Entry
Xuan-de: Year 5, Month 6, Day 1
21 Jun 1430
The Emperor instructed the officials of the Auxiliary Ministry of Rites as follows: "I have been advised that when the various south-western fan come to offer tribute and they first arrive in their ships, an official seals and records their goods and sends a person to memorialize. The officials await the arrival of orders and only then break the seals and send the envoys and goods on. The envoys are thus detained for several months during which time their needs are supplied by the people. This gives great expense to the people. Send orders to the Maritime Trade Supervisorates in Guang-dong, Fu-jian and Zhe-jiang, requiring that in future, when a fan ship arrives, the officials are to send persons to urgently memorialize. Without awaiting a reply, the officials are, together with the Maritime Trade Supervisorate, to weigh their goods and calculate their value, clearly note these in a register, send officials to accompany the envoys and transport the goods to the capital. This will reduce the amount of food the people will have to supply the envoys."
Xuan-zong: juan 67.1a
Zhong-yang Yan-jiu yuan Ming Shi-lu, volume 19, page 1571
Preferred form of citation for this entry:
Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/reign/xuan-de/year-5-month-6-day-1, accessed January 22, 2019