The steps of the early years of the Ming Dynasty concurred with the dawning of the capitalism in the West. To a certain extent, the Ming Dynasty practiced an opening policy that fit in with the progress of the times. For instance, the embryonic forms of various industries were encouraged, such as enlarging the cultivated lands, propping up the handicraft industry and developing mining, spinning and weaving, porcelain manufacturing, shipbuilding, papermaking and printing industries, so on and so forth. Special efforts were made to protect the commerce and business, which resulted in the booming of commerce featuring "merchants coming and going, doing buying and reselling", which resulted in bringing about "the flourishing age in early Ming Dynasty (during the reign of Emporor Yong Le)", which was known as "the whole country is prosperous and populous, making its booming economy being admired by many". It goes without saying that the comprehensive national strength of the Ming Dynasty then was indeed ahead of all the other countries in the world. This was particularly so among the countries in the India Ocean region where all the other states were quite lagged behind in terms of economy and culture, and by comparison, they were world apart from China which was already enjoying a civilization of thousands of years.

　　However, the reign of Yong Le was plagued by the rampant Japanese pirates (operating in Chinese costal waters from the 14th to the 16th century) who constantly harassed and invaded the Chinese coastal waters for the purpose of looting the vulnerable areas such as Zhejiang Province and Shandong province, thus presenting direct threats to the safety of foreign tribute boats heading toward China, upsetting the external contacts between the imperial government of China and the other countries, increasingly eroding the reputation of the Ming Dynasty, and becoming a pain in the neck to Emperor Yong Le. This served as a wakeup call to Emperor Yong Le who finally saw the importance of seas and oceans, and believed that sending out envoys to visit other countries by sea remained an effective way of "bringing peace and stability to the country, pacifying the neighboring countries, treating all countries equally and enjoying peace and happiness together".

　　Its stable political situation and booming economy paved the way materially for the Ming Dynasty to reach out to the world via sea. In 2003, archaeological excavation unearthed the largest shipyard in the world then for manufacturing the "treasure ships"---the splendour view of its scale once again stunned the world. Statistics have it that a total of 2,860 ships were refurbished or built during the reign of Emperor Yong Le, of which, 2,228 newly built ships were meant for Zheng He's voyages, accounting for 78% of the total. No wonder Dr. Sun Yat-sen once exclaimed with admiration: "It was indeed an unprecedented miracle in China for Zheng He to be able to build 64 colossal ships with an added up capacity of carrying a total of 28,000 people in as short a time span as 14 months." All these have come down to one fact: Zheng He's voyages to the west were the inevitable outcome of the oceangoing urge of the Ming Dynasty in its heyday.

　　Thereupon, Zheng He, acting on the imperial edict, marshaled the largest, well-equipped and state-of-the-art fleet featuring " imposing in appearance and peerless in volume", sailed off from the inward looking feudal kingdom and on to the boundless stretch of blue water with tempestuous waves, which in every sense is a miracle in the navigation history.

　　Zheng He's Fleet, beyond any doubt, was the most powerful one, non could stand against its might and therefore, could "do just as it pleased", but, during the time of his oceangoing voyages lasting several decades, Zheng He never invaded any other country, and never established single colony or threatened the safety of other countries. The fleet had not even left behind any place in the foreign waters named after Chinese name. Therefore, Zheng He's voyages were absolutely peaceful ones seeking for friendly relations with other countries, which pioneered China's foreign policy of peace. Zheng He's Fleet was a successful example in the world to make use of fleet peacefully for the first time, and for that matter, was unprecedented in the world's navigation history.

　　By Lu Rude

　　(July 12, PLA Daily)