A Study on Ancient China’s Marine Values - Focused on Zheng He’s Case

Liekai Bi(필엽개),Chung, Hae Jo(정해조) 동북아시아문화학회 2020 동북아 문화연구 Vol.1 No.62

This paper attempts to analyze China"s marine consciousness, especially focused on Zheng He’s case. As conclusion, this paper intends to reveal the implications for China"s contemporary maritime power construction as well as how the maritime consciousness affects China’s 21st-century Maritime Silk Road’s construction. A peaceful, inclusive, open and harmonious characteristic of ancient China’s marine values is reflected in Zheng He’s expeditions. One of the purposes of Zheng He’s expeditions was to maintain a peaceful international order. Emperor Yongle intended to profit people all around the world through Zheng He"s voyage by promoting China"s prestige and helping other countries. Zheng He tried to establish friendly relations with other countries based on the principle of no invasions to other countries" territory. It also delivered a message that China respected other countries’ sovereignty and autonomy. Western countries" sea power was achieved by colonization and deprivation, which was ruthless and brutal. However, Zheng He aimed to promote economic and cultural exchanges in a peaceful way with other countries. Therefore, many countries voluntarily applied to join China’s tribute system. This reflected the peaceful characteristic of ancient China’s marine values and helped China achieve the mutual cooperation with other countries under the Characteristic of its marine values. A summary of ancient China’s marine values through the analysis of Zheng He’s expeditions can be helpful to modern China’s maritime power’s build-up. On the process of pursuing the sovereignty over the ocean, it is necessary to cooperate with foreign countries. As the increasing complex of globalization and cooperation among countries around the world, it is inevitable to cooperate with other countries in terms of developing the oceans. Monopolization, on the other hand, does not seem a very smart way of enhancing one country’s maritime power on the contemporary world.

《삼보태감서양기통속연의(三寶太監西洋記通俗演義)》에 투영된 역사와 시대 의식

윤정화(尹正華),김태만(金泰萬) 동북아시아문화학회 2016 동북아 문화연구 Vol.1 No.47

China has a long history of maritime affairs and never stopped researching the oceans. After reforming and opening up, China has witnessed a great change in economy, science, medicine, military etc. The commencement of “the 600 anniversary of Zheng He"s voyages” in 2005 and the release of “The Rise of the Great Powers” in 2006 had aroused a widespread concern in the country, which has shown the review of history is extremely popular and beneficial. This paper aims to discover the secrets from the process of the Zheng He"s voyages described in a book named “SanBao’s Expedition to the Western Ocean”, and explain its significance for the present economy, sea power, and marine consciousness development, meanwhile, to comprehensively show the remolding image of Zheng He and other characters in the historical background. “SanBao’s Expedition to the Western Ocean”, one hundred chapters to a total of two volumes, was published in the Ming Dynasty (1598). After many years’ compiling, the book described a story about Zheng He, who did not fear the danger to go to the Western. With the help of the Jinbi peak Zen master and Zhang Taoist master, Zheng He slayed demons, offered amnesty to minorities and hunted treasures. In the real history, the expedition to the western ocean was completed by Zheng He and Wang Jinghong. Novels are different from the history, the main reason is problem in the era of the author. It is the late Ming Dynasty, when everything was declining, foreign aggression was increasing and who wanted to complete a similar voyage alone is impossible. The author edited this novel to recall the prosperous period of the Ming Dynasty and criticize that present time. The book embodied the author"s ideas about loyalty, Taoism and marine consciousness etc. This paper first explained the author, the book, and the historical period to analyze the reason of establishing the image of Zheng He. Through describing Zheng He"s image, this paper reflected the China"s political, cultural and people"s thoughts in that era.

A Study on Ancient China's Marine Values - Focused on Zheng He’s Case

필엽개,정해조 동북아시아문화학회 2020 동북아 문화연구 Vol.1 No.62

This paper attempts to analyze China's marine consciousness, especially focused on Zheng He’s case. As conclusion, this paper intends to reveal the implications for China's contemporary maritime power construction as well as how the maritime consciousness affects China’s 21st-century Maritime Silk Road’s construction. A peaceful, inclusive, open and harmonious characteristic of ancient China’s marine values is reflected in Zheng He’s expeditions. One of the purposes of Zheng He’s expeditions was to maintain a peaceful international order. Emperor Yongle intended to profit people all around the world through Zheng He's voyage by promoting China's prestige and helping other countries. Zheng He tried to establish friendly relations with other countries based on the principle of no invasions to other countries' territory. It also delivered a message that China respected other countries’ sovereignty and autonomy. Western countries' sea power was achieved by colonization and deprivation, which was ruthless and brutal. However, Zheng He aimed to promote economic and cultural exchanges in a peaceful way with other countries. Therefore, many countries voluntarily applied to join China’s tribute system. This reflected the peaceful characteristic of ancient China’s marine values and helped China achieve the mutual cooperation with other countries under the Characteristic of its marine values. A summary of ancient China’s marine values through the analysis of Zheng He’s expeditions can be helpful to modern China’s maritime power’s build-up. On the process of pursuing the sovereignty over the ocean, it is necessary to cooperate with foreign countries. As the increasing complex of globalization and cooperation among countries around the world, it is inevitable to cooperate with other countries in terms of developing the oceans. Monopolization, on the other hand, does not seem a very smart way of enhancing one country’s maritime power on the contemporary world.

정화(鄭和)와 중국의 제국의식

김수연 ( Kim Sooyeon ) 한국중국학회 2016 중국학보 Vol.77 No.-

Zheng He was a famous navigator in the early Ming Dynasty. He was ordered by Chengzu, the third emperor of Ming Dynasty, visited many countries in the south eastern Asia and India and even reached eastern coast of Africa. He had put to west sea with a large scale fleet seven times for 30 years. But There had been attempts to obliterate it from historical memory after his death. The memory about him had not recovered until modern china in the early 20^th century. Some reformers in china recognized west civilization prompted by explorers like Columbus and Vasco da Gama. Reformers as Liang Qichao tried to find heroes to match them in china history. Zheng He was right the person they looking forward to. New memories of Zheng He occurred with imperialism discourse. Imperialism was considered as a new stream of times all over the world since the late 19^th century. Liang Qichao imparted a meaning and image as national imperialist to Zheng He. This essay analyses how Zheng He has become a latent icon of imperial desire and aspiration in modern china.

중국 명성조 시대 정화하서양의 해상무역 네트워크 구축에 관한 연구

홍란주,박명섭,왕천 한국해양비즈니스학회 2022 해양비즈니스 Vol.- No.52

About 617 years ago, a gigantic fleet composed of more than 200 ships and 27,000-28,000 crews under the leadership of Zheng He set out for western countries, which marked the beginning of the unprecedented series of voyages in the world maritime history. Zheng He commanded seven great expeditions between 1405 and 1433. For 28 years, his fleets had been to Southeast Asia as well as West Indian Ocean, and had sailed as far as the coast of the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa. More than 30 countries were visited. The unprecedented largest voyages opened the sea routes which made a turning point for China to start its contact with other countries by sea. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the backgrounds and motives of Zheng He’s voyages. Also we research the effects of Zheng He's voyages on the maritime trade network in the Mingchengzu period.

China's "Soft" Naval Power in the Indian Ocean

Toshi Yoshihara 인하대학교 국제관계연구소 2010 Pacific Focus Vol.25 No.1

For the past several years, Beijing has been attempting to “shape” the diplomatic and strategic environment in maritime Asia, projecting an image of itself as an innately trustworthy great power. As a part of this public relations campaign, Chinese leaders have retailed the story of Zheng He, the Ming Dynasty eunuch admiral who voyaged to destinations throughout the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean six centuries ago. They have touted the feats of Zheng He, who sojourned in maritime Asia without attempting military conquest, as a metaphor for China’s current peaceful ascent in the maritime domain. In doing so, Beijing hopes to convince key audiences in Southeast Asia and South Asia that it remains pacific in outlook - and thus can be counted on not to abuse the sea power it is amassing. An attractive vision of China, they hope, will avert the tendency of regional states to band together to balance Chinese power. Until now, Chinese diplomats have had the luxury to tell their story how they wanted, since deployments of China’s naval forces beyond East Asia remained abstract. Beijing neither saw the need nor boasted the capacity to maintain strong forces far from Chinese shores. However, the headline-grabbing dispatch of two destroyers and a combat logistics ship to the Gulf of Aden on counterpiracy duty in late 2008 has put China squarely in the spotlight. By depicting itself as an inherently defensive power, China has set a high standard for its behavior at sea. Fellow Asian powers will hold Beijing to this lofty benchmark - measuring its actions against the storyline Chinese leaders have developed around Zheng He’s voyages. Beijing’s antipiracy mission thus offers an ideal opportunity to test empirically the efficacy of Chinese soft power at sea. To this end, this paper explores the motives behind the Zheng He narrative and assesses the key messages that Chinese leaders are attempting to convey to Asian capitals. This study then examines the extent to which China’s unprecedented naval presence in the Indian Ocean has dovetailed with the Zheng He storyline and with the larger strategy of easing regional misgivings about Chinese maritime power. Finally, the paper analyzes how India, a target audience, is responding to China’s narrative, drawing several preliminary conclusions about the effectiveness and the prospects of Chinese soft power in the Indian Ocean.

≪영애승람(瀛涯勝覽)≫ 해제(解題) 및 역주(譯註)(1)

최수경 ( Choi Sookyung ),송정화 ( Song Junghua ),정유선 ( Jung Yousun ),김효민 ( Kim Hyomin ) 고려대학교 중국학연구소 2018 中國學論叢 Vol.0 No.60

In traditional times, China did not consider itself as a part of the world. They imagined that China was the center of the world, and it was surrounded by barbarians. This traditional concept was superficially continued till the time before modern times. However, on the other hand, they were understanding the external world long ago. The geographical knowledge and cartography of the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty surpassed the Western world. And based on such knowledge and China-centricism, the Ming Dynasty sent an eunuch Zheng He(1371?-1433?)’s marine expedition for seven times to visit Southeast Asia, Middle East, and East Africa. Out of books recording Zheng He’s expedition, Ma Huan’s Yingya Shenglan is recognized the most for its historical/literary value. Ma Huan was a Muslim as an interpreter from a minority Hui tribe. For the interpretation of Arabic, he performed Zheng He’s expedition for three times. His Yingya Shenglan contains the details of geography, politics, culture, and products of 20 countries in Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean, Middle East, and Africa. This book was initially completed in 1416, and after that, it seems to be modified several times by Ma Huan. And even after that, many literary people transcribed/printed this book, so that there are many editions left so far and each edition shows considerable differences. Roughly classifying them, the type close to the Ma Huan’s original could be separated from the type adapted by literary people. We chose the translation of annotation by Feng Chengjun, published in 1935. The translation of annotation by Feng has added the explanation of all sorts of place name and vocabulary by referring to many editions based on the most excellent edition. The English version and Japanese version of Yingya Shenglan have been already released 50 years ago, and there are plenty of relevant researches. However, there have been no researches on Yingya Shenglan in Korea. Thus, the annotation and translation of this book are expected to be largely contributing to the relevant researches in the future.

郑和南海大遠征对航海大发现的影响 : 以托斯卡内利为中心

姚建光,유지원 원광대학교 한중관계연구원 2025 한중관계연구 Vol.11 No.3

罗马教廷的医师托斯卡内利在与葡萄牙国王的神父马丁斯和哥伦布的通信中谈到他 与觐见教皇的中国使节交谈的诸多细节,并应葡萄牙国王之请绘制了航海图,图中标出 了向西航行到达印度群岛的航线、沿途众岛屿和航行距离等信息。他将此图作为回信的 一部分寄给了哥伦布,鼓励其向西航行探险。他的这些思想和成果均与访问佛罗伦萨的 郑和使团的智力成果输出存在重要联系。 In correspondence with Columbus and Martins, the priest of the King of Portugal, Toscanelli, the physician of the Holy See, talked about many details of his conversation with the Chinese envoys who met with the Pope. At the request of the King of Portugal, he drew a chart showing the route to the Indies, the islands along the way and the distance to be sailed. He sent a copy to Columbus as part of his reply, encouraging him to sail west. All his knowledge, thoughts and achievements are closely related to the output of the thought achievements of Zheng He's mission when they visted to Florence.

『瀛涯勝覽』 소개 및 역주 ――점성국(占城國, Čampa)

이승신 한국중국산문학회 2017 중국산문연구집간 Vol.7 No.-

Yingyashenglan is one of the most important source recording about various aspects of foreign countries in southeast and south Asia from the Ming period (1368-1644). It was written by Ma, Huan who had taken part in several of the sea travels of Admiral Zheng, He. Ma was assisted by Guo, Chongli for the compilation. Ma, Huan describes twenty countries he had visited during his journey. He touches geography as well as matters of traffic (ports) and local customs and habits, religion and legal matters, natural products and the economic conditions. Yingyashenglan is not only a valuable source concerning those countries but also concerning the travels of Zheng, He. There are several version of the book in various collectanea. In 1935 Ma, Chengjun published a text-critical edition based on three of these versions. The Yingyashenglan is also part of the collectaneum Shidixiaocongshu, published in 1936 by the Shangwuyinshuguan press. It was reprinted by the Zhonghuashuju press in 1955. In 2005 WanMing has published a critical edition of the Ming manuscripts, the Ming chaoben Yingyashenglan jiaozhu. This paper represents a part of translation of Yingyashenglan into Korean with full annotation. The entire volume of Yingyashenglan is constituted of parts about twenty countries. This paper selects the first article in a row: Zhanchengguo.

返观郑和下西洋 - 以其对经贸和海权的影响为中心 -

姚建光,柳智元 전북사학회 2018 전북사학 Vol.0 No.53

지금부터 600여 년 전에 진행된 정화의 남해대원정에 대하여 명 왕조 전체와 세계사적인 입장에서 거시적으로 그 장단점을 살펴보면, 당시에 가지고 있었던 가치와 의의와는 많은 차이를 발견할 수 있다. 정화의 남해대원정은 당시의 입장에서 보면, 사실상 영락제가 자신과 정권을 위하여 세심하게 계획하여 실시한 하나의 계략이었다. 그래서 이러한 활동은 주체와 정화의 개인적 입장에서 보면, 분명 성공적이라고 할 수 있다. 그렇지만 명 왕조 전체와 절대 다수의 민중들 입장에서 보면, 엄청난 실패로 인한 막중한 경제적 손실을 가져왔다고 할 수 있는 것이다. 특히 정화의 이러한 일련의 활동들은 당시 동아시아의 국제 관계에서 적용되고 있었던 조공체계 속의 무역관계를 벗어나 있었던 관계로, 명 조정 입장에서 보면 엄청난 재정적 손실을 가져왔다. 또한 정화 함대는 해외에서 활동하고 있었던 화상(華商)들이 그동안 구축하여 놓았던 무역 질서와 무역 기지들을 파괴하게 됨으로써, 향후 중국의 해양 진출을 향한 운명을 바꾸어 놓는 결과로 이어지게 되는 것이다. 즉 다시 말하면, 정화의 남해대원정은 명조의 대외 정책과 재정 상황에 대하여 악영향을 주었을 뿐만 아니라 향후 세계 경제 질서와 국제 형세의 변화를 가져오게 되는 결과로 이어지게 되었다고 할 수 있다. Today, from the broad perspective of the Ming Dynasty and the world stage, to look back on the history of Zheng He’s journey to the Western Seas (ZHJWS) and to review its right and wrong, advantage and disadvantage, we can find its completely different values and meanings. ZHJWS is actually a Trojan horse that was carefully planned and implemented by Emperor Yongle in order to achieve multiple purposes of his personal and dynasty. This movement was the personal success of Zhu Di and Zheng He, but it was the failure of the Ming Dynasty and the deadweight of the people. Its tributary mode, which violates the principles of commodity economy and trade, made the movement unprofitable, incurring huge financial losses and the opposition of the court and the commonalty, it became difficult to continue. Moreover, the adverse consequences and bad influences caused by the Zheng He fleet’s attacks on the overseas Chinese trade, the disruption of the order created by Chinese businessmen as well as the destruction of bases changed China’s future and destiny. It can be said that this movement not only had a real negative imp.act on the internal affairs, diplomacy and fiscal economy of the Ming Dynasty, but also changed the world economic order and political pattern from the direction and method of development.