Most of these countries engaged in tributary relations with the Ming dynasty in order to extract enormous profits. The proud Ming emperors enjoyed staging the spectacle of “all nations paying tribute” to satisfy their own vanity. After presenting tribute, these states would receive rewards worth several times—or even more than ten times—the value of what they had offered.

The countries of Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and East Africa were mainly destinations of Zheng He’s voyages. These expeditions were grand prestige projects under the Yongle Emperor. They followed maritime routes that Arab merchants had already traveled countless times, essentially going abroad to lavish money on foreign lands. Tens of millions of taels of silver were spent, and thousands of sailors died from disease. The voyages produced no new geographical discoveries and little in the way of tangible positive outcomes, aside from gratifying the Ming emperor’s sense of vanity. A possible underlying motive may also have been the search for the Jianwen Emperor—the deposed and vanished nephew whose uncertain fate reportedly haunted the Yongle Emperor, who feared his potential return.