Chen Yanxiang

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Chen Yanxiang
Chinese name
Hanyu Pinyin
Chén Yànxiáng
Bopomofoㄔㄣˊ ㄧㄢˋㄒㄧㄤˊ
Gwoyeu RomatzyhChern Yannshyang
Wade–GilesChʻên2 Yen4-hsiang2
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationChàhn Yihn-chèuhng
JyutpingCan4 Jin6-coeng4
Southern Min
Hokkien POJTân Gān-siông
Korean nameHangul진언상Hanja陳彥祥

Chen Yanxiang (

Joseon Veritable Records, from which a "particularly colorful career"[1]
can be seen.

Chen first appears in a Veritable Records entry for 1394, when he was appointed to the Korean

Ayutthaya. At some point, he left Korea. He returned to Korea in 1406 with a cargo of exotic birds, pepper, and other Southeast Asian goods, claiming—without any credentials—to be an ambassador from a Javanese king. Off the Korean coastline, Chen was attacked by Japanese pirates possibly hired by the daimyo of Tsushima Island and lost his entire cargo. He eventually went back to Java after being hosted by Korean king Taejong and the "King of Japan", presumably the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi. Chen returned to Japan in 1411, this time with an official title of high rank granted by the Javanese court. He visited Kyoto, then Japan's capital, while sending his grandson to offer gifts to the Korean court. In 1412, his grandson asked the Korean government for a naval escort back to Java. The Korean government declined. Chen is not mentioned thereafter. He was the only known person from Indonesia to have ever visited dynastic Korea.[2]

Background

Chen Yanxiang was of

patih.[1]

In the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, Java was divided between multiple polities of which the most prominent was

Joseon Veritable Records, a Korean history which is the only source yet known for Chen's life,[8] refers only to "Java" (Korean: 爪哇 Jowa) without naming a specific polity. The polity that patronized the merchant is generally taken to be Majapahit, the independent Javanese state most active in maritime trade during the period.[9]

Career

Chen first appears in a Joseon Veritable Records entry for 2 September 1394, which states that he was appointed to a post in the Korean Bureau of Astronomy together with Zhang Sidao, a Chinese merchant from Ayutthaya.[10] A later entry states as an aside that Chen had come to Korea as an ambassador to present gifts.[11] Because Zhang was present in Korea in 1394 as a supposed ambassador of the king of Ayutthaya,[a] some historians have suggested that Chen was part of the supposed embassy.[1] However, there is no clear evidence that this is the case, and Chen is not mentioned in the Veritable Records entry for Zhang's first arrival in Korea, in 1393. As Zhang had gone to Japan before returning to Korea in 1394, Korean historian Cho Hung-guk speculates that Chen may have been in Japan in 1394 when he encountered Zhang and decided to follow him to Korea.[13]

Chen reappears in the Veritable Record entries for 1406, after apparently having left Korea at an unspecified date. On 4 June 1406, he set off from Java for Korea on a 33-meter-long

Taejong.[18]

On 27 October, Chen left Korea after receiving a written document from the Korean State Council confirming that Chen had indeed lost his goods to pirates, as he feared that the Javanese would not believe him.[19] He also donated his ship to the Koreans in return for a smaller Korean ship befitting the reduced number of sailors, and promised to return the next year.[3] After departing from Korea, Chen sailed into the Seto Inland Sea of Japan, where he was shipwrecked by a storm. He and the crew were then robbed of everything, including their clothes, by Japanese pirates. The "King of Japan", presumably the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi, rescued Chen and what remained of his crew and sent them back to Java together with a Japanese envoy at an unspecified date.[20]

On 6 November, ten days after Chen's departure, Sō Sadashige—the Japanese daimyo who ruled Tsushima Island—offered the Korean king gifts of pepper, fragrant wood, and peacocks, saying that they were from a southern ship that his troops had captured. Cho Hung-guk speculates that this was from the cargo of Chen Yanxiang.[21]

Chen's successful return voyage may have alerted the Javanese to the benefits of commercial and political ties to Korea and Japan,

Hakata in the seventh lunisolar month (21 July – 20 August) of 1411 and was allowed to visit the Japanese capital of Kyoto in early 1412.[23] At the same time, he sent his grandson, Chen Shichong (Chinese: 陳實崇 Chén Shíchóng), to Korea with Southeast Asian goods to thank the Korean government for its prior hospitality.[23]

Chen Shichong arrived in Korea in the fourth lunisolar month (11 May – 10 June) of 1412 and left on 3 July. Chen Shichong asked the Korean government for a naval escort back to Java, noting the dangers of Japanese pirates on the seas, who had repeatedly robbed his grandfather and might "murder us on the way [back] and conceal the traces [of the murder]."[24] The Korean government declined, reflecting its tepid attitude towards maritime ventures and foreign commerce.[2]

The Korean government's refusal of an escort is the last mention of Chen Yanxiang or his family in the surviving sources.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ Probably a private trading mission that feigned official status to receive greater favor from the Korean government[12]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d Reid 1992, p. 186.
  2. ^ a b c Cho 2009, p. 166.
  3. ^ a b Cho 2009, p. 151.
  4. ^ a b Reid 1992, pp. 181–186.
  5. ^ Cho 2009, p. 152.
  6. ^ Cho 2009, p. 143.
  7. ^ Cho 2009, pp. 143–144.
  8. ^ Cho 2009, p. 142.
  9. ^ Cho 2009, p. 144.
  10. ^ Cho 2009, p. 146.
  11. ^ Cho 2009, p. 148.
  12. ^ Cho 2009, p. 128.
  13. ^ Cho 2009, pp. 146–147.
  14. ^ Cho 2009, pp. 153–154.
  15. ^ a b c Cho 2009, p. 150.
  16. ^ Cho 2009, pp. 157–158.
  17. ^ Cho 2009, pp. 147–148.
  18. ^ Cho 2009, p. 149.
  19. ^ Cho 2009, pp. 150–151.
  20. ^ Cho 2009, pp. 158–160.
  21. ^ Cho 2009, p. 156.
  22. ^ a b Reid 1992, p. 187.
  23. ^ a b c Cho 2009, p. 159.
  24. ^ "中路殺我, 以滅其迹" Cho 2009, pp. 165–166

Works cited

  • Cho, Hung-guk (2009). Han'guk-gwa Dongnam Asia-ui Gyoryusa 한국과 동남아시아의 교류사 [History of Exchanges between Korea and Southeast Asia] (in Korean). Seoul, South Korea: Sonamu.
    ISBN 978-89-7139-557-8
    .
  • Reid, Anthony (1992). "The Rise and Fall of Sino-Javanese Shipping". In Houben, V.J.H.; Maier, H.M.J.; Van der Molen, W. (eds.). Looking in Odd Mirrors: The Java Sea. Leiden, The Netherlands: Leiden University Department of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 177–211.
    ISBN 9789073084063
    . Retrieved 6 August 2020.
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