Chinese Maritimes Activities
 It is often held that the Chinese viewed the seas and oceans very differently from, for example, the Europeans: Even if the Chinese were not ocean-phobic, they were not ocean-lovers either, implying that the Chinese had little need for seas and Oceans.
Although Chinese is regarded as a continental power with little interest in seafaring, evidences still proved that Chinese actually engaged in different maritime activities such as migration, territories expansion, and trade, which is the most important aspect. The Chinese people have always been ready to capture and enlarge their economic opportunities,  and they were positively opportunistic towards sea-going activities because of the lucrative nature of the business.
 There are several areas under maritime activity types in China: (1) states politics, including military operations and territorial expansion, diplomacy, and Rebellions and resistance movements; (2) cultural exchange; (3) expeditions; (4) emigration; and (5) trade.

Military operations and Territorial expansion
The China seas were at time a theatre for military operations and naval engagements and battles among opposing political units in China.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was the first case of using sea for territorial struggle in Chinese history. The Kingdom of Wu confronted three other kingdoms at sea. The first recorded incidence took place during this period: in 549 B.C. King Kong of Chu Kingdom sent his fleet to attack the forces of Wu Kingdom. Later, in 525 B.C., Pring Guang of Wu Kingdom twice led his fleet to attack the coast of Chu Kingdom. It has been calculated that from 549 B.C. to 476 B.C. some twenty other naval skirmishes took place between coastal Wu and Chu.  During the Warring States from 475-221 B.C., the momentum of naval activities and skirmishes were maintained for territory struggle among the rival states.
Before the emergence of the Three Kingdoms in 220 A.D., in 208 A.D., in order to spread his influence and control to the southeast part of China, Cao Cho, the founder of the Wei Kingdom, led approximately 100,000 soldiers and navies to hold a battle with Suan Quan, the founder of Wu Kingdom, and his alliance Liu Bi, the founder of Shu Kingdom, at Chi Bi near the Yangzi River. Although the soldiers of Cao Cho outnumbered the alliance of Suan Quan and Liu Bi, the generals and soldiers of Cao Cho were poor trained for sea battles, and they had a problem of seasick, so the morale of them was low. On the other hand, since the generals and soldiers of Suan Quan lived and were trained in the coastal area, they were some formidable sea warriors. When both sides crashed, the navies of Cao Cho were totally destroyed by the fire strategies used by the alliance of Suan Quan and Liu Bi. Many soldiers on Cao Cho side were killed.
Although Cao Cho escaped successful, he was unable to expand his influence after this battle. The battle between Cao Cho and the alliance of Suan Quan and Liu Bi was the last significant large-scale military operations before the Ming period, and it was a very important part of the famous Chinese novel based on this period, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Ming novelist Luo Quan Zhong.
 Besides internal military operation, there are three periods in Chinese history when the Empire did expand overseas. The first period was in the Western Han Dynasty. In 109 B.C., Emperor Wudi sent a fleet that landed 5,000 troops to attack and conquer Korea, establish four prefectures there. The second period was during the Three Kingdoms. In 230 A.D., Suan Quan, king of Wu, sent 10,000 men to cross the East China Sea to Taiwan. With this operation the territory of Wu Kingdom expanded. The last period was during Sui-Tang times. A Sui fleet was sent in 604-5 A.D. to the South China Sea to invade Linyi (now Vietnam) in order to resume Chinese rule there. The Sui navy was also sent North to invade Korea three times, in 598, 612, and 614, while the Tang navy invaded Korea another three times, in 648, 663, and 668, and finally captured Pyongyang. Needless to say, ships, often in large numbers, were needed for those invasions.

Diplomacy
 Diplomacy was an important reason for the Chinese to travel by sea because it helped China to consolidate the relationship between China and Countries in Asia. On behalf of the Empire, Chinese merchants sometimes carried diplomatic missions to overseas countries. For instance, from 1073 to 1078 A.D., letters between the Chinese and Japanese authorities were delivered by a Chinese merchant named Sun Zhong.  And, during the voyage of Zheng He, he was able to fulfill the mission of spreading Chinese influence in the Southeast Asia and South Asia, and Chinese successfully made friendship with these nations.
Rebellions and Resistance Movements
Usually, when there was the decline of a dynasty, rebellion would take place regularly within the empire. Consequently, seas were often used as a space for rebellions.
The first recorded sea-and island-based rebellion occurred in 17 A.D., the era after Huang Wang overthrew the Western Han dynasty, headed by Madam Lu in Shandong Province. There was such a rebel because the dynasty established by Huang Wang was never recognized by the Chinese because the Chinese still regarded Han as the legitimate reign. The rebels attacked Haiqu County and killed the magistrate before they withdrew to islands.
There were some large-scale rebellions associated with the sea during the late Ming and early Qing period. During the late Ming period, since the government was corrupted and impotence, people were living in ruin. Coastal people could not stand with the government anymore, so they turned into pirate against the any trading activities by stealing the goods in order to survive.  Between 1664 and 1683, a long lasting sea-based resistance movement against the newly found Manchu Qing governement was organized by Ming loyalists under Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Chenggong, and Zheng Jing with 170,000 troops and a fleet of 8,000 ships. They occupied Taiwan for 22 years from 1661 A.D.
Expeditions and Cultural Exchange
 With the efficient shipbuilding, ship design, and navigational aids, Chinese were able to travel overseas. As a result, the Chinese culture and institution spread to other Asian nations.
The expedition led by the Chinese can be shown by searching of medicine. During the Warring States Period, Taoist priest of Yan and Qi kingdoms were actively involved in expeditions to the Bohai Sea beyond the Chinese territories in search of exotic medicine, especially an elixir for immortality. It reached a climax in 219 B.C. when Xu Fu sailed with 3,000 young men and women from Shangdong to Japan, but it is believed that Xu Fu never returned to China.  It was the first time Chinese contacted with the Japanese.
During the Tang dynasty, when Buddhism was spread to China from India, there was a Buddhism rush, and later it spread to Japan and Korea when Chinese had diplomatic relationship with these nations.

Emigration
 As I mentioned in the last section about cultural exchange, Chinese stepped into the land of Japan for the first time with the mission of expedition of medicine of immortality. Actually, it was the first emigration movement in China. However, the peak of emigration movement was during the Ming dynasty, when Chinese started to migrate to Taiwan, Malacca, and Sumatra. In the 19th century, due to the political instability in China, in order to find jobs and survive, many Chinese from the southern part of China migrated to other nations including the US as contracted labors or coolies by ships.

Maritime Trade
 Ample evidence shows enthusiasm for and support of foreign trade by government at various levels of the Chinese Empire. In fact, the maritime trade in China started in the Han dynasty.
Promotion of Maritime Trade
 From Han to the Yuan dynasty, the emperors in China promoted maritime trade, but two stages can be found. The first stage of promotion of maritime trade ended in the 8th century in the mid-Tang dynasty. The second stage lasted from the early eighth to the second half of the 14th century under the Yuan.
 The first stage was characterized by laissez-faire. Before the Tang dynasty, the administration of foreign trade was decentralized, and thus the control of customs regulations was in the hands of local officials. As a result, trade was quite free although official corruption sometimes became a problem . Therefore, private merchant sector was not really controlled by the central government.
 The second stage began in A.D. 714 when the Tang Court instituted the Bureau for Maritime Trade and established the Commissioner for Maritime Trade to regulate the foreign trade policy. This marked the first time that the central government support sea trade by institutionalized trade protection and promotion. Under this system, the financial benefit for government came from the so-called levies on import. Imported goods bought by the state at government unilateral prices under the choumai system, purchasing a proportion, were to be resold to China’s domestic markets to earn profits.
 The Tang government also established some practical measures to help traders from overseas, including the offer to foreigners of free food and accommodation, a ship escort service and permanent residency. It showed that the emperors in the Tang dynasty were eager to increase trade in China. Although Chinese state began to extend its monopolistic control over key domestic markets to overseas trade through Customs control under choumai system, but at this stage, government interference in private maritime trade operations was modest, so private trade sector still existed.

Control over Maritime Trade
 During the Tang dynasty, although private trade sector existed, the government had started to interference in private maritime trade operation for the first time, so later it led to the extension of governmental control over private merchant sector and led to state monopoly. The Ming emperor fulfilled this trend in the 14th century. Despite the Ming emperor’s eagerness for the promotion of Sino-foreign trade, the trade activities were now monopolized by the state, which had no expertise in trade. Under the Trade License system, it monopolized the trade of the state. Besides that, different regulations were made to punish unlawful maritime traders. However, the action carried out by the government was an unpopular one, contributing to the rise of rebellious smuggling operations which reached their pinnacle in Chinese premodern history. With such a problem, the Ming policy of trade control was therefore almost certainly destined to fail.
 When Manchu took over China in 1644, the Qing dynasty replaced Ming as the legitimate ruler in China. In maritime policies, the Qing authorities did impose some restrictions on the size of ocean-going ships but large operations of Chinese sea merchants were tolerated, and sometimes the private sector was even encouraged to trade.
Although the Qing government had fewer restrictions on the Chinese merchants, the relationship between Qing government and the Western traders was a complex one.
Since the Westerners merchants were armed, the Qing government was afraid of their invasion in China, so they made lots of restrictions on the foreign traders. The Qing government built a hierarchical surveillance system, within which the mistrusted Westerners were watched by the trustworthy while the government watched the trusted.
In order to prevent the influence of the foreign traders in China, the Qing governments controlled the westerners in the following ways. First, the westerners could not possess any weapons in China. Second, only one port in Canton was open to Western merchants. Third, westerners could not stay over the winter in China. Forth, Westerners could not learn Chinese.
The restrictions imposed on the foreign traders and the ban of opium trade in 1830s led to discontent of the British, and the growing tension finally led to the first Anglo-Chinese War in 1839 , and Chinese lost this battle.

The Golden Age of Chinese Maritime Activities
The Golden Age of Chinese Maritime Activities is the early Ming dynasty, when the eunuch admiral Cheng Ho made seven epic voyages by the Treasure Fleets throughout the China Seas and Indian Ocean, from Taiwan to the Persian Gulf and distant Africa in the brief period from 1405-1433.
In 1403, Zhu Di, the Ming Emperor, issued orders to begin the construction of an imperial fleet of trading ships, warships, and support vessels to visit ports in China seas and Indian Ocean. Before Zhu Di came to the throne, imperial treasury of the Ming court was depleted by a long civil war between the struggles in the royal family. Therefore, in Zhu Di’s mind, he believed that there was a need of replenishment by foreign trade. As a result, it became the motivation behind Cheng Ho seven voyages from 1405-1433 although the trade was monopolized by the State.
The Treasure Fleets (Baochuan) were necessary for the voyages, because it represented the glory of the Ming Emperor in front of the foreign countries. The treasure fleets were not considered fighting fleets. Rather, the treasure fleets were appointed for luxury. However, the Treasure Fleets were still armed since they need to be prepared to fight against the unpredictable pirates in the sea. The Treasure Fleet was gorgeous, and it was regarded as luxurious cabin like miniature palace. The size of the Treasure Fleets was large. The largest of the treasure ships is now thought to have been between about 390 and 408 feet long and 160 to 166 feet wide.
It is no doubt that the Treasure Fleets were gorgeous and represented the glory and reputation of the Emperor, but it put a heavy burden on the civilians in China. Since a huge sum of money was need for the construction of the Treasure Fleets, the government levied extra taxes on the civilians. Besides that, it increased labor force to build the treasure fleet. As a result, it increased the grievances among the civilians in China.
 When the Treasure Fleets were ready to go, the first voyage of Cheng Ho began in 1405. The destination of the first two voyages was Calicut in India. However, the places the fleet stopped also included Champa (central Vietnam); Majapahit on Java; and Semudra and Deli on the northern coast of Sumatra. It continued to Ceylon and then to Calicut. In the third voyage, the Chinese Treasure Fleets reached the port of Malacca. In the fourth voyage, Cheng Ho headed for Hormuz and the Persian Gulf and marked the height of Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean. In the fifth voyage, the fleet explored the Arabian coast from Hormuz to Aden and the east coast of Africa. And, finally, in the sixth and seventh voyage, Cheng Ho voyage reached Africa and Southeast Asia again.
The most significant of Cheng voyage is that, before Cheng Ho expedition, the Chinese only reached the land of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. However, in all seven voyages of Cheng Ho, he reached the places that Chinese never reached before, so it helped to spread the influence of China even further.
With the seven voyages led by admiral Cheng Ho, he helped to increase China's trading territory to include 37 countries from the Vietnam coast to the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and eastern Africa.  The voyage helped the Chinese to establish China’s trade links in Southeast Asia. A steady influx of foreign goods and information resumed properly. The Chinese were able to acquire the things that were not available in China. For example, the Chinese traded porcelains and silks for spices and copper coins on Java. In Malacca, Cheng Ho obtained ebony, aloes, and a native tree resin called dammer, used as a caulking material and lighting fluid.
Trade between Chinese and the Southeast Asian nations and Indian benefited the Chinese a lot. The Chinese could obtain valuable materials from these places, including medicine that could save the people from epidemic in China. Besides the benefit gained from trade, the Chinese Empire was able to consolidate her influence and create a formidable presence overseas, and the Chinese made friendship with lots of Asian states.
When the Chinese recognized Paramesawara as the legitimate ruler of Malacca and gave him a tablet officially declared that the city was a vassal state of China. As a result, the Malacca Kingdom would pay tribute to the Chinese dynasty, and Chinese trading rights through the Straits of Malacca were insured by the Malacca Kingdom. In the last voyage of Cheng Ho, in order to protect the vassal state of China, the Chinese urged the Siamese king to stop harassing the kingdom of Malacca. Finally, it saved Malacca from the attack of the Siamese and restored peaceful relations with the kingdoms of Malacca and Siam.  This case showed the authority of the Chinese had been established well in the Southeast Asia after the voyages.
The Seven voyages of Cheng Ho helped China to spread her influence overseas, and it brought so much invaluable material to China by increasing trade route. The voyages simply associated with the activities I have mentioned before. In these seven voyages, there was the military operation against pirates; diplomacy, expedition, and cultural exchange were engaged in Southeast Asia and India; emigration to Malacca, Sumatra and Java also increased this period; and of course trade activities between China and other countries also increased when trade partners increased. Chinese activities associating with the sea reached to the peak in this period, so it was definitely the Golden Age of Maritime Activities in China.

The Impacts of Maritime Activities
 The increasing Chinese maritime activities brought lots of impacts to China especially when maritime activities related to the places outside China. The maritime activities helped to spread Chinese influences in Asia, increase government revenue, and accelerate the urbanization process in the coastal regions.
The voyages made by the Chinese helped them to spread their influences to the whole Asia. Japan, Korea, and Vietnam were greatly influenced by the Chinese system, because the Chinese had diplomatic relationship with Japan, and they conquered the land of Korea and Vietnam; they were the tribute states of China.
The government systems of these Asia nations were based on the Chinese bureaucratic institution with the idea of Confucianism. The philosophy of Ruler-subject under Confucianism was greatly supported by the rulers in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Besides that, Chinese language was spread to these nations. Kanji became a part of their language as well. Moreover, Buddhism was spread to Japan from China when Chinese missionaries had an increased diplomatic relationship with Japan, and Zen Buddhism emerged in Japan.
The Chinese also brought their architecture knowledge to other Asian nations. For example, the castle structure of late Yamato period was based on the castle structure of Tang capital Chyoahn. In 694 the capital of Japan moved to Fujiwara, and in 710 moved again to Heiji. The castles at both of these capitals were imitations of the Chinese castles such as the ones at Chyoahn (and Rakuyou. Normally these castles were surrounded by high strong walls called rajyou, but the small Japanese rajyou were rather like ornaments, compared with the massive walls of their Chinese counterparts.
Many Chinese immigrated to other Asian nations. At the very beginning of Chinese voyage, Japan was the first place where the Chinese stepped on. During Cheng Ho seven voyages, many Chinese immigrated to Malacca, Sumatra, and Java. In the 19th century, many Chinese from the southern part of China immigrated to other nations, including the US, as contract labors or coolies. As a result, it is believed that Chinese is everywhere when there is the Sun. Therefore, increase of emigration in China associated with the sea helped to spread Chinese culture around the world.
The maritime trade had the biggest impact on the Chinese economically, because all trade activities helped to increase the revenue of the nation. The custom duty imposed taxes on imported goods raised the government revenue was substantial. During the period of A.D. 1049-53 the Song government annual revenue from maritime trade activities totaled 530 million coins. It increased to 630 million coins in 1064-67 and reached two billion coins in 1127-1161 when trade was increasing in the period. During the Ming-Qing dynasty, due to different kinds of duties imposed on the foreign merchants, the Chinese government still benefited a lot from trade activities and taxes from duties. The Chinese continued to enjoy the trade surplus until the early 19th century when there was the overflow of silver for opium demand from the foreigners in China.
 Traditionally, urbanization in interior China was closely associated with the administrative structure of the Empire, which by definition was a type distinct from the trade-driven urbanization in China’s coastal region, especially in the south. Coast based urbanization was dynamic and elastic because the maritime centers there overlapped administrative centers in the inland, so it helped to generated rapid urban expansion in the coastal region. Fore instance, between 1165 and 1173 A.D., the population in Hanzhou, the capital of the Southern Song, increased from 555,000 to 1,240,000, with an annual increase of 10.7 percent. Therefore, the urbanization and the rise of infrastructure in China’s coastal region can be regarded as a consequence of maritime-related economic activities and emigration.

Conclusion
 Although Chinese maritime activities increased a lot throughout the history and reached to the peak during Cheng Ho seven epic voyages, China Sea power did not continue to grow but started to decline in the late 18th and 19th century. The major reasons contributed to this decline were the “bad” maritime policy, poor government, internal unrest, threats by western maritime powers, and spontaneous homeostasis in Chinese society due to such factors as a coherent landmass, unified empire and self-sufficient economy.
 Comparing to Western Europe, the growth of Chinese maritime trade was sluggish from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth century. Restrictive maritime policies on private merchants, lack of large-scale capital formation, bureaucratic exploitation on civilians, and social unrest due to increasing pirates and illegal smugglings all created an unhealthy phenomenon and made expansion of Chinese Sea power difficult.
 The arrogant attitude of the Chinese prevented the growth of their Sea Power as well. The Chinese were very proud of their power in Asia, but they did not know much about the Western world. They were arrogant toward other nations and regarded the Westerners barbarians, so the Chinese restricted their trading activities in China. The Chinese just did not realize the supremacy of the European naval power, and the Chinese were lack of a sense of security when the Chinese Empire was unified and wealthy, so they were not looking to improve and strengthen their maritime technology and navy in order to prevent any foreign invasion.
When the tension between China and the Great Britain reached to the peak due to the banishment of opium trade in the 19th century, Chinese finally crushed with the British in the Sea in the Opium War in 1839, the Chinese just could not resist the supreme power of the British Royal Navy. The Chinese suffered from the war devastatingly, and the weakness of Chinese navy finally exposed to the Westerners. After that, the Chinese realized they needed to do something to improve their navy. When the Chinese had a break after both Opium War and Tai Ping Rebellion in 1850s, the officials in China suggested some measurement to improve Chinese navy through the Self-Strengthening movement in 1861.  However, it was too late for the Chinese because the Western Naval Power had reached to the peak already, when the Chinese just started to reform their navy at the same moment. As a result, the Chinese navy did not really grow strong enough, so they continued to lose battles in the Sea, such as Sino-Franco War and Sino-Japanese War in 1884 and 1895 respectively.
Despite China never reached the level of World Sea Power, the success of Cheng Ho in the Ming dynasty could not be ignored, because it was the glorious moment of Chinese maritime history, and he helped China to explore so many trade markets for the first time, and his voyages definitely helped to make expeditions and spread Chinese influences in Asia and Near East. Moreover, the topics in this paper proved that Chinese were not really hostile to seafaring, because they engaged so many maritime activities throughout the Chinese history, and they really acquired lots of benefits through maritime activities and maritime trade. Therefore, maritime activity is still an important part of the Chinese history.
 

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