The background of Zheng He's voyage to the West.
However, this statement cannot be established, because overseas countries were not strong at that time, and there was no possibility of invading the waters of the Ming Dynasty.
Another way of saying it is that the purpose of sailing is to control the Mongolian khanate remaining in Central and South Asia and northern India. This is also impossible, because at the beginning of Yongle, the death of Khan in this country posed no threat to the Ming Dynasty.
Zheng He made seven voyages to the Western Ocean and suffered three battles. One is to help small countries change their dynasties, the other is that a country wants to sneak attack Zheng He's fleet, and the other is a pirate group. All three were skirmishes (more details will be given in the next chapter). Some people regard Zheng He's voyage to the West as an "international policeman". But these are just events along the way, and they cannot be the main motivation or purpose. Zheng He's inscription said: "Those who don't respect foreign countries and Wang Fan are captured alive. This statement can be confirmed by the fact that barbarian invaders annihilated them, because Christina Ning was the one who relied on them. Judy of Ming Taizu succeeded to the throne in the name of "Jing Nan", and finally captured Yingtian (now Nanjing), the capital of China. Emperor Zhu Yunwen burned down the palace and disappeared from the scene. Ming Chengzu inherited the throne and changed his title to Yongle, but he may still be worried about the disappearance of Wen Jian and the loss of his legacy. In the historical documents of the Ming Dynasty, there are some rumors that Emperor Wen Jian may not have been burned to death, but fled overseas, and even told the story of his family returning to Beijing 20 years later. Therefore, some people think that Emperor Yongle sent Zheng He to the West because he wanted to find Emperor Jianwen. However, this statement may not be true, because Zheng He's overseas missions are so vast every time. If Emperor Wen Jian fled overseas, he could hide when he heard the news. Large-scale westward search for Wen Jian is by no means an effective way. Most scholars no longer believe this statement, but historical novels often emphasize this possibility for dramatization.
When Ming Chengzu won the throne, the Ming Dynasty had been established for more than 30 years, and agriculture and people's lives were not affected by this coup. At this time, coastal metropolises such as China and Guangzhou developed very prosperously. After good economic development, it is very urgent to develop overseas transportation and overseas trade. On the other hand, Ming Chengzu also wanted to use foreign activities to show his power and establish his reputation. Therefore, sailing is imperative. Of course, western countries will feel pale and afraid in front of Zheng He's huge ship and tens of thousands of soldiers. Therefore, as one of the main purposes of Zheng He's voyage to the West, it can be understood and accepted by most researchers.
But if we just show our national strength overseas, what good will it do to Ming Chengzu? Why spend so much money and military power? Therefore, it is impossible to regard "superior martial arts" as the "ultimate" goal of Emperor Yongle.
In fact, Zheng He's treasure ship contains many treasures every time, and it is given to every visiting king as a "gift". Many countries also sent envoys or emperors back to Du Ming in person to pay tribute to Zheng He's treasure ship with their national specialties and treasures. When these foreign envoys came to China, they asked Zheng He to transport them back to China and bring back more "gifts". Therefore, during the Yongle period, overseas tributary countries increased from several countries during the Hongwu period to more than 30 countries. Among them, Malaga (now Malacca) and Tani (now North Kalimantan and Brunei) have the closest relationship with the Ming Dynasty. After Yongle's death, the voyage to the West in 1967 stopped in the early years of Xuan Di, hoping that foreign countries would pay tribute before the seventh voyage.
Moreover, seven voyages to the West in these 28 years are equal to once every four years on average, and it takes two years to go back and forth. Therefore, for about half a year, Zheng He's fleet was in an endless stream between China and the West. Why so often? Zheng He's fleet of voyages to the West is a huge fleet, which is completely compiled according to maritime navigation and military organization. At that time, it was a powerful maritime mobile formation in the world. Many foreign scholars call Zheng He's fleet a task force, and Zheng He is the commander-in-chief of the navy. After a comprehensive analysis of the world history of this period, Dr. Needham, an internationally renowned scholar and British, came to the conclusion that "the navy of the Ming Dynasty may be stronger than any Asian country in history, or even any European country in the same period, so that all European countries together are inferior to the navy of the Ming Dynasty."
Zheng He's fleet to the Western Seas is a military organization based on maritime navigation and the tasks undertaken.
First of all, there are many people.
The number of Zheng He's voyages to the West is clearly recorded as four times in historical materials.
Zheng He made more than 27,000 voyages to the West. There are about 5 guards in the Ming army, each with 5,000-5,500 people; Judging from Wu Zhishu, it mainly comes from coastal hospitals. At that time, the number of people sailing in the west through Columbus, Da Gama and Magellan was 90-150 respectively; /kloc-above 0/70; 265 people. I'm not just talking about quantity here, but explaining a scientific truth. The number of sailors reflects a kind of strength, especially in ancient society, which needs material support from all sides and is not easy.
Second, the fleet establishment.
According to years of research by China naval professionals, Zheng He's fleet consists of three sequences: captain, amphibious unit and honor guard. Naval divisions are the basic units of naval forces and warships. They are organized into formations, which are called forward battalion, rear battalion, middle battalion, left battalion and right battalion. Amphibious troops are used for landing operations; The guard of honor is solemn and powerful when serving as a guard and communicating with foreign countries.
According to the mission of going to the West, Zheng He's crew mainly consists of five parts: command part, navigation part, foreign trade part, logistics support part and military escort part. Command part: the center of the whole fleet, which commands and makes decisions on navigation, diplomacy, trade and operations. Zheng He's post is an imperial eunuch. Navigation part: navigation business, ship repair, weather forecast, etc. Foreign trade: diplomatic etiquette, trade, liaison translation; Logistics support part: managing finance, logistics supply, drafting documents, medical personnel, etc. Military escort part: responsible for navigation safety and military operations. According to the research on the composition of Zheng He's fleet, the compilation was perfect and rigorous, which condensed the rich navigation experience of ancient China people and ensured the realization of Zheng He's voyage to the West.
Other influences: Huang Renyu, a famous historian, believes that during the Yongle period, Zheng He spent about 6 million taels of silver on his voyages to the West, which was twice the annual expenditure of the national treasury at that time, and this did not include the expenditure on shipbuilding and other places. On the other hand, it takes an average of 1600 taels of silver to build and repair a ship, and an average of more than 260 ships are needed for each voyage, and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver are needed for construction and repair alone.
On the surface, every time Zheng He's fleet went out to sea, "Yun Fan sheltered the sun" was vast, but in essence it was "a lonely sail and a distant shadow". There is no fleet behind, and it is not allowed to follow private maritime merchants. It is strictly forbidden for private maritime merchants to "fragment out to sea". In Liang Qichao's view, "the nature of his hope lies in his heroic ambition, and he wants to be as famous as the people and countries in the distance."
In the sixth year of Xuande in Ming Dynasty (143 1), Changle County, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, suddenly became noisy. A huge fleet consisting of more than 200 ships and more than 27,000 people went south from Liu Jia Port in Taicang and anchored at Taiping Port in the west of the county seat. Changle County, Fujian Province, is the land of Kaiyang for Zheng He's seven voyages to the West. At that time, a huge fleet was stationed here repeatedly, waiting for the wind to go out to sea. There are not only the well-preserved Tian Fei Ling Ying Monument erected by Zheng He himself, but also the "Shiyang Street" formed under the influence of his voyage to the West. In the late Ming Dynasty, the serious "Japanese invasion" prompted people to commemorate and worship the gods related to the ocean and worship the statue of Zheng He in temples, which was in line with the general process of folk deification.
When Emperor Yongle ascended the throne, more than 400 excellent shipbuilders were dispatched from five provinces and counties such as Zhejiang, Fujian and Huguang to build ships in Longjiang, Nanjing. He mobilized the shipbuilding power of the whole country and built an ocean-going ship larger than the Yuan ship sailing in the Indian Ocean. Among them, the captain Bao is 44 feet long and 18 feet wide, making it the largest and best ship in the world in15th century. There is a model Zheng He's treasure ship in the former site of Nanjing Longjiang Shipyard.
The construction of such a huge ship does not depend entirely on the actual load, but gives people a feeling of "floating on the waves like a hill" and "showing off a foreign land to show China's prosperity". In order to ensure the excellent quality of shipbuilding, Ming Chengzu spared no effort to "support the money and food of thirteen provinces in the world".
During the Yongle period, every time Zheng He's fleet went to a country, it first read letters to the local king or leader, held a grand conferring ceremony and presented treasures. In addition to establishing the suzerain-vassal relationship, Zheng He was also ordered to mediate disputes among overseas countries. It was with Zheng He's help that Manchuria, bullied by the great powers, gained its independence.
In fact, compared with tributes, the satisfaction of "the princes of the world" is what the emperor values more. During the Ming Dynasty, every time Zheng He went to the Western Ocean, the number of envoys and kings from various countries who came to China with the fleet increased greatly. 1423 Zheng He went to the Western Ocean for the sixth time, with 16 countries and 1200 envoys and their families on board. By the late Yongle period, more than 60 countries had come to pay tribute.
There is a reason why so many countries are willing to pay tribute. The imperial court, after accepting gifts such as spices and rare treasures, rewarded them according to the principle of "generous reward". The difference between gifts and tributes is generally around 1 to 20 times. For example, pepper is worth per 100 Jin in Sumatra market, but as a "tribute", the Ming government gave it 20 Liang per 1 00 Jin.
We don't know what Wu Baotina got, but it is true that the Ming government has always been generous. Give the king, the royal family, silk, porcelain and other items. Thousands of silk are sold at every turn, "Yongle gives more copper money." 1405 gave the Japanese king10.5 million pieces of copper coins, and the following year gave the princess150,000 pieces, giving 5 million pieces. So that for a time, Japan did not even cast copper coins, but used Yongle copper coins as the currency of Japan.
In addition to rewards, entertaining envoys is also a huge expense. It often takes a lot of time to complete the complicated tribute procedures, and the travel and accommodation along the way are borne by the government, and silver ingots are also given as travel expenses. As a result, many envoys and a large number of entourage, while calmly handling their own trade, waited happily. Wu Baotina stayed in China for more than half a year, and then went to sea with Zheng He. Some envoys even waited for three years to return home on a free treasure ship.
On the eighth day of July in the seventh year of Xuande (1432), Zheng He's fleet arrived in Manchuria, sent Wu Baotina back to China to reply, and then went to Siam to read the imperial edict of Xuanzong, warning him to "be good neighbors and be colleagues with me." How to negotiate is unknown, but Zheng He spent more than a month mediating between Manxiga and Siam.
On August 18, the fleet arrived in Sumatra, and then visited Aru, Nagur, Lebanon and Namburi. During Zheng He's voyage to the West, he once held a ceremony to seal kings in these countries, and presented imperial books, colored coins, official kiln porcelain and other items to kings or chiefs.
Tribute trade
In fact, Zheng He's fleet, also known as treasure ships, was led by his subordinates. They were originally troops escorting imperial materials, hunting pearls, agates, spices and rare birds and animals from western countries, and then bringing them back to China, mainly for emperors and nobles to enjoy. These wealth cannot be converted into real national income. According to Ming History and Biography of Zheng He, there are 63 treasure ships of Zheng He, the largest of which is 44 feet long and 18 feet wide. It was the largest seagoing ship in the world at that time, with a length of151.18m and a width of 61.6m.. This ship has four floors. Nine masts on the ship can hang 12 sails, and the anchor weighs several thousand kilograms. It takes 200 people to set sail, and a ship can hold thousands of people. "Shi Ming Bing Zhi" also records: "The treasure ship is as high as a building, with a wide bottom and can accommodate thousands of people."
Zheng He's fleet has five types of ships. The first one is called "treasure ship". The largest treasure is 44 feet long, 18 feet wide and carries 800 tons. This kind of ship can hold thousands of people, and it was the largest ship in the world at that time. Its posture is magnificent and unparalleled. Its iron rudder needs two or three hundred people to move. The second kind is called "horse boat". Captain Ma is thirty-seven feet long and fifteen feet wide. The third kind is called "grain ship". It is 28 feet long and 12 feet wide. The fourth type is called "by boat", which is 24 feet long and 9 feet wide. The fifth type is called "warship", which is eighteen feet long and six feet wide. It can be seen that some of Zheng He's ships are used to carry goods, some are used to transport grain, some are used for fighting, and some are used for living. The division of labor is refined and there are more types. We can say that Zheng He's fleet is a large fleet with treasure ships as the main body and ships as the auxiliary.
According to the Records of Chongming County, after Zheng He's fleet returned, in the last year of Yongle, namely 1424, the treasure ship was too large to sail into the Liu Jiahe River and had to return to Chongming to anchor. There is no record in Ming History or other materials that can prove that there was drought or hydrological anomaly in that year, indicating that the water level of the Yangtze River was normal in that year. However, the famous Liu Jiahe Port in Taicang cannot allow treasure ships to enter, which shows its deep draft and large scale. This is probably a large treasure ship made by a shipyard near Nanjing or Fujian.
At the same time, in the site of Nanjing Longjiang Shipyard in the Ming Dynasty, a giant rudder with a total length exceeding 1 1 m was unearthed in May/957 and not long ago. If the hull size is estimated according to the normal scale, there are indeed large wooden ships with a length of 44 feet and a width of 18, and there are also several Zheng He researchers who support the existence of large treasure ships.
Affirmative school
It is believed that the history of the Ming Dynasty is basically correct, because the "2,000-material ship" recorded in the inscription of Zheng He in Nanjing Jinghai Temple is not a "treasure ship" but a smaller "warship".
Nanjing Zhenghe Shipyard excavated a rudder about15m long, which is the same size as the treasure ship described in Ming History.
The wharf of Nanjing Zhenghe Shipyard is 20 feet wide.
Ibn battuta (1304- 1377) once recorded in his travel notes that China has a huge 12 sail, which can carry thousands of people. The record of Baitutai can be used as circumstantial evidence of 12 treasure ship with thousands of people in sail.
According to the records of Zheng He's remains in Nanjing Jinghai Temple, Zheng He's first treasure ship was "two thousand materials". According to their inference, it is about fifteen to twenty feet long and six to eight feet wide. The carrying capacity is about 5000 tons. So far, no one has copied a 44-foot-long "treasure ship" that can really sail.
Even in the voice of doubt, Zheng He's treasure ship was still the world's leading ship at that time. The picture on the right shows the antique treasure ship designed and built according to the scale of the medium-sized treasure ship in Zheng He's fleet, which is displayed in Nanjing Treasure Shipyard Ruins Park. It is 63.25m long and 13.8m wide, with 6 masts and 8 sails, with a displacement of about1300t. According to Zheng He's nautical chart, Zheng He's use of hydrological needle (24/48 azimuth compass navigation) combined with star-pulling (astronomical navigation) was the most advanced navigation technology at that time. Zheng He's fleet navigated with a compass during the day and kept its course by observing the stars and the water compass at night. By reasonably solving the problems of fresh water storage, ship stability and anti-sinking, Zheng He's fleet was able to "keep the Yun Fan high and the stars gallop day and night" under the sinister conditions of "Hong Tao meets the sky and the waves are like mountains", with few accidents. During the day, flags of various colors are hung and waved in the agreed way to form corresponding semaphores. At night, lanterns are used to reflect the sailing situation. In case of fog and rain with poor visibility, gongs, horns and horns are also used for communication.
Zheng He's skills in going to the West are mainly manifested in three aspects:
1, astronomical navigation technology
China has long been able to determine the position and navigation position of ships by observing the sun, moon and stars. Zheng He's fleet combined the astronomical positioning of navigation with the application of navigation compass, which improved the accuracy of determining the position and course of the ship. People call it "picking stars". Use the method of "pulling the star board" to observe and locate, and judge the position and direction of the ship by measuring the height of the sky, so as to determine the course. This technology represents the world advanced level of astronomical navigation in that era.
2. Geographic navigation technology
The geographic navigation technology of Zheng He's voyage to the West is based on marine scientific knowledge and nautical charts, and the navigation route of the ship is determined by using navigation instruments such as navigation compass, log and bathymeter according to the records of nautical charts and needle book. When sailing, the navigation route is determined, which is called needle track. The error of the compass shall not exceed 2.5 degrees.
3. Zheng He's nautical chart
The reason why Zheng He's Nautical Chart has spread to the world is due to Mao's copy in Wu Bei Zhi at the end of Ming Dynasty. The original picture is a zigzag long scroll, which was changed to calligraphy when Wu Bei was included. From right to left, there are 20 pages of pictures, 40 of which are * * *, and finally two pictures of "crossing the ocean to lead the stars" are attached. More than 530 place names were recorded in the chart, including 300 foreign place names and the farthest east African coast 16. Cities, islands, navigation marks, beaches, reefs, mountains and air routes are all marked. Among them, Nansha Islands (Wansheng Shitangyu), Xisha Islands (Shitang) and zhongsha islands (Shixing Shitang) are clearly marked. 1947, the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of China named the South Island Reef after Zheng He and others to commemorate this great navigator.
Zheng He's nautical chart is the earliest existing nautical atlas in the world. Compared with the most representative Portland charts in the west at the same time, Zheng He's nautical charts have a wide range and rich contents. Although its mathematical accuracy is low, its practicability is better than Portland diagram. British Joseph Needham pointed out in his book "History of Science and Technology in China" that Mills and Bladden made a detailed study on the accuracy of China's nautical charts. Both of them are familiar with the entire coastline of Malay Peninsula, and they spoke highly of the accuracy of China's nautical charts.
The brilliance of China's advanced navigation technology reflected by Zheng He's voyage to the West shows the great wisdom of the ancient people in China, thus creating Zheng He's voyage to the West.