Ma-i, the trading country of the Chinese notices

Who rules

Title

Not known: the Zhufan zhi speaks of a ruling headman who receives the white umbrellas at an 'official plaza'

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No ruler is named in any notice. The Zhufan zhi (about 1225) mentions a place where ships anchor 'in front of the official plaza' and merchants must present white umbrellas, which implies a recognised chief or council; no more is known.

What the realm holds

• A trading shore with a landing, a market ground (the 'official plaza') and villages behind it
• The right to receive the junks' gifts and to guarantee the on-trust trade
• Kapok cotton, beeswax, tortoise shell, betel nut and cloth for export

How it was acquired

Allies and rivals

Chinese junks from Fujian and Guangdong call here; other places in the Zhufan zhi are 'all the same sort of place as Ma-i' (the English page 'Ma-i' reads Pai-p'u-yen as the Babuyan islands, Li-yin-tung as Lingayen and Li-han as Malolos or, with Scott, Lumban; we did not check the rest of the list). Brunei's alleged control of Ma-i is a fourteenth-century claim (Nanhai zhi, reported on Wikipedia) and not in play.

The realm that morning

Nothing is dated to 1200. The bracket is the Song shi (971, 982) before and the Zhufan zhi (about 1225) after. The campaign board says Zhou Qufei described Ma-i in 1178; we could not confirm that and do not rely on it.

Wealth

Trade goods listed in the Zhufan zhi; no figures.

Military

Not known; the Zhufan zhi says few pirates reach its shore.

Threats

• A bad season for the junks
• Raiding from the Visayan and Sulu seas (none dated)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 1200No dated event is known for Ma-i in 1200.Depends on: The silence of the sources Stopped by: Any new text or find

Later, on the likely course

1. About 1225Zhao Rukuo describes the trade on trust, the white umbrellas and the 'official plaza' in the Zhufan zhi (this is a later source for the same trade, not an event of 1200).Depends on: A shipmaster's report reaching Quanzhou Stopped by: Not applicable

Places of note

• Bulalacao (Scott's Ma-i): Scott's placing of Ma-i near the Mauhaw river, on questioned physical evidence.
• Calapan and the north Mindoro coast: The campaign board's reading; Mindoro was once called Mait (Cole 1912).
• Bay on Laguna de Bay: Go Bon Juan's reading (2005): the Chinese spelling and the description fit Bay (Bae, Bai, Vahi).

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry id ma-i-mindoro puts the dot at 13.45 N, 121.0 E on north Mindoro and marks it 'contested'. That is one of three readings: Mindoro (Cole 1912 on the old name Mait; Scott 1984, at the Mauhaw river by Bulalacao), Bay in Laguna (Go Bon Juan 2005), and Malolos in Bulacan (Austin Craig, 1914, asserted by local historians, as the English page 'Ma-i' reports). We draw Mindoro and Bay as separate contested parts, keep Malolos in this note only as an older theory, and prefer none.
• The campaign board says Ma-i was 'still described in 1178' (Zhou Qufei). Not confirmed; the dated notices we could reach are 971, 982 (the page's infobox only), about 1225 and 1349 (the page's infobox gives 1339 for the Daoyi zhilue account; the page does not resolve it).
• The campaign board's 'best attested Philippine polity of the moment' overstates it: the notices are 218 years before and 25 years after, and the text does not describe a state in the usual sense.

Evidence: Known from Song-era Chinese notices read only through Wikipedia's summary; location open; no notice falls within twenty years of 1200.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The colour is laid on the Mindoro coast (whole municipal units, which run inland) and the islets round it, where one reading puts Ma-i. The Laguna de Bay reading has no colour on this sheet, and the true place may be neither. The area shown is the colour, not a holding.

Primary sources for this realm

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