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OVERVIEW: China and Japan and Contact with the West
CHINA under the Ming and Qing and Europeans in China
JAPAN in the Tokugawa (1600-1868) and its Policy toward Europeans
KOREA during Choson (Yi Dynasty) (1392-1910)
OVERVIEW: China and Japan and Contact with the West, 1450-1750

China and Japan in the three centuries from 1450-1750 experience periods of political
turmoil followed by vigorous leadership under strong, centralized governments that
bring peace and economic development to both countries. During this same period, the
European nations launch their voyages of exploration, commercial venture, and religious
expansion. Wary of the commercial and religious motives of the European powers and of
the possible destabilizing effects of their activities, the governments of China and Japan
limit the initial contacts to varying degrees.

Late imperial China is at its height under the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)
dynasties. China in the 1500s experiences a decline in the central power of the Ming
dynasty; the conquering Manchus reassert strong central control under the Qing
(Manchu) dynasty (1644-1911) and extend Chinese territory to the North and West
(Chinese Turkestan, Outer Mongolia, and Tibet). Under the Qing, the commercial
development of the Ming, agricultural production, and territorial expansion reached new
heights. Advanced commercial development takes the place of industrial development in
China: a primitive national market, remarkable for the time given China's vast territory,
exists in certain essential commodities such as grain, cotton, and tea. China is the first
country to develop paper money, sophisticated brokerage practices, and banking
institutions. (By the end of the 1800s, however, China experiences social unrest due in
large part to population pressure.)
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Japan in the 1500s is locked in a century of almost constant warfare and political
fragmentation among competing feudal lords. This is followed by reunification and the
reassertion of strong centralized control in 1600 under the Tokugawa shoguns, whose
primary interest is in establishing domestic order and peace at all costs. During the 250
years of Tokugawa Peace (1600-1868), commercial growth, urbanization, and centralized
bureaucratic structures evolve to form the pre-modern foundation for Japan's
development after the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
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By the 1500s, the European voyages of exploration — efforts begun during the European
Renaissance in the 1400s to reach Asia independently and to break the Arab hold on the
lucrative trade in Asian spices and other luxury items — bring the European nations to
East Asia. The Portuguese, first, and then the Spanish lead the way, followed by the
Dutch and British and their East India companies through the 1600s and 1700s, and by
other European powers as well as the United States in the 1800s.
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The interaction between the Asian and European countries is complicated a) by the
evolving political situations in both China and Japan, and b) by the competitive economic
and colonial ambitions of the Western nations and by the activities of and disagreements
among the Christian missionary groups who accompany them — the Jesuits arrive first
with the Portuguese, followed by the Dominicans and Franciscans who arrive with the
Spanish, and later the Protestant sects under the British, Germans, and Americans.

The economic competitions and theological disagreements among the European powers
and missionary groups appear to the central governments in both China and Japan,
concerned with imposing political and economic order, as unsettling influences from
which they have little to gain and much to lose. This confluence of events leads the two
Asian countries to limit contact with the West just at a time when the West is entering a
period of rapid scientific and technological development in which all countries would
eventually participate. It works to the disadvantage of China and Japan when the
Western nations — with their technological supremacy, first in ships and guns, and then
in industrial power — move to enforce their imperialist economic demands on both
countries in the late 1800s.
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CHINA under the Ming and Qing and Europeans in China, 1450-1750
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China has outstanding naval capacity in the early 1400s (see the discussion of the Ming
voyages in the unit Ming Voyages: 1405-1433).
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The Chinese political and social order is at its height in this "late imperial" period of the
last two dynasties: the examination system has, from the Tang dynasty onward, created a
strong centralized and fully functional civil service in place of an aristocratic elite with a
territorial base of power. Scholar-gentry, residing at home as they study for the next level
of examination or await official appointment, support the work of the appointed district
magistrate (who, by regulation, cannot be from the district) and form one elite class of
Confucian literati that governs China.
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By the 1700s the Chinese governmental practice in general, and civil service examination
system in particular, becomes a model for emulation championed by the Physiocrats and
other political activists seeking to reform government in Europe, and particularly in
France.
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Qing imperial power is at its height under three strong emperors, who rule in succession:
Kangxi (1662-1722), Yongzheng (1723-1735), and Qianlong (1736-1795) and expand the
borders of Chinese territory to the greatest extent since the Han empire. Military
campaigns in the 1700s bring Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang), Outer Mongolia, and Tibet
under Chinese domination.
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Advanced commercial development takes the place of industrial development in China:
geographic unity, river systems, and canals facilitate the development of internal trade in
China. The mainland of China forms a natural unit almost cut off by mountains and
desert from the Eurasian land mass to the west and south. Its size and the political unity
that prevails for much of its late imperial history promote interregional trade within
China. The absence of trade barriers within this unified country and the existence of a
vast and varied geography mean that shortages in one part of China can be made up
through trade with another. Similarly, labor needs in one area can be filled by migration
or by shifting manufacture to another area. Geographic factors that facilitate this internal
trade are the Yangtze River, the complex network of rivers in the south, and China's long
coastline. China thus never feels pressure to develop labor-saving technologies or to
engage in extensive expansionist or colonizing activities, in contrast to the West and
Japan. (Contrast with the political and economic history of Europe, where the existence
of many small countries leads to trade barriers and local shortages, prompting individual
countries to pursue technological advances, wage costly wars, and engage in
imperialism.)
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A primitive national market, remarkable given China's vast territory, exists in certain
essential commodities such as grain, cotton, and tea. The Chinese state does not control
commercial development. Responsible for popular welfare, it emphasizes the production
of staple food crops; merchants are viewed as unproductive and constitute the lowest
class in the traditional Confucian hierarchy. From the Tang dynasty (618-907) onward,
however, with growing population and expansion of territory, state control of the
economy is gradually reduced. Except for strategic goods like salt and certain metals like
copper and lead needed for currency, the state does little to control commerce. (This
contrasts with European states where cities are required to be chartered by the royal
house, and with Japan, where cities are allowed to develop only in the castle towns of the
daimyo and in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, which has special functions in the central
government.) Moreover, the Chinese government does not rely very heavily on
commercial taxation; its main source of income is land and salt taxes. (This contrasts with
Western Europe where government taxes on commerce are heavy.) This environment
fosters the development of an intricate market network which extends deep into the
countryside and which is comprised of periodic village markets with links to regional
markets. A number of factors, including China's size, the difficulties involved in
conducting long-distance trade using metal currencies, and the minor role played by
government in regulating the economy — help explain why China is the first country to
develop paper money, sophisticated brokerage practices, and banking institutions.

The Chinese use a tribute system as a basis for trade and restrict access of foreign traders
to Chinese markets, particularly by limiting them to specified ports under controls
established by the central government. Under the Qianlong Emperor (1736-1795) the
Western trading companies are limited to Canton (today, Guangdong) where they have
contact only with officially designated Chinese firms, or hong. (This comes to be known
as the "Canton System" under which the British chafe by the 1790s.)
Europeans in China, 1500s-1750

The Portuguese, leading the early Western European attempts to reach the Asian markets
by sea in the 15th and 16th centuries, first reach China in 1514 in the form of both a
formal embassy and trading pirates. The latter provoke the displeasure of the Chinese
government by building a fortress on Chinese territory and disrupting established trade
patterns, and by buying Chinese children offered by kidnappers. By 1557, however, the
Chinese government grants the Portuguese trading rights on the peninsula of Macao
(south of Canton). (Control over Macao was ceded to Portugal 300 years later, in 1887,
under treaties imposed upon the Chinese; the territory is reverting from Portuguese to
Chinese control at the beginning of the 21st century.)

The Portuguese establish themselves as major actors in the "carrying trade," or exchange
of goods, between Asian countries, and become involved in trade between China and
Japan — thereby earning money to purchase those commodities wanted back in Europe.

In 1565, the Spanish — competitors of the Portuguese for territorial and trading rights in
the areas newly reached by sea — establish themselves in the Philippines and claim it for
Spain. Manila becomes the entrepot for the Spanish in conducting trade with China, as
Macao is for the Portuguese. Silver, minted by the Spaniards in their new territories in
the Americas eventually travels across the Pacific, through Manila, and into China as the
commodity the Europeans can trade for the goods they seek from China (the Spanish or
"Mexican dollar"). Asia is the center of the world economy at this time and China, a
"sink" for silver. (The British eventually find a way to reverse this trade pattern with the
introduction of opium in the 1800s.)
The Catholic Controversy over Chinese Rites
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Catholic missionary orders are central to the Portuguese and Spanish entry into China,
attempting to bring the faith and world view of Christian Europe to Asia. The Jesuits, in
the person of Matteo Ricci, enter China from Macao in 1582; Ricci receives an audience
with the Chinese emperor in 1601. Interested in Chinese rites and customs and
knowledgeable about astronomy, the Jesuits are retained in the imperial court and
function as court advisors for 150 years, under Ming and Qing emperors. (Knowledge of
astronomical patterns was essential to Chinese emperors in fulfilling their roles as
mediators between heavenly order, natural order, and human order and in performing
the annual calendrical rites.)
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The Franciscan and Dominican missionary orders arrived in China in the 1630s with the
Spanish. They challenged the Jesuit toleration of Chinese morality as equal to Christian
morality and the Jesuit acceptance of Chinese ancestral worship as a civil, not a religious,
rite. The Chinese responded by labeling Christianity a heterodox sect (one challenging to
official authority). The "Rites Controversy," as it came to be known, lasted for 100 years,
from ca. 1640-1742, and involved the Chinese emperors and the Pope. In 1742 the Pope
ended the controversy by ruling against the Jesuits and requiring Catholic missionaries
to forbid the practice of Chinese "rites and ceremonies." Christian missionary activity
subsided in China for the next century, until the treaties imposed upon the Chinese by
European governments in the late 1800s (beginning with the Opium War (1839-1842) and
the Treaty of Nanking (1842)) provided them with new bases of operation on Chinese
territory.
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JAPAN in the Tokugawa Period (1600-1868) and its Policy toward Europeans, 1450-1750
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Japan in the 1500s is locked in a century of decentralized power and incessant warfare
among competing feudal lords, a period known as the "Sengoku," or "Country at War"
(1467-1573). These are the final years of Japan's medieval period (1185-1600) just prior to
the reunification of Japan and the establishment of order and peace under the Tokugawa
shoguns (1600-1868). Within this context of feudal civil war of the 1500s, Japanese pirates
are active in the trade along the China coast — an alternative to the official relations
between China and Japan where trading privileges are awarded to the Japanese in return
for tribute acknowledging the ascendancy of the Chinese emperor. Castles are built by
medieval lords (daimyo) for defense throughout the period of civil war and their size
increases following the introduction of firearms into Japan by the Portuguese in 1543.
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In 1543 the Portuguese traders reach Japan (are actually shipwrecked there) and are soon
followed by the Jesuit missionary order (established in 1540) in the person of St. Francis
Xavier who arrives in Japan in 1549. The Jesuits work among the daimyo of the samurai
class and are initially well received by leading daimyo, including Nobunaga and
Hideyoshi, two daimyo crucial to the reunification of Japan by 1600. (The name for the
Japanese dish "tempura," batter-fried fish and vegetables, is apparently derived from the
Portuguese word "temporas" for "meatless Friday," a Catholic tradition.)
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The reunification of Japan is accomplished by three strong daimyo who succeed each
other: Oda Nobunaga (1543-1582), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), and finally
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) who establishes the Tokugawa Shogunate, that governs for
more than 250 years, following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.
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The reunification of Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1600 brings with it an
emphasis on the reestablishment of order — in social, political, and international
relations — following a century of civil war and turmoil. Aware of the political and
religious domination of the Philippines since the Spanish colonized the country in 1565,
the Japanese political leaders are suspicious of the Dominican and Franciscan
missionaries that arrive in Japan from the Philippines and work among the non-samurai
classes. The Japanese daimyo move to curtail missionary activity beginning in the 1590s.
In 1606, the new Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, proscribes Christianity (just at a time the
Jesuits are being received at the imperial court in China), and by 1614 a concerted effort
to end all Christian practice is underway. (There are an estimated 300,000 Christians in
Japan at this time.)
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Within a century of the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan in 1543, they are followed by
the Dutch and British who have battled to break the Portuguese and then Spanish control
of the Asian spice trade. The East India companies established by the Dutch and British,
respectively, become active in the early 1600s; the Dutch (1609) and the British (1613)
establish trading relations with the Japanese with bases on a Japanese island.
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In an effort to reestablish order in its international relations, however, the Tokugawa
Shogunate prohibits trade with Western nations, prohibits Japanese from going abroad to
trade (ending the unofficial piracy and trade on the China coast), and reaffirms Japan's
official relations with China and Korea within the East Asian international structure.
Following the "Act of Seclusion" (1636) setting forth these conditions, Japan is effectively
"secluded" from interchange with Western Europe (but not with East Asia) for the next
200 years. Only the Dutch retain a small outpost on an island in Nagasaki Harbor; books
obtained from the Dutch are translated into Japanese and "Dutch learning" forms the
basis of the Japanese knowledge of developments in the West throughout this period.
Within East Asia, trade continues with the Koreans and Chinese, and exchange of goods
and ideas with China is maintained. The East Asian political order, with China at the
center, is reinforced.
Tokugawa Japan
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Under the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns (1600-1868), Japan enjoys a 250-year period of
peace and order.
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Dramatic changes take place within this ordered society, however, particularly those of
commercial development, the rise of a merchant class, the growth of cities and of a new
urban culture.
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The prolonged period of peace fosters great economic and social changes in Japanese
society, culture, and the economy, setting the stage for rapid modernization in the
subsequent Meiji period.
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This Tokugawa period is viewed as Japan's "pre-modern" period and is important to
historians as they attempt to define what is "modernization" in many contexts.
Literature in Tokugawa Japan
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The literature of the period gives voice to the culture of the new urban population, the
"townsmen".
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The haiku form is perfected in this period by Bashô (1644-1694) from the linked verse
written by townsmen in the new urban culture of the period.
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KOREA during Choson (Yi Dynasty) (1392-1910)
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In 1392 a Koryo general named Yi Song-gye deposed the Koryo king and established a
new dynasty, which he called Choson, after the legendary early Korean kingdom.
Choson is also sometimes called the Yi dynasty, after the name of its ruling family.

One of the Choson founders’ goals was to eliminate the power of the Buddhist church;
consequently, Buddhism was no longer supported by the state, temple lands were
confiscated, and Choson established Confucianism as the state "religion."
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Korean state rituals, philosophy, ethics, and social norms were strongly influenced by
Chinese Confucianism.
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As in China, government-sponsored examinations were required for men to enter the
state bureaucracy, and a position in the government was considered a mark of high
status for an individual and his family.
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But unlike China, the pool of eligible examination takers in Korea was officially limited
to members of the upper social class, called yangban.
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Choson dynasty Korea was characterized by strict social divisions according to status
and occupation, close observance of Confucian rituals such as ancestor veneration,
separation of male and female with pronounced male domination, and, after the end of
the sixteenth century, self-imposed isolation from most of the outside world.
Invasion and Seclusion (16th century)
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In 1592 and 1597, the Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, having recently united the
feuding domains of Japan under his leadership, invaded Korea as the first step in his
attempt to conquer China. China, then under the Ming dynasty, came to Korea’s aid and
defeated Hideyoshi’s forces, but in the process Korea was devastated by the war. Korea
was again invaded in 1627 and 1636 by the Manchus, a nomadic people from continental
Asia, who forced Korea to pay tribute to the Manchu king. The Manchus went on to
conquer China in 1644.
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After this, the Choson government followed a policy of seclusion, restricting its
interaction with Japan largely to ceremonial contacts through the island of Tsushima, and
limiting its contact with China to a few tributary missions a year.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, when European powers were encroaching on
East and Southeast Asia in pursuit of trade, diplomatic relations, and colonial conquest,
Korea’s continued seclusion earned it the nickname "Hermit Kingdom."
Two Centuries of Peace (1600s-1850s)
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Koreans sometimes refer their country as a "shrimp among whales," the recurrent victim
of conflict among larger outside powers. In fact, traditionally, Korea neither thought of
itself as a "small" country nor did it experience a great many wars or invasions, especially
compared to Europe at the same time.
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The Choson dynasty, perhaps the longest-lived actively ruling dynasty in East Asia,
experienced more than 250 years of internal peace and stable borders.
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Like China and unlike Japan, there was no entrenched military class in Choson. Rather,
Koreans put great emphasis on scholarly learning, in the Confucian tradition, and looked
down upon military pursuits.
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The early Choson period was also a time of artistic and scientific advances in Korea. The
Choson king Sejong promulgated a phonetic writing system for Korean in 1446. Now
called Hangul, the Korean alphabet is one of the simplest and most efficient writing
systems in the world. But the scholarly yangban class made limited use of Hangul and
continued to write most of its literature, philosophy, and official documents in classical
Chinese until the twentieth century.
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The Ming Voyages
The Voyages of Zheng He
The Emperor and His Ambition
The Trusted Admiral
Preparing the Fleet
The Voyages
The Fateful Decision
Discussion Questions
Activities
Resources and Web Sites
The Voyages of Zheng He
From 1405 until 1433, the Chinese imperial eunuch Zheng He led seven ocean expeditions for the
Ming emperor that are unmatched in world history. These missions were astonishing as much for
their distance as for their size: during the first ones, Zheng He traveled all the way from China to
Southeast Asia and then on to India, all the way to major trading sites on India's southwest coast.
In his fourth voyage, he traveled to the Persian Gulf. But for the three last voyages, Zheng went
even further, all the way to the east coast of Africa. This was impressive enough, but Chinese
merchants had traveled this far before. What was even more impressive about these voyages was
that they were done with hundreds of huge ships and tens of thousands of sailors and other
passengers. Over sixty of the three hundred seventeen ships on the first voyage were enormous
"Treasure Ships," sailing vessels over 400 hundred feet long, 160 feet wide, with several stories,
nine masts and twelve sails, and luxurious staterooms complete with balconies. The likes of these
ships had never before been seen in the world, and it would not be until World War I that such
an armada would be assembled again. The story of how these flotillas came to be assembled,
where they went, and what happened to them is one of the great sagas--and puzzles--in world
history.
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The Emperor and His Ambition
The Ming dynasty (1368-1644) was a Chinese dynasty, a Chinese imperial family, as distinct from
the dynasty that came before it (the Mongol, or Yuan, dynasty of Chinggis and Kubilai Khan--see
the Marco Polo unit) or the one that followed it (the Manchu, or Qing, dynasty--see the
Macartney unit). To demonstrate Ming power, the first emperors initiated campaigns to
decisively defeat any domestic or foreign threat. The third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di
or the Yongle Emperor, was particularly aggressive and personally led major campaigns against
Mongolian tribes to the north and west. He also wanted those in other countries to be aware of
China's power, and to perceive it as the strong country he believed it had been in earlier Chinese
dynasties, such as the Han and the Song; he thus revived the traditional tribute system. In the
traditional tributary arrangement, countries on China's borders agreed to recognize China as
their superior and its emperor as lord of "all under Heaven." These countries regularly gave gifts
of tribute in exchange for certain benefits, like military posts and trade treaties. In this system, all
benefited, with both peace and trade assured. Because the Yongle emperor realized that the major
threats to China in this period were from the north, particularly the Mongols, he saved many of
those military excursions for himself. He sent his most trusted generals to deal with the
Manchurian people to the north, the Koreans and Japanese to the east, and the Vietnamese in the
south. For ocean expeditions to the south and west, however, he decided that this time China
should make use of its extremely advanced technology and all the riches the state had to offer.
Lavish expeditions should be mounted in order to overwhelm foreign peoples and convince
them beyond any doubt about Ming power. For this special purpose, he chose one of his most
trusted generals, a man he had known since he was young, Zheng He.
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The Trusted Admiral
Zheng He was born Ma He to a Muslim family in the far southwest, in today's Yunnan province.
At ten years old he was captured by soldiers sent there by the first Ming emperor intent on
subduing the south. He was sent to the capital to be trained in military ways. Growing up to be a
burly, imposing man, over six feet tall with a chest contemporaries said measured over five feet
around, he was also extremely talented and intelligent. He received both literary and military
training, then made his way up the military ladder with ease, making important allies at court in
the process. When the emperor needed a trustworthy ambassador familiar with Islam and the
ways of the south to head his splendid armada to the "Western Oceans," he naturally picked the
talented court eunuch, Ma He, whom he renamed Zheng.
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Preparing the Fleet
China had been extending its power out to sea for 300 years. To satisfy growing Chinese demand
for special spices, medicinal herbs, and raw materials, Chinese merchants cooperated with
Moslem and Indian traders to develop a rich network of trade that reached beyond island
southeast Asia to the fringes of the Indian Ocean. Into the ports of eastern China came ginseng,
lacquerware, celadon, gold and silver, horses and oxen from Korea and Japan. Into the ports of
southern China came hardwoods and other tree products, ivory, rhinoceros horn, brilliant
kingfisher feathers, ginger, sulfur and tin from Vietnam and Siam in mainland southeast Asia;
cloves, nutmeg, batik fabrics, pearls, tree resins, and bird plumes from Sumatra, Java, and the
Moluccas in island southeast Asia. Trade winds across the Indian Ocean brought ships carrying
cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, and especially pepper from Calicut on the southwestern
coast of India, gemstones from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), as well as woolens, carpets, and more
precious stones from ports as far away as Hormuz on the Persian Gulf and Aden on the Red Sea.
Agricultural products from north and east Africa also made their way to China, although little
was known about those regions.
By the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, China had reached a peak of naval technology
unsurpassed in the world. While using many technologies of Chinese invention, Chinese
shipbuilders also combined technologies they borrowed and adapted from seafarers of the South
China seas and the Indian Ocean. For centuries, China was the preeminent maritime power in the
region, with advances in navigation, naval architecture, and propulsion. From the ninth century
on, the Chinese had taken their magnetic compasses (see the unit on Chinese inventions) aboard
ships to use for navigating (two centuries before Europe). In addition to compasses, Chinese
could navigate by the stars when skies were clear, using printed manuals with star charts and
compass bearings that had been available since the thirteenth century. Star charts had been
produced from at least the eleventh century, reflecting China's concern with heavenly events
(unmatched until the Renaissance in Europe).
An important advance in shipbuilding used since the second century in China was the
construction of double hulls divided into separate watertight compartments. This saved ships
from sinking if rammed, but it also offered a method of carrying water for passengers and
animals, as well as tanks for keeping fish catches fresh. Crucial to navigation was another
Chinese invention of the first century, the sternpost rudder, fastened to the outside rear of a ship
which could be raised and lowered according to the depth of the water, and used to navigate
close to shore, in crowded harbors and narrow channels. Both these inventions were
commonplace in China 1,000 years before their introduction to Europe.
Chinese ships were also noted for their advances in sail design and rigging. Bypassing the need
for banks of rowers, by the third and fourth centuries the Chinese were building three- and fourmasted ships (1000 years before Europe) of wind-efficient design. In the eleventh and twelfth
centuries they added lug and then lateen sails from the Arabs to help sail against the prevailing
winds.
By the eighth century, ships 200 feet long capable of carrying 500 men were being built in China
(the size of Columbus' ships eight centuries later!) By the Song Dynasty (960-1279), these stout
and stable ships with their private cabins for travelers and fresh water for drinking and bathing
were the ships of choice for Arab and Persian traders in the Indian Ocean. The Mongol Yuan
Dynasty (1279-1368) encouraged commercial activity and maritime trade, so the succeeding Ming
Dynasty inherited large shipyards, many skilled shipyard workers, and finely tuned naval
technology from the dynasty that preceded it.
Because the Yongle emperor wanted to impress Ming power upon the world and show off
China's resources and importance, he gave orders to build even larger ships than were necessary
for the voyages. Thus the word went out to construct special "Treasure Ships," ships over 400 feet
long, 160 feet wide, with nine masts, twelve sails, and four decks, large enough to carry 2,500 tons
of cargo each and armed with dozens of small cannons. Accompanying those ships were to be
hundreds of smaller ships, some filled only with water, others carrying troops or horses or
cannon, still others with gifts of silks and brocades, porcelains, lacquerware, tea, and ironworks
that would impress leaders of far-flung civilizations.
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The Voyages
The first expedition of this mighty armada (1405-07) was composed of 317 ships, including
perhaps as many as sixty huge Treasure Ships, and nearly 28,000 men. In addition to thousands
of sailors, builders and repairmen for the trip, there were soldiers, diplomatic specialists, medical
personnel, astronomers, and scholars of foreign ways, especially Islam. The fleet stopped in
Champa (central Vietnam) and Siam (today's Thailand) and then on to island Java, to points
along the Straits of Malacca, and then proceeded to its main destination of Cochin and the
kingdom of Calicut on the southwestern coast of India. On his return, Zheng He put down a
pirate uprising in Sumatra, bringing the pirate chief, an overseas Chinese, back to Nanjing for
punishment.
The second expedition (1407-1409) took 68 ships to the court of Calicut to attend the inauguration
of a new king. Zheng He organized this expedition but did not actually lead it in person.
Zheng He did command the third voyage (1409-1411) with 48 large ships and 30,000 troops,
visiting many of the same places as on the first voyage but also traveling to Malacca on the Malay
peninsula and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). When fighting broke out there between his forces and those of
a small kingdom, Zheng put down the fighting, captured the king and brought him back to
China where he was released by the emperor and returned home duly impressed.
The fourth voyage (1413-15) extended the scope of the expeditions even further. This time in
addition to visiting many of the same sites, Zheng He commandeered his 63 ships and over
28,000 men to Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. The main chronicler of the voyages, the twenty-five
year old Muslim translator Ma Huan, joined Zheng He on this trip. On the way, Zheng He
stopped in Sumatra to fight on the side of a deposed sultan, bringing the usurper back to Nanjing
for execution.
The fifth voyage (1417-1419) was primarily a return trip for seventeen heads of state from South
Asia. They had made their way to China after Zheng He's visits to their homelands in order to
present their tribute at the Ming Court. On this trip Zheng He ventured even further, first to
Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea, and then on to the east coast of Africa, stopping at the city
states of Mogadishu and Brawa (in today's Somalia), and Malindi (in present day Kenya). He was
frequently met with hostility but this was easily subdued. Many ambassadors from the countries
visited came back to China with him.
The sixth expedition (1421-1422) of 41 ships sailed to many of the previously visited Southeast
Asian and Indian courts and stops in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the coast of Africa,
principally in order to return nineteen ambassadors to their homelands. Zheng He returned to
China after less than a year, having sent his fleet onward to pursue several separate itineraries,
with some ships going perhaps as far south as Sofala in present day Mozambique.
The seventh and final voyage (1431-33) was sent out by the Yongle emperor's successor, his
grandson the Xuande emperor. This expedition had more than one hundred large ships and over
27,000 men, and it visited all the important ports in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean as well
as Aden and Hormuz. One auxiliary voyage traveled up the Red Sea to Jidda, only a few
hundred miles from the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. It was on the return trip in 1433 that
Zheng He died and was buried at sea, although his official grave still stands in Nanjing, China.
Nearly forgotten in China until recently, he was immortalized among Chinese communities
abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia where to this day he is celebrated and revered as a god.
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The Fateful Decision
Factions at court had long been critical of the Yongle emperor's extravagant ways. Not only had
he sent seven missions of the enormous Treasure Ships over the western seas, he had ordered
overseas missions northeast and east, had sent envoys multiple times across desert and grassland
to the mountains of Tibet and Nepal and on to Bengal and Siam, and had many times raised
armies against fragmented but still troublesome Mongolian tribes to the north. He had embroiled
China in a losing battle with Annam (northern Vietnam) for decades (most latterly due to
exorbitant demands for timber to build his palace). In addition to these foreign exploits, he had
further depleted the treasury by moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and, with a grandeur
on land to match that on sea, by ordering the construction of the magnificent Forbidden City.
This project involved over a million laborers. To further fortifying the north of his empire, he
pledged his administration to the enormous task of reviving and extending the Grand Canal. This
made it possible to transport grain and other foodstuffs from the rich southern provinces to the
northern capital by barge, rather than by ships along the coast.
Causing further hardship were natural disasters, severe famines in Shantong and Hunan,
epidemics in Fujian, plus lightning strikes that destroyed part of the newly constructed
Forbidden City. In 1448, flooding of the Yellow River left millions homeless and thousands of
acres unproductive. As a result of these disasters coupled with corruption and nonpayment of
taxes by wealthy elite, China's tax base shrank by almost half over the course of the century.
Furthermore the fortuitous fragmentation of the Mongol threat along China's northern borders
did not last. By 1449 several tribes unified and their raids and counterattacks were to haunt the
Ming Dynasty for the next two centuries until its fall, forcing military attention to be focused on
the north. But the situation in the south was not much better. Without continual diplomatic
attention, pirates and smugglers again were active in the South China Sea.
The Ming court was divided into many factions, most sharply into the pro-expansionist voices
led by the powerful eunuch factions that had been responsible for the policies supporting Zheng
Ho's voyages, and more traditional conservative Confucian court advisers who argued for
frugality. When another seafaring voyage was suggested to the court in 1477, the vice president
of the Ministry of War confiscated all of Zheng He's records in the archives, damning them as
"deceitful exaggerations of bizarre things far removed from the testimony of people's eyes and
ears." He argued that "the expeditions of San Bao [meaning "Three Jewels," as Zheng He was
called] to the West Ocean wasted tens of myriads of money and grain and moreover the people
who met their deaths may be counted in the myriads. Although he returned with wonderful
precious things, what benefit was it to the state?"
Linked to eunuch politics and wasteful policies, the voyages were over. By the century's end,
ships could not be built with more than two masts, and in 1525 the government ordered the
destruction of all oceangoing ships. The greatest navy in history, which once had 3,500 ships (the
U.S. Navy today has only 324), was gone.
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Discussion Questions
1.
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4.
5.
6.
Describe the many projects of the Yongle emperor to proclaim Ming power. Why do you
think that the voyages to the west were the most grand?
Why has the Yongle emperor been called one of the most active of the Ming emperors,
both militarily and politically?
Why has the role of the Mediterranean Sea for Europe been compared to that of the
Indian Ocean for Asia?
Why did the Ming court rely so heavily on imperial eunuchs like Zheng He to carry out
its policies rather than on traditional Confucian officials?
Compare China's maritime power in the fifteenth century with Europe's at that time.
What was the basis for China's naval power?
Why do you think that the overseas voyages were halted? Just as important, why do you
think that the Yongle emperor's attempt to reinstate the traditional tributary system was
abandoned? What were some of the implications of these decisions?
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Recommended Activities
1.
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7.
Divide the class into seven groups. Have each group research one of Zheng He's voyages,
detailing the itinerary, the exchange of tribute and trade, and the reactions of the Chinese
to the regions visited.
Imagine you were a resident or a leader of one of the sites visited by Zheng He. Write
journal entries or letters to the Yongle emperor to be sent with Zheng He about your
impressions of the Chinese and the problems and possibilities of more contact with them.
Make a map of the trade and tribute routes of Ming China, with a key that indicates all
the products that were exchanged at its borders: northeast, north, northwest, west, south,
southeast, and east.
Role play the discussions at the Ming court. Select a student to be the Chinese emperor.
Divide the rest of the class into pro-expansionist advisers and anti-expansionist
advocates. Write memorials to the emperor detailing your position and then role play
discussions at court. You might hold several of these discussions for different periods in
Ming history, for example, one at the beginning of Yongle's reign, another after the
Forbidden City was built, a third after the Mongol threat was renewed.
Make a model or diagram of one of the Treasure Ships, carefully making to scale the
important features of fifteenth century Chinese naval technology.
The Chinese were not the only peoples to go on ocean voyages in the fifteenth century.
Research Muslim, Malayo-Polynesian, West and East African, and South American
expansion pre-1450. Then place Iberian expansion of this period in this context.
Use the student reading and the image of a sixteenth century Iberian ship superimposed
on one of Zheng He's Treasure Ships to compare the Chinese fifteenth century Treasure
Ships with the ships used in Portuguese and Spanish maritime voyages. (See the
following Web site: www.chinapage.org/chengho.html.)
Acknowledgment: Dr. Sue Gronewald, a specialist in Chinese history, was the consultant and
author for this unit.
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Recommended Resources
Texts:
"The World of the Yongle Emperor," Calliope May-June, 1995 (selections from later issues on the
Web at www.cobblestonepub.com.)
Nicholas Kristof, "1492: the Prequel," The New York Times June 6, 1999, pp. 80-87.
Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 14051433. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
F.W. Mote, "China in the Age of Columbus" in Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. Edited
by Jay Levenson, New Haven and Washington D.C.: Yale University Press and the National
Gallery of Art, 1991, pp. 337-350.
Web sites:
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http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/millennium/
Select the15th century, then the Profiles icon, then Zheng He
http://www.askasia.org/frclasrm/lessplan/l000069.htm
See "Should the Ming End the 'Treasure Ship' Voyages"
http://members.tripod.com/khleo/chengho.htm
The Admiral Of the Western Seas – Cheng Ho (Zheng He)
http://marauder.millersv.edu/~columbus/data/art/WILSON09.ART
"The Emperor's Giraffe," by Samuel M. Wilson, in Natural History (Vol. 101, No. 12,
December 1992)
http://chinapage.org/chengho.html
The Great Chinese Mariner Zheng He [Cheng Ho] (includes map and illustrations)
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