Why did China shut itself out of the world in the 15th century?

Question

After a period of maritime explorations (see Zheng He) in the early 15th century, the Ming Dynasty started shutting the Middle Kingdom out of the rest of the world. This of course continued with the Qing, and the empire remained largely isolated until the 19th century, because of foreign "initiative."

However, just when Spain and Portugal started flourishing with an economy based on trade, the Chinese chose to close their doors to the world. Why might have caused them to do this?

Answer 1

Well there were a few reasons

• They pretty much had all they needed resource-wise in the country, trade was not a prerogative and even though Zheng He did go out exploring they were not interested in colonies or mercantilism.
• Mercantilism was pretty much frowned upon within the Confucian system, merchants did not produce goods they moved them around and made money which made them a drain on the system. The few who were enterprising and maybe came up with some new product might often find themselves in competition from the government
• The Emperor system considered itself the center of the world, the focus of the heavens. When outsiders came they gave tribute and fealty to the Emperor, so the outside world came to them, they did not need to go out

Imperial China didn't need the outside trade, they were a large country that didn't have need for resources from the outside and their technology at that point was sophisticated enough for what they needed. I've often wondered what would happen if they did not stop their explorations with Zheng He as some of the archaeology I have seen on ships from that era were innovative and very interesting. They seemed to be able to sail fairly far with their ships, which were extremely large (although I don't know converted numbers off the top of my head) although there were issues with rising piracy in the Malay Peninsula as well as storms.

Recent conservation efforts have shown numerous ship wrecks off the Chinese coast on the way to the Malay Peninsula, wrecks that are only now being explored and providing insight into shipping that DID continue after the Qing closed off the country. Look at recent issues of Archaeology magazine for more on the wrecks, they had a couple of stories recently that were interesting on how the shipping continued as the merchants converted to Piracy (or basically being called pirates) by continuing trade against Imperial Edicts.

Answer 2

As a supplement, there were other reasons.

1. Money was one of the important reasons. Such fleets cost huge amounts of money. The Emperor Zhu Li (Yongle Emperor) had been spending huge amount of money on the book of Yongledadian (《永乐大典》), moving the capital, and the war with the Mongols. Exploration was definitely not the number one thing to do on an empty national treasury.

2. People. There was no one like Zheng He or Wang Jinghong (郑和， 王景弘) after they died. The Emperors after Zhu Li were focusing on power struggling, civil affairs and hence there was no one to support the exploration in the political system after all.

Answer 3

I would like to emphasize the role that the Chinese mindset played. As MichaelF mentioned, the attitude of the rulers dictated the direction of China's advancements. Belief that China was "perfect" and had everything necessary was reinforced by Confucian notions of harmony and society. Signs of political and military weakness that appeared near the end of the last dynasty were ignored by the emperors and those in the court. During the Qing dynasty, progress in every area slowed considerably. Scholars turned from social commentary to more passive work, analyzing ancient texts often in obscure esoteric ways. Exploration was not encouraged and consequently naval technology stopped improving.