HIS391 Asian Studies: Reasons And Significance Of Zheng Hes Expedition

Xinyu Dai
Kristin Stapleton
As 391
2017/11/19
Reasons and Significance of Zheng He’s Expeditions
Introduction
Zheng He, a Chinese imperial eunuch, goes to history as one of the Chinese historians that presented unmatched achievements in world history. He led seven ocean expeditions between the years 1405 to the year 1435 for his master Yong Le. Zheng made astonishing mission which was not all surprising their distance but also their value. First, he traveled to South East Asia all the way from China; he then moved to India proceeding to the major trading sites on the south-west coast of India (Wade ,Pg 45). The fourth voyage he took to the Persian gulf however the remaining three voyages Zheng surprised people to move all the way far from India in the eastern coast of Africa. However impressive, it was not new since several Chinese merchants have traveled this far before. One unique thing about the last three voyages is that he was accompanied by seven hundreds of huge ships and thousands of sailors with numerous passengers. No one had ever seen the kind of ships not until the world war I that seen such a number assemble again.
Zheng He was born to the Mahe of the Muslim family that lives in the today’s Yunnan province in the southwestern part of China. The story is told that he was sent there by the first empire with the intention of subduing the south when he was only ten years (Lim ,Pg. 68). The ethnicity, he was trained various military ways and grew up to be imposing and bully man. Zheng was equally talented ways and was very intelligent. He was given literary and military training and that assisted him to be a military leader with a lot of ease. The exhibition voyages that Zheng made were both intentionally and directed for a certain importance.
Reasons for Starting the Zheng’s Expedition
Many reasons might have prompted Yong Le to delegate Zheng He to start the expedition. Fist Yong lee had harbored time ravenous appetite for imperial control of the foreign trade with China. However, people may think in one way, or the voyages remain to have a militaristic diplomatic and commercial nature. The main aim that prompted their establishment was the need to control the maritime trade. This is to mean the naval trade was to be brought into the famous tributary stem and this would mean forcing other countries to comply as long as they fall within the tributary system. The Yong Le’s empire would then create a dominant hegemony over other countries.
Similarly, there was an intention by Yong Le to bring other people within his dynasty to the outside world civilization, to impart in them maximum formal submission. The main people targeted with this were the barbarian section of the citizen who seemed to be lacking the necessary civilization to submit to the authorities. As a result, most of the world emperors had to pay homage to China to seek their blessing in trade and other important international dealings giving China cultural and moral superiority (Duchesne, Pg. 69).
Other theories, however, less popular they are have been coined to explain the real intention of the voyages claiming that the main aim of their initiation was a well-calculated adventure to disclose the location of dethroned Jianwen emperor. This is not confirmed. Other theories also state that the voyages were meant to search for other empires that were enemies of China like Timurid state. This fact is drawn from native China writings of the individuals who were at that time.
Significant Influence of Zheng He’s Expeditionary Voyages
The voyages had several impacts, during this period of journeys, the Ming China was one of the naval powers, and Yong Le Empire had acquired extensive control over the foreign land while expanding the voyages. It created the environment for trading wide as well as vast concurring powers in the world. The impact can be analyzed under subheadings.
Policy and Administration
One of the key significances of this expedition was the creation of policy and better administration. This expedition improved the policy that Yong Le operated under. According to Wei (59), the emergence of the trade, brought rapid creation of economic activities and further consolidation of imperial control over commerce at the maritime. This went ahead into curtailing criminality at the coast. Also, it’s important to note that the entrepreneurs and the Mariners got more employment. There was an increase of the China goods in the foreign market, and they were also able to import foreign gods with a lot of ease (Wei, 59). One of the most important roles the voyages played was functioning as a trade commission in the government that had escalated relish for controlling private maritime in commerce not by providing better services or insisting more in it but by monopolistic tendencies. They wanted to make naval commerce into one of their tributary systems. In the end, the voyages improved the policy of Yong Le emperor and increased the ease of capturing the maritime commerce. Still, this is evident when the expeditions ended in 1433. The civil officials were noted to have recognized success in halting Yong Le emperor policy which in this case was to ring maritime trade to be one of its tributary system structure.
Envoy of Peace
According to Yao Ming who was one of the senior officials dealing with commemorative issues in the oceanic voyages said that one of the key principles of the explorer was peace. They did not sail to the new lands for aggressive purposes. Zheng He and the entire crew in the course of their journey went out of their comfort zones to solve disputes among the individuals that they came across. Still, according to Li Jinming, one of the professors of the South East Asian research institute from the University of Xiamen pointed out that however Zheng he in his large delegation went to seven of their expedition in the 28 years indicated. A team that led them into stepping into 30 countries in both African and Asia. There is no even a single nation in the world that has been colonized by China, not because they did not have the necessary resources but because of their policy. Despite China harboring its share of power among the powerful nations during the Ming dynasty, they did not oppress any nation inform of colonization. This is unlike other nations of their earlier whop went for navigations. The actions of Zheng contributed a lot to peace more so to those powerful nations who viewed Africa as a colonization setting. Still on many occasions, Zheng he is praised for peace (Hui & Li,206).
Several statistics available in China indicates that during the time of expedition alone, the foreign envoys that came visiting during that time risen to 318 and this occurred 15 times per annum talking about an average. On the similar basis, several kings 9 in number from South East Asia visited China. Some of them became ill in China died and were buried there, and to date, their graves remain as a history directly pointing exchange of friendship of China and other counties of the south east of Asia. Due to this expedition, most of the countries noted that he was generous, good-natured and those who are not intended to threatening any minor territory. Several of the individuals who worked with Zhang he including one of the chief ministers of Malacca has been seen praising him a style father and architect of stable diplomacy that China enjoys today (Wang 234).
Envoy of Culture
It is noted as from Ming DE’s perspective that Zheng assisted in advancing the Chinese culture and civilization to the outside world. Yao is quoted saying that during the time of the voyage, another extent of the world including Africa, South East Asia, and south Asia was way behind China. The Chinese shared their advanced and sophisticated knowledge in manufacturing leech crafting, shipbuilding navigation, Confucius ideology and meteorology to other parts of the world. On similar basis, one of the professors of history at ...