In the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), the government encouraged people to conduct maritime trade with other countries, and the Shandong Peninsula of China, especially Dengzhou, was an important region of exchange for international trade, knowledge and culture as well as human beings between China, Korea, and Japan. However, Wokou (lit. Japanese bandits) began to raid Shandong in the late Yuan, when civil wars disordered commercial activities in China. The causes of Wokou raids are very complicated, and we should put our research into a wider context of the East Asian region to analyze it from different perspectives. Besides these traditional reasons, such as the turbulent situation in Japan and the weakness of coastal defence in Korea and China, the influence of natural disasters including droughts, typhoons, epidemics, pestilence and inundations, especially temperature change, should be considered seriously at the same time. In my opinion, there is a close relation between temperature changes and Wokou raids. In the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Wokou continued to raid its coastal regions, which had a bad influence on people’s life. In order to suppress Wokou, the Ming government initiated a maritime prohibition policy and strengthened its coastal defence in Shandong, and then Shandong became an important military base. From the above analysis, we can see the big different functions of Shandong Peninsula from an important commercial entrepôt in the Yuan to a crucial military base in Ming times. By studying the typical case of Shandong, which played a significant role in the development of the Northeast Asian maritime networks in ancient China, I hope my study can help scholars thoroughly understand the changes during the Yuan-Ming rupture in the larger geopolitical, global context of Northeast Asia. 蒙元时期（1271–1368），政府鼓励民众积极参与海外贸易，山东半岛因其优越的地理位置而成为中国与朝鲜半岛、日本之间贸易、文化与人口交流的重要场所之一。元末，国内征战不断，昔日的贸易活动大受其扰，倭寇也乘机开始侵掠山东沿海地区。倭患的发生是多方面因素促成的结果，我们应将之置于东亚大背景下并从多角度来分析其成因。除了学者通常所熟知的日本国内动乱和中国、朝鲜虚弱的海防力量等因素外，我们还应该多关注干旱、台风、瘟疫、洪涝等自然灾害对倭寇活动的影响。尤其需要指出的是，气候变冷所导致的粮食减产也与倭寇活动密切相关。明朝（1368–1644）初年，大局甫定，但沿海地区仍不稳定，倭寇活动不减反增，给人民生活造成了极大困扰。为平息倭寇，明政府在实行海禁政策的同时，亦注重加强山东沿海的防御力量，使之变成了重要的海防基地。从昔日的繁华贸易区转变成军事要地，山东半岛的这一转变具有典型的历史意义。通过对山东半岛这一重要转型的研究，笔者希望能从中管窥元明交替之际中国乃至整个东北亚海洋史变迁的复杂历程。

This article focuses on recent revisionist scholarship demonstrating that China's maritime history in the period 1500 to 1630 is no longer a case of ‘missed opportunity’, a viewpoint fostered by earlier writing dominated by state-centric and land-focused models. To challenge this perspective, this study first reviews analyses demonstrating the far-reaching commercial networks between Ming China and localities in Southeast and Northeast Asia, and then considers the impact of the metaphor of Fernand Braudel's ‘Asian Mediterranean’ and his ideas about ‘world economy’ on the study of East Asian seafaring history. Secondly, this investigation reveals the dimensions of Chinese trade networks which the mid-Ming government officially sanctioned, as well as the extent to which literati from the southern provinces challenged the state's involvement in overseas commerce of trade and exchange. Finally, the article assesses how modern historians have studied late Ming maritime defens...

form a practical package of primary sources that historians of maritime Asia can safely rely on for their research. At the same time there is something very special about LDHL: This is the first major anthology of Chinese traditional texts with nautical data. As such it is a very innovative source – a collection that comes at a right point in time: The ongoing discussion of the “one belt one road” initiative implies the idea of reviving Asia’sMaritime Silk Route in a different format. This calls for new studies of China’s maritime past. Nautical knowledge of a practical kind was always essential for managing trade and traffic along traditional sailing corridors. The LDHL collection, I am sure, will become an excellent platform and indispensible tool for new investigations on that aspect. Therefore one ought to congratulate the editors for having prepared this wonderful work.

The last century of China’s Ming dynasty (1368–1644) saw many troubles and challenges from abroad. Pirates raided the coast, Europeans challenged the traditional world order of the tribute system, and the everlasting threat from the northern steppe people continued to raise concerns for the state. This climate of uncertainty resulted in many Ming literati discussing foreign countries. During the last decades of the Ming, seven authors wrote monographs that can be considered a form of early Chinese “world history.” The authors describe the geography, the history, and the political systems of foreign countries and regions ranging from China’s close neighbors Japan and Mongolia to more distant lands such as Mogadishu and Europe. This book by Elke Papelitzky studies each of the seven author’s knowledge and perception of the world and focuses especially on the countries connected with China at the maritime border: Siam, Malacca, and Portugal, combining a close textual and paratextual analysis with a biographical study to understand why the authors wrote the texts the way they did. This is the first comprehensive introduction to these texts contributing to an understanding of late Ming historiography as well as the perception of foreign countries by late Ming scholars.

While previous scholars have paid much attention to the maritime history of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang in southern China, by contrast, there are no monographs or articles focusing on maritime history of Shandong in northern China in Western scholarship. However, as a matter of fact, Shandong played a significant role in East Asian maritime history. This book attempts to break through the “Southeast China-centric” framework by focusing attention on the Shandong Peninsula during the Yuan-Ming transition (late thirteenth to early fifteenth centuries). Many scholars have argued that there was rupture between the two dynasties in politics, society, and culture, or have argued the opposite from the perspective of land-centric history. By placing Shandong maritime history into a supra-regional, global historical context, the author’s study challenges the Southeast China centrism, the terra-centric model and various traditional views. Ma argues that on the one hand, there were obvious “ruptures” of maritime policy and maritime trade from the Yuan to the Ming dynasties, and on the other hand, some things, such as official sea transportation, continued from Yuan to Ming times. More importantly, although the function of the Shandong Peninsula changed from being primarily an important commercial entrepôt in the Yuan to being a crucial military base during Ming times, it is worth mentioning that it was a process extending over several decades, rather than a simple rupture. More information: https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_6893.ahtml?T=1640763298