What is the historical event of Zhu Yuanzhang's foreign exchanges?

Zhu Yuanzhang's implementation of the maritime ban system led to poverty and weakness in China.

It is not unknown to Zhu Yuanzhang that residents in coastal areas depend on the sea for a living. In order to completely eliminate the hidden dangers of the sea ban, he implemented the immigration policy and forced the residents of 46 mountains (islands) such as Zhoushan Island in Zhejiang Province to move inward in the twenty years of Hongwu. In the process of implementing this policy, its barbarism of ignoring people's property and life can be seen everywhere. For example, it is mandatory that the relocation should last for three days, so it is difficult for the island residents to keep so many boats within the prescribed time limit, so they have to "make up the bed with the door" and many people drown. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Tanghe, who was in charge of the coastal military, stipulated when he immigrated: "Those who moved before noon are the people, and those who moved in the afternoon are the army!"

What is particularly deplorable is that "the Ming ancestors were customized, and the memorial tablets were not allowed to go to sea", and these thoughts and measures of Zhu Yuanzhang were all established as "ancestral training", which should be pursued by future generations. Behind Zhu Yuanzhang, the maritime ban was loosened for a while, but it was never abolished.

The maritime ban in the early Ming Dynasty was a major setback for China's progress.

Before the Ming Dynasty, there was no maritime ban in China, especially in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, when overseas trade developed to a high level. According to historical research, the Song Dynasty had trade with more than 50 countries and regions. The Song Dynasty had a narrow territory and a huge army. Agricultural tax alone can not maintain huge financial expenditure, forcing the Song government to turn its attention to commerce and overseas trade. Song Gaozong said: "The benefits of urban trade are quite helpful to the use of the country. It is advisable to follow the old law to recruit people and pay bribes in currency. " Therefore, the Song Dynasty adopted a series of measures to protect and attract foreign maritime merchants. In the Yuan Dynasty, the rulers even adopted a mercantilist policy to encourage overseas trade and export (in a certain period, private overseas trade was also banned for a short time), and their market management and tax system became more and more complete. In addition, Chinese and foreign maritime merchants "exchanged markets, each in its proper place", so the overseas trade of the Yuan Dynasty developed to a new height, and the income brought by overseas trade accounted for a large proportion of the national fiscal revenue, which became ". Because of the positive development of overseas trade, China's shipbuilding technology is also in the forefront of the world. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Chen Youliang attacked Nanchang City occupied by Zhu Yuanzhang's army. Chen's boat is three stories high, even with the city, and each floor has a stable. The whole ship can carry three thousand sergeants, and people living on the upper and lower floors can't hear each other's voices. These are really impressive.

Looking back at this period of history, as Chao, a contemporary scholar, said, "If the momentum of overseas trade in the Song and Yuan Dynasties can be maintained and developed, the face of China's history will be completely different. Unfortunately, this momentum reversed in the Ming Dynasty, which had a great impact on the historical process of China. "

In order to appease and win over other countries, a "tribute trade" was introduced, allowing other countries to bring some goods in the official name and then exchange them for something in China. There are very strict restrictions on the personnel, time, variety and quantity of the goods brought to China. Actually, it is no longer trade, because it has no economic significance. Especially from the analysis of economic value, China is completely "trading at a loss", and what others "pay tribute" is not worth much, while our "return" is exceptionally rich. This is the so-called "favoritism". In Zhu Yuanzhang's words, since Wanli, a small country with no manners, came all the way to pay tribute and sincerely expressed his admiration, then don't haggle over the issue of reward, "to show the court's comfort." In the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang stopped this "tribute trade" with no commercial value and pure political purpose on the grounds of "overseas foreigners cheating on donations", and only allowed two or three small countries around him to "pay tribute" as usual. The door to foreign exchange has been completely closed.

Is it safe to close the door? Why did Zhu Yuanzhang enforce the maritime ban?

There are two main arguments: it is necessary to defend against the Japanese pirates. Later, it was discovered that Prime Minister Hu had ties with the Japanese pirates and attempted to rebel from within, so he decided to seal the sea; The arrogant mentality of "thinking that China is a kingdom of heaven, ubiquitous and does not need foreign goods".

Regarding the first statement, contemporary historians have eloquently proved with historical facts that most of the leaders and basic members of the "enemy" are actually China people, that is, smugglers at sea. The reason why businessmen use force against powerful state machines is that the imperial ban policy ruined their financial resources, that is to say, it was the ban that gave birth to large-scale pirate groups, not rampant piracy that gave birth to the ban policy. As for Hu's association with Japan, it was only Zhu Yuanzhang's sinister intention. It is even more absurd to say that this is the reason why he imposed the ban, because Zhu Yuanzhang had already imposed the ban before Hu committed the crime.

Regarding the second statement, I suspect that the performance of the Qing emperor's foreign exchanges was so impressive that Zhu Yuanzhang was also an megalomaniac who was "everywhere in China".

According to my understanding of historical materials and my personal opinion, Zhu Yuanzhang is not so arrogant as deeply afraid of the ocean in his foreign exchanges, especially in dealing with maritime countries.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a foreign country and later ascended to heaven. Although his status has changed, his sense of identity is still unbreakable. His words and deeds show that although he wears a dragon robe, he is still just a "small farmer", a small farmer in the palace.

People who have lived inland for a long time will feel dizzy at the first sight of the vast ocean. For a ruler who tries to control others, his psychology is more subtle. In his eyes, the ocean is too unpredictable. If before this, he was confident in his own strength, but now he lost. As far as Zhu Yuanzhang is concerned, there are still some realistic factors that have deepened his sense of depression. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang tied the pack. Although most of Fang Guozhen's coastal forces surrendered to him, some of them set sail at sea and continued to be enemies with him. Zhu Yuanzhang can hunt down unruly people on land and do evil, but in the face of the ocean, he can only look at the ocean and sigh. The ocean made him angry and afraid. Before the Ming Dynasty, the Yuan army went on an expedition to Japan, and Zhu Yuanzhang was deeply impressed by the sudden hurricane. Therefore, although the Japanese king used provocative language in diplomatic documents many times, he endured it again and again, and repeatedly warned future generations not to use troops overseas as ancestral teachings.

Since the ocean is out of control, what should we do? Zhu Yuanzhang's approach is to strengthen coastal defense on the one hand, and to operate the original "three points per mu" behind closed doors on the other. In his eyes, only in this way can his home and the world be safe and his subjects be completely controlled by him.