Facing the rapid-fire performances of He Shou and Zhang Peng, Kangxi basically found out the case and formed his own views. He thinks that Zhang Quan's damage to his fleet is obviously against common sense. Mou Qinyuan is innocent, and Zhang did not commit adultery with pirates. At best, they just bribe people to go out to sea to do some ocean-going business. However, Kangxi is contradictory. He knew that Zhang Boxing was an honest and clean man and had a high reputation among Han literati. Jiangnan "people hold the yellow flag, force music, and go to the adult's (ao) mansion to pity the governor" [34]. The Nanshan case that just happened has strained the relationship between Manchu and Han in the south of the Yangtze River. If Zhang Boxing does not handle it properly, it will inevitably have a negative impact on the stability of Manchu-Chinese relations and the Qing court's control over Jiangnan literati. In addition, he may also realize that Zhang Boxing killed the fleet in order to maintain the national stability of the Qing Dynasty. Rice is a national strategic material, how can it be smuggled easily? Kangxi has already noticed the increasingly severe price situation in Jiangnan: "Jiangsu and Zhejiang are famous for their wealth. When I visited the south before, the price of rice was only six or seven yuan a stone. I recently heard that the rice price in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is as high as 122 San Qian per stone. How can people feel so inferior? " [35] The price of rice in the south of the Yangtze River keeps rising, even in a good year, there is no sign of falling back, and the market situation of short supply has been formed. In this situation, some people dare to do a lot of rice export business and transport the materials that are already in short supply at home abroad to make money. In the eyes of Kangxi, who is strong in thought, this is naturally a bad behavior that endangers national economic security and social stability. Kangxi estimated that the price of rice in Jiangsu and Zhejiang may be related to "the rice in the south of the Yangtze River was brought back by the ship going to sea ... and it is also related" [36].
Therefore, on Zhang Boxing's passbook, it was written that Zhu Pi prohibited the export of rice: "This discount is extremely appropriate." [37] Zhang Boxing's suggestion was adopted as the Laws of the Qing Dynasty: "Fishing boats are not allowed to carry rice or wine abroad, nor are they allowed to load when they are imported. Offenders will be severely punished. " [38] This contradictory mentality made it impossible for Kangxi to execute Zhang Boxing according to the minister's suggestion. However, Zhang Boxing has been in power in Jiangsu for many years, and many provincial and ministerial officials have been offended by the mutual participation of the governors, and their political discourse power is not good. "The rest of the people don't call Zhang Quan a good man." Zhang Boxing's "excessive self-defense" in the "maritime storm" made everyone laugh and wait and see. [39] Zhang Quan has no place in Jiangsu. So Kangxi made an unexpected arrangement-Zhang Boxing survived his death, but he was transferred from Jiangsu, where he was in trouble. He was ordered to go to the south study room and be the assistant minister of the warehouse, and the assistant minister was entrusted with the affairs of the warehouse and the Qianfatang Hall, which was directly under the control of Kangxi.
Kangxi's handling of Zhang Boxing was successful, but his handling of the "maritime storm" was a failure. This kind of failure may be inevitable. Because in the eyes of the Qing emperor, stability is the overriding overall situation. Compared with the Han nationality with a population of several hundred million, Manchu is not a strong group. They are afraid of losing control of the Han nationality with strong national character, so they try their best to maintain the tradition and consistency of the system and avoid and stop any phenomenon and behavior that breaks through the tradition. Therefore, Kangxi did not encourage ocean trade. He once soberly realized: "Overseas countries such as the West, after thousands of years, China may be tired." [40] Therefore, he was very worried about the collusion between maritime merchants and pirates, especially with anti-Qing organizations and western countries, inciting right and wrong and threatening the Qing Dynasty's rule over Jiangnan and Southeast China. On the issue of rice trafficking, Kangxi believes that "rice is especially sold to Fujian and Guangdong, and if it is sold, it has a lot to do with foreign pirates" [4 1]. He regarded grain transportation as an act that harms others and does not benefit himself, and thought that it might seriously threaten the economic security and price stability in Jiangnan area, so he was doubly resentful. Jiangnan is the gathering place of Han scholar-officials. Kangxi must maintain stability there, and there is no sign of change beyond tradition. In this way, Kangxi allowed Zhang Boxing to destroy the fleet and stopped them from smuggling rice.
Zhang Yuanlong is not the only one who sells rice privately. On October 25th, fifty-five years of Kangxi, at the ceremonial meeting after the Imperial Hearing, Kangxi pointed out that "Zhang Quan had fought, and many people had been carried to thousands of meters, especially sold to other places" [42]. Then why is the smuggling of rice abroad repeatedly banned? An important reason is the imperfection of legislative management. The laws of the Qing Dynasty were constantly enriched and improved by adding cases in judicial practice, and this improvement process was not completed until the Qianlong period. The example of Kangxi period is very rough. In the Qing Law, Military Law and Guanjin, the article "Going abroad without permission and going to sea illegally" only stipulates in general terms: "Anyone who sells or goes to sea without permission will be beaten with a hundred sticks". [43] The concept of "ammunition" is so vague that it is hard to say that rice is included. The example in the Kangxi period only pointed out that "the pirates in coastal areas were powerful, military and civilian, etc." Building a ship without permission, they will go to sea with prohibited items, buy and sell in foreign countries, and smuggle with pirates ... The principal offender will be punished according to the rebellion law [44], and the extension of "prohibited items" is not clear. It was not until the first year of Qianlong that the precedent of prohibiting rice from being sold abroad was established-"The traitors smuggled rice grains to foreign countries to receive bandits and planned to make a decision" [45]. Bird Long and his associates are just taking advantage of the law to sell rice abroad. The sloppy legislation reflects the vacillation of the foreign trade policy of the Kangxi Dynasty from another angle. In the seventeenth year of Shunzhi, it was forbidden to build a double-masted sea ship privately, and offenders would be beheaded. In the twenty-third year of Kangxi, the maritime ban was reopened, and the penalty for privately building a double-masted seagoing ship was reduced to exile. By the forty-sixth year of Kangxi, merchant fishing boats were all tied with real armor, so the double masts were combined with them. [46] This actually created a good political environment for the realization of Zhang Yuanlong's grand plan of "intending to own 100 foreign ships". However, this relatively loose foreign trade policy gradually reversed with the frequent occurrence of major cases in the south of the Yangtze River in the last years of Kangxi and the deterioration of the situation in the southeast coast caused by pirates. The Zhang Yuanlong case was actually the first signal that Kangxi tightened its overseas trade policy, and it was also the first signal that Kangxi banned navigation in Nanyang in 56 years.
Kangxi acquiesced in Zhang Boxing's original intention of destroying the fleet, of course, because from the standpoint of maintaining the Qing court's macro control over Jiangnan, Kangxi had no objection to his choice. However, if we re-examine the "maritime storm" from the perspective of historical reflection on the prosperous times of Kanggan, then Kangxi's choice is wrong. Zhang Yuanlong once had a grand plan of "owning 100 foreign ships". In time, in view of the more relaxed trade environment, this fleet is likely to become a larger ocean-going commercial group in East Asia, which is extremely beneficial to China's export-oriented economy and overseas market development. /kloc-in the 0/8th century, the extensive development of the inland market in China was basically completed, the population became increasingly teething, and the contradiction between people and land became increasingly prominent. It is a better way to solve the crisis behind the prosperous times by shifting the focus of national economic development and the way out to solve the problem of population support to the sea. Of course, in the special international and domestic environment of18th century, it takes a lot of courage to make such a choice. Making such a choice also means the shift of national economic strategic focus and the beginning of modern economic system transformation. The development of export-oriented economy will inevitably lead to the transformation of natural economy and the destruction of small-scale peasant production forms, which Confucianism and neo-Confucianism cannot tolerate. Therefore, Kangxi, deeply influenced by Confucian culture, could not and could not do it.
The downfall of Zhang Yuanlong Fleet is not a tragedy of a maritime merchant or ocean merchant fleet, but a tragedy of a country and a nation. In a sense, Kangxi easily gave up an important opportunity that might break through the bottleneck of economic and social development and further promote the transformation of China society to modern times, and gave up a godsend opportunity to rely on private economic forces to control the trade routes in Southeast Asia, so as to rebuild China's southeast coastal defense line, open up a new geographical space for China's economic growth and expand China's regional influence in the Asia-Pacific region. This is very regrettable. The prosperous period of Kanggan pushed the traditional economy, politics and culture of China feudal society to the extreme, but lost some golden opportunities to lead China into the modernization process, making China always wander in the traditional framework, which is the historical destiny of the prosperous period of Kanggan.