Pantheon Books, 1965.
6. de Azurara, Gomes Eannes. The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea.
Translated and edited by Charles Raymond Beazley and Edgar Prestage, two volumes.
London: Hakluyt Society, 1896.
7. Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Chinese Civilization and Society: A Sourcebook. New York: The
Free Press, 1981.
8. Levathes, Louise. When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne,
1405 – 1433. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.
9. Shafer, Boyd C., Herbert Heaton, and Burton Stein, eds. Europe and the World in the
Age of Exploration. Vol. 1, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire by Bailey W. Diffie
and George D. Winius. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977).
10. So, Kwan-wai. Japanese Piracy in Ming China during the Sixteenth Century. East
Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1975.
11. Van Slyke, Lyman P. Yangtze: Nature, History, and the River. Reading, Massachusetts:
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1988.
Copyright @ 2007 by Paul William Philp
John Paul II High School