Nanhaihangdaogenglujing
01 · Historical Records
According to historical records, as early as the 18th century AD, residents along China's South China Sea coast were already engaged in the exploitation of the sea's aquatic resources. In the Han dynasty, China opened the "Maritime Silk Road" in the South China Sea.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The South China Sea Routes Records are knowledge of sea lanes and associated practice for navigating the South China Sea, accumulated over many centuries by the people of Hainan through practical experience. Wenchang City in Hainan Province has Qinglan Harbor, an important port for South China Sea navigation; most voyages to the islands of the South China Sea set sail from here. Residents of the coastal areas of Hainan Island summarized their seafaring experience and wrote it down as the South China Sea Genglu Records, which circulated in handwritten copies. To this day, the South China Sea Routes Records still play an important role, serving as a guide for Hainan fishermen going out to sea.
Preparations at Qinglan port
Before departure the crew opens the manual to the relevant stretch and counts off the watches, a measure of sixty li each.
Copying the manuscript by hand
Manuscripts are copied by hand and weather; when pages fade, the copyist starts a fresh volume beside the old one.
The spoken genglu chuan
Alongside the manuscript runs oral teaching: an old captain gives the stretches, the turns and the weather detours by word of mouth.
Choosing a route by the fishing season
Voyages follow the fishing seasons: the written route is checked against what the sea actually shows, and changed if they disagree.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
On Hainan, the most important center for the transmission of the South China Sea Routes Records is the area around Wenchang. Qinglan Harbor, within Wenchang City, is an important port for South China Sea navigation; most voyages to the islands of the South China Sea set sail from here, so the compass bearings, distances, and names of islands and reefs along the routes accumulated in Wenchang along the shipping lanes. The way this knowledge circulated in coastal villages differed from elsewhere: most of it was held by working fishermen and passed down orally from household to household; a paper copy of the Genglu Records often existed in only one volume, and when it wore out another was copied by hand. Together with the Tanmen Harbor route in the Qionghai area, these two lines continued in parallel, jointly supporting Hainan's two main gateways to the sea. What the records contain is not just distances but also the names of islands and reefs along the way, water depths, currents, and places to take shelter from wind; such information could not be copied from anywhere else—it could only be gathered voyage by voyage. For this reason the route records of the Wenchang area are more detailed than ordinary inland route descriptions and more closely tailored to the actual needs of fishing vessels. When elders taught the routes, they usually first spoke of where one could stop and where one must take shelter from wind, and only then how to sail; young people listened and took notes by their side, and after making several voyages themselves could compile their own volume. In this way the skill was passed down year after year. There were also rules about the timing of voyages: when to open the season and when to close the fishing run had to be calculated before the year began. If one miscalculated the dates, wind and waves on the route spared no one, and the lives of a whole boat's crew rode on it; therefore reading the weather was as crucial as reading the records, and one had to master both. In recent years fishing boats have grown larger and instruments more numerous, but the old route knowledge is still remembered by the elders, because a machine can report position but not where a hidden reef lies or which reef's lee offers shelter; this layer of experience must still be passed down orally from generation to generation.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In addition, an orally transmitted form of the route records still circulates among the people. As a true historical record of the ancient Hainan people's discovery and development of the islands of the South China Sea, the South China Sea Routes Records are powerful evidence that these islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times, and they provide precious historical material for research into China's foreign trade history, navigation history, and the history of South China Sea development.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Shubao 05-3054
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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