Chinese Ocean-Going Wooden Junk

Timeline

1. 1671–1680Taiwan (Eastern Capital) and Xiamen, Fujian · TaiwanBetween 1671 and 1680, Zheng Jing based himself in Taiwan (called "Dongning" by the Ming-Zheng regime) and with a fleet of some 200 to 300 sailing vessels of various sizes controlled the core Asian trade triangle of Manila–Xiamen–Nagasaki. His large ocean-going wooden ships (displacement about 300 to 600 tons) carried Chinese raw silk, porcelain, and sugar to Japan in exchange for silver; went to Manila for American silver flowing into Asia from Mexico; and exported ceramics and cloth to Vietnam, Siam, and Cambodia, importing tropical products. During his participation in the Revolt of the Three Feudatories from 1674 to 1680, he briefly controlled southeast coastal ports such as Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, expanding the supply and tax-collection range of his trading fleet.
2. c. 1200–1680Coastal shipbuilding ports of Fujian and Guangdong · Guangdong ProvinceSeventeenth-century Chinese ocean-going wooden ships featured engineering techniques centuries ahead of Europe: the interior was divided by transverse bulkheads into several independent watertight compartments, so flooding in a single compartment would not sink the whole ship; battened bamboo-framed lugsails could tack without furling, requiring fewer crew than European ships of comparable tonnage; a central lifting stern rudder (balanced rudder) gave excellent maneuverability in shallow coastal waters. The largest "cannon ships" (large armed wooden vessels) in the Zheng fleet had displacements of 600 to 800 tons, crews of about 100 to 200, and self-defense with dozens of cannon.
3. 1661–1684Coastal evacuation zones of Fujian and Guangdong · Fujian ProvinceIn 1661 the Shunzhi Emperor issued the coastal evacuation order, forcibly moving coastal residents 30 li inland and strictly forbidding private sea voyages, aiming to cut off the Zheng regime's material supplies. Between 1671 and 1680, although the policy nominally continued, enforcement was uneven, and smuggling trade kept running through Macau (Portuguese) and Southeast Asian Chinese intermediary nodes. Large numbers of small and medium ocean-going wooden ships used Macau as a legal export node, shipping Chinese goods accumulated during the ban to Southeast Asia and Japan. The existence of this smuggling network greatly diminished the practical effect of the maritime ban and provided a real basis for the formal opening of the seas in the twenty-third year of Kangxi (1684).