Chinese exploration includes exploratoryChinese travels abroad, on land and by sea, from the travels ofHan dynasty diplomatZhang Qian intoCentral Asia during the 2nd century BC until theMing dynastytreasure voyages of the 15th century that crossed theIndian Ocean and reached as far asEast Africa.
TheWestern HanenvoyZhang Qian traveled beyond theTarim Basin in the 2nd century BC, introducing the Chinese to the kingdoms ofCentral Asia,Hellenized Persia,India, and theMiddle East in search of allies against theXiongnu.
From 104 to 102 BC,Emperor Wu of Han waged war against the "Yuezhi" who controlled "Dayuan", aHellenized kingdom ofFergana established byMacedonian kingAlexander the Great in 329 BC. Emperor Wu also expanded Han territories beyond theGansu corridor into theWestern Regions, in what is nowXinjiang. Han military control of the region was established with theProtectorate of the Western Regions, but the Tarim Basin states were only loosely under Han control astributary vassals on the western frontier.
In 97 AD,Gan Ying, the emissary ofEastern Han GeneralBan Chao, traveled as far as thePersian Gulf in theParthian Empire, but was deterred by his Parthian hosts who falsely informed him that the journey to theRoman Empire necessitated an arduous trip around theArabian Peninsula.[1] Nevertheless, he returned to the Han court with a report describingthe Mediterranean civilization ofancient Rome (called "Daqin" inChinese historiography).[1] After these initial discoveries, the focus of Chinese exploration shifted to themaritime sphere, although theSilk Road leading all the way toEurope continued to be China's most lucrative source of trade.
The pilgrimage of the Buddhist monkXuanzang fromChang'an toNalanda in India not only greatly increased the knowledge ofBuddhism in China – returning more than 650 texts including theHeart and thePerfection of Wisdom Sutras – and inspired the immensely influential novelJourney to the West, but it also led to Xuanzang's publication of theGreat Tang Records on the Western Regions, a text which introduced China to Indian cities such as the port ofCalicut and recorded many details of 7th-century Bengal for posterity.
Before the advent of the Chinese-invented mariner'scompass in the 11th century, the seasonalmonsoon winds controlled navigation, blowing north from the equatorial zone in the summer and south in the winter.[2] This most likely accounts for the ease with whichNeolithic travelers from mainland China were able to settle on the island ofTaiwan in prehistoric times.[2] After defeating the last of theWarring States and consolidating an empire overChina proper, the Chinese navy of theQin dynasty period (221–206 BC) assisted the land-borne invasion ofGuangzhou and northernVietnam. (Called firstJiaozhi and thenAnnan,[2] the northern half of Vietnam would not become fully independent fromChinese rule until AD 938.) In 1975, an ancient shipyard excavated in Guangzhou was dated to the earlyHan dynasty (202 BC – AD 220) and, with three platforms, was able to construct ships that were approximately 30 m (98 ft) in length, 8 m (26 ft) in width, and could hold a weight of 60 metric tons.[3]
During theThree Kingdoms, travelers fromEastern Wu are known to have explored the coast. The most important were Zhu Ying andKang Tai, both sent by the Governor of Guangzhou and JiaozhiLü Dai in the early 3rd century. Although each wrote a book, both were lost by the 11th century: Zhu'sRecord of the Curiosities ofPhnom (t扶南異物誌,s扶南异物志,Fúnán Yìwù Zhì) in its entirety and Kang'sTales of Foreign Countries During the Wu Period (t吳時外國傳,s吴时外国传,Wúshí Wàiguó Zhuàn) only surviving in scattered references in other works,[4] including theShuijing Zhu and theYiwen Leiju.[5]
Later, during theEastern Jin, a rebel known as Lu Xun managed to fend off an attack by the imperial army for a hundred days in 403 before sailing down into theSouth China Sea from a coastal commandery. For six years, he occupiedPanyu, the largest southern seaport of that time.[6]
Between the 15th and 18th centuries, much ofSoutheast Asia was explored by Chinese merchants. Some parts of Malaysia were settled by Chinese families at this time, and Chinese garrisons established[7] Similarly, some Chinese traders settled in north Java in the 1400s, and after China legitimized foreign trade again in 1567 (licensing 50 junks a year), hundreds of Chinese trade colonies developed in what is now Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.[8]
Chinese envoys sailed into theIndian Ocean from the late 2nd century BC, and reportedly reachedKanchipuram in India, known asHuangzhi (黄支) to them,[9][10] or otherwiseEthiopia as asserted by Ethiopian scholars.[11] During the late 4th and early 5th centuries, Chinese pilgrims likeFaxian, Zhiyan, and Tanwujie began to travel toIndia by sea, bringing Buddhist scriptures andsutras back to China.[12] By the 7th century, as many as 31 recorded Chinese monks, includingI Ching, managed to reach India the same way. In 674, the private explorer Daxi Hongtong was one of the first explorers to end his journey at the southern tip of theArabian Peninsula, after traveling through 36 countries which were located west of theSouth China Sea.[13]
Chinese seafaring merchants and diplomats who lived during the medievalTang dynasty (618–907) andSong dynasty (960–1279) often sailed into the Indian Ocean after visiting ports in Southeast Asia. Chinese sailors would travel toMalaya, India, Sri Lanka, into thePersian Gulf and up theEuphrates River in modern-dayIraq, to theArabian peninsula and into theRed Sea, stopping to trade goods in Ethiopia andEgypt (as Chineseporcelain was highly valued in oldFustat,Cairo).[14]Jia Dan wroteRoute between Guangzhou and the Barbarian Sea during the late 8th century that documented foreign communications, the book was lost, but theXin Tangshu retained some of his passages about the three sea-routes linking China toEast Africa.[15] Jia Dan also wrote about talllighthouseminarets in thePersian Gulf, which were confirmed a century later byAli al-Masudi andal-Muqaddasi.[16] Beyond the initial work of Jia Dan, other Chinese writers accurately described Africa from the 9th century onwards; For example,Duan Chengshi wrote in 863 of theslave trade,ivory trade, andambergris trade ofBerbera,Somalia.[17]Seaports in China such asGuangzhou andQuanzhou – the mostcosmopolitan urban centers in the medieval world – hosted thousands of foreign travelers and permanent settlers. Chinesejunk ships were even described by the Moroccan geographerAl-Idrisi in hisGeography of 1154, along with the usual goods they traded and carried aboard their vessels.[18]
From 1405 to 1433, large fleets commanded by AdmiralZheng He – under the auspices of theYongle Emperor of theMing dynasty –traveled to the Indian Ocean seven times. This attempt did not lead China to global expansion, as the Confucian bureaucracy under the next emperor reversed the policy of open exploration and by 1500, it became a capital offence to build a seagoing junk with more than two masts.[19] Chinese merchants became content trading with already existing tributary states nearby and abroad. To them, traveling far east into thePacific Ocean represented entering a broad wasteland of water with uncertain benefits of trade.
Chinese Muslims traditionally credit the Muslim travelerSa`d ibn Abi Waqqas with introducingIslam to China in 650, during the reign ofEmperor Gaozong of Tang,[20][21] although modern secular scholars did not find any historical evidence for him actually travelling to China.[22] In 1008 theFatimid Egyptian sea-captainDomiyat, in the name of his rulingImamAl-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, travelled to the Buddhist pilgrimage-site inShandong in order to seek outEmperor Zhenzong of Song with gifts from his court.[23] This reestablished diplomatic ties between China and Egypt which had been broken since theFive Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960).[23] The tradeembassy of the Indian rulerKulothunga Chola I to the court ofEmperor Shenzong of Song in 1077 proved an economic benefactor for both empires.[24]
In China, the invention of thestern-mountedrudder appeared as early as the 1st century AD, allowing for bettersteering than using the power ofoarsmen. TheCao Wei Kingdom engineer and inventorMa Jun (c. 200–265 AD) built the firstsouth-pointing chariot, a complex mechanical device that incorporated adifferential gear in order to navigate on land, and (as one 6th century text alludes) by sea as well.[25][26] Much later the Chinese polymath scientistShen Kuo (1031–1095 AD) was the first to describe themagnetic needle-compass, along with its usefulness for accurate navigation by discovering the concept oftrue north.[27][28] In hisPingzhou Table Talks of 1119 AD the Song dynasty maritime authorZhu Yu described the use ofseparate bulkhead compartments in thehulls of Chinese ships.[29] This allowed for water-tight conditions and ability of a ship not to sink if one part of the hull became damaged.[29]
