A Study Of The Guangzhou Maritime Routes

Ancient Chinese global ocean route is mainly divided into two major directions, to the west and to the east. "Guangzhou maritime route" is the representative of the westward. "Guangzhou maritime Route"originally reprents a ocean route sailed from Guang zhou to the Arab in Tang dynasty while in this papper it is the generic term of all the westward ocean routes sailed from the ancient Guangzhou port. The current reserch about the ocean route of the ancient Guangzhou port are mostly focus on their historical period or their destinations. In that case, the development of the each route in different periods can be very clear but the whole structure of the ocean route network is lacking. So in this article the whole Guangzhou ocean routes will be considered as a system, in which system all the five main region(southeast Asia, South Asia, Arabian, Africa and Europe) can be included. So there can be a comprehensive understanding of our overall navigational ability as well as the development of the westward ocean routes.Because of the the short distance the southeast Asia is the first port also the earliest oversea navigable areas to China. The conmmunications between this two regions can be traced back to the period of Zhou dynasty. One developed route has already emerged in Xi Han dynasty which has a reliable navigation period and voyage. In Tang dynasty, according to the record of Jia dan, the route of the indo-China Peninsula area has been built. In Song and Yuan dynasty, as the campass is put into use in the oversea navegation, the development of the route of Malay Archipelago meets its golden time. Meanwhile many international ports arise, such asSamboja, Java, Atjeh etc. And the network of the oversea routes is formally established.The South Asia routes can be traced back to the Xi han dynasty. The destination" of the "Xv wen-He pu" route is India so that we can draw the conclusion that the diplomatic relations between China and india exists about 2,000 years and always maintained good relationships. In the Three Kingdoms period there also is a record of chinese ship sailing to the Kaveri River of India. One remarkable feature of the development of South Asia routes is the role it played in promoting buddhist culture spreading in China. Sea route is an important way of monks travelling between the two countries. The development of the route between China and India has maintained in a good momentum meanwhile accompanied by the raise of Arab maritime power in 6th century,the ports in the South Asia meet a great opportunity to grow as transshipmentports including some international transports such as Ceylon and Kollam.The development of the West Asia routes are promoted by two ancient maritime forces China and Arab. In 6th centry Tang dynasty is known as its open foreign policy and at the same time the Abbsid dynasty rises in Arab. The needs of the communication in culture and economy course a strong demand of the development of the ocean route. Also in the same time, Chinese and foreign scholars (Jia Dan, Suleyman, Kitab al-Masalik w’ al-Mamalik, etc) have documented the routes between these two countries.In addition there are also many records in the official diplomatic history. In general the West Asia routes has a significant influence of the political, economic and cultural exchanges between China and Arab.The Africa route and the Europe route are mostly on the extension of the China-Arab route and the China-India route. The first official record of Africa route lies in Jia Dan’s Guangzhou maritime route. Basised on the archaeological excavation discovered recently in the west and northAfrican coast we can find the evidence of the existant of these ancient maritime route. In early Ming dynasty the maritime route network between China and Africa has been fully developed. The earliest maritime route between Europe and China emerges in the Dong Han dynasty. At the time of the Romen is looking for the route in order to do business directly with China so that they can fulfill the growing demand of the chinese silk. So sea routes between China and the Europe was formally funded in the 2nd century A. D. And in the following centuries, thanks to the developing of the China-Arab maritime route the route between Europe and China also grows which has built a solid foundation for the Great maritime era of Europe.Maritime route is eternal once funded. Thanks to its special stability the oversea route network leaves us countless cultural heritage. But the popularity of the marime route cultural heritage is very low. As a valueable part of our marine cultural heritage, the marime route cultural heritage should be paid more attention by the whole society. So how to protect them is also an issue this paper wants to solve.