Introduction
The question of whether to explore beyond one’s borders is not new, and this question was answered in strikingly different ways in China and in the West in the 15th century. As The Age of Discovery was beginning in Europe, in the East China emerged as the world’s foremost naval power and began its own immense maritime expedition. In 1403 the Yongle Emperor, head of the Ming Dynasty, selected a Muslim eunuch and loyal friend, Zheng He, to lead a series of missions to the Western Oceans; these became known as the Chinese Treasure Voyages. In 1405, Zheng He was given command of the first and last great flotilla constructed by ancient China and began his series of seven voyages. Sailing beyond where any Chinese had been before, Zheng He set the Yongle Emperor apart from both his predecessors and his successors. Likewise, the course China took as a whole after the Yongle Emperor’s death set the entire kingdom apart from its European contemporaries; after the Treasure Voyages, the Chinese did not engage in any prolonged Age of Discovery or empire building, both of which were well within their means. If the Age of Discovery’s economic requirements were the impetus driving Europe to explore the whole world, it was man’s innate desire to know and to go beyond himself which sustained it. This, however, was not the concern of Ming China. The reasons behind China’s refusal to engage in further exploration, despite the ability to do so, are that: China did not lack physical goods due to its geography and economy; the centralization of the Ming government disincentivized personal initiative; and the Chinese culture promoted obedience to their ancient traditions, rather than praising newness or concerning oneself with foreigners. An analysis of the political, geographic, economic, and spiritual concerns of 15th century Ming China will illumine the Chinese Treasure Voyages, and it will showcase the innate tension in man between his desire to go out of himself, continuously exploring the unknown, and his tendency to remain in a paradise once one has been found.
Chapter 1
Reasons for Departure
The Yongle Emperor of Ming China and Zheng He
In 1402, the Yongle emperor came to the throne as the third emperor of China’s Ming Dynasty. Having taken the throne by force from his nephew, Zhu Di prioritized the legitimization of his rule and his young dynasty to neighboring kingdoms. This required the propagation of his name as well as displays of the young Ming Chinese Dynasty’s power and wealth. Both domestically in the vast empire won by the previous Yuan Dynasty and especially abroad to China’s traditional tributary states, the Yongle emperor vigorously sought recognition from faraway potentates and supported unprecedented efforts to this end. The most notable of these efforts were the seven Chinese Treasure Voyages.
According to the Taizong Shi Lu, within three years of ascending to the throne, the Yongle emperor oversaw the completion of the largest naval fleet in the history of the world to that time. It remained so until the first World War, more than five hundred years later. In 1405, Zheng He set sail with over 27,000 men and 62 ships to demand tribute from China’s Southeast Asian neighbors[1]. The sight of only a few of these immense ships inspired awe and fear; when the entire fleet was assembled off a neighboring kingdom’s coast, the day of wrath seemed to have arrived to its shores.
Typical to Chinese tributary relations, however, the ruler paying tribute most often left the deal with more in return than he had given. Such was the purpose of the Yongle emperor’s massive treasure ships. Except in the case of pirates or dissenters, instead of demanding submittance through force, Ming China garnered tribute through overwhelming generosity.
By depositing huge sums of precious metals, tributes to foreign gods, Chinese luxury items, and silk with their neighbors,[2] the Yongle emperor displayed China’s superiority and power. On subsequent voyages, Zheng He returned to China with various foreign diplomats to pay official homage and tribute to the emperor on behalf of their kingdoms; these came from China’s long-familiar Southeast neighbors and new ones from as far away as Tanzania, where no native-born Chinese citizen had been before. All were intended to be astounded at China’s greatness relative to their own country and, inspired by this, to submit to a tributary relationship with the culturally and economically superior “Heavenly Center”[3]. These voyages garnered respect from the foreign dignitaries and bolstered China’s – and the young dynasty’s – renown everywhere they were received.
Less Likely and Absent Motivations
Aside from the legitimization of the new regime, a desire for new trade routes in the beginning of the 15th century is a conjectured ulterior motivation for these massively expensive Treasure Voyages, as was a growing Chinese desire for foreign spices; given the stabilization of China’s internal economy after the revolution that led to the creation of the Ming Dynasty, it is possible China began seeking to expand foreign markets for its goods, as it had in the Song Dynasty. As to this being the primary motivation of the Treasure Voyages, the tremendous, and eventually untennable,[4] cost of each voyage would be a disproportionately large investment for the establishment of new trade routes.
Furthermore, the Ming Dynasty intentionally returned to the traditional Confucian values held by China and was widely supported because it replaced the foreign-dominated Yuan Dynasty with one dominated by China’s native, traditional Han. The Way sought by the Chinese in Confucian teaching cultivated virtue in the fulfillment of relational duties such as father/son and magistrate/subject and to the cosmic order. While not dissuading personal inquiry, the Chinese highly honored one who was well-read in the ancients and impeccable in the fulfillment of his filial responsibilities. Thus, the motivation of individualistic satisfaction of one’s inquiries and curiosities is notably absent from Chinese motivations for their first and final great expeditionary voyage.
Chapter 2
Geographic Factors for Expedition
The geography of Ming China contributed to its historical pattern of introspection rather than to exploration. While enabling its then unparalleled expeditionary potential, Ming China’s immense physical borders, temperate climate, fertile soil, and overabundant seas and forests contributed to its culture of isolation from foreign interests.
The veritable paradise of China was protected to the South by vassal states, to the East by the great Pacific Ocean, to the West by tremendous deserts, and from Mongolian enemies in the North by the Great Wall; in the West, innumerable mountain ranges proved nearly insurmountable obstacles for China’s ancient would-be invaders[5]. Thus avoiding the setbacks of repeated rebuilding after invasion, the Chinese internal economy, culture, and infrastructure flourished, reaching a level of sophistication on par with or superior to Europe until the 19th century[6].
In contrast to European nations at the time,[7] early 15th century China had only military rivals to contend with on its borders, and dissidents inside China had recently been conquered in the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. China lacked competitors in the areas of culture and national prestige in its geographic vicinity; except to maintain its tributary relationships with weaker neighbors discussed in chapter 3, competing with foreign powers in culture and prestige was not a motivation for the accomplishment of great feats in Ming China – those of exploration or otherwise.
Ming China’s vast geography spanned roughly 2.5 million square miles; this afforded a wide diversity of climates and food types available within the kingdom,[8] to the envy of European explorers. No mere desert or harsh landscape, these climates also produced an abundance of pleasing flowers, which the Chinese employed everywhere for decoration and the enjoyment of their beauty[9]. In these ways the Chinese cultivated a vast territory into their nation, more beautiful and bountiful than any other they encountered.
China’s immense number of navigable waterways led foreigners to observe that perhaps more people lived on the water in China than on land. These rivers and China’s bordering seas, abounding in fish, also provided opportunity both for maritime expedition abroad and for efficient intra-country trading and domestic navigation. Bolstered by its geographically rough seaward borders, China was able to construct numerous and large ports in coastal cities; any Chinese seafaring expedition, even as large as Zheng He’s, had sufficient harbors for construction, repairs, and resource loading. Chinese tradesmen utilized them for their trade vessels.
The people, unhampered by threats, pastured sheep, cows, pigs, and even elephants and giraffes in the capital cities after Zheng He’s voyages. With variable climates amidst the huge breadth and height of China, the land caused Ming China’s largely agricultural market economy to flourish. Chinese citizens could efficiently conduct business in other cities, enjoy fantastic fireworks displays thanks to a natural abundance of saltpeter, and be nearly assured of next year’s harvest in fertile soil, all within the confines of their own kingdom[10].
For only one moment in its history, the Chinese intentionally explored beyond the frontiers of this bountiful and nearly impenetrable Eden en masse[11] and this under the Yongle Emperor. Nearly perfect conditions for the cultivation of oneself and one’s nation were all to be found inside that vast territory of Ming China. Given such a paradise and in lieu of its custom of establishing tributary relationship with its neighbors or for military defense, it is almost a surprise that the Chinese ever departed from their homeland at all. The abundance of land, food, water, intra-penetrating rivers, and luxury items, protected on three sides by natural borders, with few natural predators and deep reserves of metals and forests[12] severely contrast Ming China with its European contemporaries. These geographic considerations had historically afforded China’s Heavenly Mandate little need or motivation to explore for anything beyond its borders. The Treasure Voyages stand out as an exception in China’s international interaction and exploration.
Chapter 3
Economic Factors
Local Resources
Europe’s decreasing supply of raw materials and luxury items, once provided for by trade along the Silk Road, underpinned Columbus’ exploratory expeditions for new trade routes; the Chinese did not experience the same deprivations, nor did they officially fund Zheng He’s voyages for the establishment of trade relationships. Though trade partnerships with outside nations existed and raids, though seldom, were conducted to obtain scarce resources such as horses for war, prior to the Ming Dynasty only famine, warfare, political negotiations, and spiritual pilgrimages had pushed anyone in China beyond its borders. Mostly, its population and leaders found everything needed, from luxury items to varieties of foods to metals for weapons, inside China’s own territory.
… nowhere in the Far East except in China is silk found in such abundance that it is not only worn by all the inhabitants of the country, the poor as well as the rich, but it is also exported in great quantities to the most distant parts of the earth. There is no other staple of commerce with which the Portuguese prefer to lade their ships than Chinese Silk.[13]
One Jesuit missionary gives his impressions of China’s abundant reserves of natural resources:
…everything which the people need for their wellbeing and sustenance, whether it be for food or clothing or even delicacies and superfluities is abundantly produced within the borders of the kingdom [of China] and not imported from foreign climes.[14]
This lack of need and being surrounded by an abundance of good perhaps stifled the spirit which animated their contemporary European explorers; living in this resource-rich kingdom likely removed a strong motivation for the discovery of new lands and contributed to China’s refusal to engage in large-scale exploration again after the Treasure Voyages.
China’s Market Economy
«A scholar-official who has set his heart upon the Way, but who is still ashamed of having shabby clothes or meager rations, is not worth engaging in discussion »[15].
«The gentleman understands rightness, whereas the petty person understands profit»[16].
China’s strong centralized government and integration of Confucian values disincentivized enterprising-scale personal economic initiative. In Ming China, there were no economic ladders to climb[17] because there were only three social ladders to climb, and none had to do with accumulating wealth. China’s market economy alone was insufficient to support the transition to a system which rewards individual aggrandizement under personal initiative[18]. Individuals could have achieved fantastic feats for the glory of the nation or themselves, and they did; however, great initiatives were typically undertaken by the government only, and great individuals were sought, solicited, and assigned to complete them by the emperor himself. Whether economic, diplomatic, martial, or civil, it was not the prerogative of the individual Chinese to promote himself in anything for selfish gain; his service was to his ancestors, his family, and his nation, which he loved.
Chinese internal policy applied Confucian values of indifference to wealth through the enforcement of its inheritance laws. Herein, the property of a man must legally be split amongst all his male heirs; this broadly led to an equality of conditions and a disruption of would-be fortunes. The inability for any individual besides the state to amass sufficient wealth for long-term and large-scale exploration, the expectation that the emperor alone would initiate great tasks, and the requirement of government selection of leaders for these tasks combined to reduce the interest and probability of Chinese exploration, and especially sustained exploration abroad.
Local abundance of resources and production bolstered by a thriving market economy supported China’s historical isolationist tendencies. While the possibility of expanding trade routes existed, Ming China’s maritime expeditions were not intended to fill an immediate economic need, contrary to its European contemporaries. The Yongle emperor’s Treasure Voyages lavishly displayed China’s power and wealth to its neighboring tributary countries who provided little to China economically. Inside China’s fertile land, an enviable culture took shape, which the Ming Dynasty grew out of and sought to return to; it, too, disincentivized the Chinese from entering the unknown world around them.
Chapter 4
Ming Chinese Culture and Practices
The Way
The Master [Confucius] said, “Master Zeng! All that I teach can be strung together on a single thread.”… After the Master left, the disciples asked, “What did he mean by that?” Master Zeng said, “All that the Master teaches amounts to nothing more than dutifulness (zhong) tempered by understanding (shu).[19]
For followers of Confucian thought, the seeds of peace lay in filial obedience[20]. A good man could be discerned by observing if he kept exactly to his deceased father’s ways for three years after his father’s death. This was extrapolated by succeeding rulers of multiple Chinese dynasties to mean that a good emperor kept nearly exactly to his predecessors’ policies, particularly to the emperor who founded his dynasty. In this way the Chinese cultivated an entire society from the poorest peasant to the emperor himself who had honor and respect for his ancestors. By maintaining their prerogatives with only slow and subtle changes, the Chinese and the emperor would maintain peace in the empire and in himself. Confucius taught this as the beginning of The Way. This cultural attitude does not engender innovation or discovery.
A man following the Way was to conform himself to the rituals with which Chinese society was thronged[21]. In the Analects, Confucious laments the practice of external performance of rituals without interior conformity and belief in what was being practiced. Primarily through the rituals, practices of obedience and goodness, excellence in writing or calligraphy, and study of the ancients, one was to come into harmony with the cosmos; he would encourage others along The Way to the extent that all these became effortless and unselfconscious to him.
Desirable especially to Confucius was to be the virtuous man without ever speaking a word. Due to the complexity of the spoken Chinese language, a potential for misunderstanding and for intentionally causing confusion existed; thus, it was preferable in China for two friends living next door to one another to send a note to each other, rather than speak in person. In a conversation, a misunderstanding was often insurmountable without resorting to writing down the intended word for both to see[22]. The Chinese of the Ming Dynasty sought peace in Confucian teachings, which promoted several cultural realities: the undampened living out of China’s cultural practices, the pursuit of goodness not to avoid evil but for goodness’s own sake, quiet, and peace through loving obedience.
A European outsider could ask a series of questions about Ming China and would possibly receive answers in return such as these. How can one improve society? Improve oneself. How can one rule well? Be a virtuous man. What is the virtuous man? According to Confucius, it is he who loves Goodness, who sincerely loves his superiors, in particular his parents and government, serves them in obedience, and sympathizes with all others. There is little value attached to newness in the Confucian Way China sought to follow; indeed, little is said about it except in condemnation of the one who seeks novelty instead of continuity, for obedience leads to peace[23].
Respect for the Ancients and Those Knowledgeable in Them
Fifteenth century China’s culture of intellectual pursuits and its selective government reward system emphasized obedience to ancient Chinese teachings and inner cultivation as the means of personal fulfillment. Upward mobility in Ming China was achieved by serving the empire, particularly in acquiring for oneself knowledge of the ancients and a refined culture, accompanied by virtue. The emperor was assisted by two classes: one of eunuchs, the other of “Philosophers”. The philosopher class were chosen from among those who achieved the equivalent of a doctorate in Confucian teachings; these were the result of multiple years and sometimes decades of intense dedication to study, typically under an intellectual master, and the rewards for such a degree, or even a lower one, were great. The achievement of successively higher degrees granted the holder successively higher positions in his local and regional government, and, for the select few, as the emperor’s own advisors. These rewards brought monetary benefits, but much more important to the Chinese was the knowledge gained from the ancients, the Confucian teachings, and the histories.
Increased social status was also awarded to one who passed the difficult exams; one’s family, village, or region received accolades on behalf of the person, depending on the merit of the position. Notably, the highest levels of society were reachable only through direct election as a eunuch or through studying and living in the ways of those ancients who founded Chinese culture and society. Such was the Chinese respect for their ancestors and appreciation for their own culture.
Foreigners, Warry of and Disinterested In
A missionary remarked that when the Chinese viewed European maps of the world, they were somewhat puzzled as to why the maps did not depict China in the center. They believed China was the center of the whole world. Notwithstanding, «they soon acknowledged their former error, and [made] it a source of no little mirth»[24].
«the Chinese are of the opinion that the extent of their vast dominion is to all intents and purposes coterminous with the borders of the universe». Their neighboring nations imported Chinese writing, culture, goods, and significantly larger quantities of precious items than they could ever have given to China in her greatness. On even a practical level, neighboring kingdoms were not worth the effort necessary for China to understand them.
As a further example of Chinese wariness of outsiders, the reunification of China under the Song and Ming Dynasties saw the re-opening of non-mutual markets to Chinese traders with neighboring kingdoms. In these in-person trade dealings with frontier island nations like Java, Chinese traders lived together in temporary villages and returned to the mainland immediately upon completion of their sales. These tradesmen were replaced by others from the mainland who extended their stay only as long as their wares remained unsold. In this way, before the 1436 ban on maritime activities, China maintained trade relations and permitted travel to other nations while preventing any foreigners from setting foot on China’s own soil; this allowed the Chinese to remain with their fellow nationals and to avoid anything unnecessary that was not Chinese[25].
The Way of the Yongle Emperor
The Ming Dynasty legitimately arose from rebellion against the foreign-ruled Yuan Dynasty; although, it is notable that the Yuan emperors had mostly adopted the Chinese culture they encountered. The Yongle emperor appears not to have departed from the Way due to his choice of assembling a great fleet, for several times in its history, China proved itself willing and able to assemble tremendous numbers of men to overwhelm its enemies. Instead, he was criticized by scholars of the Way for embarking on a new venture and one seemingly without benefit to China. Instead of cultivating the self through obedience to the ancients, striving for harmony with the cosmos and the heights of Goodness, the Treasure Voyages were seen as an exercise in self-aggrandizement; worse still, this was to China’s financial loss, for their inundation with ritual and ability to accomplish tremendous tasks did not remove from one following The Way a consideration of practical costs.
The world was, to the Yongle Emperor’s predecessors and successors, foreign. Its occasional attractive wares or exotic animals made their way into the emperor’s court, but these were largely appreciated as novelties or confirmations of divinity in the emperor; they reflected no intrinsic value of the culture that produced them, nor did they diminish China’s view of those cultures – indifference and wariness persisted. Foreigners were, to Ming China, primarily to be avoided at all costs. Within the country’s bountiful natural environment, the Chinese harbored what they believed was the greatest and most advanced culture in the world, the one which Heaven itself had developed: its own. What, beyond itself, was there for China to emulate; what was lacking inside China that would help the Chinese along The Way? After the death of the Yongle emperor, Ming China’s Philosopher Class successfully steered China’s focus inward again, not towards the flaunting of itself before the eyes of faraway places but to its interior. Preceding the Ming Dynasty, China’s paradise was under repeated threat and war from foreigners. Strife proceeded and accompanied the world outside of China; inside itself, it found peace and a paradisal culture envied by others.
Conclusion
It is suggested in the West that personal meaning is found at the junction between explored and unexplored territory, at the limit of personal knowledge, which is the beginning of what is unknown to us. It is believed this junction itself must first be reached, and it can only be reached if the individual goes out of himself to explore that place between comfort and fear. At the end of his epic exploration to the ends of the earth, Gilgamesh, one of the West’s ancient forebearers, returns home «weary but at peace»,[26] having found meaning in place of physical immortality. Thousands of years later, Christopher Colombus, inspired by Marco Polo and other travelers, embarked on his expedition to the edges of the known world. He explored for glory, money, raw resources, and the spreading of his faith; all these were his, eventually, and the West followed his example, exploring the whole world over the next three hundred years and building resource-hungry, luxury-supplying empires that would span the entire globe.
In contrast to Western nations of the 15th century, nearly perfect conditions for the cultivation of oneself and one’s nation were all to be found inside that vast expanse of Ming China. That is why they did not continue to explore. Due to their geographic gifts, whatever China’s Heavenly Mandate may have lacked inside their domain, the Chinese found little interest in anything beyond it besides as novelties; thus, these immense Treasure Voyage expeditions were not intended to fill an economic need but to satisfy a political desire for dynastic legitimacy. China’s support of the intellectual Philosopher Class and return to the Confucian value of acquiring virtue along the Way; cultural self-understanding as the center of the world; and the centralized governance by Chinese emperors cultivated little in the way of sustained interest in exploration. The lack of upward mobility via individual capitalistic gain, in addition to these points aforementioned, disincentivized the Chinese from leaving their Garden of Eden before the Treasure Voyages and from ever doing so again after them.
«What did we find on these voyages beyond the Great Seas except novelties and knick-knacks? Indeed, what would anyone find out on the Great Seas?», asked the Philosopher Class of scholars after Zheng He’s final voyage. The ideal of the Chinese, they argued to the Yongle’s second successor, the Xuande Emperor, was to become the virtuous man, exteriorly perfect in his ritual, interiorly one with the Way. In 1433, China ordered the Treasure Voyage fleets to be dismantled and left to rot in their harbors. In 1436, Ming China banned all travel on the Ocean. Never before had China departed on such an expedition as the Treasure Voyages; they would not do so again until the end of the 20th century.
A contrast appears between the West and Ming China in what makes for peace; China found satisfaction and peace without the need for a centuries-long exploration of the strange world beyond its borders. Given all they had, the greatest question is not why the Chinese went out of themselves so few times in their history, but why they went out at all.
It is apparent that the Chinese discovered what, materially and culturally, all of Europe looked for in the Age of Discovery; in this way it is true that their borders were coterminous with all that the universe offered for both surviving and thriving. The Treasure Voyages, China’s last great expedition in its history, seem to have reinforced the desire for its long-lived isolationism. Having gone out of itself, China was unsatisfied with what it found and feared a too-long distraction from the inward gaze, so they ended their own brief Age of Discovery. In it, Ming China rediscovered in themselves what their European contemporaries would unceasingly search for and ultimately fail to bring to their home over the following three hundred years: peace and satisfaction in a contemporary Eden, a culture of virtue and delight, a place with love in obedience, a beautiful culture, a bountiful and quiet land to be proud of. Here, the Ming illumines one object of man’s desire to explore, his longing to go out of himself and know the unknown. Man wants to find paradise and then to never leave it. Secure in their geography, economy, spirit, and culture, the Chinese found a paradise, and they never left it again.
Bibliography
CICERO, Pro Archia, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1923
CONFUCIUS, Analects, Slingerland, E., Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., Indianapolis/Cambridge 2003
Epic of Gilgamesh, 2nd ed., ed. Foster, B. R., Norton Critical Classics, New York 2019
BRAUDEL, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century, Vol. 2: The Wheels of Commerce, Reynolds, S., Harper & Row 1982
POMERANZ, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Mokyr, J. (ed.), Princeton University Press, Princeton/Oxford 2021
RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583–1610, Gallagher, L. J., S.J., Random House, Inc., New York 1953
GRONEWALD, «The Ming Voyages: A Teaching Unit», Columbia University 2005
TAIZONG SHI LU, «About Emperor Jianwen and Yongle», 1430
VIRGIL, The Aeneid, Fitzgerald, R., Random House, Inc., New York 1990
[1] TAIZONG SHI LU, «About Emperor Jianwen and Yongle», 1430
[2] TAIZONG SHI LU, «About emperor Jianwen and Yongle», 1430
[3] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583–1610, 7
[4] S. GRONEWALD, «The Ming Voyages: A Teaching Unit», Columbia University 2005, 5
[5] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 10
[6] K. POMERANZ, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton/Oxford 2021, 68 and 94
[7] K. POMERANZ, The Great Divergence…, 77
[8] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 12
[9] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 11
[10] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 18
[11] The seven voyages of Zheng He are considered as one historical event
[12] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 13
[13] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 6
[14] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 10
[15] Confucius, Analects, Slingerland, Cambridge 2003, IV.9
[16] Confucius, Analects…, IV.16
[17] F. Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century, Vol. 2: The Wheels of Commerce, Harper & Row 1982, 600
[18] K. POMERANZ, The Great Divergence…, 91
[19] Confucius, Analects…, IV.15
[20] Confucius, Analects…, I.2
[21] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 59 and 62 and 72
[22] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 27
[23] Confucius, Analects…, I.2
[24] M. RICCI, China in the Sixteenth Century…, 7
[25] F. Braudel, The Wheels of Commerce…, 131
[26] Epic of Gilgamesh, 2nd ed., ed. Foster, B. R., Norton Critical Classics, New York 2019, 3
