Military technology transfers from Ming China and the emergence of Northern Mainland Southeast Asia (c. 1390-1527)

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 34, Issue 3, 2003, Pages 495-517

  Sun, Laichen ^a,b  

^a CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

MILITARY APPLICATION; TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER; WEAPONRY;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 33845331771     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: 14740680     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463403000456     Document Type: Review

References (239)

1. J. C. van Leur; Indonesian trade and society: Essays in Asian social and economic history (The Hague: W. van Hoeve, 1955), p. 261.
2. John Smail, 'On the possibility of an autonomous history of modern Southeast Asia', reprinted in Autonomous history, particular truths; Essays in honor of John R. W. Smail, ed. Laurie Sears (Madison: University of Wisconsin Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), pp. 39-70; quotation from p. 46.
3. Jeyamalar Kathirithamby-Wells, 'Restraints on the development of merchant capitalism in Southeast Asia before c. 1800', in Southeast Asia in the early modern era: Trade, power, and belief, ed. Anthony Reid (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 123-4.
4. For a similar comment, see Leonard Y. Andaya, 'Interactions with the outside world and adaptation in Southeast Asian society, 1500-1800', in The Cambridge history of Southeast Asia, ed. Nicholas Tarling, vol. I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 372.
5. The two seminal studies are Victor Lieberman, 'Europeans, trade, and the unification of Burma, c. 1540-1620', Oriens Extreinns, 27, 2 (1980): 203-26
6. and Anthony Reid, Europe and Southeast Asia: The military balance (Townsville, Queensland: James Cook University Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, 1982).
7. Almost all the works written in the twentieth century, which are too numerous to be listed here, have emphasised the importance of 1511. Charles R. Boxer, in his 'Asian potentates and European artillery in the 16th-18th centuries: A footnote to Gibson-Hill', Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 38, 2 (1965): 168
8. however, correctly speculated that the Vietnamese had used cannon before the arrival of the Portuguese, but failed to provide any evidence. Li Tana only mentions the possible transfer from China to Vietnam in passing in her Nguyễn Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 1998), pp. 43-4.
9. Joseph Needham, Science and civilisation in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), vol. V, pt. 7
10. (Chemistry and chemical technology: Military technology; the gunpowder epic), p. 569;
11. all citations for Science and civilisation refer to this particular volume unless otherwise indicated. Wang Zhaochun, Zhongguo huoqishi [A history of firearms in China] (Beijing: Junshi Kexue Chubanshe, 1991), which represents the culmination of Chinese scholarship over the past several decades, also mentions only Korea and Japan (pp. 449-50). For references to the Southeast Asian context
12. see M. A. P. Meilink-Roelofsz, Asian trade and European influence in the Indonesian archipelago between 1500 and about 1630 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962), p. 123;
13. Lieberman, 'Europeans', pp. 207, 211;
14. Reid, Europe and Southeast Asia, p. 3;
15. and Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, vol. II (Expansion and crisis) (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), pp 220-1.
16. Feng Jiasheng, Huoyao de faming he Xichuan [The invention of gunpowder and its spread to the West] (Hong Kong: Rixin Shudian, 1956), pp. 45-65;
17. Iqtidar Alam Khan, 'Origin and development of gunpowder technology in India: A. D. 1250-1500', The Indian Historical Review, 4, 1 (1977): 20-9;
18. Khan, 'Coming of gunpowder to the Islamic world and North India: Spotlight on the role of the Mongols', Journal of Asian History, 30, 1 (1996): 27-45;
19. Khan, 'The role of the Mongols in the introduction of gunpowder and firearms in South Asia", in Gunpowder: The history of an international technology, ed. Brenda J. Buchanan (Bath: Bath University Press, 1996), pp. 33-44;
20. Needham, Science and civilisation, pp. 568-79.
21. Feng Jiasheng, Huoyao, p. 45;
22. Needham, Science and civilisation, pp. 176-8, 294-5
23. and vol. V, pt. 6 (Chemistry and chemical technology: Military technology, missiles), p. 226;
24. Wang, Zhongguo, p. 39. The confusion over the word pro extends from the fact that it referred to cannon from Ming times onward, but in its early usage meant either 'catapult' or the stones and explosives projected by one (Needham, Science and civilisation, p. 11 note c.) An example of assertions regarding the thirteenth-century campaigns is
25. Geoffrey Parker, The military revolution: Military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 83.
26. For the original Chinese record of Yuan military campaigns in Java, see Su Tianjue, Yuan wenlei [Collection of the literary works of the Yuan] (Nanjing: Jiangsu Shuju, 1889 reprint), vol. XLI, p. 20b.
27. Needham, Science and civilisation, pp. 276-341, 569;
28. Liu Xu, Zhongguo gudai huopaoshi [A history of cannon in ancient China] (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1989), pp. 33-41;
29. Shi Weimin, Yuandai junshishi [A military history of the Yuan dynasty], vol. XIV of of the Zhongguo junshi tongshi (Beijing: Junshi Kexue Chubanshe, 1998), pp. 353-5;
30. Zhong Shaoyi, 'Chong, pao, qiangdeng huoqi mingcheng de youlai he yanbian' [The origins and evolution of Chong, pao, qiang and other firearms], in Zhongguo gudai huoyao huoqishi yanjin [Studies in the history of gunpowder and firearms in ancient China] [Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, 1995);
31. Wang, Zhongguo, pp. 50-3. I follow Needham in translating huochong as 'hand-gun' according to the British usage.
32. This 'military revolution' still merits further study using the criteria set up by military historians of Europe (see Parker, Military revolution), but there is no doubt that especially during the early Ming, firearms were increasingly produced and employed and had a dramatic impact on China's warfare and foreign relations;
33. Wang, Zhongguo, terms this a 'great transformation' (da biange) (p. 111).
34. Quoted in Needham, Science and civilisation, p. 431;
35. have slightly modified Needham's translation. On firearms and the defeat of the Mongols see Mao Yuanyi, Wubeizhi [Treatise on military defense] (1621) (Beijing & Shenyang: Jiefangjun Chubanshe & Liaoshen Shushe, 1987 reprint), vol. VI, p. 5072;
36. Feng Yingjing, Huang Ming jingshi shiyongbian [Imperial Ming handbook of practical statesmanship] (1603) (Taibei: Chenwen Chubanshe, 1967 reprint), book 3, p. 1248;
37. and Edward L. Dreyer, '1363: Inland naval warfare in the founding of the Ming dynasty', in Chinese ways in warfare, ed. Frank A. Kierman, Jr. and John K. Fairbank (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), pp. 221, 358 n. 36.
38. Information on manufacturing is from Wang, Zhongguo, pp. 75-6;
39. Needham, Science and civilisation, p. 292
40. note h.; Ming shi [History of the Ming dynasty] [henceforth MS] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1974), vol. XCII, p. 2265;
41. and Fan Zhongyi et al., Mingdai junshishi [A military history of the Ming dynasty] (Beijing: Junshi Kexue Chubanshe, 1998), vol. I, p. 201.
42. Statistics on the size of the army are in Wang, Zhongguo, p. 103.
43. Needham, Science and civilisation, p. 337 (cannon);
44. the figure for 1403-1521 is from Wang, Zhongguo, pp. 101-2.
45. Wang, Zhongguo Ibid., pp. 106-8;
46. on the strengthening of the borders, see Ming shi, vol. 92, p. 2264
47. and Needham, Science and civilisation, pp. 313-14.
48. Wang, Zhongguo, pp. 57, 74, 104;
49. Needham, Science and civilisation, p. 292 n.h.
50. Qiu Jun, Daxue, vol. 122, p. 12b;
51. quoted in Wang, Zhongguo, p. 106.
52. Jiang Yingliang, Baiyizhuan jiaozhu [Annotation of the Baiyizhuan] (Kunming: Yunnan Renmin Chubanshe, 1980), pp. 85-6;
53. Ming shilu youguan Yunnan lishi ziliao zaichao [Historical records on Yunnan in the Ming shilu] [henceforth MSL] (Kunming: Yunnan Renmin Chubanshe, 1959), vol. I, pp. 97-8, 130, 154.
54. MSL, vol. I, p. 23;
55. MS, vol. CXLIV, p. 4074. According to the latter, pao were fired specifically as a signal, but it can be inferred that other firearms were used as well;
56. see also Wang, Zhongguo, pp. 83-5.
57. Place names of Ming China can be identified in Zhongguo lishi dituji [Historical maps of China], ed. Tan Qixiang (Beijing: Ditu Chubanshe, 1982), vol. VII
58. and Yunnansheng dituce [Maps of Yunnan province] (Beijing: Zhongguo Ditu Chubanshe, 1999).
59. On these events, see [Jingtai] Yunnan tujing zhi shu, ed. Chen Wen et al. (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1995), vol. X, p. 160;
60. Zhengde Yunnanzhi (Shanghai: Shanghai Shudian, 1990), vol. XIX.pt. 1, 3b
61. and pt. 2, p. 2b (the quotation about drums and cannon is found in both these sources); MSL, vol. I, p. 24;
62. The Cambridge History of China, ed. Frederic F. Mote and Denis Twitchett, vol. VII (Ming China, 1368-1644), pt. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 144-6.
63. All dates are converted with reference to Keith Hazelton, A synchronic Chinese-Western daily calendar, 1341-1661 A.D. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota History Department, 1984).
64. Zhang Dan, Yunnan jiwu chaohuang [Documents of Yunnan affairs] (1387) (Changsha: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1937 reprint), pp. 35-6, 44-5;
65. Wang Shizhen, Yanshantang bieji [Other writings at the Yanshantang] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1985), vol. IV, p. 1669;
66. MSL, vol. I, p. 84.
67. Hui Lu, Pingpi baijin fang [The washerman's precious salve] (Reprint, c. 1844), vol. IV, pp. 23b-24a, 26b; vol. XIII, pp. 29a-30a.
68. Due to its effectiveness in the campaigns against the Maw Shan, this 'nine-dragon basket' was widely used on the Ming frontiers from 1464 onward (MS, vol. XCII, p. 2264). A Ming account written in the early years of the Wanli reign (1573-1619) mentions cannon (huopao or pao);
69. Yan Congjian, Shuyu zhouzilu [A comprehensive record of foreign countries] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1993), pp. 326-7.
70. Zhang Hong, Nanyishu [Book of the southern barbarians], in the Siku Quanshu cunmu congshu series (Tainan, Taiwan: Zhuangyan Wenhua Shiye Youxian Gongsi, 1997), book 255, p. 199;
71. MSL, vol. I, pp. 98, 110-11, 130;
72. Yan, Shuyu zhouzi lu, pp. 326-7;
73. Huang Ming mingchen yanxinglu xinbian [New compilation of the biographies of the eminent officials of the imperial Ming], ed. Wang Guonan (Taibei: Mingwen Shuju, 1991), book 1, vol. I, p. 16b;
74. Wang Sitong, Ming shi, in the Xuxiu Siku quanshu series (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1995), vol. 162, pp. 240-1;
75. MS, vol. 92, p. 2264 and vol. 126, p. 3758. The figures of both the Chinese and Shan armies in the Ming shilu are inflated: 30,000 and 300,000 respectively. The Nanyishu cuts these figures by exactly half, which is at least closer to the truth. Wei Yuan has challenged the figures for armies in Ming records in his
76. Shenwu ji [Account of the military affairs of the Qing dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1984), vol. II, p. 492.
77. Zhang, Nanyishu, p. 199;
78. MSL, vol. I, pp. 101-4.
79. Ibid., vol. II, p. 614.
80. On the Dao Ganmeng rebellion, see vol. I, p. 162 and Zhang, Nanyishu, pp. 67-8; the latter gives a different reason for the revolt.
81. Wang Ji's memorial is in MSL, vol. II, p. 642
82. . For the Tai perspective, see Sang Yaohua, 'Luelun Song Yuan Ming shiqi Daizhu zhi beiqian' [On the Dai northward migration during Song, Yuan and Ming times], Yunnansheng lishi yanjiusuo yanjiu jikan, 2 (1982): 465. A Tai source records that the Ming court granted firearms to the Maw Shan, but this is unlikely given the consistently strict Ming ban on the proliferation of gunpowder technology;
83. Song Zigao, Meng Meng tusi shixi [The genealogy of the Meng Meng tusi] (Kunming: Yunnan Minzu Chubanshe, 1990), p. 74.
84. These references are drawn from a variety of sources: U Kala, Maha rajavan kri [The great chronicle] (Yangon: Hanthawaddy Ponnhipdaik, 1960-1), vol. I, pp. 183, 366-7, 395, 406;
85. U Kala, Maha rajavan kri [The great chronicle] vol. II, pp. 3, 6, 11, 16, 42-3, 45, 72, 104, 107, 117, 123, 125-7;
86. Aretopum (6) con tvai suimahut Mranma manmya aretopum [Six Aretopum or historical accounts of Burmese kings] (Yangon: Nanmran Cape, 1970), pp. 156, 165, 222, 224, 229, 232, 268, 276, 310, 328-9;
87. H. L. Shorto, Nidana Ramadhipati-katha (Rajawamsa Dhammaceti Mahapitakadhara), ed. Phra Candakanto (Pak Lat, 1912), p. 10;
88. Tvansantuikvan Mahacansu, Tvansan Mranma rajavan sac or Maha rajavan sac [A new chronicle of Burma] (Yangon: Mingala Pumnhip Tuik, 1968), vol. 1, pp. 90, 223, 289, 407, 409-10;
89. Mhannan maha rajavan to kri [The glass palace chronicle] (Yangon & Mandalay: Pitakat Cauptuikchuin, 1955-67), vol. 1, pp. 248, 419, 447, 457;
90. Mhannan Maha Rajavan to Kri [The Glass Palace Chronicle] vol. 2, pp. 3, 5, 9-10, 48-50, 51, 116, 126, 132, 134-6;
91. Arthur P. Phayre, History of Burma, including Burma Proper, Pegu, Taungu, Tenasserim, and Arakan from the earliest time to the end of the first war with British India (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 1998 reprint), pp. 69-70, 74;
92. G. E. Harvey, History of Burma, from the earliest times to 1824: The beginning of the English conquest (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1967 reprint), p. 340.
93. G. E. Harvey, History of Burma, from the earliest times to 1824: The beginning of the English conquest Ibid., p. 340;
94. Lieberman, 'Europeans', p. 224 n. 61 (anachronisms) and 207, 211 (fourteenth century).
95. On 'Bharangi'
96. see Henry Yule and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive (New Delhi: Rupa & Co, 1994 reprint), pp. 352-4.
97. For 'senat'
98. see Mranma-Anglip abhidhan [Myanmar-English dictionary] (Yangon: Department of the Myanmar Language Commission, Ministry of Education, 1993), p. 500
99. and C. A. Gibson-Hill, 'Notes on the old cannon found in Malaya, and known to be of Dutch origin", Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 26, 1 (1953): 170n. 9.
100. Iqtidar Alam Khan, 'Early use of cannon and musket in India: A. D. 1442-1526", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 24, 2 (1981): 146-64. The association of the Indians as mercenaries with firearms in the Burmese and Mon records does imply they had mastered the military technology.
101. Wang Ji's memorial explicitly includes Ava among the destinations of the flow of firearms from Yunnan; MSL, vol. II, p. 642.
102. Needham, Science and civilisation, pp. 60, 62, 227, 230-2.
103. On the question of terminology, see Nishida Tatsuo, Mentenkan yakugo no kenkyu: Biruma gengogaku josetsu [A study of the Burmese-Chinese vocabulary (text entitled) Miandianguan yiyu: An introduction to Burmese linguistics] (Kyoto: Shokado, 1972), pp. 8, 126.
104. On chong vs. pao see Qiu, Daxue, vol. 122, p. 11b; p. 106;
105. and Liu Xu, Zhongguo gudai huopaoshi [A history of cannon in ancient China] (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1989), pp. 6, 80. The apparently illogical usage may have been simply a copying error.
106. Tvansantuikvan Mahacansu, Tvansan Mranma, vol. I, pp. 361-2.
107. John Crawfurd, Journal of an embassy from the Governor General of India to the Court of Ava (London: R. Bentley, 1834), vol. II, p. 169.
108. The funeral account is in Shorto, Nidana Ramadhipati-katha, pp. 26-7;
109. emphasis added. Examples of references to fireworks in visitors' accounts include Father Sangermano, A description of the Burmese Empire (New York: Augustus M Kelley, 1969 reprint), pp. 123-4
110. and William Carey, 'An account of the funeral ceremony of a Burman priest', Asiatic Researches, 12 (1818): 187-90.
111. Lila Gogoi, The Buranjis, historical literature of Assam: A critical survey (New Delhi: Omsons Publication, 1986), p. 215;
112. S. L. Baruah, A comprehensive history of Assam (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1985), pp. 230, 397;
113. and Padmeswar Gogoi, The Tai and the Tai kingdoms; with a fuller treatment of the Tai-Ahom kingdom in the Brahmaputra Valley (Gauhati: Gauhati University, 1968), p. 289.
114. The traditional view is found, for example, in Golap Chandra Barua, Ahom-buranji (with parallel English translation) from the earliest time to the end of Ahom rule (Guwahati: Spectrum Publications, 1985), pp. 61-8.
115. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Travels in India by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (London: Oxford University Press, 1925), vol. I, p. xvi
116. and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Travels in India by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier vol. II, pp. 217-8;
117. Jadunath Sarkar, 'Assam and the Ahom in 1660 A. D', Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, 1 (1915): 192. On another occasion, Tavernier (vol. II, p. 210) also records on Bhutan: 'It is long since the Bhutanese first acquired the use of the musket, iron cannon, and gunpowder, which is of long grain, and is very strong. I have been assured that on their gun figures and letters are visible which are more than 500 years old...By the characters on the gun, as those who were able to read assured me, it had been made 180 years.' Even discrediting the '500 years' figure, 180 years would still allow a date of around 1470. Tavernier's record is not far-fetched, as the possibility did exist for the spread of firearms from China to Tibet and then to Bhutan, where military weapons including muskets figure prominently in a New Year festival. The festival was introduced into Tibet in 1408 (from China?) and then into Bhutan in the seventeenth century;
118. Michael Aris, '"The admonition of the thunderbolt cannonball" and its place in the Bhutanese New Year Festival', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 39 (1976): 608, 617, 632. The year 1408 would have been very good timing for the dissemination of Chinese firearms to Tibet.
119. Quoted in Edward Gait, A history of Assam (Calcutta: Thacker Spink & Col, 1963 reprint), p. 253; emphasis added. Tavernier's account supports this observation: 'The [Mughal] Emperor is also followed by 300 or 400 matchlock men, who are timid and unskillful in firing, and a number of cavalry of no greater merit. One hundred of our European soldiers would scarcely have any difficulty in vanquishing 1,000 of these Indian soldiers...'
120. (Travels in India, vol. I, p. 311).
121. The 1662 account is quoted in Sarkar, 'Assam and the Ahom', p. 192.
122. Nirmal Kumar Basu, Assam in the Ahom age 1228-1826: Being politico-economic and socio-cultural studies (Calcutta: Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, 1970), p. 178;
123. P. R. Gordon, The Khasis (London: Macmillan and Co., 1914), p. 24.
124. T. C. Hodson, The Meitheis (London: D. Nutt, 1908), p. 21;
125. L. Joychandra Singh, The lost kingdom: Royal chronicle of Manipur (Imphal: Prajatantra Publishing House, 1995), p. 10;
126. Jyotirmoy Roy, History of Manipur (Calcutta: Eastlight Book House, 1973), p. 161;
127. Jhalajit Singh, Short history of Manipur, p. 158;
128. and B. C. Allen, Naga Hills and Manipur: Socio-economic history (Delhi: Gian Publications, 1980 reprint), p. 60.
129. The 1435-67 dates are in Khan, 'Origin and development', p. 28
130. and 'Role of the Mongols', pp. 40-1;
131. on this issue see also his 'Coming of gunpowder', p. 43.
132. On bana see Parshuram Krishna Gode, 'The history of fireworks in India between A. D. 1400 and 1900', in P. K. Gode, Studies in Indian cultural history (Poona: Prof. P. K. Gode Collected Works Publication Committee, 1960), vol. II, p. 50.
133. William Irvine, The army of the Indian Moghuls: Its organization and administration (New Delhi: Eurasia Publishing House, 1962), p. 148;
134. Khan, 'Origin and development', p. 27.
135. See also Khan, 'Early use of cannon", p. 157
136. and Khan, 'Role of the Mongols', pp. 39-40.
137. Irfan Habib, 'Changes in technology in medieval India', Studies in History, 2, 1 (1980): 32.
138. MSL, vol. I, pp. 199-120, 204, 208, 219;
139. David K. Wyatt and Aroonrut Wichienkeeo, The Chiang Mai chronicle [henceforth CMC] (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1995), pp. 72-4;
140. David K. Wyatt, Thailand: A short history (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), pp. 76-7.
141. Manich Jumsai, History of Laos, 2nd edn (Bangkok: Chalermnit, 1971), pp. 64-5;
142. James George Scott and J. P. Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States (New York: AMS Press, 1983 reprint), vol. II, pt. 1, p. 401.
143. The ghosts are mentioned in David K. Wyatt, 'Presidential address: Five voices from Southeast Asia's past', Journal of Asian Studies, 53, 4 (1994): 1079-80.
144. CMC, p.73.
145. W. A. R. Wood, History of Siam from the earliest times to the year A. D. 1781 (Bangkok: Chalermnit; 1959 reprint), p. 78;
146. CMC, pp. 69-70 (Phayao attack), 80-1 (Phrae).
147. Phraya Prachakitchakonrachak (Chaem), Yongnajia jinian [The Yonok chronicle or Phongsawadan Yonok] [henceforth Yonok] (Kunming: Yunnan Minzu Xueyuan and Yunnan Dongnanya Yanjiusuo, 1990), p. 176, says that the Sukhothai side used a kind of firearm which appears as huoqiang (hand-gun) in the Chinese translation.
148. The battle of 1457/8 is mentioned in CMC, p. 86 (emphasis added)
149. and Wood, History of Siam, p. 89.
150. See CMC, p. 89 on Plang Phon and p. 97 on the Shan chiefs. The weapon translated as 'matchlock' here should have been a kind of Chinese-style hand-gun, as the matchlock invented in Europe only arrived in Southeast Asia after the sixteenth century.
151. Yonok, p. 198;
152. also see CMC, pp. 101-2.
153. The capture of Nan appears in David K. Wyatt, The Nan chronicle (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 1994), p. 53 and notes 3 & 4.
154. CMC, pp. 80-1. The name 'Pan' must be 'Phan', a popular Vietnamese surname, while 'Songkhram means 'war' in Thai (Christopher Goscha, personal communication).
155. For details, see Sun Laichen, 'Chinese military technology and Dai Viet: c. 1390-1497', in Viet Nain: Borderless histories, ed. Nhung Tuyết Trần and Anthony Reid (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, forthcoming).
156. CMC, p. 73;
157. 4]-mother", or "mother gun" where "mother" means "big"'. Aroonrut has informed me that the word pu cao appears only once in the Chiang Mai chronicles and is certainly not a Tai Yuan (Northern Thai) word, so that a borrowing from the Chinese was possible. Based on Ratliff s suggestion, Aroonrut points out that cao in Tai Yuan indeed means 'lord, king, big, powerful, high'; thus pu cao means 'powerful cannon".
158. On the 1465 battle see Dao Yongming, Cheli xuanweishi shixi jijie [Annotation of the genealogy of the Cheli Pacification Commission] (Kunming: Yunnan Minzu Chubanshe, 1989), pp. 93, 335.
159. The events of 1470 are mentioned in Li Foyi, Leshi [The chronicle of the Lu kingdom] (Taibei: Furen Shuwu, 1983 reprint), p. 20
160. and Chen Xujing, Leslii manbi: Xishuang Banna lishi shibu [Annotation of and supplement to the history of Xishuang Banna] (Guangzhou: Zhongshan Daxue Chubanshe, 1994), p. 96.
161. Shorto, Nidana, pp. 132-3
162. (Lan Sang); the Phuan are mentioned in Phan Huy Chú, Lich triều hiến chio'ng loai chí (Lichao xianzhang leizhi) [Categorised collection of official documents of the consecutive dynasties] (Saigon: Phǔ Quốc vukhanh crossed D signǎc trách Vǎn hoá, 1972), vol. I, p. 113.
163. See Sun, 'Chinese military technology' for a much more thorough analysis of this subject.
164. Ngô Sī Lien, crossed D signai Viêt siv̌'ký toàn the (Dayue shiji qnanshu) [Complete book of the historical record of crossed D signai Viêt] [henceforth TT] (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Toyo Bunka Kenkyujo, 1984-6), vol. I, p. 464.
165. The nineteenth-century Khâm dinh Viêt sir thông giám cuo'ng muc (Qinding Yueshi tongjian gangmu) [The text and commentary of the complete mirror of Vietnamese history as ordered by the emperor] (Taibei: Guoli Zhongyang Tushuguan, 1969), vol. XI, p. 12a, uses the word huopao (cannon), but this was a later alteration.
166. TT, vol. II, pp. 532-3;
167. Lê Quý Dai, Dai Viêt thông sw (Dayue tongshi) [A general history of Dai Viêt] (Saigon: Bô Vǎn hoá Giáo duc và Thanh niên, 1973), p. 30a.
168. For details see Sun, 'Ming-Southeast Asian', ch. 7.
169. MSL, vol. I, pp. 377, 493-4 (Nandian), 495-6 (1430); vol. II, p. 538 (1436 and quotation), 550-2 (1438), 560, 574 (1439).
170. Sang, 'Luelun', p. 465.
171. The Maw Shan campaigns are recounted in Zhandahunhong, Jinggu tusi shixi [The genealogy of the Jinggu tusi], trans. Dao Yongming et al. (Kunming: Yunnan Minzu Chubanshe, 1990), pp. 83-7.
172. Sang, 'Luelun', pp. 557-8, 560, 568-70.
173. MSL, vol. II, pp. 600, 603-4; on the September 1441 campaign
174. see also Zhandahunhong, Jinggu, pp. 21-6.
175. MSL, vol. II, p. 697;
176. accounts of the 1442 campaign are on pp. 605-6. On the latter campaign see also Gao Dai, Hongyoulu [A record of a great scheme] (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1992 reprint), p. 213;
177. Zhaopayatanmatie Kazhangjia, 'Hemeng gumeng: Meng Mao gudai zhuwangshi' [A history of the kings of Meng Mao], in Meng Guozhanbi ji Meng Mao gudai zhuwangshi [Histories of Kosampi and the kings of Meng Mao], trans. Gong Xiaozheng (Kunming: Yunnan Minzu Chubanshe, 1990), p. 102;
178. Dao Paihan, Meng Lian xuanfushi [The history of the Meng Lian Pacification Office] (Kunming: Yunnan Minzu Chubanshe, 1986), p. 47;
179. and Song, Meng Meng, pp. 88-9.
180. For details see Sun Laichen, 'Shan gems, Chinese silver, and the rise of Shan principalities in northern Burma, c. 1450-1527", in Southeast Asia in the 15th Century: The Ming factor, ed. Geoff Wade and Sun Laichen (Singapore: Singapore University Press, forthcoming).
181. Gao, Hongyoulu, p. 215.
182. The Shan comment is from Zhaopayatanmatie, 'Hemeng gumeng', p. 102.
183. A. B. Griswold and Prasert na Nagara, 'An inscription from Jengtung (1451)', Journal of the Siam Society [henceforth JSS], 66, 1 (1978): 71, 82.
184. Also see Hans Penth, Jinakalamali index: An annotated index to the Thailand part of Tatanapann's chronicle Jinakalamali (Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1994), pp. 51-2.
185. The conflict between Lan Na and Lan Sang is mentioned in MSL, vol. II, p. 539.
186. Izui Hisanosuke, 'Decipherment of the Pa-po vocabulary and epistles', Kyoto Daigaku Bungakubu Kenkyu Kiyo, 2 (1951): 77.
187. Accounts of the fifteenth-century conflicts mentioned here are in CMC, pp. 80-90, 97-8, 101-2;
188. Wyatt, Nan chronicle, pp. 55-63;
189. and Li Foyi, Leshi, pp. 16-7.
190. On the second attack on Keng Tung see CMC, p. 107
191. and Scott and Hardiman, Gazetteer, vol. II, pt. 1, p. 404.
192. Charnvit Kasetsiri, The rise of Ayudhya: A history of Siam in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp. 137-8;
193. Wyatt, Thailand, pp. 77-80.
194. Wyatt, Thailand Ibid., p. 80;
195. Keith W. Taylor, The early kingdoms', in Tarling ed., Cambridge history, vol. I, p. 171.
196. Wood, History of Siam, p. 99.
197. One can get a rough idea on the territory of Lan Na and Ayuthya by glancing at the map in Wyatt, Thailand, p. 87. The population figures, however, are not available.
198. CMC, p.84.
199. Michael Vickery, The Lion Prince and related remarks on Northern history', JSS, 64, 1 (1976): 369-70, 377. Wyatt's remark is in his Thailand, pp. 74-5;
200. see also Lieberman, 'Europeans', p. 212.
201. Siamese comments on the strength of their northern neighbors, specifically Phrae and Nan, are in Vickery, The 2/K.125 fragment, a lost chronicle of Ayutthya', JSS, 65, 1 (1977): 47.
202. MSL, vol. I, pp. 244, 332.
203. Thiên nam d ha tâp [Tiannan yuxiaji] [Collection of works written during leisure time in the south] (EFEO microfilm A. 334), 'poetry section', p. 102a, 'Champa section', p. 2b (quotation);
204. Georges Maspéro, The Champa kingdom: The history of an extinct Vietnamese culture (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2002), p. 117.
205. The Chinese report is in Wang Ao, Zhenze jiwen [Notes of Wang Ao], in Ming Qing shiliao huibian [Compilation of Ming and Qing historical documents], ed. Shen Yunlong (Taibei: Wenhai Chubanshe, 1967), vol. I, 26b;
206. see also MSL, vol. II, p. 599.
207. The fact that the terms for weapons in a fifteenth-century Chain-Chinese dictionary all designate traditional ones (spear, lance, etc.) supports the Chinese observation; C. O. Blagden and E. D. Edwards, 'A Chinese vocabulary of Cham words and phrases', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 10 (1940-2): 53-91.
208. On the Lao campaigns see Tây nam biên tái luc [Record of the frontier passes to the west and south] (microfilm of Socié té Asiatique manuscript), pp. 23a-33a;
209. TT, vol. II, pp. 705-10;
210. and Martin Stuart-Fox, The Lao kingdom of Lan Xang: Rise and decline (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1998), pp. 65-6.
211. The attack on Nan is mentioned in Nan chronicle, p. 57
212. and CMC, pp. 98-9.
213. On the threat to Sipsong Panna, see MSL, vol. II, pp. 813, 818, 828.
214. The incursion into Ava is mentioned in Tây nam, p. 31a
215. and TT, vol. II, p. 710;
216. for the Vietnamese withdrawal, see MSL, vol. II, p. 837.
217. Pires, Suma oriental, vol. I, pp. 115, 203.
218. On the Zheng He expeditions and their export of military technology to maritime Southeast Asia, see J. R. Partington, History of Greek fire and gunpowder (Cambridge: W. Heffer, 1960), pp. 223, 275;
219. MSL, vol. I;
220. Jung-pang Lo, 'The termination of the early Ming naval expeditions', in Papers in honor of Professor Woodbridge Bingham: A festschrift for his seventy-fifth birthday, ed. James Bunyan Parsons (San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1976), p. 137;
221. Needham, Science and civilisation, vol. IV (Physics and physical technology), pt. 3 (Civil engineering and nautics), p. 516 note b.
222. The Java examples are mentioned in H. J. de Graaf, Chinese Muslims in Java in the 15th and 16th centuries: The Malay annals of Semarang and Cerbon,ed. Merle C. Ricklefs and trans. H. J. de Graaf and Th. G. Th. Pigeaud (Melbourne: Monash University, 1984), pp. 18, 24, 32, 85, 198.
223. Boxer, 'Asian potentates', pp. 162 (quotation), 165-6;
224. Li, Nguyen Cochin China, pp. 44-5.
225. Andaya, 'Interactions with the outside world', pp. 392-3, 395.
226. This research argues against technological determinism and for multifactoral interpretation of the downfall of Champa; see Sun, 'Chinese military technology and Dai Viet'.
227. Fernand Braudel, Civilization and capitalism, 15th-18th Century, tr. Sian Reynolds (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), vol. I, ch. 6;
228. Anthony Reid, 'Introduction: A time and a place', in Reid ed., Southeast Asia in the early modern era, pp. 12-4;
229. John F. Richards, 'Early modern India and world history', Journal of World History, 8, 2 (1997): 197-209.
230. Reid, 'Introduction', pp. 12-14;
231. Victor B. Lieberman, 'Transcending East-West dichotomies: State and culture formation in six ostensibly disparate areas', in Beyond binary histories: Re-imagining Eurasia to c. 1830, ed. Victor B. Lieberman (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1999), pp. 70-2.
232. Carlo M. Cipolla, Guns, sails and empires: Technological innovation and the early phases of European expansion, 1400-1700 (New York, Pantheon, 1966);
233. William H. McNeill, The pursuit of power: Technology, armed force, and society since A.D. 1000 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), ch. 2;
234. McNeill, The age of gunpowder empires, 1450-1800 (Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1989);
235. Parker, Military revolution. Jeremy Black has redressed with some success the Eurocentric treatment of military history by paying attention to the rest of the world and to wars fought without European weapons; see his
236. War and the world: Military power and the fate of continents, 1450-2000 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998)
237. and War in the early modern world, 1450-1815 (Boulder: Westview, 1999). However, by rigidly following the conventional periodisation of the early modern period, he has missed the very dynamic 100-year period in Asian history between c. 1350 and 1450.
238. Francesco Guicciardini, Counsels and reflections (1528)
239. quoted in Parker, Military revolution, p. 10.