The Ming Dynasty stele reveals the true purpose of Zheng He's voyage to the West
Zheng He's voyage to the West, the largest ocean-going voyage in ancient Chinese feudal society, lasted for a long time, and the scale of navigation was the largest in the world's maritime history.
However, the question of its true purpose and the scope of navigation is still inconclusive in the maritime and historical circles. But a Ming Dynasty stele salvaged from a Sri Lankan city in the Indian Ocean, after translation, seems to answer this question for us for many years.
In the city of Galle in western Sri Lanka, a Ming Dynasty stele was discovered in 1911, revealing the historical traces left by Zheng He, the eunuch of the Three Treasures, when he went to the West.
This discovery confirms that Zheng He did indeed visit Sri Lanka during his voyage to the West, adding new evidence to the historical ties between China and Sri Lanka.
In 1405, Zheng He, the eunuch of the Three Treasures, made his first voyage to the Western Ocean to Mount Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka. However, due to the size of the fleet, the Sri Lankans showed wariness and unfriendliness towards this unfamiliar fleet, so Zheng He had to lead the fleet away.
In 1409, when Zheng He made his third trip to the West, he made full preparations for his visit to Sri Lanka. In addition to a large amount of gold, silver, jewelry, and silk porcelain, he also brought with him a piece of "Bushi Ceylon Mountain Buddhist Temple Tablet" engraved with three characters.
This stele was later discovered as a testimony to the friendly exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and Sri Lanka. According to the Ming Dynasty's Shuyu Zhou Zhilu, Zheng He came to Sri Lanka and gave gold and silver gifts to local temples to demonstrate the great power of the Ming Dynasty.
Located on the Indian Ocean, the Kingdom of Sri Lanka is known for its beautiful geographical formations and important geographical location, and Colombo is praised as the "Crossroads of the East".
Whether sailing from the Straits of Malacca to India, along the coast or across the Bay of Bengal, Sri Lanka is an indispensable transportation artery. The historical and cultural value of the Kingdom of Sri Lanka has made it the focus of international attention, and it has also made the interaction between the Ming Dynasty and Sri Lanka even more important.
The king of Sri Lanka had taken advantage of his geographical advantage to plunder passing ships, but he was greedy enough to start a war against Zheng He's fleet and tried to start a war to plunder the ship's property, only to be defeated by Zheng He's crew.
Ming Chengzu Zhu Di thought that he was "a barbarian, not enough to be punished", but imprisoned him for a period of time, then changed the king of Sri Lanka, and finally sent him back to China.
Sri Lankan history records that Zheng He failed to do so because he took a fancy to the Buddha bone relics in the temple on Mount Ceylon, which eventually led to the outbreak of war.
Despite the lack of historical and logical evidence, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Sri Lanka cannot be exhausted in a few words. According to historical records, in 1459, the king of Sri Lanka sent Prince Selipa to Raja to China with a large amount of treasure to pay tribute to deepen the relationship between the two countries.
However, at this time, Ming Chengzu had died, and Zheng He had also been dead for many years. Therefore, the prince of Sri Lanka had to go to Quanzhou, where the climate is warm, to recuperate, and after recuperating for a long time, he was ready to leave for Sri Lanka.
However, at this time, the king of Sri Lanka died of illness, and his nephew took the opportunity to launch a coup d'état, not only exterminating the king's descendants, but even sending people to the Central Plains to assassinate the prince.
Although ultimately unsuccessful, the prince had to stay in the Central Plains. Later, he sent people back to China to investigate the news, but the entourage in charge of investigating the news unfortunately fell into the hands of the enemy, and the prince knew that there was no hope of returning to China, so he could only settle in the Central Plains.
Therefore, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Sri Lanka cannot be explained in a moment.
Historians and navigators have always maintained a keen interest in the historical events of Zheng He's voyage to the West, and their focus is different. Historians pay more attention to the real purpose of Zheng He's voyage to the West, while navigators are more concerned about the range of Zheng He's voyage when he sailed to the West.
In today's historiography, there are various opinions on the true purpose of Zheng He's voyage to the West, among which the most widely supported view is that it was to promote the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty, expand foreign affairs, and strengthen ties with overseas countries.
There is an opinion that when Ming Chengzu Zhu Di invaded the city of Nanjing, Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen had already set fire to his palace by himself, leaving only a charred corpse.
Legend has it that Emperor Jianwen did not die and fled overseas by sea. Therefore, Zheng He went to the West ostensibly to promote national prestige and promote exchanges, but in fact to find traces of Emperor Jianwen.
Although there are many supporters of both views, the latter lacks direct historical support, and is only the conclusion reached by logical reasoning of experts through indirect historical sources.
The "Zheng He Donation Tablet" unearthed in Sri Lanka reveals why Zheng He's fleet gave alms at the temple. Their wish was that the gods in the temple would bless their ships with safety, and it also reflected the Ming court's desire for friendly relations with overseas nations.
However, due to their age, most of the inscriptions have been weathered and cannot be seen clearly. Despite this, the inscription records the time and purpose of the inscription and is written in three languages, with the aim of making its meaning understandable to the people of Western countries.
Today, the stele is one of Sri Lanka's most prized historical sites and is well housed in a local museum for people to enjoy. This fact undoubtedly confirms one of the purposes of Zheng He's trip to the West - to promote friendly exchanges between overseas countries.
The History of the Ming Dynasty and the Biography of Zheng He also records that Zheng He's original intention in going to the West was to promote the prestige and virtue of the Ming Dynasty, to guard against the Timurid Empire, to obtain overseas tribute, and to do so out of religious beliefs.
Regarding the search for Emperor Jianwen, Gu Qiyuan of the Ming Dynasty once quoted the words of others, claiming that Emperor Jianwen was in exile, so Zhu Di sent Zheng He to the West may have the intention of finding Emperor Jianwen, and this speculation was supported by Zheng Xiao, Shen Defu and others.
From Zha Jizuo's "Records of Sins" and Fu Weilan's "Book of Ming" to the "Biography of Zheng He" and "The Biography of Hu Hu" in the "History of the Ming Dynasty" of the Qing Dynasty, and then to the adoption of modern scholars such as Xu Liqun and Fan Wenlan, they all admit the existence of this statement.
However, this claim has also been criticized for its lack of conclusive evidence, especially considering the time span of Zheng He's voyage to the West and the distance of his voyage, and the fact that Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, had already secured the throne, so why did he need to look for his former subordinates?
Still, this claim has been repeatedly banned.
During Zheng He's voyage to the West, promoting national prestige was one of his most important missions. At that time, the diplomatic strategy of the Ming Dynasty was mainly based on "good Huairou", rather than conquering other countries by force.
This is fully reflected in Zheng He's attitude towards other countries, except in special circumstances, he always sent gifts on behalf of the imperial court to express his friendship and demonstrate the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty.
Seven voyages to the West: In their journey to explore the unknown world, Zheng He's fleet not only proclaimed the suzerainty of the Ming Dynasty as a great power in the Central Plains, but also won the awe of overseas countries with its great strength.
Regardless of his initial motives, Zheng He's voyage to the West eventually had a profound impact on the political, economic, cultural, and military spheres of the Ming Dynasty. At the political level, Zheng He's fleet maintained peace in its foreign dealings on the one hand, and used force when necessary to safeguard the interests of the Ming Dynasty.
During his ocean voyages, he successfully struck down the rule of the Sri Lankan mountain kingdom of Ceylon, eliminated the Sumatran monarch Suganra, who usurped the throne, punished the pirate Chen Zuyi, and supported the old port of Xuanwei in Southeast Asia, which was ruled by the Shi Chinese.
These actions not only enabled the Ming Dynasty to fully establish the Huayi political system in Southeast Asia, but also this political order, which was based on the concepts of "no king has no outside" and "Huaiyuan is virtuous", was generally non-aggressive and had a profound impact on later generations.
Zheng He's voyage to the West, in addition to opening up the Ming Dynasty's overseas **, also changed the Ming Dynasty's policy of banning the sea. Tributary, official, and civil, the emergence of these overseas forms allowed the Ming Dynasty to develop on a global scale.
However, such a move also comes with a financial burden. Every time the fleet goes to sea, it needs to prepare gold and silver gifts, ** materials, and gifts to Western countries along the way, which are all a lot of expenses.
At the same time, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di's large rewards for these foreign tributaries aroused the dissatisfaction of some imperial courts, and the silver taels spent reached 6 million taels, not including the rewards for 20,000 officers and soldiers.
In addition, the fleet carried a large number of copper coins abroad to purchase curiosities, which led to a large outflow of copper coins from the Ming Dynasty, which caused a "money shortage" in the country, which seriously depleted the treasury reserves, thus causing a large-scale depreciation of coins.
The Ming Dynasty's treasury reserves and balance of payments were affected by a series of chain reactions, and some scholars have concluded that if Zheng He's purpose in finding Emperor Jianwen was to go to the West, his efforts would have failed.
Because he spent a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, he was only looking for an illusory goal. However, if the purpose of Zheng He's voyage to the West was to promote the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty, expand the scope of tribute paid by the Atlantic countries to the Ming Dynasty, implement a foreign policy of peace and friendship, increase the understanding of the Chinese people about the world, or open up new channels, etc., then from this point of view, he was successful.
As a major event in Chinese history and even world history, Zheng He's trip to the West has attracted the attention of many Chinese and foreign scholars in modern times. However, due to the lack of historical data or discrepancies, as well as the differences in evaluation criteria and analysis paths due to subjective and objective reasons, there is a lot of controversy in the academic circles about Zheng He's voyage to the West.
In any case, at least this salvaged stele has revealed one of the true purposes of Zheng He's voyage to the West.
Explore the history of Zheng He's voyage to the West and you will find that Sri Lanka is even more beautiful because of it. In addition, many documents, such as "The Mystery of Zheng He's Voyage to the West", Yi Zhongtian's "Zheng He's Voyage to the West Is Really "Losing Money and Making Money", and "The True Purpose of Zheng He's Voyage to the West", also reveal the importance and impact of this event for us.