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Zheng-de: Year 5, Month 7, Day 28

1 Sep 1510

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The Guang-dong Maritime Trade Supervisorate Eunuch Director Bi Zhen memorialized: "Under the old regulations, all the ocean-going ships were subject to management solely by the maritime trade supervisorate. Recently, the grand defender and grand coordinator and officials of the three offices have also been permitted to jointly manage these ships. It is requested that the old regulations be adhered to so as to facilitate matters." The Ministry of Rites proposed: "The function of the maritime trade supervisorate is to manage local products brought in tribute. The ocean-going merchant ships and the fan ships forced to anchor by the winds were not included in the gamut of the Imperial orders. The regulations should not be meddled with." When the memorial was submitted it was commanded that the matters be handled in accordance with the old regulations in force during the period of tenure of Xiong Xuan. Xuan was a eunuch director who formerly headed the maritime trade supervisorate. As he was initially not involved in the levying of proportional taxes (抽分) on the fan ships of Melaka and such countries, he submitted a memorial requesting that the supervisorate be also allowed to handle this. He was subsequently impeached by the Ministry of Rites and was dismissed. Liu Jin had sought private gain from Zhen and had thus falsely stated that this practice had a precedent.

Wu-zong: juan 65.8b-9a

Zhong-yang Yan-jiu yuan Ming Shi-lu, volume 64, page 1430/31

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Preferred form of citation for this entry:

Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/reign/zheng-de/year-5-month-7-day-28, accessed January 22, 2019