http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzFq0Ivwz9g

The inner problem during the time of Zheng He for the Ming dynasty was the fact that the emperor Yong Le (Zhu Di), the third Ming king, was a usurper of the throne. Not being the chosen prince, he overthroned his younger brother from power, then he tried to boost his damaged image and was keen to stamp his authority on the vast country and the state bureaucracy he now ruled. He considered himself a good emperor and wanted to surpass all his ancestors by building the greatest Chinese empire.

So, to enhance the prestige of his throne, the emperor sought to expand the commercial trade and diplomatic contact with the outside world, he wanted to improve the relations with neighboring countries, envisioning a program intended to contact far away countries and bringing them into China´s sphere of influence.

The instrument of this plan was the 1403 massive ship building program he stablished in order to reach the countries and kingdoms in the Indian Ocean and beyond. It is good to remember that until a few decades earlier in 1368, when the Ming rulers took over, the Mongols hordes were effectivelly blocking the Silk Road to Europe during more than a century, isolating China´s trade and products from reaching European markets by land. The construction of the fleet enabled China to reopen the trade by a new sea route.

Zheng He was appointed "Admiral of the Western Seas" by the emperor who considered him his confidant. The order to "go beyond the horizon" was then given to him. His mission was to be political, aimed to spread and increase the power of the Ming dynasty by means of encouraging the tribute system. Once the fleet reached those ports the countries were asked to pay tribute to China, a small concession, because in return they were able to establish formal commercial relations and a preferred trade status with China.

Yong Le believed that the seeking of wealth and renown abroad will secure the throne at home. Ambassadors came into the Chinese court to pay the tributes, this way demonstrating the pulling power of the Chinese throne. They payed tribute and China bestowed benefits on them, by giving them back on benefits more than the tribute were worth, China portrayed itself as a more powerful country with moral superiority. This was a very typical Chinese way of thinking.

In 1424 the emperor Yong Le died. His eldest son Hongxi (Zhu Gaozhi) who was educated by conservative Confucian tutors and who hated any kind of sport activity, was a fat, intellectual man, opposite to his father’s ideals. He canceled Zheng He's maritime expeditions and abolished the frontier trade. The Mandarin bureaucrats of the Imperial court fearing that the costs of further voyages would ruin the Chinese economy, hid or destroyed the records of previous explorations to discourage further voyages. Finally, in 1529, during the reign of emperor Jiajing (Chia-ching) many of the remaining documents of the saga were burned. The knowledge of these discoveries was lost for the next 600 hundred centuries and the name of the great Chinese Sea Explorer Zheng He was forgotten until the last few decades.

Ming Emperor Hongxi.
http://www.a3guo.com/en/china/History/Ming/Ming-Kaiser/3Ming-Hongxi.jpg
Source(s):
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qa4DJbx80X...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongxi_Emperor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He

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