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This article examines the historical significance of the *wugongchuan*, or “Centipede Ships,” and their association with early Portuguese maritime activities in Guangdong during the first half of the sixteenth century. Drawing on key Sinological sources, most notably Li Zhaoxiang’s *Longjiang chuanchang zhi* (1553) and Shen Qi’s *Nan chuan ji* (1541), Roderich Ptak analyzes how these vessels were perceived and eventually replicated by the Ming administration. The study details the technical specifications of the *wugongchuan*, highlighting their distinctive oar-driven speed, maneuverability, and the integration of *folangji* (Portuguese) breech-loading bronze cannons—weaponry that Chinese officials recognized as superior to existing domestic technology. The author investigates the process of technological transfer, specifically focusing on the 1525 imperial mandate to construct a prototype in Nanjing using specialized shipwrights from Guangdong. By comparing textual descriptions and contemporary illustrations, the article illuminates the intersection of naval architecture, military defense, and cross-cultural encounters prior to the formal settlement of Macao. Ptak demonstrates that the *wugongchuan* serves as a critical case study in the Ming dynasty’s pragmatic response to European maritime encroachment, illustrating a period of transition where foreign naval innovations were systematically adopted to bolster Chinese coastal security.
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Roderich Ptak's note analyzes the Ryukyu network in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, examining how Ryukyuan merchants and rulers navigated the Ming tribute system to fashion a far-flung commercial network centered on Naha. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources (Lidai baoan, Ming shilu, Korean sillok, lishi dili, Chen Kan’s Shi Liuqiu lu, Chinese nautical treatises, local gazetteers) and supplementing with Iberian accounts and secondary literature, the study reconstructs the geography and modalities of Ryukyu trade. The article emphasizes that official tribute trade remained the legal channel for access to China, and that the three Ryukyuan polities (Zhongshan, Shannan, Shanbei) competed but also maintained rapid exchange networks with the Ming court, beginning with envoy missions to Nanjing from 1372 onward. Within this regime, Ryukyuan merchants built an extended network linking Fujian to Okinawa, mainly via tribute contacts, while integrating exchanges with Southeast Asia, and branches to Korea and Kyushu. Most commodities flowed through Naha, consolidating the island’s role as the hub of multi-regional trade. The piece also notes ancillary phenomena—Ryukyuan students studying in China, subsidies granted by the Ming, and mentions of a Mongol exile in Ryukyu—highlighting the deep political and cultural ties underpinning the trade system. The article concludes that the Ryukyu network exemplifies how tribute-era diplomacy and commerce coalesced into a durable but selective regional mercantile sphere in the fifteenth–early sixteenth centuries.
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Roderich Ptak assesses Shih-Shan Henry Tsai’s Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle (University of Washington Press, 2001) as the first English-language monograph devoted exclusively to the Yongle reign (1403–1424). Tsai presents a lively, largely narrative portrait that resists dry philology and conventional militarism, organizing a chronological account around Yongle’s life while interweaving the workings of court institutions, state finance, and political networks. The study foregrounds both the emperor’s formidable political and military achievements and his sustained cultural patronage, including the lavish Yongle dadian and the distribution of Gujin Lienü Zhuan for educational purposes. Ptak notes that Tsai balances traditional concerns with new insights, building a coherent picture of Yongle as a dynamic ruler who sought grandeur through centralization, expansive campaigns, and cultural projects. The reviewer traces chapters on Yongle’s formative years, his rise to power, major political events, and the concomitant economic strains and ministerial tensions that accompanied his efforts—tensions that ultimately affected the emperor’s health and the empire’s trajectory after his death. While praising the book’s readability and balanced approach, Ptak observes occasional instances where details could be presented with greater precision. Overall, Tsai’s monograph is a valuable, nuanced contribution to Ming studies, reframing Yongle as both autocrat and cultural patron and highlighting the period’s enduring legacies.
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