While previous scholars have paid much attention to the maritime history of Guangdong Fujian
and Zhejiang in southern China by contrast there are no monographs or articles focusing on
maritime history of Shandong in northern China in Western scholarship. However as a matter of
fact Shandong played a significant role in East Asian maritime history. This book attempts to
break through the Southeast China-centric framework by focusing attention on the Shandong
Peninsula during the Yuan-Ming transition (late thirteenth to early fifteenth centuries).Many
scholars have argued that there was rupture between the two dynasties in politics society and
culture or have argued the opposite from the perspective of land-centric history. By placing
Shandong maritime history into a supra-regional global historical context the author's study
challenges the Southeast China centrism the terra-centric model and various traditional views.
Ma argues that on the one hand there were obvious ruptures of maritime policy and maritime
trade from the Yuan to the Ming dynasties and on the other hand some things such as official
sea transportation continued from Yuan to Ming times. More importantly although the function
of the Shandong Peninsula changed from being primarily an important commercial entrepôt in the
Yuan to being a crucial military base during Ming times it is worth mentioning that it was a
process extending over several decades rather than a simple rupture.
