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| //"Based on the modern Chinese edition of reference by Feng Ch'eng-chun (Shanghai, 1935; republished, Peking, 1955), J.V.G. Mills' monumental work opens with a presentation of the author himself, Ma Huan, and with the historic backdrop of "Cheng Ho [Zheng He] and his expeditions" to the "Western Ocean". Cheng Ho, the 'grand eunuch' (t'ai chen), was the first of his kind to be appointed to a major military rank by Emperor Yung-lo (often romanized Yongle). \\ | //"Based on the modern Chinese edition of reference by Feng Ch'eng-chun (Shanghai, 1935; republished, Peking, 1955), J.V.G. Mills' monumental work opens with a presentation of the author himself, Ma Huan, and with the historic backdrop of "Cheng Ho [Zheng He] and his expeditions" to the "Western Ocean". Cheng Ho, the 'grand eunuch' (t'ai chen), was the first of his kind to be appointed to a major military rank by Emperor Yung-lo (often romanized Yongle). \\ |
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| J.V.G. Mills (1887, Hastings, UK -1987, Geneva, Switzerland) was a British colonial administrator and judge appointed to the Straits Settlements at age 24, a translator from Cantonese, Fukienese and standard Chinese, and a specialist in Southeast Asia seamanship and seaways. | J.V.G. Mills (1887, Hastings, UK -1987, Geneva, Switzerland) was a British colonial administrator and judge appointed to the Straits Settlements at age 24, a translator from Cantonese, Fukienese and standard Chinese, and a specialist in Southeast Asia seamanship and seaways. \\ |
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| Based in Canton for two years, he mastered the language before going back to Singapore where he was Solicitor-General, Attorney-General and judge for the Straits Settlements. Retired in 1940 (aged 53), he went to Australia and returned to England after the war to take his MA at Oxford in 1945 and lecture at the School for a year in Chinese law. Settling in Switzerland on the shores of Lac Leman, he was helped by his second wife, Marguerite Mélanie Mills nee Service (1887-1983) -- to whom he dedicated his magnus opus --, a specialist in Chinese art, in pursuing his research and perusing his notes taken at the Raffles Library. | Based in Canton for two years, he mastered the language before going back to Singapore where he was Solicitor-General, Attorney-General and judge for the Straits Settlements. Retired in 1940 (aged 53), he went to Australia and returned to England after the war to take his MA at Oxford in 1945 and lecture at the School for a year in Chinese law. Settling in Switzerland on the shores of Lac Leman, he was helped by his second wife, Marguerite Mélanie Mills nee Service (1887-1983) -- to whom he dedicated his magnus opus --, a specialist in Chinese art, in pursuing his research and perusing his notes taken at the Raffles Library. \\ |
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| It was while researching Emanuel Godinho de Eredia's 1613 book that he came across the XVI th century sea chart of Mao K'un and the Wu-pei chih by Mao's grandson Yuan-i (Eredia's contemporary). From late Ming, Mills was drawn back to sources in early Ming, and thence to the voyages of eunuch Cheng Ho (the Sam-poh Kung patron of Overseas Chinese legend) round Southeast Asia and across the Indian Ocean commissioned by the emperor Yung Lo, in the age of Henry the Navigator. He was now equipped to undertake translation and commentary on the Ying-yai Sheng-lan, in which, in 1433, Ma Huan told the story of Cheng Ho's seven voyages, using the modern text established by Feng Ch'eng-chun (1935 and 1955) and drawing on the collaboration of half a hundred other scholars to light up dark corners. | It was while researching Emanuel Godinho de Eredia's 1613 book that he came across the XVI th century sea chart of Mao K'un and the Wu-pei chih by Mao's grandson Yuan-i (Eredia's contemporary). From late Ming, Mills was drawn back to sources in early Ming, and thence to the voyages of eunuch Cheng Ho (the Sam-poh Kung patron of Overseas Chinese legend) round Southeast Asia and across the Indian Ocean commissioned by the emperor Yung Lo, in the age of Henry the Navigator. He was now equipped to undertake translation and commentary on the Ying-yai Sheng-lan, in which, in 1433, Ma Huan told the story of Cheng Ho's seven voyages, using the modern text established by Feng Ch'eng-chun (1935 and 1955) and drawing on the collaboration of half a hundred other scholars to light up dark corners. \\ |
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| While French sinologist Paul Pelliot had earlier translated parts of that work, it was the first complete translation into an European language, eventually published in 1970 by the Hakluyt Society (of which Mills had been an Honorary Secretary) as Overall Survey of the Ocean Shores."// | While French sinologist Paul Pelliot had earlier translated parts of that work, it was the first complete translation into an European language, eventually published in 1970 by the Hakluyt Society (of which Mills had been an Honorary Secretary) as Overall Survey of the Ocean Shores."// |
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| //"After a surge of interest in Chinese maritime navigation in the middle decades of the 20th century, notably by John Vivian Gottlieb Mills, who devoted his life’s research to the documentary records of the Zheng He expeditions, the topic of maritime charts disappeared from the Western literature. This falling off may be attributed to a lack of primary documents, though perhaps as well to the decline in popular knowledge of how to read and interpret nautical charts."// (Timothy Brook, 2017: {{ :laman:chinese_charting_of_maritime_asia_oxford_research_encyclopedia_of_asian_history.pdf ||}}[[https://oxfordre.com/asianhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-65?p=emailAIe5TrnDDHzA2&d=/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-65|"Chinese Charting of Maritime Asia"]]). | //"After a surge of interest in Chinese maritime navigation in the middle decades of the 20th century, notably by John Vivian Gottlieb Mills, who devoted his life’s research to the documentary records of the Zheng He expeditions, the topic of maritime charts disappeared from the Western literature. This falling off may be attributed to a lack of primary documents, though perhaps as well to the decline in popular knowledge of how to read and interpret nautical charts."// (Timothy Brook, 2017: {{ :laman:chinese_charting_of_maritime_asia_oxford_research_encyclopedia_of_asian_history.pdf ||}}[[https://oxfordre.com/asianhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-65?p=emailAIe5TrnDDHzA2&d=/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-65|"Chinese Charting of Maritime Asia"]]). |
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| | J.V.G. Mills sendiri menyatakan bahawa beliau tidak pernah mendalami ilmu pelayaran: //"(7) The present writer should add that he has not studied Arabic or navigation, and he therefore claims the reader's indulgence if he has erred in these two fields."// ([[j_v_g_mills|J. V. Mills]], Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 47, No. 2 (226) (1974): {{ :buku:10.2307_41492085.pdf ||}}[[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41492085|"ARAB AND CHINESE NAVIGATORS IN MALAYSIAN WATERS IN ABOUT A.D. 1500"]], m.s.3). |
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