INTRODUCTION The contributions to this volume are based on two international workshops. The first meeting called ^Commemorating an Important Victory: Macau and the Dutch in 1622" was organized as an online event by the "Konfuzius-Institut München^^, with the assistance of the "Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa”，in July 2022. The second meeting had the title ^Around and About the South China Sea: Ports, Routes and Rarities Involved in Maritime Exchange, c. 1200 - /750”. It was held as a hybrid symposium at the Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau in November 2022 and received generous financial and organizational support from three sides: from the CCCM itself, the "Konfuzius- -Institut an der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitãt Bonn”，and the "Abteilung fur Sinologie^^ of that same university. This explains the division of the present collection into two main parts, namely "Around and about South China Sea” and ^Around and about Macau and the Dutch". Each part is structured into subsections to facilitate detailed exploration of speciíic topics. The first part, edited by Arianna Magnani, provides a panoramic view of the South China Sea from approximately 1200 to 1750. It delineates key ports, trade routes, and commodities involved in maritime exchange, emphasizing the interconnectedness of certain locations and the growing global significance of these waters. In terms of geography, it also looks at some areas beyond the narrow limits of the area conventionally called Nanhai 南海. The second part, edited by Elisabetta Colla, focuses on the global implications of the Luso-Dutch War at Macau, more specifically of the short battle that hit Macau in the summer of 1622. It explores the strategic and economic consequences of this conflict within the Portuguese settlement, its presentation in different sources, its broader geopolitical impact, and its perception in later writing. In the first part, the section "Charting Waters” focuses on navigation and routes. The first chapter, by Roderich Ptak, looks at one of the two main routes connecting South China with Southeast Asia, i.e., the long sailing corridor from Narying via the Zhoushan Islands 舟山群島 to the Melaka region, and from there to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. This route is detailed on the so- called Zheng He hanghai tu 鄭和航海圖，or Zheng He Map, associated with the famous Ming voyages. Ptak discusses the terms (less likely names) guanyu 11
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