As the cradle of the ancient Maritime Silk Road, the South China Sea plays an important role in the history of Chinese civilization as well as the world’s civilization. Since the South China Sea opened to the outside world as a commercial port in 111 BC, it has experienced ups and downs for more than 2,000 years. With dynasties changing over time, the Chinese South China Sea has undergone dramatic changes and experienced rises and falls along with the economic and cultural development of the Maritime Silk Road. Up till now, the South China Sea is still one of the most active and dynamic regions across China and even the whole world. This book reviews the history and analyzes the current situation and bright future of the South China Sea.

In this book, the social, economic, and cultural synthesis in the South China Sea that orients its major activities towards foreign trade and external economic, trade and cultural communication and has come into being from the fusion of maritime civilization with the economy, trade and culture in the Pearl River system region is called South China economic and commercial culture. According to the traditional Chinese values concerning economic and commercial culture and on the basis of the long history of the South China Sea, neither military nor political power has ever been advocated in the region. Consequently, it has been a birthplace of many distinguished businessmen advocating peace and striving to rejuvenate the Chinese nation, but not of many politicians, especially radical revolutionaries like Sun Yat-sen. Therefore, the scope of the book centres around economic, trade and cultural development, which is the starting point and main theme. Political and military aspects have also been covered but are only pursued to the point where they are necessary for illustrating the background.