
<figure class="image-550">
<a href="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-28/13th-century-filipino-trade-large.webp" rel="lightbox">
<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-28/13th-century-filipino-trade.webp" alt="Black-and-white historical painting of pre colonial Filipinos trading with Chinese merchants by a bay, with Chinese junks anchored in the background." loading="lazy" />
</a>

<figcaption>
An illustration of pre-colonial trade in Ma-yi, showing Filipinos and Chinese merchants exchanging goods along the bay, with junks visible in the distance.
</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
First appearing in Chinese imperial records in the late tenth century, Ma-i represents the earliest external attestation of an organized political state within the Philippine archipelago, serving as a critical hub in the vast Nanhai (South Seas) maritime trade network.   
</p>
<p>
By re-evaluating the foundational thirteenth-century text, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Fan_Zhi" class="news-link-ext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zhu Fan Zhi</a> (諸蕃志 / Gazetteer of Foreign Lands), compiled by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Rukuo" class="news-link-ext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zhao Rugua</a> (Chao Ju-kua) in 1225, alongside contemporary archaeological discoveries, this study reconstructs the political geography, trading mechanics, material culture, and socio-religious realities of Ma-i. In doing so, it updates and improves upon antiquated colonial-era interpretations, demonstrating that globalization was actively shaping the Philippine archipelago centuries before European contact.   
</p>
<h2>
Historical Foundations and Textual Transmission of the Zhu Fan Zhi
</h2>
<p>
To establish the historical validity of Ma-i, one must analyze the geopolitical context of the <b>Southern Song Dynasty</b> (1127–1279 AD) and the editorial history of the Zhu Fan Zhi. The Southern Song period was characterized by a massive expansion of maritime commerce, driven in part by the loss of northern overland trade routes and the subsequent imperial prioritization of ocean-going trade.   
</p>
<p>
The chronicler Zhao Rugua (1170–1231 AD) was a member of the Song imperial clan. He served as the Superintendent of Maritime Trade (Shih-po-shih) in Quanzhou, Fujian province, a premier global entrepôt frequented by Arab, Persian, Indian, and Southeast Asian merchants. While early twentieth-century scholars hypothesized his active period to be 1277–1287 AD, modern biographical reconstructions confirm his death in 1231, placing the compilation of the Zhu Fan Zhi precisely between 1224 and 1225.   
</p>
<p>
Unlike later travelers such as <b>Wang Dayuan</b>, who recorded personal observations in the 1349 Daoyi Zhilüe, Zhao Rugua was an armchair geographer. His administrative position allowed him to systematically interview foreign sailors and merchants, translating their oral testimonies into Chinese and cross-referencing them with older geographical records to filter out mythological exaggerations.   
</p>

<p>
The textual transmission of Zhao Rugua's description of Ma-i to modern scholars is a complex narrative of colonial translation. In 1891, the German sinologist Dr. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hirth" class="news-link-ext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Friedrich Hirth</a> translated portions of the Zhu Fan Zhi manuscript directly into English. He shared this draft with the Austrian ethnologist <a href="/kauswagan/articles/2818/today-in-philippine-history-september-10-1853-ferdinand-blumentritt-rizals-close-friend-was-born-in-prague" class="news_link">Ferdinand Blumentritt</a>, who translated it into Spanish and annotated it heavily. Blumentritt sent this translated chapter to the exiled Philippine national hero, Dr. <a href="/kauswagan/articles/1190/today-in-philippine-history-june-19-1861-dr-jose-p-rizal-was-born-in-calamba-laguna" class="news_link">José Rizal</a>, in 1894. This version was subsequently published in the Periodico Hebdomadario Escolar in November 1901 by <a href="/articles/3242/today-in-filipino-history-november-23-1876-jose-clemente-zulueta-was-born-in-paco-manila" class="news_link">Jose Clemente Zulueta</a> (also recorded as Clemente J. Zulueta).   
</p>
<p>
A separate Spanish and English parallel translation was published by P.L. Stangl in the Revista Histórica de Filipinas (1905), which structurally divided the text into two distinct chapters: Chapter XL ("Ma-yi") and Chapter XLI ("San-Hsü"). The definitive English translation by Hirth and Rockhill in 1911 established the academic standard for studying medieval South China Sea trade, though contemporary historians acknowledge that many of its geographical annotations have been superseded by modern archaeological discoveries.   
</p>
<h2>
Diplomatic Origins and Regional Hegemony
</h2>
<p>
The diplomatic history of Ma-i is preserved in the official dynastic histories of the Song Empire. The polity first enters the written record in Volume 186 of the Song Shi (History of the Song Dynasty), which lists Ma-i among the sovereign "southern sea nations" trading with Guangzhou in the year 971 AD, the fourth year of the Kai Bao era. This imperial edict regulated and taxed what the court deemed a highly lucrative, "luxurious" trade, providing what historian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Scott_(historian)" class="news-link-ext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">William Henry Scott</a> describes as the first positive reference to an organized political state in the Philippine archipelago.   
</p>
<p>
Earlier regional references suggest that Ma-i was an established maritime power long before its formal entry into Chinese court records. The ninth-century Arabic geographer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ya%27qubi" class="news-link-ext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Al Ya'akubi</a>, writing around 800 AD, recorded that the Kingdom of Musa (old Brunei, or <b>P'o-ni</b>) was in a strategic alliance with the Kingdom of <b>Mayd</b> (phonetically identified as Ma-i) to wage naval warfare against the Chinese Empire. In 1980, historian <b>Robert Nicholl</b> identified the nation of "Maidh", mentioned in tenth-century Bruneian sultanate records, as Ma-i, reflecting its role as a regional maritime force.   
</p>
<p>
By 982 AD, the <b>Wenxian Tongkao</b> (Comprehensive Examination of Literature) records that Ma-i merchants bypassed intermediate ports, sailing directly to the Canton coast on independent trading vessels to present valuable native merchandise to the imperial court. This direct voyage bypassed the standard tributary trade managed by kingdoms like Brunei or Champa, signaling Ma-i's growing commercial independence and naval capability.   
</p>





<h2>
The Geographic Dispute: Mindoro versus the Laguna de Bay Core
</h2>
<p>
A major debate in Philippine historiography centers on the precise geographical location of Ma-i's political and commercial center. For over a century, two competing hypotheses have shaped the academic landscape.   
</p>
<h3 class="my-h3">
The Mindoro (Mait) Hypothesis
</h3>
<p>
The traditional consensus, championed by early twentieth-century scholars such as Fay-Cooper Cole and later supported by William Henry Scott, equates Ma-i with the island of Mindoro. This theory rests on several key arguments:   
</p>
<ul class="k-list">
<li>
<b>Phonetic Continuity:</b> Proponents argue that "Ma-i" (or "Ma-yi") is a Sinitic phonetic rendering of "Mait", the historical pre-colonial name for Mindoro. To this day, the indigenous upland Mangyans of Oriental Mindoro refer to the southern coastal lowlands of Bulalacao as "Mait". Early Spanish chronicles also preserve "Mait" as a local toponym.   
</li>
<li>
<b>Insular Geography:</b> The geographical parameters in the Zhu Fan Zhi describe Ma-i as an island polity situated north of Borneo (P'o-ni), featuring flatlands and lacking fortified cities, which aligns with Mindoro's coastal, non-fortified harbors. Its southern orientation relative to major trade routes sailing from Fujian allowed direct voyages while avoiding mainland conflicts involving Java or the Srivijaya Empire.   
</li>
</ul>

<h3 class="my-h3">
The Bay, Laguna (Bai) Hypothesis
</h3>
<p>
First proposed in detail by Filipino-Chinese historian <b>Bon Juan Go</b> in 2004–2005, a compelling counter-hypothesis argues that Ma-i was located in the circum-lake region of <b>Laguna de Bay</b> in southwestern Luzon, centered around the ancient settlement of Bay (pronounced <b>Ba-i</b> or <b>Ba'i</b>). This theory draws on linguistic, geological, and archaeological evidence:   
</p>
<ul class="k-list">
<li>
<b>The Sinitic Phonetic Shift:</b> Go highlights a fundamental rule in historical Chinese transcriptions of Austronesian languages: because medieval Sinitic dialects lacked a direct equivalent for the voiced bilabial stop <b>/b/</b>, scribes routinely substituted it with the nasal <b>/m/</b>. This systemic phonetic substitution is well-documented in other trade names, such as Bataan becoming Wao-ta-an, Batangas rendered as Ma-tang-an, and Bicol recorded as Mi-kut. Consequently, the archaic name Bai, Bae, or Bahi (the historical name of the lake and its dominant settlement) would naturally be transcribed by Chinese merchants as Ma-i.   
</li>
<li>
<b>Material Culture and Population Scale:</b> Go argues that the highly developed, populous, and agricultural communities of Laguna de Bay provide a more plausible backdrop for a polity capable of dispatching independent trade and diplomatic missions to the Song court than the dispersed, small-scale upland Mangyan settlements of pre-colonial Mindoro. Historically, the Ba'i territory was immense, controlling rich agricultural flatlands and an extensive network of inland waterways via the Pasig River, which connected directly to Manila Bay.   
</li>
<li>
<b>Geological and Waterway Connections:</b> The Zhu Fan Zhi notes that "about one thousand families inhabit the shores of a river which has many windings". Geological reconstructions and historical maps from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries suggest that Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay were once a continuous body of water. Over centuries of volcanic activity and alluvial deposition, they were separated, leaving the meandering Pasig River as the sole navigational link. In the tenth to thirteenth centuries, Chinese ocean-going junks could easily have navigated directly into the lake area.   
</li>
<li>
<b>The Epigraphical Baseline:</b> The discovery of the <a href="/articles/3347/900-ad-laguna-copperplate-new-2022-insights" class="news_link">Laguna Copperplate Inscription</a> (LCI), securely dated to 900 AD, confirms the existence of a highly literate, legally sophisticated, and gold-standardized administrative network in the Laguna de Bay zone decades before Ma-i's first appearance in Chinese annals. The document lists complex local judicial actions and mentions chieftains of nearby areas like Tondo and San Puliran, indicating a regional federation that aligns structurally with the description of Ma-i.   
</li>
</ul>

<div class="table-wrapper">
  <table>
    <caption>Comparative analysis of the arguments, evidence, and regional contexts validating the Mindoro (Mait) and Bay, Laguna (Bai) geographic hypotheses for Ma-i.</caption>
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th>Parameter</th>
        <th>Mindoro (Mait) Hypothesis</th>
        <th>Bay, Laguna (Bai) Hypothesis</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <td>Linguistic Origin</td>
        <td>Direct phonetic link to indigenous name Mait.</td>
        <td>Chinese /b/ to /m/ phonetic substitution (Bai → Ma-i).</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Geographic Context</td>
        <td>Open coastal harbors, vulnerable to maritime weather but direct from Fujian.</td>
        <td>Protected inland lake system connected to Manila Bay via the navigable Pasig River.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Sociopolitical Scale</td>
        <td>Dispersed, kinship-based upland communities of Mangyans.</td>
        <td>Centralized, high-density riverine and lakeshore agricultural federation.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Epigraphical Alignment</td>
        <td>None discovered.</td>
        <td>Direct correlation with the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (900 AD).</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Archaeological Core</td>
        <td>Maritime porcelain finds at coastal waypoints like Puerto Galera.</td>
        <td>Extensive terrestrial trade pottery and localized cremation burial sites.</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</div>


<h2>
Toponymic Mapping and Subordinate Districts
</h2>
<p>
The Zhu Fan Zhi lists several subordinate islands and districts belonging to the wider jurisdiction of Ma-i, which early commentators struggled to identify. Integrating modern historical and linguistic updates, these toponyms can be systematically mapped.   
</p>
<p>
The text notes that San-hsü (三洲 / "Three Islands") belongs to Ma-i and names its constituent components as Kia-ma-yen (Calamian), Pa-lau-yu (Palawan), and Pa-ki-nung (Busuanga), with each maintaining its own scattered tribes. Stangl and other early authors argued that under the name San-hsü were understood the Visayans proper, together with the islands of Mindoro and Palawan, with Pa-chi-neng (or Pa-kat-lung) serving as the term for the true Visayans.   
</p>


<p>
The northernmost boundary of Ma-i's geographical sphere was marked by Pai-pu-yen (the Babuyan Islands), while P'u-li-lu (Polillo Island) indicates that Ma-i's traders navigated the Pacific littoral. In the western Luzon region, Lim-kia-tung (Lingayen) and Lin-hsin (Calilaya/modern Tayabas) represent key coastal districts within Ma-i's orbit.   
</p>
<p>
The settlement of Li-han has historically been associated by Blumentritt with <a href="/articles/3151/the-history-of-malolos-bulacan-cradle-of-the-first-philippine-republic" class="news_link">Malolos, Bulacan</a>, where local rulers bore titles like Gat-Salian. However, William Henry Scott's revised translation shows that Li-han was not politically ruled by Ma-i, but was a separate settlement of a similar classification. Modern scholarship suggests Li-han refers either to Lubang Island or Lumban, Laguna, the latter situated precisely in the core geographic zone of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription.   
</p>

<div class="table-wrapper">
  <table>
    <caption>Historical toponyms listed in the Zhu Fan Zhi and their modern geographical correlates across the Philippine archipelago.</caption>
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th>Zhu Fan Zhi Toponym</th>
        <th>Proposed Modern Equivalent</th>
        <th>Regional Significance and Context</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <td>Ka-may-en / Kia-ma-yen</td>
        <td>Calamian Islands / Mait</td>
        <td>Major island group acting as a trade waypoint between Mindoro and Palawan.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Pa-lau-yu</td>
        <td>Palawan (Paragua)</td>
        <td>Resource-rich western frontier; source of high-quality tortoise shell and forest products.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Pa-ki-nung / Pa-chi-neng</td>
        <td>Busuanga / Visayas</td>
        <td>Largest of the Calamian islands; linked to the broader Visayan cultural sphere.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Pai-pu-yen</td>
        <td>Babuyan Islands</td>
        <td>Northern maritime boundary; served as a key landfall site for ships sailing south from Taiwan.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>P'u-li-lu</td>
        <td>Polillo Island (or Mindanao)</td>
        <td>Eastern Pacific gateway; noted for hazardous reefs and valuable coral harvests.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Lim-kia-tung / Li-yun-tung</td>
        <td>Lingayen (Pangasinan) / Catanduanes</td>
        <td>Important northwest Luzon trading gulf; direct connections to the northern mainland.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Lin-hsin</td>
        <td>Calilaya (modern Tayabas)</td>
        <td>Southern Luzon littoral; linked the internal lake networks to the Pacific trade routes.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Li-han</td>
        <td>Lubang Island / Lumban, Laguna</td>
        <td>Politically independent but culturally aligned; site of the Laguna Copperplate discovery.</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</div>

<p>
This geographic dispersion indicates that Ma-i was not a single, isolated town, but rather an extensive maritime trade network or a loose federation of coastal and riverine polities spanning western and central Luzon, Mindoro, Palawan, and the Calamian group, all operating under a dominant trading hub.   
</p>
<h2>
Trading Protocols, Material Exchange, and Customary Law
</h2>
<p>
The Zhu Fan Zhi provides an exceptionally vivid, step-by-step account of the trading mechanism employed at Ma-i, highlighting a highly organized, credit-based system governed by customary laws.   
</p>
<p>
When trading ships entered the harbor, they anchored in front of the "official plaza" (Shi-po), which served as the designated venue for barter and international commerce. Once the cargo was registered, the foreign merchants and local traders mixed freely. A mandatory diplomatic gift was required to secure trading rights, specifically white umbrellas or parasols, which were highly valued by local chiefs as symbols of state authority and elite status.   
</p>
<p>
The exchange was built on a trust-based barter protocol. Local merchants would board the Chinese junks, transport the imported cargo inland in woven baskets, and barter these goods in remote interior settlements. The Chinese merchants remained on board or at the port for several months while these transactions occurred.   
</p>
<p>
Once the inland transactions were complete, the local merchants returned with the exact agreed-upon quantities of native products to settle their accounts. If some local traders failed to return on time, the Chinese vessels would delay their departure, secure in the knowledge that native customary laws strictly enforced debt repayment. This highly organized, credit-based trading system demonstrates that Ma-i possessed robust, complex customary laws (adat) governing international commercial contracts.   
</p>

<p>
The specific commodities traded reflect a mature division of labor and resources, with imports from China driving technological and social transformations in Ma-i, while exports from Ma-i supplied essential raw materials to the Chinese market.   
</p>

<div class="table-wrapper">
  <table>
    <caption>Primary import and export commodities exchanged between Chinese merchants and the inhabitants of Ma-i and their functional utility.</caption>
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th>Sinitic Imports to Ma-i</th>
        <th>Indigenous Exports from Ma-i</th>
        <th>Socio-Economic and Functional Significance</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <td>Porcelain & High-fired Stoneware</td>
        <td>Yellow Beeswax</td>
        <td>Imported ceramics served as elite prestige goods and essential mortuary offerings. Beeswax, interpreted by Stangl as an aromatic resin resembling pitch, was prized in China for candlemaking.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Trade Gold & Copper Alloys</td>
        <td>Kapok Cotton & Woven Fabrics</td>
        <td>Foreign gold supplemented local alluvial gold panning. Native kapok was used for textiles, bedding, and trade goods.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Iron Pots, Cauldrons, & Fixtures</td>
        <td>Yu-ta (Abaca/Ramie) Cloth</td>
        <td>Metal cookware and fixtures revolutionized domestic technology. Abaca textiles were highly durable, valued as sails or clothing.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Lead Fishnet Sinkers & Tin</td>
        <td>Tortoise Shell</td>
        <td>Lead and tin were utilized for domestic casting and specialized maritime fishing equipment. Tortoise shell was a luxury raw material in China for ornamental carvings.</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Colored Glass Beads</td>
        <td>Medicinal Betel Nuts</td>
        <td>Beads functioned as decorative jewelry and status symbols. Betel nut was a widespread social stimulant across East and Southeast Asia.</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</div>

<p>
The introduction of "little copper coins" in transactions, as noted in the Zhu Fan Zhi, has sparked considerable numismatic debate. While Blumentritt hypothesized the circulation of Siamese and Javanese gold and copper coins, Stangl and Scott argued that commercial gold was primarily traded in the form of gold dust or ornaments, with any foreign coinage introduced directly by Chinese traders to facilitate localized exchange. This local gold trade is epigraphically supported by the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, which details debt settlement in standardized units of gold (kati and suwarna).   
</p>
<h2>
Religious Fusion and Mortuary Archaeology
</h2>
<p>
The spiritual landscape of Ma-i was characterized by a syncretic blend of indigenous animist practices and Hindu-Buddhist cosmological influences, typical of the wider classical Southeast Asian cultural sphere.   
</p>
<p>
A critical passage in the 1225 Zhu Fan Zhi states:
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"There are bronze images of gods, of unknown origin, scattered in the grassy wilderness."    
</p>
</div>
<p>
In his historiographical critique, William Henry Scott pointed out that the original Chinese characters literally translate to "metal Buddhas" (jin fo 金佛). Friedrich Hirth and subsequent translators opted to render this as "metal/bronze images" or "statues of unknown origin" to avoid an assumed Buddhist bias. Scott wondered whether these statues were actively worshipped by the contemporary inhabitants of Ma-i, noting that:   
</p>
<div class="article-comment">
<p>
"The people in Ma-i sound like newcomers to this port since they don't know where those metal statues in the jungle come from."    
</p>
</div>
<p>
However, early nationalist scholars like José Rizal embraced the original "Buddhas" translation to argue for an advanced, pre-Hispanic Buddhist footprint in the Tagalog region. Modern archaeology strongly validates this connection.   
</p>
<p>
The discovery of the solid-gold Vajralasika image (commonly known as the Agusan Image) in northeastern Mindanao, a clay Buddhist Bodhisattva medallion in Palawan, and copper-alloy Buddhist relics in Cebu confirms that the pre-Islamic and pre-Spanish Philippines was deeply integrated into the cultural and religious networks of the Hindu-Buddhist Srivijaya and Majapahit empires. 
</p>  

<p>
The mortuary record provides the strongest empirical link between Chinese texts and physical soil. The 1349 Daoyi Zhilüe by Wang Dayuan records that when a prominent chief died, his wife was expected to practice a form of ritual self-sacrifice on his funeral pyre (cremation). This reference to cremation is highly significant in the "Mindoro vs. Laguna de Bay" debate. To date, no pre-colonial cremation burial sites have been archaeologically documented in Mindoro.   
</p>



Ma-i Explained: A Pre-Colonial Philippine Trade Polity


Explore the sophisticated trade network of Ma-i. Discover how medieval Chinese records and modern archaeology reconstruct this pre-Hispanic giant.

