Hormuz in Yuan and Ming sources
Ralph Kauz and Roderich Ptak*
Introduction
Hormuz was among the major destinations of Zheng He's last four voyages. Both the well-known Liujiagang and Changle inscriptions underline the importance of this place by listing its name before the names of other ports and countries where the fleets of the fourth, fifth, and sixth expedition had called.2 Usually, Zheng He's crew would reach Hormuz in winter and spend about two months there, from mid- January to mid-March, before setting out for the homebound voyage with the beginning of the southwest monsoon. The last expedition, for example, reached Hormuz on 17 January 1433 and left for China on 9 March of that year. Its leaders were back in Beijing on 22 July, after a fast return trip through the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea of less than five months.3
During their long sojourns in Hormuz, Chinese officials must have been in frequent touch with the local elite. This probably enabled the princes of Hormuz to gain some insight into the Middle Kingdom's commercial power and the nature of the tribute trade system. They thus sent several embassies to China which were classified as "tribute envoys" in Ming sources. These embassies submitted "horses and local products" to the Chinese Court. The Chinese in turn learned about the role Hormuz played in trade with the Middle East and, more indirectly, with the Mediterranean.
* Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitàt, Munich. 1 . The correct transcription of the name should be Hurmuz or Hurmuz, but for this paper the colloquial form "Hormuz" was chosen. 2. Ma Huan (author), J. V. G. Mills (tr., éd.), Ying-yai Sheng-lan. The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores [1433], The Hakluyt Society Extra Series 42 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), pp. 12-18 (now abbreviated Mills, Ma Huan). Jan J. L. Duyvendak, "The True Dates of the Chinese Maritime Expeditions in the Early Fifteenth Century", T'oung Pao 34 (1938), pp. 343-355 (Hormuz mentioned on pp. 345, 347, 348, 350, 353, 354). Also see, for example, Teobaldo Filesi (author), D. L. Morison (tr.), China and Africa in the Middle Ages, Cass Library of African Studies, General Studies 144 (London: Frank Cass, 1972), pp. 56-65, and the general account by Dominique Lelièvre, Le dragon de lumière. Les grandes expéditions des Ming au début du XVe siècle (Paris : Éditions France-Empire, 1996), pp. 95-98. The inscriptions are also reprinted in many modern Chinese works. 3. Zhu Yunming, Qianwen ji, Congshu jicheng chubian 290 (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1966), pp. 72 et seq. Also see Paul Pelliot, "Les grands voyages maritimes chinois au début du XVe siècle", T'oung Pao 30 (1933), pp. 305-31 1, and Mills, Ma Huan, pp. 17-18.
Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient, 88 (2001), p. 27-75.
