With its ease of reefing, subtle control, and unmatched ability to generate thrust
effectively in both severe and minimal weather, the Chinese batten lug is perhaps one of
the most sophisticated sails in history. However, its development remains unclear, as its
relatively sudden appearance in the iconographic record as a mature technology, and its
seeming lack of affinity to other Chinese sails, gives no indication of a regional
evolution.
An analysis of the batten lug suggests that it likely descended from some simpler
sail. As it is separated from the most rudimentary square rig by several key features, the
batten lug's development probably occurred in an incremental, or stepwise, fashion. But,
no intermediate form representing such progression of the batten lug has yet been
discovered in China, or even in the greater Pacific basin. An examination of
iconographic evidence from India and the western reaches of the Roman Empire,
however, suggests that sails bearing battens or possessing lug morphology existed in
these regions prior to the emergence of the batten lug in China. The question therefore
arises whether it is possible that these sails were ancestral to, or in some way influenced
the development of, the more sophisticated Chinese sail. In an attempt to answer this question, this thesis considers the significance of
diffusion as a mechanism for the dispersal of ideas, both today and in antiquity. It also
presents a review of the numerous artifacts and textual accounts that suggest commercial
and cultural exchange occurred between the Roman Empire, India and China during the
Imperial and early Medieval periods. As a result of these evaluations, it seems possible,
and even probable, that the technologies of these regions influenced each other.
Considering this possibility, the likely evolution of the batten lug, and the distribution of
potentially ancestral forms, this thesis concludes that the development of the batten lug in
China may indeed have been influenced or inspired by the sails of India and the western
Roman Empire.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4444 |
| Date | 30 October 2006 |
| Creators | Kane, Timothy Joseph |
| Contributors | Filipe, Vieira de Castro, Luis |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 32090356 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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