From the ledgers of the Song dynasty’s Maritime Trade Office to the cannons of Zheng He’s treasure ships, from Chen Zuyi’s passage fees to Zheng Yisao’s negotiations for amnesty, and from the stone inscription of 1909 to the monument erected in 1946 and the naval battle of 1974.
The South China Sea gets only a few dismissive lines in official histories, but what lies beneath its waters is not just relics. It is a history of war that has been left out.
This sea was never the empire’s frontier. It was its throat.
Whoever controlled the Strait of Malacca held the dynasty’s purse strings.
Built around seven naval battles and the fates of seven individuals, this book brings pirates, eunuchs, widows, admirals, and sailors back from the sea to tell how an empire understood the ocean, and how it repeatedly failed to seize its opportunities.
The sea is silent, but it remembers everything.
