Wang Dayuan

Wang Dayuan (c. 1311–1350), also known by his courtesy name Huanzhang, was a 14th-century traveler from Jiangxi, China. He undertook two major sea voyages. Between 1328 and 1333, he sailed through the South China Sea, visiting many parts of Southeast Asia and reaching as far as South Asia—including what are now Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and India. From 1334 to 1339, his travels extended to North and East Africa.

Around 1330, Wang visited the island of Singapore. There he recorded a small settlement called Danmaxi (Temasek), which had both Malay and Chinese residents and already featured an established Chinatown. His 1349 travelogue, Dao Yi Zhi Lue (A Brief Account of Island Barbarians), is one of the few surviving records of early Singapore.

Liuqiu

In that same work, Wang provided the first written account of a visit to Taiwan. He described it as the first overseas kingdom, writing that “overseas countries start from here.” He found no Chinese settlers on Taiwan itself, though many lived on the Penghu Islands. Wang referred to different parts of Taiwan as Liuqiu and Pisheye. Liuqiu, he wrote, was a large land with towering trees and mountains named Cuilu, Zhongman, Futou, and Dazhi.

One of these mountains was visible from Penghu; Wang climbed it and could see the coasts. The land had fertile fields and was hotter than Penghu. Its people had different customs: they used only rafts, not boats, and both men and women bound their hair and wore colored garments. They made salt by boiling seawater and liquor from fermented sugarcane juice.

Local chiefs were respected, and father-son relationships were described as bone-and-flesh. The people practiced cannibalism against enemies. Products included gold, beans, millet, sulfur, beeswax, deer hide, leopards, and moose. Trade goods accepted were pearls, agates, gold, beads, dishware, and pottery.

Pisheye

Pisheye, according to Wang, lay to the east. It had extensive mountains and plains, but the people did little farming and produced few goods. The climate was even hotter than Liuqiu. Its inhabitants wore their hair in tufts, tattooed their bodies with black juice, and wrapped red silk and yellow cloth around their heads.

Pisheye had no chief; the people hid in wild mountains and valleys, raiding and plundering by boat. Kidnapping and slave trading were common. Historian Efren B.