Nine Dragons to the Sea: Navigational Geography and Global Logistics in 16th-Century Zhangzhou
In the 16th-century global trade network, the Jiulong River was the “capillary” connecting the Ming Empire to global silver flows. After analyzing 16 historical sources including the Wanli Zhangzhou Prefecture Chronicle and Zhangzhou Agricultural Reclamation Chronicle, I discovered that Zhangzhou’s water system was not merely a natural river network—it was a sophisticated “hydraulic machine” composed of natural channels, artificial dikes, and monolithic stone bridges. From the original waterways of 1381 to the crisscrossing dike-fields and stone bridges of the late Wanli era, this system transformed from a “natural landscape” into a “global logistics platform.” ...