Junk (ship)

{{Short description|Traditional Chinese type of boat}} {{About|the history of the sailing vessel in China|developments and sailing techniques|Junk rig|the Javanese ship|Djong (ship)|other Southeast Asian vessels|Joanga (disambiguation){{!}}Joanga}} {{Citation style|date=December 2020}}

[[File:Guangzhou, Chinese Boats by Lai Afong, cа 1880.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Junks in Guangzhou, photograph {{Circa|1880}} by Lai Afong]] A '''junk''' ({{Lang-zh|c=䑸|p=zōng}}) is a type of Chinese sailing ship characterized by a central rudder, an overhanging flat transom, watertight bulkheads, and a flat-bottomed design.<ref name="Manguin1980"/><ref name="Minh-Hà 2012"/> They are also characteristically built using iron nails and clamps.<ref name="Manguin1980"/> The term applies to many types of small coastal or river ships, usually serving as cargo ships, pleasure boats, or houseboats, but also going up in size up to large ocean-going vessels. There can be significant regional variations in the type of rig and the layout of the vessel.

Chinese junks were originally only fluvial and had square sails, but by the Song dynasty ({{circa|960 to 1279}}), they adopted ocean-going technologies acquired from Southeast Asian ''k'un-lun po'' trade ships. Tanja sails and fully battened junk rigs were introduced to Chinese junks by the 12th century CE.<ref name="Manguin1980"/><ref name="Minh-Hà 2012">{{Cite book |last=L. Pham |first=Charlotte Minh-Hà |url=https://archive.org/details/unit-14-unesco/page/n11/mode/2up?view=theater&q=sail |title=Asian Shipbuilding Technology |publisher=UNESCO Bangkok Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education |year=2012 |isbn=978-92-9223-413-3 |location=Bangkok |pages=20–21 |access-date=15 February 2023}}</ref>

Similar designs to the Chinese junk were also adopted by other East Asian countries, most notably Japan, where junks were used as merchant ships to trade goods with China and Southeast Asia.<ref>Crossley, Pamela Kyle, Daniel R. Headrick, Steven W. Hirsch, Lyman L. Johnson, and David Northrup. "Song Dynasty." ''The Earth and Its Peoples''. By Richard W. Bulliet. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. 279–80. Print.</ref>

==Etymology and history of the term== [[File:Four Kind of Ships which Bantenese Use de Bry.jpg|thumb|Early European illustration of Southeast Asian djongs and other smaller craft (''D'Eerste Boeck'', {{circa|1599}}), note the double rudders which distinguished Southeast Asian ships from the Chinese ''chuán'' which had a central rudder<ref name="Manguin1980"/>]]

The English word "junk" comes from Portuguese {{Lang|pt|junco}} from Malay {{Lang|ms|jong}}. The word originally referred to the Javanese djong, very large trading ships that the Portuguese first encountered in Southeast Asia. It later also included the smaller flat-bottomed Chinese ''chuán'', even though the two were markedly different vessels. After the disappearance of the djong in the 17th century, the meaning of "junk" (and other similar words in European languages) came to refer exclusively to the Chinese ship.<ref name="Waruno2007">{{Cite book |last=Mahdi |first=Waruno |title=Malay Words and Malay Things: Lexical Souvenirs from an Exotic Archipelago in German Publications Before 1700 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |year=2007 |isbn=9783447054928}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Manguin |first1=Pierre-Yves |editor1-last=Reid |editor1-first=Anthony |chapter=The Vanishing Jong: Insular Southeast Asian Fleets in Trade and War (Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries) |date=1993 |publisher=Cornell University Press |pages=197–213 |title=Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era |jstor=10.7591/j.ctv2n7gng.15 |isbn=978-0-8014-8093-5 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv2n7gng.15}}</ref><ref name="Manguin1980">{{cite journal |last1=Manguin |first1=Pierre-Yves |title=The Southeast Asian Ship: An Historical Approach |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |date=September 1980 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=266–276 |doi=10.1017/S002246340000446X}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=junk (n.2) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/junk |website=Online Etymological Dictionary |access-date=19 May 2024}}</ref><ref name="Scott">{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Charles Payson Gurley |title=The Malayan Words in English |date=1897 |publisher=American Oriental Society |page=59}}</ref>

The Chinese ''chuán'' and the Southeast Asian djong are frequently confused with each other and share some characteristics, including large cargo capacities, multiple (two to three) superimposed layers of hull planks, and multiple masts and sails. However the two are readily distinguishable from each other by two major differences. The first is that Southeast Asian (Austronesian) ships are built exclusively with lugs, dowels, and fiber lashings (lashed lug), in contrast to Chinese ships which are always built with iron nails and clamps. The second is that Chinese ships since the first century AD are all built with a central rudder. In contrast, Southeast Asian ships use double lateral rudders.<ref name="Manguin1980"/>

The development of the sea-going Chinese ''chuán'' (the "junk" in modern usage) in the Song dynasty ({{circa|960 to 1279}}) is believed to have been influenced by regular contacts with sea-going Southeast Asian ships (the ''k'un-lun po'' of Chinese records) in trading ports in southern China from the 1st millennium CE onward, particularly in terms of the rigging, multiple sails, and the multiple hull sheaths. However, the ''chuán'' also incorporates distinctly Chinese innovations from their indigenous river and coastal vessels (namely watertight compartments and the central rudders).<ref name="Manguin1980"/> "Hybrid" ships (referred to as the "South China Sea tradition") integrating technologies from both the ''chuán'' and the djong also started to appear by the 15th century.<ref name="Minh-Hà 2012"/>

== Construction == === Sails === {{Main|Junk rig}}

<gallery mode="packed"> Tracing of two ships from Dunhuang cave.jpg|Tracing of two ships from Dunhuang cave temple, c. 8th–9th century CE. The ships showed square sails. A stern sculling oar is also present (known as a ''yuloh'', 摇橹). Tracing of a ship on a mirror in the Shaanxi museum.jpg|Tracing of a ship on a mirror in the Shaanxi museum (circa 9th or 12th century CE) </gallery>

Iconographic remains show that Chinese ships before the 12th century used square sails. A ship carving from a stone Buddhist stele shows a ship with square sail from the Liu Sung dynasty or the Liang dynasty (c. 5th or 6th century). Dunhuang cave temple no. 45 (from the 8th or 9th century) features large sailboats and sampans with inflated square sails. A wide ship with a single sail is depicted in the Xi'an mirror (after the 9th or 12th century).{{sfn|Needham|1986|pp=456-457}}<ref name="needham volume 4 part 3 463" /> Eastern lug sail, which used battens and is commonly known as "junk rig", was likely not Chinese in origin: The oldest depiction of a battened junk sail comes from the Bayon temple at Angkor Thom, Cambodia.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 3 464222">Needham, Joseph (1971). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=l6TVhvYLaEwC&pg=PA464 Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics]''. Cambridge University Press.</ref>{{Rp|460–461}} From its characteristics and location, it is likely that the ship depicted in Bayon was a Southeast Asian ship.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Burningham |first=Nick |title=Early Global Interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World, Volume II: Exchange of Ideas, Religions, and Technologies |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2019 |editor-last=Schottenhammer |editor-first=Angela |location=Cham |pages=141–201 |chapter=Chapter 6: Shipping of the Indian Ocean World}}</ref>{{Rp|188–189}} The Chinese themselves may have adopted them around the 12th century CE.<ref name="Pham">{{cite book |last1=Pham |first1=Charlotte Minh-Hà L. |url=https://www.academia.edu/10065854 |title=Training Manual for the UNESCO Foundation Course on the Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage in Asia and the Pacific |date=2012 |publisher=UNESCO Bangkok, Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education |isbn=978-92-9223-414-0 |location=Bangkok |chapter=Unit 14: Asian Shipbuilding (Training Manual for the UNESCO Foundation Course on the Protection and Management of the Underwater Cultural Heritage)}}</ref>{{Rp|21}}

The full-length battens of the junk sail keep the sail flatter than ideal in all wind conditions. Consequently, their ability to sail close to the wind is poorer than other fore-and-aft rigs.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j0xTCAAAQBAJ&q=junk+windward+performance&pg=PT85|title=Shaped by Wind & Wave: Musings of a Boat Designer|last=Dix|first=President Dudley|date=2013-09-23|publisher=Lulu Press, Inc|isbn=9781105651120|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Mudie"> {{Citation|last1=Mudie|first1=Rosemary|title=The history of the sailing ship|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SyFUAAAAMAAJ&q=History+Chinese+Junk+sail|page=152|year=1975|publisher=Arco Publishing Co.|last2=Mudie|first2=Colin|isbn=9780668037808}}</ref>

=== Hull === [[File:Kangxi-Reise.jpg|thumb|right|The Kangxi Emperor (r. 1654&ndash;1722) on a tour, seated prominently on the deck of a junk ship]] Unlike other major shipbuilding traditions which developed from dugout canoes, the junk evolved from tapering rafts. It is the reason for the unique characteristics of early Chinese junks, like the absence of keels, very low decks, and solid transverse bulkheads rather than ribs or internal frames.<ref name="Johnstone">{{cite book |last1=Johnstone |first1=Paul |editor1-last=McGrail |editor1-first=Sean |title=The sea-craft of prehistory |date=1980 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass |isbn=978-0674795952 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0674795954/}}</ref>

Classic junks were built of softwoods (although after the 17th century teak was used in Guangdong) with the outside shape built first. Then multiple internal compartment/bulkheads accessed by separate hatches and ladders, reminiscent of the interior structure of bamboo, were built in. Traditionally, the hull has a horseshoe-shaped stern supporting a high poop deck. The bottom is flat in a river junk with no keel (similar to a sampan), so that the boat relies on a daggerboard,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.friend.ly.net/users/dadadata/junk/platt/platt_chinese_sail.html |title=The Chinese Sail |last=Platt |first=Brian |website=friend.ly.net |date=2001 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201125515/http://www.friend.ly.net/users/dadadata/junk/platt/platt_chinese_sail.html |archive-date=2008-12-01 |quote=The masts, hull and standing rigging" section, paragraph 2 |access-date=13 August 2009}}</ref> leeboard or very large rudder to prevent the boat from slipping sideways in the water.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thomashoppe.net/Revival_of_the_Chinese_Junk |title=Mainland China: Revival of the Junk |website=thomashoppe.net |access-date=2009-08-13 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090505083424/http://www.thomashoppe.net/Revival_of_the_Chinese_Junk |archive-date=2009-05-05 |quote=Materials and dimensions" section, paragraph 5}}</ref>

The internal bulkheads are characteristic of junks, providing interior compartments and strengthening the ship. They also controlled flooding in case of holing. Ships built in this manner were written of in Zhu Yu's book ''Pingzhou Table Talks'', published by 1119 during the Song dynasty.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 3 463">See also plates CDIII, CDIV, CDV, CDVI in Needham, Volume 4, Part 3.</ref> Again, this type of construction for Chinese ship hulls was attested to by the Moroccan Muslim Berber traveler Ibn Battuta (1304–1377 CE), who described it in great detail (refer to Technology of the Song dynasty).<ref name="needham volume 4 part 3 469">Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 469.</ref>

thumb|Junk near Hong Kong, circa 1880

Benjamin Franklin wrote in a 1787 letter on the project of mail packets between the United States and France:

{{blockquote|As these vessels are not to be laden with goods, their holds may without inconvenience be divided into separate apartments, after the Chinese manner, and each of these apartments caulked tight so as to keep out water.|Benjamin Franklin, 1787<ref name="Franklin">{{cite book|author=Benjamin Franklin|title=The writings of Benjamin Franklin|url=https://archive.org/details/writingsbenjami01frangoog|access-date=5 October 2012|year=1906|publisher=The Macmillan Company|pages=[https://archive.org/details/writingsbenjami01frangoog/page/n180 148]–149}}</ref>}}

Similar wet wells were also apparent in Roman small craft of the 5th century CE.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology, p.185}}</ref>

Tung oil and mixtures containing it was used for waterproofing for Chinese ships.<ref>Ebrey, Walthall, and Palais (2006), 133.</ref> Marco Polo wrote in the 13th century "The Chinese take some lime and chopped hemp, and these they knead together with a certain wood oil; and when the three are thoroughly amalgamated they hold like any glue, and with this mixture they paint their ships". This putty, known as Tung putty (桐油灰, ''lit.'' "tung oil ash") was used to seal the seams and holes in the hull and decks to make them seaworthy. Loose hemp or coir rope were coated with the putty wetted with more tung oil and pounded into the seams with a caulking iron or pointing tool, and then sealed with more of the tung putty.<ref>{{Cite web |last=屬於臺灣人的文化寶庫｜國家文化記憶庫2.0 |title=塞縫鑿｜國家文化記憶庫 |url=http://tcmb.culture.tw/zh-tw/detail?indexCode=Culture_Object&id=602894 |access-date=2026-04-07 |website=國家文化記憶庫 |language=zh-TW}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=桐油补船，这项老记忆您还记得吗？ |url=https://www.sohu.com/a/www.sohu.com/a/565918440_121123844 |access-date=2026-04-07 |website=www.sohu.com}}</ref>

=== Leeboards and centerboards ===

Other innovations included the square-pallet bilge pump, which was adopted by the West during the 16th century for work ashore, the western chain pump, which was adopted for shipboard use, being of a different derivation. Junks also relied on the compass for navigational purposes. However, as with almost all vessels of any culture before the late 19th century, the accuracy of magnetic compasses aboard ship, whether from a failure to understand deviation (the magnetism of the ship's iron fastenings) or poor design of the compass card (the standard drypoint compasses were extremely unstable), meant that they did little to contribute to the accuracy of navigation by dead reckoning. Review of the evidence shows that the Chinese embarked magnetic pointer was only sometimes used for navigation or reorientation. The reasoning is simple. Chinese mariners were as capable as any, having undertaken the journey safely for hundreds of years, had they needed a compass as an essential tool to navigate, they would have been aware of the almost random directional qualities when used at sea of the water bowl compass they used. Yet that design remained unchanged for some half a millennium. Western sailors, coming upon a similar water bowl design (no evidence as to how has yet emerged) very rapidly adapted it in a series of significant changes such that within roughly a century the water bowl had given way to the dry pivot, a rotating compass card a century later, a lubberline a generation later and gimbals seventy or eighty years after that.<ref>{{cite book|title=Stephen Davies, On courses and course keeping in Ming Dynasty seafaring: probabilities and improbabilities, "Mapping Ming China's Maritime World", Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2015}}</ref>

=== Steering ===

Junks employed stern-mounted rudders centuries before their adoption in the West for the simple reason that Western hull forms, with their pointed sterns, obviated a centreline steering system until technical developments in Scandinavia created the first, iron mounted, pintle and gudgeon 'barn door' western examples in the early 12th century CE. A second reason for this slow development was that the side rudders in use were still extremely efficient.<ref>{{cite book|title=Lawrence W. Mott, "The Development of the Rudder: A Technological Tale", College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997}}</ref> Thus the junk rudder's origin, form and construction was completely different in that it was the development of a centrally mounted stern steering oar, examples of which can also be seen in Middle Kingdom (c. 2050–1800 BCE) Egyptian river vessels. It was an innovation which permitted the steering of large ships and due to its design, allowed height adjustment according to the depth of the water and to avoid serious damage should the junk ground. A sizable junk can have a rudder that needed up to twenty members of the crew to control in strong weather. In addition to using the sail plan to balance the junk and take the strain off the hard to operate and mechanically weakly attached rudder, some junks were also equipped with leeboards or dagger boards. The world's oldest known depiction of a stern-mounted rudder can be seen on a pottery model of a junk dating from before the 1st century CE.<ref>Konstam, Angus. 2007. Pirates: Predators of the Seas. 23-25</ref>

==History==

=== Han to Northern and southern dynasties era (2nd–6th century) === Chinese ships at this time were heavily fluvial (riverine) in nature and operation, while a minority was focused on travel on the open seas and oceans.<ref name="Pham" />{{rp|20}} Chinese ships in the ancient era crossed the East China Sea and visited regions such as Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. Chinese ships did not make regular maritime voyages to Southeast Asia and beyond until the 9th century CE.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Flecker |first=Michael |date=August 2015 |title=Early Voyaging in the South China Sea: Implications on Territorial Claims |journal=Nalanda-Sriwijaya Center Working Paper Series |volume=19 |pages=1–53}}</ref>{{rp|20–21}} Heng suggests an even later date (11th century CE) for the beginning of Chinese maritime shipping, when the first actual records of Chinese ships (mostly from Fujian and Guangdong) leaving for foreign trade appear.<ref name=":4"/>{{rp|21}}

Large Austronesian trading ships docking in Chinese seaports with as many as four sails were recorded by scholars as early as the 3rd century CE. They called them the ''kunlun bo'' or ''kunlun po'' ({{Lang-zh|t=崑崙舶|labels=no|l=ship of the Kunlun people}}). They were described as being capable of sailing against strong winds and violent waves, implying that Chinese ships at that time did not have that capacity.<ref name=":4"/>{{rp|24}} These ships were booked by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims for passage to Southern India and Sri Lanka.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Manguin |first=Pierre-Yves |date=September 1980 |title=The Southeast Asian Ship: An Historical Approach |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=266–276 |doi=10.1017/S002246340000446X |jstor=20070359 |s2cid=162220129}}</ref>{{rp|275}}<ref name="Kang">{{cite journal |last1=Kang |first1=Heejung |title=Kunlun and Kunlun Slaves as Buddhists in the Eyes of the Tang Chinese |journal=Kemanusiaan |date=2015 |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=27–52 |url=http://web.usm.my/kajh/vol22_1_2015/KAJH%2022(1)%20Art%202%20(27-52)%20(1).pdf}}</ref>{{rp|32–33}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Phantom Voyagers: Evidence of Indonesian Settlement in Africa in Ancient Times|last=Dick-Read|first=Robert|publisher=Thurlton|year=2005}}</ref>{{rp|34–36}} In the 3rd century CE, Chinese envoys were also sent to Southeast Asia ("Nanhai"), all of them explicitly used foreign ships for passage.<ref name=":4"/>{{rp|21}}

=== Sui to Tang dynasty (7th century–9th century) === In 683 CE, Tang court sent an envoy to Srivijaya, which does not mention a ship or even a mission, implying that like in previous cases, the envoy booked passage in a foreign ship.<ref name=":4" />{{rp|21}} Wang (1958) stated that there are no Tang dynasty records that mentioned Chinese junks being used for trading with Southeast Asia.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Gungwu |first=Wang |date=1958 |title=The Nanhai Trade: the early History of the Chinese Trade in the South China Sea |journal=Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society XXXI/2 |volume=182 |issue=3 |pages=3–135}}</ref>{{rp|107}} ''Kunlun bo'' trade increased by the 9th century, and were described as arriving regularly in trading ports in southern China in Chinese records.<ref name=":4"/>{{rp|24}}

Around 770 CE, there was great activity in canal and river boat construction, attributed to Liu Yen, who created 10 shipwright yards and provided competitive rewards. Chu LingYiin, for example, deployed many-decked naval vessels in the Wu Tai Battle of 934 AD.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 3 464222" />{{rp|460}}

=== Rise of Song dynasty (10th–13th century) === {{Main|Huaguangjiao One|Nanhai One|Quanzhou ship}} {{multiple image | align = center | direction = horizontal | total_width = 900 | image1 = Qingming Festival Detail 6.jpg | image2 = Along the River During the Qingming Festival (detail of original).jpg | image3 = Qingming Festival 2.jpg | footer = A Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) era painting of a city with scenery of the surrounding river ships and transports, Zhang Zeduan's (1085–1145) painting ''Along the River During Qingming Festival'' }} The state of Wuyue established diplomatic and maritime trade relations with Japan and the Korean states since at least 935 CE until Wuyue was absorbed by the Song dynasty in 978 CE. The relations of Wuyue with Japan and Korea were primarily motivated by Buddhism.<ref name="Worthy">{{cite book |last1=Worthy |first1=Edmund H. |editor-last=Morris |editor-first=Rossabi |title=China among Equals: the Middle Kingdom and its Neighbors, 10th–14th centuries |date=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, CA |isbn=9780520045620 |page=36 |chapter=Diplomacy for Survival: Domestic and Foreign Relations of Wü Yueh, 907–978 }}</ref>

In 989 CE, the Song court permitted private Chinese ships to trade overseas, due to the loss of access to the northern trading routes along the Silk Road.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|41}}<ref name=":4"/>{{rp|21}} However regulations required ships to depart and return at specific ports that they were registered to, which stifled early trade. This regulation was modified in 1090, when the Song court decreed that ships could freely register and depart from any port. The first records of Chinese ships leaving for trade abroad appear in the 11th century, mostly to Southeast Asia, but also included records of trade with Japan and the Korean states. A stipulation requiring ships to return within 9 months was added by the second half of the 11th century, which limited the range of Chinese vessels.<ref name=":4"/>{{rp|21–22}}

Needham's ''Science and Civilisation in China'' provided some descriptions of the large junk ship during the Song dynasty. Chin scholar in 1190 described the ships in the form of a poem:

<blockquote>"Through the streets carts and horses are rumbling and thronging-We are back in a year of the Hsüan-Ho reign-period. One day a Han-Lin scholar presented this painting, Worthy of handing down the ways and works of a peaceful time. Going east from the Water-gate one comes to the Canal of the Sui, The streets and the fields are alike incomparable (But Lao Tzu formerly warned against prosperity And today we know it has all become waste-land). Yet the vessels that sail ten thousand li on their voyages. With rudders of timber from Chhu and their masts from Wu, Fine scenery north of the bridge and south of the bridge, Recall for a time the dream of halcyon days, One can hear the flutes and drums; the towers seem close at hand."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Needham |first1=Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l6TVhvYLaEwC&pg=PA464 |title=Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics |last2=Gwei-Djen |first2=Lu |date=1971 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-07060-7 |pages=463–464 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|464}}</blockquote>

A decade before, in 1178, the Guangzhou customs officer Zhou Qufei wrote in ''Lingwai Daida'' about the sea-going ships of Southern China again:

<blockquote>"The ships which sail the southern sea and south of it are like giant houses. When their sails are spread they are like great clouds in the sky. Their rudders are several tens of feet long. A single ship carries several hundred men, and has in the stores a year's supply of grain. Pigs are fed and wine is fermented on board. There is no account of dead or living, no going back to the mainland when once the people have set forth upon the cerulean sea. At daybreak, when the gong sounds aboard the ship, the animals can drink their fill, and crew and passengers alike forget all dangers. To those on board, everything is hidden and lost in space, mountains, landmarks, and the countries of foreigners. The shipmaster may say "To make such and such a country, with a favorable wind, in so many days, we should sight such and such a mountain, (then) the ship must steer in such and such a direction". But suddenly the wind may fall, and may not be strong enough to allow for the sighting of the mountain on the given day; in such a case, bearings may have to be changed. And the ship (on the other hand) may be carried far beyond (the landmark) and may lose its bearings. A gale may spring up, the ship may be blown hither and thither, it may meet with shoals or be driven upon hidden rocks, then it may be broken to the very roofs (of its deckhouses). A great ship with heavy cargo has nothing to fear from the high seas, but rather in shallow water it will come to grief."<ref name=":0" />{{rp|464}}</blockquote>

In 1274 CE, according to a resident of Hangzhou, the large Song junks were of 5,000 ''liao'', around {{convert|71.1|m|ft|abbr=on}}, and could fit up to 600 passengers; the middle sized ships were between 1,000- 2,000 ''liao'' and could carry up to 300 passengers. Smaller ships were known as "wind-piercing" and carried up to a hundred passengers.{{sfn|Lo|2012|p=114}}<ref name="Wake, 2004: 75">Wake, 2004: 75.</ref> However, historical descriptions (often second-hand) in early Chinese sources tend to greatly exaggerate dimensions, usually to twice or more of the actual lengths.<ref name=":4"/>{{rp|24}} Shipwrecks of large junks of the period, the Nanhai one and Quanzhou ship, measured {{convert|30.4|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} and {{convert|34.6|m}} in length, respectively.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wake |first1=Christopher |title=The Great Ocean-Going Ships of Southern China in the Age of Chinese Maritime Voyaging to India, Twelfth to Fifteenth Centuries |journal=International Journal of Maritime History |date=December 1997 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=51–81 |doi=10.1177/084387149700900205}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Sommerville |first1=Quentin |title=Ancient ship raised from S China Sea |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7156581.stm |access-date=20 May 2024 |work=BBC News |date=21 December 2017}}</ref>

=== Yuan dynasty (14th century) === {{Main|Shinan ship}} The Mongol Yuan dynasty initially lifted the 9-month restriction on maritime shipping at around 1279, resulting in Chinese trade ships displacing Southeast Asian ships in their traditional Indian Ocean routes.<ref name=":4" />{{rp|22}} But by 1284, the Yuan court revoked the private trade policy of the Song dynasty, and much of the Chinese maritime trade during this period was monopolized by the state via ''ortogh'' partnerships. Most trade expeditions were controlled by foreign merchants, mainly Muslims living in trading cities in southern China, partnered with government officials and the Mongol imperial family. This ban on private trade was intermittently lifted for brief periods until 1323, when it was lifted permanently until the overthrow of the Yuan.<ref name=":4" />{{rp|22}}

Chinese ships were also described by Western travelers to the east, such as Ibn Battuta. According to Ibn Battuta, who visited China in 1347:<blockquote>…We stopped in the port of Calicut, in which there were at the time thirteen Chinese vessels, and disembarked. On the China Sea traveling is done in Chinese ships only, so we shall describe their arrangements. The Chinese vessels are of three kinds; large ships called chunks ''(junks)'', middle sized ones called zaws ''(dhows)''{{sic}} and the small ones kakams. The large ships have anything from twelve down to three sails, which are made of bamboo rods plaited into mats. They are never lowered, but turned according to the direction of the wind; at anchor they are left floating in the wind. A ship carries a complement of a thousand men, six hundred of whom are sailors and four hundred men-at-arms, including archers, men with shields and crossbows, who throw naphtha. Three smaller ones, the "half", the "third" and the "quarter", accompany each large vessel. These vessels are built in the towns of Zaytun (Quanzhou) and Sin-Kalan (Guangzhou). The vessel has four decks and contains rooms, cabins, and saloons for merchants; a cabin has chambers and a lavatory, and can be locked by its occupants. This is the manner after which they are made; two ''(parallel)'' walls of very thick wooden ''(planking)'' are raised and across the space between them are placed very thick planks ''(the bulkheads)'' secured longitudinally and transversely by means of large nails, each three ells in length. When these walls have thus been built the lower deck is fitted in and the ship is launched before the upper works are finished.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gUt7CgAAQBAJ&q=We+stopped+in+the+port+of+Calicut%2C+in+which+there+were+at+the+time+thirteen+Chinese+vessels%2C+and+disembarked.+On+the+China+Sea+traveling+is+done+in+Ch&pg=PA238|title = Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of India–China Relations, 600–1400|isbn = 9781442254732|last1 = Sen|first1 = Tansen|date = 11 September 2015| publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref><br> —Ibn Battuta</blockquote>

Yuan dynasty ships carry on the tradition of Song; the Yuan navy is essentially Song navy.<ref>Lo, 2012: 246</ref> Both Song and Yuan employed large trading junks. Unlike Ming treasure ships, Song and Yuan great junks are propelled by oars, and have with them smaller junks, probably for maneuvering aids.<ref>Wake, 1997: 57, 67.</ref> The largest junks (5,000 ''liao'') may have a hull length twice that of Quanzhou ship (1,000 ''liao''),<ref>Wake, 1997: 66-67.</ref> that is {{convert|68|m|ft|1}}.<ref name="Wake, 2004: 75"/> However, the norm size for trading junks pre-1500 was most likely around {{convert|20|-|30|m|ft|1}} long, with the length of {{convert|30|m|ft|1}} only becoming the norm after 1500 CE. Large size could be a disadvantage for shallow harbors and many reefs of southeast asian.{{sfn|Bowring|2019|p=128-129}}

The ships of the previous Song, both mercantile and military, became the backbone of the Yuan navy. In particular the failed Mongol invasions of Japan (1274–1281), as well as the failed Mongol invasion of Java (1293), essentially relied on recently acquired Song naval capabilities. Worcester estimates that the large Yuan junks were {{convert|36|feet|m|2}} in width and over {{convert|100|feet|m|2}} long. In general, they had no keel, stempost, or sternpost. They did have centreboards, and a watertight bulkhead to strengthen the hull, which added great weight. This type of vessel may have been common in the 13th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Worcester |first=G. R. G. |title=The Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze, A Study in Chinese Nautical Research, Volume I: Introduction; and Craft of the Estuary and Shanghai Area |publisher=Order of the Inspector General of Customs |year=1947 |location=Shanghai}}</ref>{{rp|22}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Miksic |first=John N. |author1-link=John N. Miksic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bMt3BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 |title=Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300–1800 |publisher=NUS Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-9971-69-574-3 |location=Singapore |page=}}</ref>{{rp|102}} The kind of ships the Mongols used for the invasion wasn't recorded but it was large as they commissioned smaller boats for rivers of Java. David Bade estimated around 50 soldiers each on 400-500 ships with their supplies, weapons and diplomats during the Java campaign,<ref name=":2">{{citation |last=Bade |first=David W. |title=Of Palm Wine, Women and War: The Mongolian Naval Expedition to Java in the 13th Century |year=2013 |location=Singapore |publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies}}</ref>{{rp|46}} while John Man estimated around 29–44 soldiers each.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Man |first=John |title=Kublai Khan: The Mongol King Who Remade China |publisher=Random House |year=2012 |isbn=9781446486153 |location=Reading}}</ref>{{rp|306}}

=== Ming dynasty (15th–17th century) ===

====Expedition of Zheng He==== {{Main|Chinese treasure ship}}{{Multiple image | direction = vertical | image1 = Longjiang junk ship.JPG | image2 = ZhengHeShips.gif | alt2 = | total_width = 230 | caption1 = A large four masted junk from Longjiang Shipyard, c. 1553 | caption2 = Chinese woodblock print of Zheng He ships from early 1600s }} The largest junks ever built were possibly those of Admiral Zheng He, for his expeditions in the Indian Ocean (1405 to 1433), although this is disputed as no contemporary records of the sizes of Zheng He's ships are known. Instead the dimensions are based on ''Sanbao Taijian Xia Xiyang Ji Tongsu Yanyi'' (''Eunuch Sanbao Western Records Popular Romance'', published 1597), a romanticized version of the voyages written by {{Interlanguage link|Luo Maodeng|zh|羅懋登}} nearly two centuries later.{{sfn|Dreyer|2007|p=104}} Maodeng's novel describes Zheng He's ships as follows:{{sfn|Church|2005|p=6}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=京 (Jing)|first=安 (An)|year=2012|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XRCDEAAAQBAJ|title=海疆开发史话 (History of Coastal Development)|publisher=Social Sciences Literature Press (Social Science Literature Press)|isbn=978-7-5097-3196-3|page=98|oclc=886189859}}</ref>

* "Treasure ships" ({{Lang-zh|p=Bǎo Chuán|t=寶船|labels=no}}) nine-masted, 44.4 by 18 ''zhang'', about {{convert|127|m|ft|abbr=off}} long and {{convert|52|m|ft|abbr=off}} wide. * Equine ships ({{Lang-zh|p=Mǎ Chuán|t=馬船|labels=no}}), carrying horses and tribute goods and repair material for the fleet, eight-masted, 37 by 15 ''zhang'', about {{convert|103|m|ft|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|42|m|ft|abbr=on}} wide. * Supply ships ({{Lang-zh|p=Liáng Chuán|t=糧船|labels=no}}), containing staple for the crew, seven-masted, 28 by 12 ''zhang'', about {{convert|78|m|ft|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|35|m|ft|abbr=on}} wide. * Transport ships ({{Lang-zh|p=Zuò Chuán|t=坐船|labels=no}}), six-masted, 24 by 9.4 ''zhang'', about {{convert|67|m|ft|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|25|m|ft|abbr=on}} wide. * Warships ({{Lang-zh|p=Zhàn Chuán|t=戰船|labels=no}}), five-masted, 18 by 6.8 ''zhang'', about {{convert|50|m|ft|abbr=on}} long.

Louise Levathes suggests that the actual length of the biggest treasure ships may have been between {{convert|390|-|408|ft|m|sigfig=3}} long and {{convert|160|-|166|ft|m}} wide.<ref name=":3">Levathes, Louise (1996). ''When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433''. New York : Oxford University Press. p.80</ref> Modern scholars have argued on engineering grounds that it is highly unlikely that Zheng He's ship was 450&nbsp;ft in length,{{sfn|Church|2005|pp=1-4, 38}} Guan Jincheng (1947) proposed a much more modest size of 20 zhang long by 2.4 zhang wide (204&nbsp;ft by 25.5&nbsp;ft or 62.2 m by 7.8 m)<ref>"''Zheng He xia Xiyang de chuan''” 鄭和下西洋的船, Dongfang zazhi 東方雜誌 43 (1947) 1, pp. 47-51, reprinted in ''Zheng He yanjiu ziliao huibian'' 鄭和研究資料匯編 (1985), pp. 268-272.</ref> while Xin Yuan'ou (2002) put them as 61–76 m (200–250&nbsp;feet) in length.<ref name="Xin Yuanou 2002, p.8">{{cite book|author=Xin Yuan'ou|title=Guanyu Zheng He baochuan chidu de jishu fenxi|year=2002|location=Shanghai|page=8|trans-title=A Technical Analysis of the Size of Zheng He's Ships}}</ref> Zhao Zhigang claimed that he has solved the debate of the size difference, and stated that Zheng He's largest ship was about {{cvt|70|m}} in length.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://epaper.tyrbw.com/tywb/resfile/2022-07-12/21/tywb2022071221.pdf |title =郑和大号宝船到底有多大？ (How big was Zheng He's large treasure ship?) |last1=Ling |first1=Xue |editor1-last=Li |editor1-first=Ma |editor2-last=Limin |editor2-first=Wu |editor3-last=Xiuling |editor3-first=Pei |work=扬子晚报 (Yangtze Evening News) |date=2022-07-12 }}</ref>

Comparing to other Ming records, the Chinese seem to have exaggerated their dimensions. European East Indiamen and galleons were said to be 30, 40, 50, and 60 ''zhang'' (90, 120, 150, and 180 m) in length.{{sfn|Naiming|2016|p=56-57}}<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dandan|first=Chuan|date=2017|title=为什么郑和时期宝船体积庞大，后期明朝军舰再无如此规模的战船？(Why did the treasure ship of Zheng He's period be huge, and there was no warship of this size in the later Ming Dynasty?)|url=https://www.zhihu.com/question/35256448|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312095257/https://www.zhihu.com/question/35256448|archive-date=12 March 2021}}</ref> It was not until the mid to late 19th century that the length of the largest western wooden ship began to exceed 100 meters, even this was done using modern industrial tools and iron parts.{{sfn|Howard|1979|pp=229-232}}{{sfn|Church|2005|p=3, 37}}{{sfn|Murray|2014|p=173}}

==== International Commerce ==== In ''Livro de Duarte Barbosa'' ({{circa|1516}}), the Portuguese writer Duarte Barbosa described the Chinese as "great navigators in very large ships which they call jungos, of two masts, of a different make from ours, the sails are of matting, and so also the cordage. There are great corsairs and robbers amongst those islands and ports of China. They go with all these goods to Malacca, where they also carry much iron, saltpetre and many other things, and for the return voyage they ship there Sumatra and Malabar pepper, of which they use a great deal in China, and drugs of Cambay, much anfiam, which we call opium, and wormwood, Levant gall nuts, saffron, coral wrought and unwrought, stuffs from Cambay, Palecate, and Bengal, vermilion, quicksilver, scarlet cloth, and many other things... Many of these Chinese take their wives and children continually on the ships in which they live without possessing any other dwellings."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Barbosa |first1=Duarte |url=http://archive.org/details/descriptionofcoa00barbrich |title=A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century |last2=Stanley |first2=Henry Edward John Stanley |date=1866 |publisher=London : Printed for the Hakluyt Society |others=University of California Libraries |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|206–207}}

==== Sea ban ==== {{Main|Haijin}} Private trade was banned in 1371 by the Hongwu Emperor, though official state-sponsored trade under the guise of "tribute" missions continued. The ban on private trade was lifted in 1405 during the Zheng He expeditions, but reinstated again in 1479. From the mid-15th to early 16th century, all Chinese maritime trading was banned under the Ming dynasty in what were known as the ''hai jin'' laws. The Zheng He expeditions had drained imperial funds and there was increasing threat of invasion from the north, leading the Xuande Emperor to order the immediate cessation of all overseas exploration. The shipping and shipbuilding knowledge acquired during the Song and Yuan dynasties gradually declined during this period.<ref name="Heng">{{cite journal|last1=Heng|first1=Derek|date=2019|title=Ships, Shipwrecks, and Archaeological Recoveries as Sources of Southeast Asian History|url=https://www.academia.edu/38930786|journal=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History|pages=1–29|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.97|isbn=9780190277727}}</ref>

=== Capture of Taiwan === In 1661, a naval fleet of 400 junks and 25,000 men led by the Ming loyalist Koxinga ({{Lang-zh|p=Zhèng Chénggōng|w=Chêng4 Chʻêng2-kung1}}), arrived in Taiwan to oust the Dutch from Zeelandia. Following a nine-month siege, Cheng captured the Dutch fortress Fort Zeelandia. A peace treaty between Koxinga and the Dutch Government was signed at Castle Zeelandia on February 1, 1662, and Taiwan became Koxinga's base for the Kingdom of Tungning.

=== Qing dynasty (17th–19th century) === {{Main|Tek Sing|Keying (ship)}} thumb|Chinese Trading Junk, Guangzhou, 1823 Large, ocean-going junks played a key role in Asian trade until the 19th century. One of these junks, ''Keying'', sailed from China around the Cape of Good Hope to the United States and England between 1846 and 1848. Many junks were fitted out with carronades and other weapons for naval or piratical uses. These vessels were typically called "war junks" or "armed junks" by Western navies which began entering the region more frequently in the 18th century. The British, Americans and French fought several naval battles with war junks in the 19th century, during the First Opium War, Second Opium War and in between.

At sea, junk sailors co-operated with their Western counterparts. For example, in 1870 survivors of the English barque ''Humberstone'' shipwrecked off Formosa, were rescued by a junk and landed safely in Macao.<ref>Robinson, Annie ''Maritime Maryport'' Dalesman 1978 p.31 {{ISBN|0852064802}}</ref>

===Modern period (20th century)=== [[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De Chinese zeilschepen Yonken Sin Tong Heng (links) en Tek Hwa Seng bij Poeloe Samboe TMnr 10010680.jpg|thumb|left|A junk ''Sin Tong Heng'' and a lorcha ''Tek Hwa Seng'' in the Dutch East Indies (1936)]] In 1938, E. Allen Petersen escaped the advancing Japanese armies by sailing a {{convert|36|ft|m|adj=on}} junk, ''Hummel Hummel'', from Shanghai to California with his wife Tani and two White Russians (Tsar loyalists).<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/14/obituaries/e-allen-petersen-dies-at-84-fled-japanese-on-boat-in-38.html | work=The New York Times | title=E. Allen Petersen Dies at 84; Fled Japanese on Boat in '38 | date=14 June 1987}}</ref>

In 1955, six young men sailed a Ming dynasty-style junk from Taiwan to San Francisco. The four-month journey aboard the ''Free China'' was captured on film and their arrival into San Francisco made international front-page news. The five Chinese-born friends saw an advertisement for an international trans-Atlantic yacht race, and jumped at the opportunity for adventure. They were joined by the then US Vice-Consul to China, who was tasked with capturing the journey on film. Enduring typhoons and mishaps, the crew, having never sailed a century-old junk before, learned along the way. The crew included Reno Chen, Paul Chow, Loo-chi Hu, Benny Hsu, Calvin Mehlert and were led by skipper Marco Chung. After a journey of {{convert|6000|mi|km}}, the ''Free China'' and her crew arrived in San Francisco Bay in fog on August 8, 1955. Shortly afterward the footage was featured on ABC television's ''Bold Journey'' travelogue. Hosted by John Stephenson and narrated by ship's navigator Paul Chow, the program highlighted the adventures and challenges of the junk's sailing across the Pacific, as well as some humorous moments aboard ship.<ref>[http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/results/detail.do?query=junks&page=1&pagesize=20&display=thumbcap&action=search&pnum=P08310 Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection>> Results >> Details<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

[[File:La Rochelle - Jonque de plaisance.JPG|thumb|A modern junk in La Rochelle in 2009]] In 1959 a group of Catalan men, led by Jose Maria Tey, sailed from Hong Kong to Barcelona on a junk named ''Rubia''. After their successful journey this junk was anchored as a tourist attraction at one end of Barcelona harbor, close to where La Rambla meets the sea. Permanently moored along with it was a reproduction of Columbus' caravel ''Santa Maria'' during the 1960s and part of the 1970s.<ref>Jose Maria Tey, ''Hong Kong to Barcelona in the Junk "Rubia"'', George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, London 1962</ref>

In 1981, Christoph Swoboda had a 65 feet (LoA) ''Bedar'' built by the boatyard of Che Ali bin Ngah on Duyong island in the estuary of the Terengganu river on the east coast of Malaysia. The Bedar is one of the two types of Malay junk schooners traditionally built there. He sailed this junk with his family and one friend to the Mediterranean and then continued with changing crew to finally finish a circumnavigation in 1998. He sold this vessel in 2000 and in 2004 he started to build a new junk in Duyong with the same craftsmen, the Pinas (or Pinis) Naga Pelangi, in order to help keep this ancient boat building tradition alive. This boat finished to be fitted out in 2010 and is working as a charter boat in the Andaman and the South China Sea.<ref>50 Years Malaysian-German Relations, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, p132/133</ref>

==See also== *Casco (barge), flat hulled barges of the Philippines *Pinisi *Lorcha *Tongkang *Keying, a Chinese junk that was sailed to the US in the 1840s *Shipyards in Macau *Junk rig

== Notes == {{Notelist}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

===Works cited=== * {{citation |title=Empire of the Winds: The Global Role of Asia's Great Archipelago|last=Bowring|first=Philip|publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd|place=London, New York|date=2019|isbn=9781788314466}} * {{citation |last=Church |first=Sally K. |year=2005 |title=Zheng He: An Investigation into the Plausibility of 450-ft Treasure Ships |journal=Monumenta Serica |volume=53 |pages=1–43 |doi=10.1179/mon.2005.53.1.001 |s2cid=161434221 |url=http://contacthistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/monumenta_serica.pdf}} * {{cite book |last=Dreyer |first=Edward L. |year = 2007 |title = Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming, 1405–1433 |series=Library of World Biography |location=New York |publisher=Pearson Longman |isbn=978-0-321-08443-9}} * {{citation |last=Howard|first=Frank|title=Sailing ships of war, 1400-1860|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|year=1979}} * {{citation |last=Lewis |first=Archibald |year=1973 |title=Maritime Skills in the Indian Ocean 1368-1500 |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |volume=16 |issue=2/3|pages=238–264 |doi=10.2307/3596216 |jstor=3596216}} * {{citation |last=Lo |first=Jung-pang |year=2012 |title = China as Sea Power 1127-1368: A Preliminary Survey of the Maritime Expansion and Naval Exploits of the Chinese People During the Southern Song and Yuan Periods |location = Singapore |publisher = NUS Press |editor-last1=Elleman |editor-first1=Bruce A. |orig-date=1957}} * {{citation |last=Murray|first=William Michael|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-MSDAAAQBAJ&q=leontophoros&pg=PA176|title=The Age of Titans: The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2014|isbn=9780199382255}} * {{citation |last=Naiming |first=Pang |year=2016 |title=船坚炮利：一个明代已有的欧洲印象 (Ship and Guns: An Existing European Impression of the Ming Dynasty) |journal=史学月刊 (History Monthly) |volume=2 |pages=51–65 |url=https://www.doc88.com/p-2085237799491.html }} * {{citation |last=Needham |first=Joseph |year=1986 |title = Science and Civilization in China, Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics |location = Taipei |publisher = Caves Books Ltd. }} * {{citation |last=Wake |first=Christopher |year=1997 |title=The Great Ocean-Going Ships of Southern China in the Age of Chinese Maritime Voyaging to India, Twelfth to Fifteenth Centuries |journal=International Journal of Maritime History |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=51–81 |doi=10.1177/084387149700900205 |s2cid=130906334 }} * {{citation |last=Wake |first=Christopher |year=2004 |title=The Myth of Zheng He's Great Treasure Ships |journal=International Journal of Maritime History |volume=16 |pages=59–76 |doi= 10.1177/084387140401600105|s2cid=162302303 |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/084387140401600105|url-access=subscription }}

==External links== {{Commons category|Junk (ship)}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110613074446/http://www.worldofboats.org/boats/view/keying_ii/22/junk World of Boats (EISCA) Collection ~ Keying II Hong Kong Junk] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070203063801/http://www.chinaseas.org/ China Seas Voyaging Society] * [http://www.chinesejunkpreservation.com/ The Free China], homepage of one of the last remaining 20th century junks, with video. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20140328230221/http://www.junkrigassociation.org// The Junk and Advanced Cruising Rig Association], The JRA * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090813084347/http://www.michellemoonlee.com/junks/ Pirates and Junks in Late Imperial South China]

{{Sailing Vessels and Rigs}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Chinese inventions Category:Four-masted ships Category:Naval history of China Category:Sailboat types Category:Ship types Category:Merchant sailing ship types Category:Sailing rigs and rigging Category:Ships of China Category:Three-masted ships Category:Austronesian ships Category:Tall ships Category:Pirate ships