In the Zhufan zhi the junks stop before an 'official plaza' (guanchang) where the merchants must give white umbrellas; the goods are then carried off by local men to other islands and paid for on their return, and the debt is always honoured.
Whoever receives the umbrellas and stands surety for the borrowers is the power at Ma-i: a headman, or a council of the chief traders. The Zhufan zhi calls the other places named beside Ma-i 'all the same sort of place'; the English page 'Ma-i' reads them as the Babuyan islands (Pai-p'u-yen), Lingayen (Li-yin-tung) and Malolos or Lumban (Li-han), and gives Scott's view that they are trading shores of the same kind and not Ma-i's subordinates.
Who he is
- Title
- Headmen who keep the 'official plaza' and take the junk captains' white umbrellas
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
The Zhufan zhi (about 1225) mentions the plaza and the umbrellas; no headman is named in any notice.
What it holds
- The landing and market ground
- The guarantee of the on-trust trade
- The gifts of the junk captains
Allies and rivals
Junk captains from Fujian and Guangdong; the coastal traders of the other islands to whom the goods are carried.
How things stand that morning
Not described for 1200.
Wealth
Cotton, wax, tortoise shell, betel nut and cloth sold; porcelain, gold, iron pots, lead, beads and needles bought. No figures.
Military
Not known; the Zhufan zhi says few pirates reach it.
Threats
- A bad trading season
- Raids from the Visayan sea
Places of note
- Official plaza (position not known): The campaign board's dot; the true site is argued.
Where the sources disagree
- The Wikipedia 'Ma-i' page attributes the trust trade to both the Zhufan zhi and the Daoyi zhilue; the dating of the trade custom to 1200 is by analogy.
Evidence: The only description is 25 years after 1200 and read here through Wikipedia.
On the map: A contested site; one small circle on the Mindoro reading only.
Primary sources for Ma-i
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia, 'Ma-i' (read in this pass): Song shi 971 and 982, the Zhufan zhi and Daoyi zhilue notices, the Mindoro and Bay readings
- Wikipedia, 'Zhu Fan Zhi' (read in this pass): the work, its date (about 1225), its debt to Zhou Qufei's Lingwai daida of 1178, the list of countries
- Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua: his work on the Chinese and Arab trade in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (St Petersburg, 1911). Only its table of contents was reachable in this pass (Part I: Borneo, P'o-ni no. 39, p. 155; Ma-i no. 40, p. 159; the Three Islands no. 41, p. 161; Pi-sho-ye no. 43, p. 165); chapter text is recalled, not re-read
- W. H. Scott, Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History (Quezon City, 1984): the Chinese notices of Ma-i, Pu-tuan, Pi-sho-ye and the Three Islands; known here only through Wikipedia, not read
- The OMNIA board (September 2026) note for this place: a lead only, not a source
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.