Professor Eric Tagliacozzo (John Stambaugh Professor of History, Cornell University)

This presentation takes a look at how transnational interactions developed in the “adolescence” of Sino-Southeast Asian contact, in the time period roughly covered by the thousand years between 600 and 1600 CE.  We know very little about the “infancy” of these dealings, in the years before the T’ang.  But by that dynasty, patterns of interaction slowly began to develop on a more systemic basis with Southeast Asia.  I examine the growth and eventual flourishing of these interactions, and try to situate them in the larger milieu of what is now often called the “maritime silk road”.  I end with some thoughts on what these trade patterns meant in the larger scheme of things, as “adolescence” eventually gave way to a complicated adulthood in these relationships after 1600 or so.