| Description |
In ancient times, China in the East Asian continent, along with the Islamic world which spanned the South Mediterranean Sea, West Asia and Central Asia, were the world’s most developed regions in oceanography. It was only after the renaissance that this leadership was only taken away by the Portuguese explorers. This paper aims to provide an overview of the names used in ancient Chinese texts to refer to the seas of Asia, as well as the ancient Chinese understanding of world oceanography. China is situated in the East Asian continent, which is not in direct contact with the vast Pacific Ocean, but rather, within several seas of the Pacific, nestled between the West Pacific island arc and the East Asian continent. These seas are, going from North to South, the East Sea of Korea, Yellow Sea, East Sea and Southern Sea. The structure of this paper begins from the East Asian seas, going from North to South, and then continues westward to Southeast Asia and the North Indian Ocean. |
