Shaping the Blue Dragon

Throughout much of history, imperial China has exhibited a seemingly capricious relationship with the sea. At times, it has welcomed commerce and travel across its vast waters with open arms, yet at others, it has sought to completely cordon off the littoral and the waters beyond. This intermittent...

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Main Author: Po, Ronald C.
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Liverpool University Press 2025
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Online Access:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/99954
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author Po, Ronald C.
author_browse Po, Ronald C.
author_facet Po, Ronald C.
author_sort Po, Ronald C.
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Throughout much of history, imperial China has exhibited a seemingly capricious relationship with the sea. At times, it has welcomed commerce and travel across its vast waters with open arms, yet at others, it has sought to completely cordon off the littoral and the waters beyond. This intermittent approach has fostered a maritime community that, over time, has become increasingly estranged from the dominating Confucian society. Consequently, this has led to behaviours among the coastal residents that pose challenges for those attempting to govern them, with each influencing the other in turn.In Shaping the Blue Dragon, Ronald Po examines China’s relationship with the maritime world from the Ming through the Qing by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people engaging with the blue domain. Pirates, cartographers, administrators, naval generals, maritime writers, emperors, visionaries, and travellers. Most of their stories are unheard in the Anglophone community. Despite the range of their backgrounds and expertise, their cumulative lives were all bounded to the sea. They bared their own souls and mirrored their own logics and reflections in their actions, yet in doing so their characters, identities, and life histories were largely shaped by a maritime China that was in transition between the fourteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1574532025-07-31T00:25:41Z Shaping the Blue Dragon Po, Ronald C. History Asia China bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBJ Regional & national history::HBJF Asian history Throughout much of history, imperial China has exhibited a seemingly capricious relationship with the sea. At times, it has welcomed commerce and travel across its vast waters with open arms, yet at others, it has sought to completely cordon off the littoral and the waters beyond. This intermittent approach has fostered a maritime community that, over time, has become increasingly estranged from the dominating Confucian society. Consequently, this has led to behaviours among the coastal residents that pose challenges for those attempting to govern them, with each influencing the other in turn.In Shaping the Blue Dragon, Ronald Po examines China’s relationship with the maritime world from the Ming through the Qing by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people engaging with the blue domain. Pirates, cartographers, administrators, naval generals, maritime writers, emperors, visionaries, and travellers. Most of their stories are unheard in the Anglophone community. Despite the range of their backgrounds and expertise, their cumulative lives were all bounded to the sea. They bared their own souls and mirrored their own logics and reflections in their actions, yet in doing so their characters, identities, and life histories were largely shaped by a maritime China that was in transition between the fourteenth and early nineteenth centuries. 2025-03-16T02:01:14Z 2025-03-16T02:01:14Z 2025-03-14T05:31:35Z 2024 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/99954 9781835537442 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/157453 eng open access image/jpeg n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/99954/1/external_content.pdf Liverpool University Press Liverpool University Press aa5f0a3b-b4a0-4754-9840-b645b364c5ef Knowledge Unlatched 9781835537442 Knowledge Unlatched (KU) KU Focus Collections 2025 Liverpool University Press open access
spellingShingle History
Asia
China
bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBJ Regional & national history::HBJF Asian history
Po, Ronald C.
Shaping the Blue Dragon
title Shaping the Blue Dragon
title_full Shaping the Blue Dragon
title_fullStr Shaping the Blue Dragon
title_full_unstemmed Shaping the Blue Dragon
title_short Shaping the Blue Dragon
title_sort shaping the blue dragon
topic History
Asia
China
bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBJ Regional & national history::HBJF Asian history
topic_facet History
Asia
China
bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBJ Regional & national history::HBJF Asian history
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/99954
work_keys_str_mv AT poronaldc shapingthebluedragon