On the Two Opportunities for Development in China's Ocean History And the Causes for Their Losses

The Song - Yuan Dynasties and the late Ming - early Qing Dynasties should otherwise have been the two opportunities for development in the Chinese history of ocean development which were respectively snuffed out by the Ming and Qing governments. In the view of the extremely autocratic Qing government, the overseas development of merchants from China's southeast coast constituted an instable factor which were beyond control of the and therefore had to be banned. Zheng He was the executor of the overseas policies adopted by the early Ming government which led to turning its back towards the ocean and losing the opportunities for to become an oceanic power during the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The rise of Zheng Long Zhi maritime commerce group marked the second opportunity in Chinese history of ocean development. However, after the Manchu ruled the Central Plains of and established the Qing Dynasty, they maintained the same extremely autocratic rule as that of the Ming Dynasty and basically continued the latter's internal and foreign policies, so as to ruin the second opportunity for China s maritime development during the late Ming - early Qing Dynasties. In the contention of the merchants along China's southeast coast who were oriented to the sea against the court s tuming its back towards the sea during the hundreds of years in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the powerful central governments had always been the final winners.