Yang Bin
Why don't you use nails in shipbuilding?
In the previous article, we introduced the Arabian nailless ship, which was the first sea ship to sail in the Persian Gulf and through Southeast Asia to Reach China. So why don't Arabian ships use iron nails?
Chinese during the Tang and Song dynasties were already accustomed to the use of iron and nails, so they were quite surprised by nailless ships. Hui Lin, a learned monk of the Tang Dynasty, explained according to her own experience that the reason why nailless ships do not use iron nails is that "fear of iron is hot" and "fear of grinding fire". This statement sounds justified, because the people on board are most afraid of fire. However, this is certainly not the case.
In fact, the use of iron nails in shipbuilding is not only the common situation of human beings before entering the Iron Age, but also related to the resources and traditions of a certain place after human beings entered the Iron Age. If there is no iron ore in a certain place, the iron smelting industry is not developed, or the imported iron is expensive, people will inevitably seek other materials or methods to replace the need for iron. This is the situation in Guangxi, which Zhou Qufei talked about in the Song Dynasty. Because there is no iron nail, the local shipbuilding in Guangxi is tied with rattan to form a so-called rattan boat. It is conceivable that island societies and nomadic tribes, in general, were less likely to have iron, and would therefore seek other materials or processes to fill the gap in the lack of iron, or to trade in obtaining iron. For example, in the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, Both Chinese and Western literature records that the favorite foreign commodity of the island's residents is iron. Many iron tools were found on the "Nanhai No. 1" Song Dynasty shipwreck, which was used to exchange goods for southeast Asian islands. The origin of the Nailless Ships of Arabia is roughly like this. When there is an iron nail, it will take a while for it to be introduced to shipbuilding, because the disappearance of a certain tradition is not achieved overnight.
Societies with "nailed ships" naturally feel that nailless ships are abnormal and speculate about their origins. Huilin believes that the "nailless ship" overcomes the weakness of the iron nail friction and fire, while in the West, another legend with similar logic but different content is circulated to explain the origin and rationality of the "nailless ship", that is, the magnetic mountain on the seabed.
The "Magnetic Mountains Under the Sea" of the Maldives
The legend of the so-called "undersea magnetic mountain" refers to the mountain range or seabed formed by magnets on the seabed, so that the ships sailing through this place, because the iron nails, anchors and other iron tools used by the ships are attracted by the magnets, unable to move forward, or even sink. This, of course, is a figment of the imagination. Even if there are magnets on the seabed that can attract the iron objects on the ship, they cannot suck the entire sea ship. After all, the main material of seagoing ships is wood, and iron makes up only a very small fraction of them, but the legend of the magnetic mountain on the seabed provides a plausible and almost irresistible reason for the emergence, existence, and popularity of the "nailless ship."
The legend of the magnetic mountain under the sea has not only been circulated for a long time, but also has a wide geographical space, which seems to prove the advantages of the Arab "nailless ship" navigation on the other hand. In some respects, as Ibn Battuta put it, "nailless ships" may indeed have their advantages, "because the Indian Ocean is full of rocks, and ships nailed with iron nails will break if they touch the rocks, while the ships connected by coconut ropes have a certain elasticity and will not break even if they hit the rocks.". Perhaps because there are no iron nails, the Arabian seafarers can gallop across the Indian Ocean until they reach China, which is rich in silk and porcelain, which makes the West salivate? In this way, the nailless ship and the magnetic mountain on the seabed, one is a fact, the other is a rumor, the two virtual reality complement each other, and at the same time circulate in the vast waters of ocean Asia, which is really interesting. What is even more interesting is that the Maldives in the Indian Ocean has almost been the place where the "magnetic mountains under the sea" began to circulate about 2,000 years ago, which cannot but be surprising.
In the second century AD, Ptolemy, in his Geographical Chronicle, fixed the magnetic mountain on the seabed near the Maldivian archipelago. "There are ten contiguous islands, collectively known as the Maniolai Islands, and ships with iron nails are sucked in and unable to move forward, perhaps because of the large magnets produced on the islands (Pierre d'Héraklès)," he said. So the people there have to build ships in the slide. These islands are inhabited by cannibals known as the Maniolai. ”
The Manole Islands are roughly what is now the Maldives Archipelago. Why did Ptolemy think the Maldives was where the magnetic mountains under the sea were located? This is actually determined by the strategic position of the Maldives in the sea. Located in the southwest direction of Sri Lanka, the Maldives is lined up from south to north, which is where the east-west maritime trade must pass. Ships departing from the Red Sea, Arabian Sea or the Persian Gulf often have to pass through this place if they continue to sail east; sea vessels in the Bay of Bengal, Southeast Asia and even East Asia often have to pass through this place when they travel west to the west coast of India, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea or East Africa. Storms at the turn of the seasons also carry boats planned for the southeastern shore of the Indian Peninsula or Sri Lanka (and the Malay Peninsula or Southeast Asia) to the Maldives. In addition, the Maldives archipelago is a large number of islands and reefs, which have long been known as ten thousand islands in the Western world; coupled with the large number of archipelagic straits, monsoon changes and complex ocean currents, it is easy to cause foreign ships to crash. In this way, the Maldives, as the main transportation route of the sea in Asia, is a high-risk sea for foreign ships that are unfamiliar with the monsoon and local waterways, so Ptolemy and others have installed in the Maldives the legend that magnets and irons have caused ships to stagnate or even sink.
Maldives
In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the legend of the magnetic mountain on the seabed developed into a "nailless ship". According to the monk Adulis, who had been to India and the Kingdom of Cyris (referring to China), Saint-Ambroise (340-397) said: "He also introduced (if we believe his introduction) that there are thousands of islands in the Arabian and Persian Seas, and that the Manolet Islands are subordinate to Ceylon. In this latter archipelago, a so-called magnet was also found, which used its own power to absorb all the iron products. So, if a ship with nails docks on these islands, it will be sucked up immediately, and the power contained in this stone will prevent the ship from returning. Therefore, people say that the ships here are made of wooden wedges. Thus, it is not only believed that the Maldivian archipelago has huge magnets that attract ships with iron nails, making them impassable, but also points out that local ships without iron nails have been built to avoid Maldivian magnets, so that "the ships here are made of wooden wedges". Later Palladius (365-430) repeated: "If everything one has described is accurate, then there are thousands of other islands near this island (Ceylon), all surrounded by the Sea of Eritrea. Because the island, known as Manole, produces magnets, it has the characteristics of attracting iron. If a ship with iron nails sails to these islands, it will be sucked by the magnetism of the magnet and can no longer leave again. Therefore, the ships that reach this big island are specially made, using no iron at all, but only wooden wedges. In short, the legend of the Maldivian seabed magnet offers a plausible, if not perfect, explanation for the origins of the Arab "nailless ship."
The above record only emphasizes that the "nailless ship" has no iron nails, only wooden wedges, and does not mention other situations, especially the key role of coconut ropes. The early 10th-century Arab traveler Masudi's book The Golden Steppe is the first non-Chinese document to specify this crucial plot of the nailless ship being tied up with coconut ropes. "Near Crete in the Mediterranean, holed teak planks tied together with coconut tree fibers have been found that fell off ships that were shipwrecked by the waves," he said. Ships of this structure are used only in the coastal areas of the Abyssinian Sea. Ships sailing in the Mediterranean and large cannibal ships are nail structures; in the Abyssinian Sea, because of the corrosion of the sea, the iron nails become fragile, easy to break, and extremely unreliable, forcing the ship manufacturers to replace the iron nails with grease and asphalt fiber ropes to connect the ship plates. Abyssinia is ethiopia in East Africa, so Masuddi is saying that ships near East Africa, in the western Indian Ocean, are nailless ships, apparently because the seawater there is particularly corrosive, so "the iron nails become brittle, easily broken, and extremely unreliable, forcing shipmakers to replace iron nails with grease and tarmac-coated fiber ropes to connect ships"; and ships in the Mediterranean, whether Greek Egyptian or Arab, "are nail structures".
Masudi's record deserves special attention. He said that the wreckage of the nailless ship was found near Crete in the Mediterranean, where there were no canals communicating between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, so he used the example to deduce that "the seas are connected, and they are moving around the Turkic regions from China and Silla, flowing to the Maghreb through a certain channel from the ocean." His reasoning is, of course, correct. A thousand years before him, the Phoenicians completed the Circumference. However, Massudius said that the Great Food, that is, the Arab ships in the Mediterranean, had nails, but he did not seem to know that the nailless ship was actually an Arab invention. We can also infer that the Arabs later learned to build "nailed ships".
The combination of the historical facts of the "nailless ship" and the gossip of the "magnetic mountain under the sea" in the Maldives is really an evocative episode of ocean Asia, which has to pay attention to the indispensable position of the Maldives in the history of the sea. From the history of navigation, the reader can infer that there are generally "ships (ships without nails)" that make it possible for people to reach a certain place, and then people will realize the dangers of navigation in a certain place and widely publicize it. Thus, the importance of the Maldives (geographical location and exports) as well as its dangers are widely known in the Indian Ocean world. What is even more surprising is that these facts and rumors have long been recorded in ancient Chinese literature. In particular, Chinese literature gradually recognized the dangers of the Maldives sea and even considered it to be the "weak water" of ancient legends, and gradually moved the "undersea magnetic mountains" of the Indian Ocean to China.
The "weak water" of the Indian Ocean
The treachery of the waters off the Maldives archipelago has long been known to Indians and Arabs. The > Compendium of the Rare < of India, written around the tenth century: "It is said that there are twelve thousand eight hundred islands [in the ocean]. There were whirlpools churning and waves rolling. When the ship arrives, it spins in place until it sinks. The phrase "spin in place until it sinks" is too similar to the plot in which the undersea magnet attracts the "nailed ship" and sinks. And this sinister interweaving of ocean currents, storms and reefs was soon noticed by Chinese who came.
The Yuan Dynasty merchant Wang Dayuan deeply understood this. He said, "Sail to the West, pass through the Sangha, the tide is rapid, and it is worth the wind against the wind, and drift away from this country." Waiting for the southeast wind in the following summer, the ship is still slipping north. There are stone maples in the water, sharp as blades, and the cover is not finished. That is to say, the ship passes near Sanghala (i.e., Sri Lanka), where the ocean currents are so fast that if it encounters a headwind, the ship can easily be blown by the wind and drifts near the Maldives; in this way, it can only travel north from the Maldives until the southwest monsoon rises in the following summer. Wang Dayuan's "the tide is fast, more worth the wind" and the above-mentioned "whirlpool flipping, the waves rolling" are completely consistent. Wang Dayuan also mentioned the reefs of the Maldives, which are "sharp as blades" and the shipwrecked ship can easily be punctured and broken. And "spinning in place until it sinks" actually describes the situation in which the ship referred to by Wang Dayuan hits the reef and sinks.
Wang Dayuan's "Island YiZhiluo"
Ma Huan, Gong Zhen and Fei Xin on Zheng Hebao's ships have since spoken about the dangers of storms, undercurrents and reefs in the Maldives to foreign ships. Ma Huan pointed out: "In the face of feng shui inconvenience, the boat master lost the nail rudder ship slipped over it, fell into the water, and gradually became weak and sank, probably the boat line beware of this also." Gong Zhen roughly copied Ma Huan's record, Yun: "Those who walk the boat or encounter feng shui is not smooth, the boat master's needle rudder is lost, and once it falls, it cannot get out." Fei Xin said succinctly: "If the merchant ship slips because of the wind, the human ship cannot be restored", and wrote a poem emphasizing the danger of the Maldives shipping route, including "the needle can point to the partner, the merchant ship is worried about the wind" and "Although the clouds are overseas, it is sad in the stone gate". Ma Huan's "Falling into the Water, Gradually Weakening and Sinking", Gong Zhen's "Once It Falls, It Cannot Get Out", Fei Xin's "Because the Wind Slips, The Man's Ship Cannot Be Restored", and the "< Indian Rare > Narrative" says that "when the ship comes here, it spins in place until it sinks", all of which mean that the ship hits the reef and sinks.
Compared with Wang Dayuan, Ma Huan and others have a much more detailed understanding of the Maldives. Geographically, Ma Huan not only knew that the maldives' nearly two thousand islands constituted several large groups of islands (atoll), also known as the eight slips; they also observed that in addition to the eight slips, the Maldives "has a small narrow slip, and there are more than three thousand clouds." "Small narrow slip", later Chinese literature called "small narrow slip" or "small slip". The Maldives archipelago is a group of two parallel narrow coral reef islands running north-south, of which the larger islands are on the eastern line, the so-called "eight slips" or "nine slips" are distributed in the east; there are also a series of atolls in the west, which are smaller in size and more numerous, which is the "small narrow slip". These small islands, adjacent to each other, are lined with reefs, foreign ships, or reefs that are not familiar with waterways, or are very easy to sink due to storms, so they are notorious. Ma Huan and others called it weak water, claiming that "the so-called weak water is three thousand, and it is here too." In November 1879, Harry Charles Purvis Bell (l851-1937), who would later become the father of Sri Lanka archaeology, was on a reef in the north of the Maldives and had to stay in the Maldives for a few days, which may have been an opportunity for him to become the originator of the study of Maldivian archaeology, language and history. It can be seen that the currents/seas near the Maldives, because of their sinisterness, were well known in the middle ages in marine Asia, so Ma Huan believes that it is the weak water in ancient Chinese legends.
Regarding weak water, from the pre-Qin "Classic of Mountains and Seas" to the "Records of History" and the "Book of Later Han", its geographical location is either in the northwest (often compared with quicksand), or in the northeast, not specifically referring to a certain river; "weak water" Got its name from the fact that water "weak" can not float boats, often called "its strength can not overcome the mustard", so people can not cross the river, and later literature imagines more. Written in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, journey to the West 22nd tells the story of the Tang monks, Sun Wukong and the Eight Precepts of the Pig who subdued the sand monks through the "Quicksand River". It describes the situation of the Quicksand River as "eight hundred quicksand boundaries, three thousand weak water depths." The goose feathers cannot be floated, and the reed flowers are fixed to sink. Then the Quicksand River is "weak water", and the numerical word "three thousand" was previously added, saying that it is boundless. Later generations often think that "three thousand weak waters" first appeared in the "Journey to the West", but in fact, Ma Huan in the early Ming Dynasty (early fifteenth century) had already added "three thousand weak waters" to the slippery mountain country (Maldives) thousands of miles away.
Ma Huan initiated the "weak water" of the Maldives, so he was attacked by others, thus transplanting the imaginary inland river "weak water" located in northern or northwestErn China into the Indian Ocean. Gong Zhen said: "There are still more than three thousand other small slips, the water is slow and weak, and the boat sinks to the other place, so the boat is careful to avoid, and does not dare to go near this place." Ancient legend of weak water three thousand, right here also. Fei Xin also summarized: "It is rumored that there are more than 38,000 slips, that is, 3,000 words of weak water." Huang Province once copied the above books roughly in its Records of Tribute to the Western Dynasty (completed in 1520), saying that the Maldives "has a small narrow slip in the west, there are three thousand, and it is all weak water, that is, the so-called 'weak water three thousand'." This is not surprising, it is worth noting his last sentence. He said: "The ancient books of the Classic of Mountains and Seas and li Daoyuan quote weak waters and many things. Although he is a discerning person, Mo Zhi can also understand it. I am full of knowledge that there are weak waters. Although the view is far-reaching, but the heavens and the earth are great, they cannot be exhausted in the end. "With the Maldives as the weak water, Huang Province once admired the infinity of heaven and earth, so I have an end to life and know that there is no end." It can be seen that the Ming Dynasty's use of the Maldives sea as weak waters did not follow the ancient theory, but was the result of in-depth exchanges between China and the Indian Ocean world since the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The treachery of the Maldivian seas has led to it being known in the Western world as the "magnetic mountain under the sea", while in China it has gained the nickname "weak water".
In fact, the legend of the magnetic mountain under the sea is also widely spread in China, but ancient China did not clarify its geographical location, but first called the South China Sea and then pointed to the West.
China's "Magnetic Undersea"
The legend of the magnetic mountain under the sea was transmitted to China as early as the Jin Dynasty. Regarding magnets, volume 988 of the Taiping Imperial Records quotes the Chronicle of Foreign Objects of Nanzhou as saying: "The sea rises and the head is rugged, the water is shallow and there are many magnets. The outer men rode on the big ship, and all of them were hammered with iron. At this point, the magnet cannot be passed. "That is to say, there are magnets somewhere near the land in the South China Sea, so foreigners' nailed ships are sucked up by the magnetic mountains on the seabed, and they cannot be navigated, and they cannot reach China." This is actually a concise Chinese version of the Ptolemaic legend.
China's entry into the Indian Ocean was relatively late, and according to the Book of Han and the Geographical Chronicle, the yellow gate emissaries arrived in Huangzhi (present-day southern India) during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty or after, that is, after BC. In terms of time and space, the legend of the magnetic mountain on the seabed should be circulated from west to east. The "Chronicle of Foreign Objects in Nanzhou" is a record of the South China Sea Zhudao by Wu Guo Danyang Taishou Wanzhen in the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD), and according to this, the legend of the Magnet Mountain arrived in China by boat shortly after Ptolemy.
So, where is the magnet? Volume 790 of the Taiping Imperial Records quotes the Chronicle of Foreign Objects of Nanzhou as saying: "Sentence Zhi, go to the classic tour for eight hundred miles, there is a river mouth, southwest direction, northeast line, great rugged head out of the rising sea, shallow and rocky." "Then the country is a magnetic mountain under the sea. The Taiqing Jinliu ShendanJing, which is slightly later than the Nanzhou Foreign Object Chronicle, basically records the two articles of the Taiping Imperial Records quoted above, Yun: "The Jurchen Kingdom goes to the Dianxun eight hundred miles, there is Jiang Ri (according to the mouth), southwest, northeast, and northeast. Osaki head out of the sea, the water is shallow and there are many stones. The outer people take iron leaves on the ship, so that the head of the sock, the magnet can not pass, all stop the hook, the goods are easy to return. "Rao Zongyi, after examination, believes that the kingdom of Gou should be in the Malay Peninsula. In the fact of navigation at that time, it is completely understandable that trade in the Indian Ocean ended in the Malay Peninsula, so the cloud "stopped being childish, and the goods were easy to return".
After the Taiping Imperial Records, the legend of the magnetic mountain under the sea is rarely seen in Chinese literature. However, Zhou's record of the "vine boat" in the "Lingwai Dai-A" also shows the influence of the Ptolemaic legend. When he explained the reason why the rattan boat was made without iron nails, he said, "Or it means to go through the magnet mountain, which is not detailed." Although he didn't know whether it was true or not, Zhou Wentfei knew about this legend at a glance. In addition, Zhou Wentfei also introduced the legend of Magnetic Mountain from the ocean to the inland rivers of Sichuan, saying: "Nowadays, the bottom of the Shuzhou boat is nailed with garnet wood, and the cover of the river is rocky, and iron nails cannot be used, and it is also said that the Shu River has a magnetic mountain. ”
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, China and the Indian Ocean were extremely developed in sea traffic, and in the early Ming Dynasty, Zheng He went to the West, which made China's understanding of the Indian Ocean world reach an unprecedented peak. After Zheng He went to the Western Ocean, due to factors such as the policy of sea prohibition, after the sixteenth century, almost no Chinese ships entered the Indian Ocean, and the connection between China and the Indian Ocean was not as frequent and deep as that during the Song and Yuan Dynasties and the early Ming Dynasty. However, Chinese knowledge of the Indian Ocean is still circulating in the folk. Written in the twenty-fifth year of the Ming Dynasty (1597), the "Western Record" is a chapter and verse novel based on the event of Zheng He's going to the West, which contains a lot of marine knowledge, which can be said to be the folk imagination and concept of the West, which is worth noting. Among them, the recorded "Iron Absorbing Ridge" is the detailed Chinese version of the "Undersea Magnetic Mountain", and readers may be able to experience the cultural exchanges brought about by the Maritime Silk Road.
"Iron Ridge"
The full name of "Western Records" is "Three Treasures eunuch Western Records Popular Interpretation", and it is also a long divine and demonic novel written by Luo Maodeng in the Ming Dynasty, which is deeply influenced by "List of Fengshen Gods" and "Journey to the West", but the artistic level is far less successful than the first two. Many of the descriptions and artistic creations of "Western Oceans" in the "Western Ocean Chronicle" are directly derived from Wang Dayuan, Ma Huan and Huang Shengzeng, and some indirectly mixed with materials of unknown provenance. Luo Maodeng's capitalized close-up of the "Iron Absorbing Ridge" in the "Western Ocean" sea can be said to be the latest and most detailed version of the legend of the "Magnetic Mountain under the sea" since Ptolemy, which is the synthesis and play of Indian Ocean knowledge in China, which is worth playing.
The whole book of "Western Oceans" begins with the plot of the burning lamp of the ancient Buddha who assisted Zheng He in going to the West, and mentions many places in the "Iron Absorbing Ridge". When the Dragon King of the Chinese and Western Seas introduced the Iron Absorbing Ridge for the second time, he said: "There are five hundred miles of Iron Absorbing Ridge in the Little God Sea, and the five hundred miles of the seabed are piled up, densely layered, all of which are some iron absorbing stones, and when they encounter iron tools, they sink to the end." The boat floated into the sea, and with it hung under the bow of the ship, molten those iron-absorbing stones like gold, and there was no slag, so that Cihang went straight to the other shore. ”
Here, the West Sea Dragon King Ao Shun made the Iron Absorbing Ridge clear. Located at the bottom of the "West Sea", the Iron Absorbing Ridge is five hundred miles long, "piled up, dense layers, full of iron absorbing stones, once the iron is encountered, it will sink to the end." Although the so-called "West Sea" here is the mythical "West Sea", it cannot directly correspond to Zheng He's "West Sea". However, in terms of Luo Maoden's choice and orientation, the "West Sea" coincides with the Western Ocean. Therefore, although the "West Sea" of the Western Ocean and Zheng He's Western Ocean and the current Indian Ocean do not correspond one-to-one, it also shows that the geographical location of Luo Mao Deng's Iron Absorption Ridge is roughly consistent with Ptolemy's submarine magnetic mountain.
Secondly, the key factors of iron absorbing ridge and submarine magnetic mountain are also fully consistent, one is located on the seabed, and the other is to adsorb iron, resulting in the ship can not move forward, or even sink. In this way, it is also clear that the ship that Ao Shun said is a "ship with nails". If it is a "nailless ship", iron sucking ridge is naturally no threat. Needless to say, the Chinese treasure ship of the Three Treasure Eunuchs is the "ship with nails".
Taking the submarine magnetic mountains and weak water as examples, we found that Chinese and Western literature contains the traditional knowledge of many oceans and Asia that has been preserved and adapted. They are like the "transfiguration" described in martial arts novels, the "magnetic mountains under the sea" in the West can be moved to China's "Iron Absorbing Ridge", and China's "weak water" can be added to the "Maldives" in the West, indicating that the trade exchanges between China and the Indian Ocean, including the Arab world, have also brought close cultural exchanges. These cultural exchanges have long been gradually localized to obscure their origins, making it difficult to trace their origins. However, on closer inspection, its slush claws can sometimes be glimpsed.
Editor-in-Charge: Shanshan Peng
Proofreader: Yijia Xu