No. 237 Maritime Archaeology in the People's Republic of China ...

Figure 5.
temples in Gansu Province, dating to the 7th century (Fig.
7). Both are mentioned and illustrated by Needham (1971:
646) who suggests that these vessels have steering oars rather
than axial rudders. While the illustrations are rather unclear,
the largest ship in the Dunhuang cave-temple frescos has
square ends, a square sail and what looks like poles or oars
at both ends of the vessel. Audemard (1957) illustrates a
large range of vessels with axial rudders and strange steering
sweeps set at the stern in pairs or singly projecting from the
transom above the rudder (Fig. 8). These are different from
4
Quanzhou
wreck site
Map of Quanzhou showing site of Quanzhou and Fa Shu sites.
the sweeps, possibly yulo (yuloh) that are set at the side of the
vessels. Audemard’s illustrations come from an 18th century
description of warships entitled Tu Shu Ji Cheng (Imperially
Commissioned Compendium of Literature and Illustrations,
Ancient and Modern). It is, therefore, possible that the
Dunhuang illustration, like the Audemard illustrations, show
a combination of stern sweeps and an axial rudder.
The Wan Fu Su Temple stele has a well defined square sail,
a large stern structure and a square bow, in this illustration it is
uncertain if a rudder depicted. Needham suggested that these