The China Trade - Philippines History - Porcelain Period

Trade between China and the Philippines probably started centuries before the advent of
the Sung Dynasty. The "A Collection of Data in Chinese Classical Books Regarding the
Philippines" was published by the Institute of Southeast Asian History of Zhongsan (Sun Yat
Sen) University, Guangzhou (1900). It states: “During the T’ang (Thang) dynasty China (in the
7th to the 9th century AD) the two peoples of China and the Philippines already had relatively
close relations and material as well as cultural exchanges.”
During the Sung (960-1127 AD), Arab traders brought Philippine goods to southwestern China
through the port of Canton. Chinese posts were established in coastal towns of the Philippines
with the import of Chinese goods. The trade culminated when Chao Ju-Kua wrote of the barter
trade between the Chinese and the natives of Mayi (Mindoro). The Chinese exchanged silk,
porcelain, colored glass, beads and iron ware for hemp cloth, tortoise shells, pearls and yellow
wax of the Filipinos.
The Chinese became the dominant traders in the 12th and 13th centuries during the Sung
Dynaasty (960-1279 AD). The shift in the commerce between China and Southeast Asia saw
Butuan send a tribute mission to the Sung emperor. The Chinese notice of Luzon appears to have
instigated a new round of tributary missions in the early fifteenth century by Luzon, Pangasinan,
and a polity known as Mao-li-wu [possibly Ma-i on Mindoro].
The first really reliable Chinese records of Borneo and the Philippines begins with the accession
of the last Sung dynasty, in the tenth century. From the twelfth to the fifteenth century, accounts
of Bruni, Sulu, Ma-i and others of the Philippine Islands become more numerous. The first
notices of the Philippines are to be found in the work of Chao Ju-kua, collector of customs of
Chuan-chou, a city in Fo-Kien Province, between 1210 and 1240. Chao-Yu-Kua tells of their
settlements, some of a thousand families each, their houses of cane being clustered on high
places. In this work he speaks of the islands of Po-ni (Borneo), Ma-i (probably Mindoro, or
possibly Panay), and of the Pi-Sho-ye of Taiwan (Formosa). This latter name sounds something
like " Bisaya," the native name for Visava. The book speaks also of the San-sii, or "Three
Islands." Among the place-names which Chao listed was Tung-lio” (probably the Chinese
referred to Tondo, a district of Manila).
Before 1225 the Chinese vessels were making regular trading-trips to nearly all parts of the
Philippines. Many places are mentioned in the records, but descriptions are given of only a few.
Apart from Sulu — which has always maintained closer relations with Borneo than with the
northern Philippines — the most important trade-center appears to have been Mindoro, which
was mentioned as such in the tenth century.
In addition to Mindoro and Sulu, the following other Philippine islands have been pretty
certainly identified as mentioned in the Chinese records: Palawan, Kalamian (now Culion),
Busuanga, Penon de Coron, Lubang, Luzon (probably Manila Bay region and south coast),
Masbate, Bohol (?), Leyte. Many other names which must apply to Philippine localities are used
by the Chinese writers, but none of these have been identified with any degree of certainty. Some
of them are spoken of as dependencies of Ma-i, and others of Sulu or Bruni. Leyte is called Si-
lung, but no description of it has yet been found. This is also the case with most of the other
islands except Sulu, Palawan, Luzon and the Kalamian group.
Though Luzon is mentioned early in the thirteenth century as a dependency of Ma-i, under the
name Liu-sin, the first real account of the largest Philippine island appears in Chapter 323 of the
Ming Annals, where it is known as Lu-sung. An embassy from this country arrived in China with
tribute, in the year 1372. "The site of Luzon is stated on this occasion to be in the South Sea very
close to Chang-chou in Fuhkien. The Emperor reciprocated the gifts of this embassy by
dispatching an official with presents of silk gauze woven of gold and colored threads to the King
of the country." In another early account it is stated that "Luzon produces gold, which is the
reason of its wealth; the people are simple-minded and do not like to go to law."
These people had iron implements of warfare and various articles of other metals; but contact
with the continent of Asia explains these. They were in regular intercourse with China and with
Japan, Borneo, and other islands some centuries before Spanish discovery. In the little-known
work of Chao-Yu-Kua, a Chinese geographer of the thirteenth century, is a chapter on the
Philippine trade. From the beginning of Philippine trade with China, the trade relations between
Philippine chieftains and Chinese traders were forged on the basis of good political relations.
Chinese records show that regular and active trade between China and the Philippines took place
only in the tenth century. Earlier trade between China and the Philippines was transacted mainly
through the Champa (Vietnam) coast. But Mai-i (Mindoro) traders who previously went through
Vietnam before proceeding to China decided in 972 to circumvent Vietnam and instead to trade
directly with China by sailing into Canton. Economic exchanges with the southern countries
were so lucrative and extensive that in 972 the first emperor of the Sung Dynasty established
offices of maritime trade in Kwangchow, Hangchow, and Minchow, with separate
superintendents to deal with all Arab, Achen, Java, Borneo, Ma-i (Mindoro), and Srivijaya
“barbarians.”
The Mai-i, Butuan and Sulu missions to China were attempts by separate Philippine polities not
only to bypass Champa as a trade entrepot and to establish themselves as new centers of
international trade. The Mindoro traders had to secure the blessing of the Chinese emperor with a
tribute mission. They presented the emperor with exotic gifts like pearls, frankincense, myrrh,
and colorful animals. Thereafter Mindoro delegations were treated as state guests and enlisted as
feudatory princes of the empire. They were bestowed with corresponding seals and patents of
office. No doubt, the ceremonial acknowledgment of Chinese imperial suzerainty by tributary
missions was good politics, it was in turn rewarded by the grant of accreditation to Mindoro
traders to engage in direct commercial activities with China.
The Celestials had always been a literary people and have always taken a special interest in
noting down what they could learn of foreign lands and curious customs. The poverty of their
records as regards the Philippines seems to be due not so much to distance as to the relative
insignificance of the local states when compared, to the richer and more powerful kingdoms of
Indo-China, Sumatra and Java. This is the more evident from the fact that Formosa, lying at the
very door of one of China's greatest ports, is mentioned no more frequently in the early records
than are the Philippines. Another case in point is the frequent mention of Bruni and Sulu, as
compared with Luzon and the other northern islands.
This material was written by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines