Zheng He went to the West As we all know, in history, Zheng He's voyage to the West was also the world's earliest voyage. However, in the end, the brilliant sailing achievements of Zheng He's fleet were completely destroyed in an inexplicable form. Regrettably, it was the termination of this voyage that china passed away from a great turning point in human history.
Since then, China may have lost most of the world.
In 1399, Zhu Di's thousands of troops and horses came to the gate of the imperial palace under the banner of "Kuangfu Chaozheng", and Emperor Zhu Yunjiao cried and said, "I don't have the face to see the emperor!" "Then, he lit a fire in the palace and committed suicide. Zhu Di was mindful of his uncle-nephew friendship, and did not blame him in the past, and sent people to the fire to rescue him. Unfortunately, the fire grew larger and larger, and in the end, the crowd only rescued Zhu Yunjiao's remains from the ruins. King Yan said with tears on his face, "Nephew, why are you so stupid, I came to help you govern the country, and you actually used this way to go to the end of the road." ”
This passage is a conclusive account from historical sources, but is this really the case?
The author believes that this is an excellent "Spring and Autumn Brushwork", and if future generations of readers believe it to be true, I am afraid that they will be in the way of the Ming Dynasty historians. Those things that give Zhu Di praises and praises are simply a family's words that lack real evidence. So, is Zhu Yunjiao really dead? Was his body really found by Zhu Di? Before answering this question, we may wish to examine the situation at that time: what was Zhu Di's original intention? It is nothing more than a great treasure, so what can Zhu Di do to become emperor? If Zhu Yunjiao did not see anyone dead or a corpse alive, then Zhu Di had to make up a set of nonsense so that he could naturally put on the dragon robe.
Because the cause of Zhu Yunjiao's death is a mystery, many friends have this kind of idea: Zhu Di sent Zheng He to cross the ocean several times, was it to find his nephew Zhu Yunjiao, whose whereabouts were mysterious? According to the edict of the Yongle Emperor, the purpose of going to the West was to show the world the national prestige of Daming, but according to a secret passage in the Biography of Zheng He, we can also know that Zhu Di sent people to the West for another purpose: "Chengzu suspected that Emperor Hui had died overseas and wanted to find traces." ”
This reason may seem absurd, but it is actually reasonable. Under the perennial indoctrination of Confucian thought, something called "orthodoxy" has been deeply rooted in the imperial family. Although Zhu Di was the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, he was not from an "orthodox" origin, so no matter how the imperial throne was calculated, there was no share of Zhu Di. Speaking of this, some friends may ask, Zhu Di has already sat on the dragon chair, is he still afraid of "orthodoxy"? The answer was yes, otherwise, Zhu Di would not have risked killing fang xiaoru and the ten clans.
The concept of maintaining "orthodoxy" is unshakable in the hearts of ancient people, so as long as it is not sure whether Zhu Yunjiao is alive or not, Zhu Di will not be able to rest assured for the rest of his life. From this point of view, it is worth it to let his cronies go overseas to track down Zhu Yunjiao's whereabouts. Therefore, during this period, no matter how much silver was spent and how much manpower was spent, Zhu Di was not resigned.
However, history tells us that when Zheng He went to the West for the seventh time, Zhu Di had already died, and the previous reasons were not established.
Judging from Zheng He's route to the West, Zheng He's fleet came to the west coast of India on its first departure. If Zhu Yunjiao really ran overseas, presumably, he would not be able to run farther than India. Looking for a life-or-death Zhu Yunjiao, there is no need to go to the West three times and twice, and each time he sails so far.
It can be seen from this that the search for Emperor Jianwen is only the "side task" of Zheng He's fleet, so what is the "main line task" of the fleet?
For example, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to neighboring Asian countries to announce that China has now changed dynasties and generations, and carried the promotion of the great Ming Dynasty to all countries. However, Zhu Yuanzhang had already made a big publicity, and all the neighboring countries knew the current Chinese surname "Zhu", and it was reasonable to say that the emperor who succeeded to the throne did not need to publicize it again.
However, the crux of the matter is still above the word "orthodoxy", and if Zhu Di's throne is justified, then he does not have to go around proclaiming his legitimacy. However, Zhu Di's dragon chair was taken from his nephew, and in order to make himself "orthodox", Zhu Di had to waste a little more extravagantly and let the world know that he was a "legitimate Ming Dynasty heavenly son".
In fact, there is also a "hidden mission" for Sending Zheng He to the West.
During the Ming Dynasty, China did not min much precious metals every year, and gold and silver in precious metals were the main currency in ancient China. If Zhu Di wants to develop the economy, sooner or later he will face the problem of insufficient monetary aggregates. During Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, he tried to solve this problem by printing paper money, but there were contradictions in the market environment at that time, which also led to the inability of the imperial court to control the depreciation of paper money. Therefore, in the end, the Damingbao banknote became a pile of waste paper, and the people still used gold, silver and copper as currency.
Copper is not a precious metal, and copper money is very convenient in daily use, for example, buy two pounds of green onions and a pot of wine. However, the faster the economic development, the more large transactions, at this time the copper money wine can no longer meet the market demand. At that time, mining and minting were limited by backward technology, and the total amount of copper coins could not be greatly increased in a short period of time.
From the perspective of casting, the minting of a batch of copper coins and the minting of a batch of silver are almost the same, but the value of the two is very different, so the use of gold and silver as a currency is the general trend. As a result, during the Yongle years, the problems faced by the imperial court were: the country's gold and silver reserves and mining.
Since the domestic reserves and mining capacity cannot meet the market demand, it is not a good way to send Zheng He to obtain precious metals abroad.
Of course, there is also a point that going to the West is not only a labor and a loss of money, but a lot of benefits. Because this matter is dominated by internal eunuchs, some of the money is personally earned by the emperor, and it is into the internal treasury rather than the national treasury. This greatly increased the power of the emperor and weakened the checks and balances on the emperor by the civil bureaucracy. Moreover, this kind of official trade infringes on the interests of smugglers in the southeast, who often have the background of civilian officials from the southeast, so the matter of going to the West is opposed and even hated by the civilian official clique.