Melaka in Ming dynasty texts
Geoff Wade’s 1997 article surveys the full corpus of Ming dynasty Chinese texts bearing on the history of the Melaka polity from its emergence in the early fifteenth century through the Portuguese conquest and its aftermath. The overarching thesis is that the Ming Shi-lu (Ming Imperial Annals) and related Chinese sources constitute the most chronologically precise and detailed contemporary evidence for fifteenth-century Melaka, and that their systematic exploitation can correct, supplement, and challenge narratives derived from the Sejarah Melayu and Portuguese accounts.
Summary
Wade undertakes a comprehensive survey of over 100 references to Melaka in the Ming Shi-lu, supplemented by a range of secondary Ming texts including the Ying-yai Sheng-lan, Xing-cha Sheng-lan, Hai-yu, Da Ming Hui-dian, and Huang-yu Kao. His central methodological concern is how to deploy texts written from an imperial Chinese perspective—shaped by the tributary worldview and the compilers’ courtly prejudices—for the reconstruction of a Southeast Asian polity’s history. He argues that the MSL’s day-by-day chronological precision makes it an invaluable datum line against which Malay and Portuguese chronologies can be tested, while acknowledging that the annals’ focus on embassies and court ritual means they illuminate political history far more than social or economic life.
The article’s core arguments proceed along several axes. First, Wade demonstrates that the succession of Melaka’s early rulers can be firmly reconstructed from Chinese records, and that the title “Parameswara” appears in the MSL precisely as Tome Pires records it, yet is absent from the Sejarah Melayu—presumably excised after Islamization. Second, he shows that the Chinese record contradicts or complicates several claims in the Malay tradition: the length of Sultan Muzaffar Shah’s reign, the existence of the Chinese princess Hang Li Po, and the widely accepted accession date of Mahmud Shah. Third, Wade attempts to identify individual Melakan envoys by matching Chinese phonetic renderings (read in Hokkien or Cantonese rather than Mandarin) with Malay titles recorded in the Sejarah Melayu, yielding probable identifications for several bendaharas and senior officials.
A major thread of the article is the enigmatic figure “Huo-zhe Ya-san” (Khoja Hassan / Cojacao), who appears across multiple Chinese texts and in Portuguese sources as a participant in the Portuguese mission to China in the early 1520s. Wade proposes a tentative scenario in which the Laksamana of Melaka—possibly of Chinese or part-Chinese origin, and the son-in-law of Hang Tuah—became entangled with the Portuguese after the fall of Melaka, served as a mediator or intermediary, accompanied the Portuguese mission to the Chinese court, and was ultimately executed in Beijing following the death of the Wu-zong emperor. This reconstruction draws on the Ming Shi, the Shu-yu Zhou-zi Lu, the MSL, and the letters of the Portuguese captive Christovao Vieyra.
Key Findings
- The earliest reference to Melaka in any text in any language is the MSL entry of 28 October 1403, recording the dispatch of eunuch Yin Qing with an imperial proclamation to the kings of Melaka and Cochin (p. 31).
- The MSL records that Parameswara’s 1411 visit to China included an entourage of 540 persons, and that the emperor bestowed 100 ounces of gold, 500 ounces of silver, 400,000 guan of paper money, 2,600 strings of copper cash, 300 bolts of embroidered fine silks, and 1,000 bolts of thin silks (p. 41).
- The MSL records the enfeoffment of Sultan Mansur Shah in 1459, stating that his father Muzaffar Shah died “soon” after taking the throne—contradicting the 40 or 42-year reign attributed to Muzaffar Shah in other texts (pp. 40–41).
- The MSL records Mahmud Shah’s enfeoffment in 1481, suggesting his accession well before the widely accepted date of 1488, and contains no record whatsoever of the reign of Sultan Alau’d-din (p. 40).
- No evidence for the marriage of Sultan Mansur Shah to a Chinese princess (Hang Li Po) exists in any Ming text; Wade argues that had such a marriage occurred it would have been fully documented in the MSL or other official Chinese texts (p. 48).
- The MSL records that in 1520 the Portuguese had “previously seized Melaka” and were seeking enfeoffment from the Chinese court, and that Melaka had memorialized seeking Chinese assistance “but no action had been taken” (pp. 49–50).
Conclusion
Wade’s definitive historical takeaway is that the Ming texts—above all the Ming Shi-lu—provide the only truly contemporary textual evidence for fifteenth-century Melaka, and that their value lies not in being more “objective” or “authentic” than Malay or Portuguese sources but in offering a distinct perspective anchored by precise chronology. He concludes that the Melaka of the fifteenth century was a polity peopled by immigrants from across the archipelago and beyond, culturally and spiritually diverse, and skilled in maintaining its independence through international links, and that this history does not support a dichotomy between “indigenous” and “immigrant” populations.
Context
- Primary sources exploited: Ming Shi-lu (reign annals of successive Ming emperors), Ming Shi, Shu-yu Zhou-zi Lu (1574), Ying-yai Sheng-lan, Xing-cha Sheng-lan, Hai-yu, Da Ming Hui-dian, Da Ming Yi-tong-zhi, Huan-yu Tong-zhi, Huang-yu Kao, Zheng He Hang-hai Tu, and the letters of Portuguese captives in Canton (Ferguson 1902).
- Historiographical contribution: Wade’s article represents the first comprehensive, systematic survey of the entire corpus of Ming texts on Melaka, complete with critical appendices cataloguing the texts, their references, and phonetic reconstructions of personal names and titles. It builds on and synthesizes the earlier work of Wang Gungwu, Oliver Wolters, Paul Wheatley, and J.V.G. Mills, moving from their individual contributions to a unified treatment of the source base.