Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea 1300-1800

Chapter 3: From the Fall of Srivijaya to the Rise of Singapore

94 Singapore & the Silk road oF the Sea 1300–1800 her main vassals. Srivijaya’s king was seized and borne away by the conquerors, never to be heard from again. Despite this violent disruption, Asian maritime trade grew at an accelerating pace between 1000 and 1300, bringing about fundamental changes in the society and economy. The main cause of the change was not political (the fall of Srivijaya): it was economic (i.e., a shift in China’s policy toward Chinese merchants who went abroad to trade). Extant records offer only a rough and potentially misleading view of the volume and nature of trade during the early period of overseas Chinese expansion. Archaeological research is beginning to fill in this important gap in our knowledge of this critical period in the development of the Silk Road of the Sea. The riSe of The Song dynASTy And The eArly overSeAS chineSe Srivijaya and the Song Rulers In 900, Srivijaya was in firm control of the Straits of Melaka and the kingdom’s foreign relations were in good order. In 904, Srivijaya’s envoy to China was appointed as head of the foreign quarter in Fujian (Wolters 1967: 239 n. 87). In 960, China was reunified under the Song Dynasty, a circumstance that boded well for even greater Srivijayan prosperity since Chinese policy limited foreign trading partners to a few kingdoms who managed to obtain diplomatic recognition . During the ninth century, the Tang dynasty entered a period of slow but irreversible decline, leading to its fall and the period of division known as the Five Dynasties, between the fall of the Tang in 906 and the rise of the Song. China’s fragmented political condition had favoured the development of rival ports in the Straits of Melaka. Now Srivijaya could expect a return to its former position as the sole overlord of commerce between the Three Seas of the Asian maritime trading network (the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and the Java Sea). During the Northern Song period (960–1126), imported luxurious goods (jewels, ivory, rhinoceros horn, ebony, amber, coral, aromatic products and perfumes) were still an imperial monopoly; only licensed dealers could buy them at government warehouses in Quanzhou and Guangzhou, in fixed quantities and at fixed prices. Rhinoceros horn, a product of the Sumatran forests, played an important role in the close relationship between Srivijaya and the Song emperors. The Song had only been in power for a few months when a mission from Srivijaya arrived at the capital, Kaifeng. It is quite possible that the Srivijayan ruler had received word of the new political situation, and seized the opportunity to form relations with the new ruling clique. Perhaps by chance, tribute brought by this mission included a rhinoceros horn with a pattern resembling a dragon and the Chinese character for “Song”. Chinese believed that rhinoceros horn bore signs from heaven; the Song ruler, Taizu, presented this horn as evidence that he had received the true mandate of heaven. Following tradition, he had a belt hook made from this horn, which he wore when making sacrifices at the altar of heaven (Salmon 2002: 60–1). Srivijaya’s gift thus became a prominent symbol Chapter 3 From the Fall oF Srivijaya to the riSe oF Singapore 95 of the Song Dynasty’s legitimacy. For the next two hundred years, envoys from Sumatra were shown particular favour by Song rulers, including invitations to imperial sacrifices on Taishan and other important state ceremonies. In 1003, a Srivijayan embassy reported that a temple had been built in Sumatra to pray for the emperor’s longevity. Srivijaya sent five more missions between 1004 and 1018. In 1172, more than ten rich Srivijayan merchants lived in Quanzhou (Salmon 2002: 70 n. 52). The South Begins to Rise During the Tang Dynasty, the commercial inclinations of the southern Chinese were stifled by Confucian prejudice against maritime trade. During the Five Dynasties, one of the fragments of the shattered Tang empire was a kingdom called Min. Min only survived until 946, but its southern part, Minnan, comprising southern Fujian and Quanzhou, remained virtually independent until 976. Minnan’s freedom gave its people a new opportunity to develop maritime trade. The first Hokkien merchants ventured into Southeast Asia on Muslim ships (Chang 1998: 149). By the eleventh or twelfth centuries, they began to command their own vessels, sailing to the Indian Ocean. Wealth earned from foreign trade brought...