Illustrated Gazetteer of the Maritime Countries (Vol. 40)

Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms, Volume 118

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Therefore, they were obstructed and could not reach China on their own. This lasted until the ninth year of the Yanxi era of Emperor Huan reigned 146–168 CE; a ruler of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Anton Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the Roman Emperor, the King of Da Qin The ancient Chinese name for the Roman Empire, literally "Great China," reflecting the high esteem in which they held this distant civilization, sent envoys from beyond the borders of Rinan A commandery in the far south of the Han Empire, located in modern-day central Vietnam. They presented ivory, rhinoceros horns, and tortoiseshell as tribute; it was only then that communication was first established.

It was not until the middle of the Wanli era of the Ming dynasty [c. 1580s–1610s] that Matteo Ricci original: "Li Madou"; the influential Italian Jesuit priest who was the first European to enter the Forbidden City entered the Central Lands, and the people of Da Qin began to communicate with China again. They were followed by the Franks original: "Folangji"; a term originally for the Portuguese and Spanish and the Dutch, whose warships arrived one after another in Guangdong and Fujian provinces. Thus, communication with the Great Atlantic original: "Da Xiyang"; referring to Europe and the Atlantic world began in the Ming dynasty.

As for the kingdom of Tianzhu Ancient Chinese name for India—also known as Shendu—this constitutes the Southwest Ocean and is not the same as the Western Ocean. However, at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the current [Qing] dynasty, the various nations of the Western Ocean occupied its seaports, where they set up forts original: "pao tai"; literally "cannon platforms" and established trading posts. Today, the Country Traders original: "Gangjiao"; referring to the "country trade" or private trade conducted within Asia by British subjects and the White-headed Barbarians original: "Baitou Yi"; a nickname for Parsees or Indian merchants who wore white turbans who come to Guangdong to trade under the British flag are actually from the ancient kingdom of India.

Consequently, the "Great Atlantic" and the "Southwest Ocean" have begun to be confused as one and the same. When we seek evidence from the customs of the Western Regions in the Han dynasty, they were as described; when we examine the ships of the Southern Oceans today, they are as we see them. Is this not due to the shifts in orientation and geography since ancient times?