Why did ancient China not expand to the sea? What were the restrictions?

China has always been a continental power in ancient times and has basically not expanded into the ocean. There are countless islands surrounding mainland China, such as the Japanese Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Philippine Islands, Nanyang Islands, etc. However, for thousands of years, China has only two large islands, Hainan Island and Taiwan Island. During the Ming Dynasty, China built a world-class fleet, but the fleet did not expand overseas. Instead, it promoted its national prestige, granted numerous titles, and engaged in tributary diplomacy. In the end, the Ming Dynasty did not occupy an additional island for China. Why wasn't ancient China keen on ocean expansion?

We can divide the countries and civilizations in the ancient world into three types, namely agricultural civilization, commercial civilization (marine civilization) and nomadic civilization. Some people think that there is also a "fishing and hunting civilization". In fact, there are only fishing and hunting peoples, and there is no fishing and hunting civilization, because the fishing and hunting stage is a people who did not enter the Neolithic era. Once they entered the civilized era, the fishing and hunting economy was replaced. Civilization here does not mean having culture, but entering the national stage.

The agricultural civilization is mainly located in the river basin, so it is also called the river civilization. The economy of agrarian civilization relies on agriculture, and national fiscal revenue is mainly obtained from farmers or serfs. Therefore, the expansion of a farming country is to expand the area of ??cultivated land, obtain more expropriated people, and strengthen the power of the country. For example, Egypt's main expansion direction is along the Nile Valley, and countries in West Asia basically want to occupy vast oasis areas.

China is the most typical agricultural civilization, so the main direction of expansion is the Yellow River, Yangtze River, Pearl River and other river basins. Among them, Liaodong, the Western Regions, the Hehuang Valley, and the Hetao Plain, which are more suitable for farming, are also China's main expansion areas. direction. But if you go deep into the northern prairie areas and the jungle areas of Southeast Asia, you will not be able to expand. There are many islands around China, which were sparsely populated in ancient times and would be easy to occupy if you wanted to. But for China, occupying these islands can neither increase arable land nor increase the population, so the ancient dynasties were unwilling to expand to the sea.

All overseas barbarian countries, such as Annam, Champa, Koryo, Siam, Ryukyu, Xiyang, Dongyang and Nanman small countries, are limited to mountains and seas, and are isolated in a corner. The land they obtain is not enough to provide supplies. Its people are not enough to make orders. If he does not think about himself and comes to disturb us, he is unlucky. He is not a threat to China, and it is also unlucky for me to raise an army and attack lightly. I am afraid that future generations will rely on China's wealth and strength, be greedy for temporary military success, and raise armies for no reason, causing harm to human lives. This must not be done. However, the Hu Rong are approaching northwest China and are a frontier threat. They must select generals to train their troops and be prepared at all times. ?Zhu Yuanzhang's "Ancestral Instructions of the Emperor Ming"

The expansion of commercial civilization and farming civilization are different. They are mainly to occupy better transportation strongholds in order to obtain better business conditions. The world's earliest commercial civilizations were Phoenicia, Greece and Rome. Their expansion directions were mainly around the Mediterranean. For example, Phoenicia and Greece established a large number of colonies in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, while Rome turned the Mediterranean into an inner lake. During the Age of Discovery, Europeans took maritime expansion to the extreme and established colonies around the world.

The war between Rome and Carthage for supremacy in the Mediterranean

So where did the impetus for establishing overseas colonies come from? Take Greece as an example. Greece itself is not suitable for farming, but its industry and commerce are developed, its population is relatively large, and its population pressure is high. In order to go overseas to occupy better sources of raw materials, commercial markets and transfer the country's excessive population, the Greeks established new immigration settlements everywhere along the Mediterranean coast. In ancient times, many areas around the Mediterranean were still backward, and it was relatively easy to occupy colonies. In modern times, Europeans used their ships and artillery to occupy colonies in backward areas. For example, the purpose of Portuguese colonial expansion was to monopolize the spice trade in the East, and the Spanish colonial expansion was to monopolize gold and silver.

Another kind of civilization is the nomadic civilization. The economy of nomadic civilization relies on animal husbandry, so the nomads are erratic and move within the vast Eurasian continent. The production of nomadic people is very unstable and lacks material accumulation. Therefore, they have developed a habit of plundering, and they always like to go to developed areas to rob. Nomads like to conquer everywhere, but after they conquer a place, if they stay and do not leave, they will be assimilated by the local area. At the same time, the nomads themselves were unable to establish a long-term stable empire, and the Huns, Turks, Mongols, etc. eventually fell apart. Therefore, their conquests lacked stability. For example, the Mongols conquered almost all of Eurasia and Southeast Asian countries, but in the end they were left with a piece of grassland.

Did ancient China have the opportunity to become a maritime country? Perhaps during the Southern Song Dynasty, China was gradually moving closer to maritime civilization, but its essence was still agricultural. The subsequent Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties did not care about maritime interests even more. However, the pirates on the southeast coast of China are somewhat like a maritime people. Due to the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban, they had to take risks and became "Japanese pirates" or "pirates". They lost their foothold on the mainland and could only wander around the sea and islands. .

During the Ming Dynasty, China's pirate power rose, and they established some commercial-based countries in Southeast Asia, such as Lanfang and Guo. However, these countries were quickly wiped out by Western colonists.

However, pirates also contributed to China's maritime expansion. For example, Zheng Zhilong occupied the island of Taiwan and immigrated many people here, laying the foundation for Taiwan's inclusion in China's territory.

If there were no interference from Western forces, I think some commercially civilized countries would slowly emerge in Southeast Asia. Many of these countries may be dominated by Chinese, but they are also independent of China and do not belong to China.