The Impact of Zheng He’s Voyages

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The Impact of Zheng He’s Voyages Envoy of Culture Zheng He helped spread the advanced Chinese culture and civilization to the outside world. At the time various countries and regions in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa lagged behind China in many aspects. China’s advanced knowledge and skills in navigation, oceangoing ship building, agriculture, manufacturing, construction, leech craft and meteorology, as well as its Confucius ideology were shared with other nations. When Zheng He traveled across the oceans he helped people in other lands improve their lives through religion, road building and well digging, and brought about great cultural impact to areas all along the Southeast Asian coast and the east coast of Africa. At the time, the trend was to learn all Chinese things. Zheng He and his crew received a warm welcome wherever they voyaged. Zheng was addressed respectfully as Sanbao (Zheng He’s original name is Ma Sanbao). Some countries and places Zheng He visited have retained various momentos and legendary tales of his exploits. An example is the Sanbao Temple in Thailand, Sanbao Caves in Indonesia, Zheng He’s statue in India and Zheng He villages in Somalia and Kenya. Expanding Overseas Trade Zheng He and his expedition exemplified the highest level of ancient Chinese propriety in terms of foreign trade, said Wang Tianyou. Zheng’s voyage stimulated and inspired the development of overseas trade. In recent years, scholars have estimated the total number of people who traveled to the oceans during Zheng’s seven expeditions exceeded 100,000. The journeys had a double-edged effect as those who traveled and returned brought back their positive experiences from other nations and helped to positively influence the lives of a great number of people, especially those living in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. Inspired by Zheng He’s voyage, the local people
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