3 - Situating Space through Verse

Summary

After Mo Jiu’s death in 1735, his son Mo Tianci succeeded him as head of The Port. He established the Pavilion for Summoning Worthies to serve as an informal advisory body and literary society. Besides his trusted inner circle, he built upon his father’s earlier connections with Cochinchina and Qing gentry to jointly produce and publish anthologies of poetry and prose. The collaborations largely took place remotely, relying upon the same junks that circulated goods and labor throughout maritime East Asia. Tianci’s main goal was to build consensus among these translocal elites as being part of the same world order, while spreading word of his realm across the Sinosphere. Besides facilitating cultural exchange, anthologies such as “Idle Fishing at Sea Perch Creek” and the “Ten Verses of Hà Tiên” could lower transaction costs and enhance The Port’s importance as a commercial hub. Tianci’s focus on literature also conformed to the Heart-Mind school of Wang Yangming. This variant of neo-Confucanism promoted business and individual initiative.