Portugal

Phonetically "Fo-lang-ji" (Persian: Farangi or Arabic: Firanji), this refers to the Portuguese. The Portuguese are only recorded in the MSL following their capture of Melaka in the early 16th century. The Ming Shi devotes a section to the "Fo-lang-ji" and Zhang Wei-hua (1982; 1-56) has provided an annotated version of this. The Portuguese who operated along the coast of China during most of the 16th century and who finally settled at Macau were also known as the "bay yi" (澳夷), presumably after the bays where they conducted trade. In a single case, the MSL records a person as being from a polity named "Pu-li-du-jia" (蒲麗都家) and this was also a reference to Portugal (Shi-zong shi-lu, juan 545.5a). For further literature, see Chang T'ien-tse (1934 and1962), Chang Tseng-hsin (1991) and Ptak (1980). For information on further Chinese sources relating to this polity, see Chen, Xie and Lu (1986; 1021).