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This archival document is a Qing dynasty administrative memorial dated to the 6th day of the third lunar month in the eleventh year of the Qianlong reign (1746), submitted to the Hon. Magistrate of Xiangshan County. It concerns an official investigation into allegations of illicit maritime trade—specifically the clandestine exchange of black lead (lead ore) for rice—by foreign vessels operating from the Taiau (Macau) anchorage in the waters off Shangxia Cun (‘Upper–Lower Village’). The memorial confirms that no such foreign vessels had anchored or conducted prohibited exchanges in that area during the preceding year, noting that these waters lie adjacent to Macau and constitute the outermost maritime frontier of a local li administrative unit, serving as a principal corridor for Yi (foreign) and Yang (Western) vessel traffic entering or departing the region. Local residents, led by Qu Pin-kun and others, provided testimony asserting that exchanges had occurred but failed to supply verifiable details—including vessel registry number (hao), or names of officers or crew—rendering confirmation impossible. The memorial reports full compliance with prior directives and formally transmits findings both to the Magistrate of Xiangshan County and to the relevant supervisory authority for official record and review. This document provides primary evidence of Qing coastal administration, Sino-Portuguese maritime regulation, and local governance mechanisms in the Pearl River Delta during the mid-eighteenth century.
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This archival document is an official Qing dynasty dispatch (*pái*) issued on the 10th day of the first lunar month, Qianlong 11 (1746), by Zhang [surname], Magistrate of Xiangshan County, and addressed to the *Yímù* (‘Foreign Headman’) of Macau. It concerns the apprehension of three Chinese subjects—Ou Lunkun, Zhang Zeyou, and Ou Guanzhang—for illicit trafficking in sulphur, following their encounter with a foreign vessel (*jìshuǐ yángchuán*) anchored off Shangcun and Xiácūn in the twelfth lunar month of Qianlong 10 (December 1745/January 1746). The offenders confessed to exchanging firewood for 678 *jīn* (c. 407 kg) of sulphur with a Black African crew member (*hēi guǐzi*), a term used in Qing administrative records to denote persons of sub-Saharan African origin serving aboard foreign ships. The document records the seizure of sixteen packages of sulphur and one vessel by garrison troops (*xùn bīng*) near Chizhou (Red Isle), the interrogation of suspects and witness Yang Hongqi, and the formal transmission of evidence via a *jiě* from Wu [surname], Commandant of the Right Camp of Xiangshan Naval Garrison. It instructs the *Yímù* to identify the foreign vessel’s registry and crew, ascertain its current status, and report findings expeditiously to enable judicial adjudication (*shěnxiáng*) and compilation of the full dossier (*shěnxiáng wén’àn*). The text reflects Qing maritime regulation, ethno-administrative categorisation, and jurisdictional oversight in the Macau–Xiangshan corridor.