Junk (ship)
A Chinese sailing ship with watertight bulkheads and a central rudder.
A junk is a type of Chinese sailing ship characterized by a central rudder, an overhanging flat transom, watertight bulkheads, and a flat-bottomed design. Built using iron nails and clamps, the term applies to many types of small coastal or river vessels as well as large ocean-going ships. By the Song dynasty (c. 960 to 1279), Chinese junks adopted ocean-going technologies from Southeast Asian k'un-lun po trade ships, including tanja sails and fully battened junk rigs.
Quick Facts
- Origin
- China
- Key innovations
- Central rudder
- watertight bulkheads
- flat bottom
- iron nails and clamps
- Introduced rig types
- Tanja sails and fully battened junk rigs (by 12th century CE)
Facts from the source article.
Construction
Iconographic remains show Chinese ships before the 12th century used square sails, as seen in carvings from the Liu Sung or Liang dynasty (5th or 6th century) and in Dunhuang cave temple no. 45 (8th or 9th century). The battened junk sail, known as 'junk rig', likely originated in Southeast Asia, with its oldest depiction at the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom, Cambodia. The Chinese adopted it around the 12th century CE. Full-length battens keep the sail flatter than ideal, making the ability to sail close to the wind poorer than other fore-and-aft rigs. Unlike other shipbuilding traditions that developed from dugout canoes, the junk evolved from tapering rafts, explaining the absence of keels, very low decks, and solid transverse bulkheads instead of ribs or frames. Classic junks were built of softwoods (teak was used in Guangdong after the 17th century), with the outside shape built first, then multiple internal compartments accessed by separate hatches and ladders. The hull traditionally has a horseshoe-shaped stern supporting a high poop deck, and a flat bottom with no keel, relying on a daggerboard, leeboard, or very large rudder to prevent sideways slipping. Internal bulkheads provided interior compartments, strengthened the ship, and controlled flooding if holed. This construction was described in Zhu Yu's book Pingzhou Table Talks, published by 1119 during the Song dynasty, and later attested to by the traveler Ibn Battuta.
History
Chinese ships in ancient times were heavily fluvial, with a minority focused on open seas, crossing the East China Sea to Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. Regular maritime voyages to Southeast Asia did not occur until the 9th century CE, with some scholars suggesting an 11th-century date for the first records of Chinese ships from Fujian and Guangdong leaving for foreign trade. Large Austronesian trading ships, called kunlun bo or kunlun po, docking in Chinese seaports with as many as four sails were recorded as early as the 3rd century CE, described as capable of sailing against strong winds and violent waves, a capacity Chinese ships then lacked. Chinese Buddhist pilgrims booked passage on these ships to Southern India and Sri Lanka. In the 3rd century CE, Chinese envoys to Southeast Asia used foreign ships. In 683 CE, a Tang court envoy to Srivijaya likely booked passage in a foreign ship, and no Tang dynasty records mention Chinese junks used for trading with Southeast Asia. Kunlun bo trade increased by the 9th century, arriving regularly in southern Chinese ports. Around 770 CE, canal and river boat construction activity was attributed to Liu Yen, who created 10 shipwright yards. The state of Wuyue established diplomatic and maritime trade relations with Japan and Korea from at least 935 CE until its absorption by the Song dynasty in 978 CE, primarily motivated by Buddhism.
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