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IXTKOCUCTIOX.
(^29
for navigation is probably the account of the P'ing-chou-k'o-t'an, which Chi-
nese critics believe was supplied by the author's father during the latter part
of the eleventh century. Another early mention is found under the year 1122.
The rather disconnected notes on Chinese sea-trade contained iii the
6 P'ing-chou-k'o-t'an embody so much of interest on the general subject with
which we are dealing that they are given in full. They run as follows:
«At the Shi-po's (Inspector of Foreign Trade) pavilion there is close to
the water-side the Hai-shan-lou ^ (y^ (Jj ^^); it faces Wu-chou^ (5£ yj\\
'Five Islands'). Below this (the river) is called the «Little Sea» (/J> '/^).
10 In mid-current for some ten odd feet the ships can take water (from the sea
or river) aboard for use in crossing the sea ; this water does not spoil, but
water taken outside this limit of ten feet or more, and all ordinary well-water
navigation as early as the first century A. D. Reiuaud, GeograpLie d'Aboulfeda, I, CCIII— CCIV,
speaking of the oldest Arab references to the polarity of the magnetic needle, concludes his
15 remarks by saying: wThese various pieces of evidence prove that at the end of the XII ti and
beginning of the XIIIti> centuries the magnetic needle came into use (for navigation) at the same
time in the East and in the "WestB. It may well be, however, that the Arab traders engaged in
the China trade got their knowledge of the polarity of the magnetic needle from the Chinese and
applied it to navigation before the Chinese did. See Hirth, Ancient History of China, 126, 134.
20 Another early mention of the mariner's compass in Chinese works is that made by Sfl-king in the
narrative of his mission to Korea in 1122. He there describes the use of the csouth-pointing
floating needles (dig '^l ^^ '^) on the ships on which he sailed from Ning-po, as if it
were a new invention. Edkins, J. C. B. K. A. S., XI, 128—134. A. Wylie, Magnetic Compass
in China, quoting the M5ng-k'i-pi-t'an of the Sung period, shows that the Chinese, or at least
25 a few of them, had some knowledge of the changes which take place in the magnetic elements,
in the tenth to thirteenth century, but of the application of the magnetic compass to navigation
no mention is made earlier than that of the P'ing-chou-k'o-t'an.
E. H. Parker, China Eeview, XVIII, 197 says that tlie Sung-shu makes mention of a
Ksouth pointing ship»
(:j^ ^ -M-) during the Tsin (^) dynasty (A. D. 265—3 13), but this
30 is not sufficient evidence to show that the compass was used at that date for sea navigation.
J. Chalmers, China Review, XIX, 52—54 arrives at the conclusion that the «south-pointing
chariots)) mentioned in early Chinese records did not lead to the discovery of the compass)).
It is of interest to note that no reference occurs in any Chinese works of the T'ang or
Sung periods to the astrolabe, an instrument which must have been in very general use on the
35 Arab ships of those times.
1) The Hai-shan-lou, according to the Y0-ti-ki-sh6ng, the geography of the Southern Sung
dynasty, 89,11, is enumerated among the wsights worth seeing» of Canton. It was a building com-
manding a fine view of the surrounding country, and situated in a locality called Ki-mu-kan-li
(S @ *"° ^^^ ®*'"*^ "^ *^^ *''*y"" '^^^ ^""^^^ chronicles, quoted in the T'u-shu-tsi-
"F" M.)
40 ch'ong, Sect. 6. 1313,2, describe its situation as coutside the south-gate of the prefectural city
defenses)). This seems to involve that the Shi-po's office was in the southern suburbs of Canton
city and on the north shore of the Pearl Eiver.
2) On Wu-ch6u or Five Islands, see also supra, p. 23, n. 1. They cannot be identified at
present. The same remark applies to the Little Sea (Siau-hai), though it may be the Bay of
45 Lintin below the Bogue, since in a temple inscription of this neighbourhood, the Siau-hai is
opposed to the Ta-hai, the latter being east ot the former. P'ei-won yfln-fu, 40,35.