The establishment of the Portuguese in Macau in the 16th century is a subjecton which opinions differ markedly both in Portugal and in China.
Generations of Portuguese have been taught from primary school onwards that China endowed Portugal with Macau in acknowledgement of the assistance they had given their forefathers during the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the wars against the pirates who infested the coastal regions of the Middle Kingdom at that time (1), (2) and (3).
The official historians in China are diametrically opposed to this view. The Portuguese presence in Macau is explained as the colonial occupation of part of the Chinese territory by Portugal. Some regard the Portuguese as pirates themselves or their allies or teachers.Their response to the traditional Portuguese argument is to treat it as a grave distortion of history, a sheer fabrication invented at a later date (4), (5) and (6).
A third interpretation of the situation prescents Macau as a commercial trading post, established on the Peninsula of Macau, rented to the Portuguese by the Chinese authorities (7), (8) and (9).
Fragmentary opinions formed statically on isolated moments in history; the interpretation of facts from a remote past according to present criteria for analysis and social criticism; the overestimation or depreciation of facts and figures due to deep-rooted prejudices, all of these produce biased research results and provide a foundation for partial, distorted or improbable explanations.
We have a profound belief that the history of Macau, built both by Chinese and Westerners, has confronted questions of this nature but, up to this moment, they have not been resolved because of an additional barrier: the inaccessibility of Western sources of information to Chinese researchers and historians and vice versa.
It should be noted that there have been episodes in the history of Macau when the Portuguese have stood with the Chinese people and authorities against extraneous parties. These episodes constitute the basis for the Portuguese interpretation. At other times Portuguese interests have been in direct opposition to those of the Chinese and have given rise to armed conflict. Finally, the establishment and continuity of the Portuguese in Chinese territory was facilitated by the Chinese authorities in return for the regular payment of a land feu (Foro do Chão) in compensation for the cultural and economic profits reaped from the neighbouring Chinese regions.
We can find evidence of all three of the above-mentioned interpretations in the history of Macau. However, in our view the correct balance has not yet been found between them to enable a historical explanation for the Portuguese presence in Macau for over four centuries.
In view of such a long stay, the starting point for any working theory must be the desire of the Portuguese to remain here and the Chinese authorities' permission, whether voiced or not, enthusiastic or reticent, to let them remain.
Against this seemingly indisputable background the investigators must extract from all the extant bibliographic and documentary evidence the materials from which the main threads of Macau's history will be drawn.
Consequently there is an indispensable need for research work and the translation of documents which will allow both Chinese and Western investigators equal access to the sources of Macau's history.
The Cultural Institute has taken on this mammoth task: with a team of Portuguese researchers and another of Chinese researchers it is organizing the collection, classification and translation of all documentation containing data relevant to the history of Macau in chronological order with an aim to publishing it in at least bilingual editions. This is not a mere academic exercise. Nor is it an overdue fulfillment of obligations for those for whom nothing is worth the effort now that China and Portugal have agreed upon the future (or rather the end) of Macau, which will take place in 1999.
What it is attempting is to bring to fruition the phrase in the Joint Declaration in which the Portuguese and Chinese States resolved to find an "appropriate solution to the question of Macau in terms of its past" (10).
The "strengthening of friendly and cooperative relations" in the future will not be possible if misunderstandings about the past remain.
The structure and contents of the past must be clearly defined through open cooperation and pure scientific research carride out by Portuguese and Chinese specialists with the sole aim of building a healthy society for the future freed from the problems of the past.
Jorge Morbey
President of the Cultural Institute of Macau
NOTES
(1)Towards the end of the 1556, the notorious pirate Chan-si lau held a reign of terror over the waters of the Chinese Gulf, thus devastating the coastal communities of that area. The Portuguese, who wanted to curry favour with the Chinese with an end to establishing trade links, repeatedly attacked the pirate and succeeded in defeating him. Even if there is no documentary proof of this it is generally accepted that the Emperor Che-tseng (called Kia-tsing during his life) gave the Portuguese Macau as a reward for their assistance.
(Bento da França; Subsídios para a História de Macau, Imprensa Nacional, Lisbon, 1888).
(2) "China sanctions the sustained occupation and administration of Macau and its territories by Portugal as with any other Portuguese possession."
(Article 2 of the Lus-Chinese Protocol, issued in Lisbon on the 26th of March 1887. Published in the "Boletim da Província de Macau e Timor", no. 20, vol. XXXIII, of the 19th May, 1887.)
(3) "China sanctions, in its entirety, art. 2 of the Protocol of Lisbon which deals with the sustained occupation and government of Macau by Portugal."
(Article 2 of the Treaty of Friendship and Trade between Portugal and China of the 1st of December, 1887. Published as "The Treaty on Friendship and Trade between Portugal and the Chinese Empire" by the Imprensa Nacional, Lisboa in 1888.)
(4) The author, Dai Yixuan, has consulted diverse historical documentation both in Chinese and other foreign languages and, taking historical reality as his base, he describes in detail the question of the invasion of Chinese territory by the pirate-coloniser-Portuguese, the atrocities they perpetrated and the Chinese struggle against the Portuguese colonization.
The treatise relates the course of the Portuguese invasion of Macau and the activities of the Portuguese over seventy years of history up to the arrival of Mateus Ricci in China in 1587...
For many years, however, some studious Westerners have been eager to discredit this version of history claiming that the Portuguese were given Macau as a reward for helping the Chinese get rid of the pirates...
( Dai Yixuan 戴裔煊： 《明史•佛郎機傅箋正》 History of the Ming Dynasty, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, 1984 )
(5) Dai Yixuan: Sobre a Questão da Chamadaa Expulsão dos Piratas na História de Macau. Published by Livraria Seng Kwong, Macau, April 1987.
(6) 27th of November, 1623.
Report on the founding of Macau written by Diogo Calderia do Rego, scribe to the City Chamber. Bibioteca Nacional de Macau - MS. 20262.
Short report on the City of the Name of God in the Kingdom of China from its beginning to the year 1623.
After the first Portuguese arrived in this part of China in 1524, they spent eighteen years trading with the Chinese on the Island of Sanchuao and twelve years in Lampacao. Then they discovered the port of Amacao where, on finding more merchandise and better trading conditions, they gradually came to stay. At first they made their houses of straw, then of mud and within thirty years, without realising it, the settlement had become a city as was confirmed in the year 1584...
The first settlers maintained peaceful trade relations with China and they travelled to India, Japan and Siam with no fear of enemies and heedless of what lay before them. Each man built up his own life paying no regard to the rest of the community with the result that the city became very spread out and was poorly defended. The emperor of China had not given permission for the city to be built and it had only been possible because the mandarins, who were sent to administer the area on behalf of the emperor and were regularly changed, preferred to turn a blind eye to it all. There were frequent disputes between the Portuguese and the mandarins. The Portuguese remained as loyal to the King of Portugal as when they had risked their lives in embarking on long voyages to discover these distant ports. They built the city for the benefit of their descendents who expanded it at the same cost and greater risks without receiving any compensation from the crown which has, instead, taken all the revenue out of the city.
They made great efforts to convince the Chinese of the need to build a wall round the city and, after receiving more bribes, some mandarins came to see the enemy's* ships and their dead. They took some heads back to Canton with them to prove that the wall was for no other purpose than to defend the city against invaders. The bribes worked, all the obstacles were overcome and work began on the wall. The mandarins took no notice of the zeal of the workmen and in little over a year large stretches of the wall had been completed. It was 144 inches thick and 280 inches high with control towers and parapets virtually closing in the city completely. Had it not been for the arrival of the enemy, this wall would never have been built to protect the stronghold of the Estate of his Majesty.
(Luz, Francisco P. Mendes da: O Conselho da Índia, Lisbon, 1952).
(7) Although it is a generally admitted fact that the Chinese handed over the rights to Macau to the Portuguese, there is still controversy about the terms under which this was done. Distinguished sinologists and writers are in agreement that, although nothing was demanded from the Portuguese, they themselves offered the emperor an annual gift of five hundred silver taels. This was probably the case bearing in mind that no demand for a land feu was made until the Tartar-Manchu Dynasty came to power in a reign which forbade even the Chinese from preserving their rights and traditions.
(Bento ad Françs: Ob. cit.)
(8) The mandarin Lin Fu presented the Emperor with the following memorandum: "In Guangdong, public and private revenue comes principally from taxes. If foreigners are prevented from coming then both the public and private sectors will be put in an embarrassing situation. Allowing the Portuguese to trade with us has four advantages. In the past, several countries traded with us bringing goods and paying taxes. A small proportion of these taxes went to the emperor's coffers. Secondly, an army is maintainted which is prepared for unforeseen circumstances. Guangxi has always been dependant on Guangdong. It would only take one military confrontation to destroy the city. The third advantage is that allowing foreign ships to come would solve the economic problem. The population has always depended on small trade and bartering for its survival. This is the fourth advantage. Opening our ports to foreign trade will help not only the people but also the country.
For the good of our people we must wake up and attend to this situation."
N. B. The memorandum was delivered to the Emperor in 1529.
(Dai Yixuan: História da Dinastia Ming, idem.)
(9) The Portuguese colonisers benefitted from the healthy trading relations between the Chinese and the South East Asian communities with the assistance of a Chinese called Zhou Luan who, in 1553 (the 32nd year of Jia Jing), introduced them as representatives of a trading company. They bribed an official of "Wang Bai" maritime services and the next year they had obtained authorisation to trade with the ports of the province of Guangdong according to the tax regulations.
Before this, the Portuguese pirate-merchants had traded clandestinely with the Chinese in the village of Nan Shui, in Lang Bai Jiao. After gaining permission from "Wang Bai", not only did they sail freely to and from the ports of the province of Guandong but they also entered the city of Guangzhou. In the meantime, claiming that their merchandise was damp, they moved from Lang Bai Jiao to Hao Jing Ao under the pretext of getting ground to dry it.
(Hao Jing Ao or Xiang San Ao were other names for Macau.)
One of the trading customs common to China and South East Asian countries was that when foreign ships anchored at Macau their sailors pitched tents ashore and dismantled them when their business was done and they set sail again. When the Portuguese arrived in Macau they refused to adopt this custom. Taking no notice of opposition from the Chinese they adopted a hard line and in 1557 they built houses of brick, tiles, wood and stone. The official in charge of Macau accepted bribes and tolerated this attitude. Soon the houses had become a village and the Portuguese colonisers didn't want to leave. The Portuguese occupation of Macau is recorded in documents of that period.
(Dai Yixuan: Sobre a Questão da Chamada Expulsão dos Piratas na História de Macau, idem.)
(10) The Government of the Portuguese Republic and the Government of the People's Republic of China, recognising the development of friendly relations between the two countries and their peoples since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries resolved that an appropriate solution to the question of Macau in terms of its past, as a result of negotiations between the two countries, would be beneficial to the economic development and the social stability of Macau as well as strengthening friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries. (Text of the Joint Declaration of the Government of the Portuguese Republic and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the issue of Macau, signed in Beijing on the 26th of March, 1987. Published by the Imprensa Oficial de Macau, 1987.)
Translated by Nelly Visser
* The enemies in question were the Dutch
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