gems, jade, amber, ruby, sapphire, spinel, Burma, Myanmar, Möng Mit, Mongmit, early Chinese trade with Burma

Wang Shixing’s Guang Zhi Yi [廣志繹; Expanded Interpretations of the Gazetteers] is a geographical and ethnographic work based substantially on the author’s extensive travels as a Ming official. It records observations on different regions of China, their landscapes, populations, customs, products, commerce, agriculture, and natural resources, rather than relying solely on earlier geographical literature. Of particular interest to gemological and mineralogical history are its notices of regional products and valuable natural materials, including jade and other stones, and the commercial routes by which such materials circulated. Its observations provide useful evidence for the geography of resources and commodity trade in late Ming China. Volume 5 contains accounts of the Burmese invasions into Yunnan in the late 16th century and of Wang's advice for mobilizing troops and provisions to counter the invasion. Mention is also made of amber and gems in Mongmit and of a Ming delegation to the capital of the Toungoo dynasty (old Pegu). Prefaced in 1597. Wang Shixing was a military general whose troops were stationed in Lancang in southwestern Yunnan, near the Burmese border. His record is considered very reliable.