A Glimpse into China's Pride Through History

National Museum of China · Lee In-woo · Sungkyunkwan University

Introduction

Leaving behind the excitement and fatigue of the first day of the 12th Sarangbang expedition, on June 27th, the following day, we headed to Tiananmen Square. All the destinations for the second day were around Tiananmen Square, so at first, we thought we could easily manage the schedule, but our pleasant expectations were completely overturned. The lunch schedule was very good. At the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, we got a glimpse of how Chinese people think of Mao Zedong, and their utmost respect in front of his portrait was unfamiliar to me. For lunch, we had a course meal at a French restaurant in a hutong. Although the schedule was slightly delayed, it did not pose a problem for completing the entire second day's itinerary. However, at the National Museum,

after entering at 70, when we were looking around the Han Dynasty period, they suddenly started asking people to leave, announcing that the museum was closing. Thus, we had to leave without being able to see the Ming Dynasty and Zheng He, which I was interested in. We also could not enter the Forbidden City, so the day's schedule had to end unexpectedly early. Here, I wanted to feel the meaning of Zheng He's expeditions for the Chinese people and to observe the historical facts of Zheng He's expeditions comprehensively, excluding political motives as much as possible, so the regret was even greater. Looking at the magnificent National Museum, we could only glimpse the Chinese people's pride in history and infer how they would view Zheng He.

71 Zheng He's expeditions were large-scale maritime expeditions conducted seven times between 1405 and 1433. A hundred years before the Age of Discovery, China had already sailed to Africa, and the scale was unprecedented. Through these large-scale expeditions, China was able to gain maritime hegemony over the Indian Ocean and expand its diplomatic relations by reaching Africa. These facts must have been a source of pride for China, which dreams of becoming a maritime power. Furthermore, the nature and purpose of the expeditions explain how China will emerge today.

However, the large-scale maritime expeditions were halted after the seventh expedition, and China was subsequently ravaged by Western powers. If China had continued to maintain maritime hegemony, world history could have been different. Why were the expeditions halted? To understand the reasons for the halt, we first need to understand the purpose of the expeditions. I wanted to examine the causes from various perspectives based on contemporary historical records, rather than looking at the purpose of Zheng He's expeditions retrospectively in the current situation.

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Zheng He Sets Sail.

Zheng He, a eunuch in the early Ming Dynasty, was ordered by Emperor Yongle to embark on maritime expeditions to Africa. To date, analyses of the causes and purposes of Zheng He's expeditions have focused on only one aspect among economic, Sinocentric, and domestic legitimacy. However, I felt that viewing it from only one perspective was insufficient to grasp the causes of the expeditions. Therefore, I intended to re-examine Zheng He's expeditions by looking at the situation at the time from various angles and reconstructing it. In fact, to do this, I should have spent more time examining the Ming Dynasty period at the National Museum to depict the overall social landscape of the Ming Dynasty, but since I could not, I had no choice but to supplement the information and write the expedition report again.

73 To understand Zheng He's expeditions, we must first understand the era. And to do this, we need to understand the Ming Dynasty founded by Zhu Yuanzhang, who laid the foundation for the Ming Dynasty's establishment.

The 14th century was a period when the Yuan Dynasty's ruling power rapidly weakened, leading to constant power struggles for the throne and incessant civil wars. Furthermore, due to the oppression of officials and landlords, natural disasters, epidemics, and invasions by Japanese pirates, the people's livelihood was devastated, leading to peasant uprisings, which were the Red Turban Rebellions. It is a well-known fact that Zhu Yuanzhang's faction, among the various Red Turban forces, ultimately won and founded the Ming Dynasty. For Zhu Yuanzhang, who had quelled the rebellions of the late Yuan period and become the new emperor, the urgent task was to establish the foundation of a new dynasty to replace the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was unstable both internally and externally. For Zhu Yuanzhang, who came from a poor tenant farmer background, the immediate priority was to eliminate threatening political forces and stabilize his imperial authority. Moreover, a significant national security threat to the newly established Ming Dynasty came from the remnant Mongol forces, the Northern Yuan, and the Japanese pirates who were plundering the Chinese coast. Therefore, restoring diplomatic relations with other countries was also an important task. To pursue internal and external stability, the rulers advocated Confucianism to legitimize the Ming Dynasty and, in accordance with the Confucian order, sought to consolidate the internal and external system. The foundation of Confucian theory was the 'Mandate of Heaven' and the 'Sinocentric worldview.' Specifically, based on the Mandate of Heaven, domestic social order was hierarchical, from ruler to minister to people, and based on the Sinocentric worldview, an international order was established through subordinate relationships with surrounding countries.

74 In this context, Zhu Yuanzhang began to strengthen control over neighboring countries through state-sponsored tributary trade. The characteristics of this period, which sought to establish thorough Confucian principles, can be broadly examined in two ways. First, the strengthening of the emperor's power, and second, the strong control over officials and the populace for this purpose. Having experienced the chaos of the late Yuan period, Hongwu Emperor recognized the need to re-establish and solidify the traditional order, thus implementing a reign of terror under a strong autocratic rule. Zhu Yuanzhang's strengthening of imperial power through the reign of terror and Confucian orthodoxy were passed down to the Ming Dynasty under Emperor Yongle.

In 1398, after the death of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, who laid the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne. During this period, central control was strengthened down to the civilian level, making the emperor's authority unchallengeable. The autocratic monarchy was established based on the Sinocentric worldview and the Sinocentric order, and tributary trade was implemented. Although Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne, four years later, Emperor Yongle, the fourth son of Emperor Taizu, usurped the throne and ascended. The domestic situation was chaotic due to the rebellion to usurp the throne, known as the Jingnan Campaign, and Emperor Yongle had to seek internal stability accordingly. Furthermore, the Silk Road, which had been developed since the Qin and Han dynasties and used as a land trade route, was closed due to the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, cutting off land-based exchanges. The situation in Southeast Asia to the south was equally unstable. The Ming Dynasty's external influence was limited in the early period, and due to domestic instability, "envoys and travelers from tributary states did not come."

75 From the perspective of the Ming Dynasty's overall ideological trend of establishing a Sinocentric system through the Sinocentric worldview and the Sinocentric order, the severance of foreign relations was a threat to China's status as an empire. In this situation, according to Confucianism, which Emperor Taizu used as his founding ideology, Emperor Yongle's accession without proper legitimacy could only weaken his authority. Therefore, to legitimize his accession, he undertook many large-scale projects. And for the true image of a Son of Heaven, the conceptual world had to be realized, so he strove to expand tributary states as much as possible. However, this period was also a time when piracy was rampant, and regional stability in Southeast Asia was extremely precarious. The region's stability was severely threatened by numerous conflicts, such as the succession dispute in Sumatra, clashes between Thailand and Malacca, and wars between Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar. To make matters worse, the maritime routes became highly unstable due to the weakening of the Ming Dynasty's external control during the Jingnan Campaign. Emperor Yongle, as the Son of Heaven upholding the world order under Confucian principles, must have considered the above situation as a state of disorder. And he could have been seen as failing in his role as the Son of Heaven responsible for maintaining world order. As the need for maritime expeditions arose from Emperor Yongle's personal aspirations and the state's requirements, Emperor Yongle dispatched Zheng He. At that time, the concept of the Sinocentric worldview and Sinocentric order was internalized by Emperor Yongle and his officials due to the prevailing principled Confucianism, and the strong imperial power inherited from his father, Emperor Taizu, would have played a role in suppressing opposition forces when realizing Emperor Yongle's ideal world. However, even with the will to realize his ideals, the Zheng He expeditions would have failed without the capability. The chaos of the dynastic transition

76 and Emperor Yongle's Jingnan Campaign led to the gradual recovery of the economy, which had been paralyzed. With the recovered economy, Emperor Yongle was able to assemble a large fleet. Although there is an argument that the trade profits from Zheng He's expeditions were negligible, citing the government's fiscal deficit as one of the reasons for opposing Zheng He's expeditions after Emperor Xuanzong, the actual trade profits were considerable, as evidenced by the 'Records of Overseas Tributary States' (西洋朝貢典錄).

From the first year of Emperor Yongle's reign, imperial edicts were sent in all directions, and upon completion of the tributary missions, the national treasury was filled with exotic treasures and rare items never seen before. The poor became wealthy through overseas trade, and the state also prospered.

Furthermore, Zheng He's expeditions appear to have successfully achieved their intended purpose of regional stability. The 'Veritable Records of Emperor Ming Chengzu' (明成祖實錄) contains the following record:

Zheng He organized his troops and made thorough preparations. When Chen Zuyi gathered his forces to plunder, Zheng He deployed his troops and fought. Chen Zuyi was decisively defeated, with over 5,000 killed, 10 enemy ships burned, and 7 captured. As a result of the Zheng He fleet's suppression of piracy, the sea routes were stabilized, and the foreign merchants could conduct their business with peace of mind.

Then, why did Emperor Yongle send Zheng He all the way to Africa, despite achieving the intended goals of regional stability and trade profits in Southeast Asia? This was likely due to Emperor Yongle's personal objective of legitimizing his usurpation of the throne and the influence of the prevailing Sinocentric worldview at the time.

77 The Son of Heaven is the center of the world, a being who cares for and governs all nations. Just as the vast heavens cover all things and the earth carries all things, those who come from afar must be ruled with benevolence, and each must be allowed to achieve their desires.

As can be seen from Emperor Yongle's words above, his conception of the world extended beyond Southeast Asia, aiming to establish a tributary system to its limits if possible, thereby expanding the world. At that time, with the stabilization of the Ming Dynasty's economy, China possessed the capability to expand its world order. Combined with Emperor Yongle's will, which internalized the Sinocentric ideology based on Confucian principles, and the need to build his image as the Son of Heaven, Zheng He ventured as far as Africa, which in turn manifested as the expansion of the world order during Emperor Yongle's reign. The establishment of the tributary system, which extended westward to East Africa and eastward to Japan, demonstrated a desire to maintain a world international order centered on the Ming Dynasty by establishing and expanding a ritualistic order among the 'various barbarians' (四夷) during Emperor Yongle's reign. And for the first time during this period, the actual world order and the conceptual world order became almost identical for the Chinese people.

Then, why were the maritime expeditions, which realized the world order and brought immense economic benefits, halted after Emperor Yongle? The reason is related to the nature of such undertakings. First, there was a lack of motivation to continue Zheng He's expeditions. Emperor Yongle's personal legitimacy and his expansionist foreign policy were no longer necessary policies after Emperor Hongxi and Emperor Xuanzong, and Emperor Xuanzong himself did not feel the need for them.

78 Along with the change in the emperor's policy direction, large-scale policies undertaken during Emperor Yongle's reign, such as the conquest of Annan, the conquest of the Northern Yuan, and the relocation of the capital to Beijing, placed a significant burden on the Ming court, even though the economy had stabilized. In this situation, the profits from maritime expeditions were not enough to cover the fiscal deficits of the projects undertaken by Emperor Yongle. Instead, they became a target of intense criticism as one of the legacies of Emperor Yongle's expansionist foreign policy. The fact that Emperor Hongxi and his surrounding officials immediately pushed for the return to Nanjing after Emperor Yongle's death, and in the process, recalled Zheng He's fleet and appointed Zheng He as the commander of Nanjing's defense, and halted the campaign against the Northern Yuan, indicates that there were quite a few forces opposing Emperor Yongle's policies. They were simply suppressed by Emperor Yongle's strong imperial power and could not voice their opinions. After Emperor Yongle's death, as the asymmetry of power between officials and the emperor was somewhat resolved during the reigns of Emperor Hongxi and Emperor Xuanzong, large-scale projects like Zheng He's expeditions were completely halted thereafter. Emperor Yongle planned Zheng He's maritime expeditions due to the need to secure his personal political legitimacy and the systematization of the Sinocentric worldview based on Confucian ideology. These plans could be realized due to the improving economic situation at the time, but they were abruptly halted after Emperor Yongle's death due to excessive state expenditure.

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