Shunfeng Xiangsong Earliest Records the Diaoyu Islands

The Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated islets lie to the northeast of Taiwan Island and are regarded in Chinese accounts as affiliated islands of Taiwan. Chinese sources hold that the Chinese were the first to discover, name and use the Diaoyu Islands; fishermen on the southeast coast fished in these waters from early times and used them as navigation markers. The earliest extant text recording names such as Diaoyu and Chiwei Islets is Shunfeng Xiangsong (Fair Winds for Escort), first compiled in 1403 (the first year of Yongle in the Ming). It is a navigation manual of compass bearings that, in recording the route from Fujian to the Ryukyus, mentions places such as "Diaoyu Islet" and "Chikan Islet", showing that China had already discovered and named the Diaoyu Islands by the 14th to 15th centuries. From 1372 the Ming repeatedly sent investiture envoys to the Ryukyus, and their records mention the Diaoyu Islands many times. Chen Kan's Record of the Mission to the Ryukyus of 1534 says that after the ship passed Diaoyu Islet, Huangmao Islet and Chi Islet, "Gumi Mountain was seen, which belongs to the Ryukyus", indicating that islands west of Gumi, including the Diaoyu Islands, did not belong to the Ryukyus. In the early Ming, to defend against Japanese pirates, the Diaoyu Islands were included in the coastal defense area; the Chouhai Tubian of 1562, edited by Zheng Ruozeng under Hu Zongxian, placed Diaoyu Islet and other islands in Fujian's coastal defense zone. The Qing followed the Ming and clearly placed the Diaoyu Islands under Taiwan's local administration, as recorded in works such as Huang Shujing's Taihai Shicha Lu. Many maps from China and abroad also show the Diaoyu Islands as belonging to China.