主题：【求教】郑和为什么七下西洋？ -- 风雨声

Decades before Columbus, Zheng He sailed from China with 300 ships and 28,000 men. His fleet got as far as Africa and could have easily reached America, but the Chinese turned back. What happened? By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Photographs by GUEORGUI PINKHASSOV

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Chinese blood? Some inhabitants of the African island of Pate believe they're descended from Chinese sailors.

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rom the sea, the tiny East African island of Pate, just off the Kenyan coast, looks much as it must have in the 15th century: an impenetrable shore of endless mangrove trees. As my little boat bounced along the waves in the gray dawn, I could see no antennae or buildings or even gaps where trees had been cut down, no sign of human habitation, nothing but a dense and mysterious jungle.

The boatman drew as close as he could to a narrow black-sand beach, and I splashed ashore. My local Swahili interpreter led the way through the forest, along a winding trail scattered with mangoes, coconuts and occasional seashells deposited by high tides. The tropical sun was firmly overhead when we finally came upon a village of stone houses with thatched roofs, its dirt paths sheltered by palm trees. The village's inhabitants, much lighter-skinned than people on the Kenyan mainland, emerged barefoot to stare at me with the same curiosity with which I was studying them. These were people I had come halfway around the world to see, in the hope of solving an ancient historical puzzle.

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Nicholas D. Kristof is the Tokyo bureau chief of The New York Times. He is the author, with Sheryl WuDunn, of "China Wakes."

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"Tell me," I asked the first group I encountered, "where did the people here come from? Long ago, did foreign sailors ever settle here?"

The answer was a series of shrugs. "I've never heard about that," one said. "You'll have to ask the elders."

I tried several old men and women without success. Finally the villagers led me to the patriarch of the village, Bwana Mkuu Al-Bauri, the keeper of oral traditions. He was a frail old man with gray stubble on his cheeks, head and chest. He wore a yellow sarong around his waist; his ribs pressed through the taut skin on his bare torso. Al-Bauri hobbled out of his bed, resting on a cane and the arm of a grandson. He claimed to be 121 years old; a pineapple-size tumor jutted from the left side of his chest.

"I know this from my grandfather, who himself was the keeper of history here," the patriarch told me in an unexpectedly clear voice. "Many, many years ago, there was a ship from China that wrecked on the rocks off the coast near here. The sailors swam ashore near the village of Shanga -- my ancestors were there and saw it themselves. The Chinese were visitors, so we helped those Chinese men and gave them food and shelter, and then they married our women. Although they do not live in this village, I believe their descendants still can be found somewhere else on this island."

I almost felt like hugging Bwana Al-Bauri. For months I had been poking around obscure documents and research reports, trying to track down a legend of an ancient Chinese shipwreck that had led to a settlement on the African coast. My interest arose from a fascination with what to me is a central enigma of the millennium: why did the West triumph over the East?

For most of the last several thousand years, it would have seemed far likelier that Chinese or Indians, not Europeans, would dominate the world by the year 2000, and that America and Australia would be settled by Chinese rather than by the inhabitants of a backward island called Britain. The reversal of fortunes of East and West strikes me as the biggest news story of the millennium, and one of its most unexpected as well.

The village's inhabitants, much lighter-skinned than people on the Kenyan mainland, emerged barefoot to stare at me with the same curiosity with which I was studying them. These were people I had come halfway around the world to see, in the hope of solving an ancient historical puzzle.

As a resident of Asia for most of the past 13 years, I've been searching for an explanation. It has always seemed to me that the turning point came in the early 1400's, when Admiral Zheng He sailed from China to conquer the world. Zheng He (pronounced jung huh) was an improbable commander of a great Chinese fleet, in that he was a Muslim from a rebel family and had been seized by the Chinese Army when he was still a boy. Like many other prisoners of the time, he was castrated -- his sexual organs completely hacked off, a process that killed many of those who suffered it. But he was a brilliant and tenacious boy who grew up to be physically imposing. A natural leader, he had the good fortune to be assigned, as a houseboy, to the household of a great prince, Zhu Di.

In time, the prince and Zheng He grew close, and they conspired to overthrow the prince's nephew, the Emperor of China. With Zheng He as one of the prince's military commanders, the revolt succeeded and the prince became China's Yongle Emperor. One of the emperor's first acts (after torturing to death those who had opposed him) was to reward Zheng He with the command of a great fleet that was to sail off and assert China's pre-eminence in the world.

Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He led seven major expeditions, commanding the largest armada the world would see for the next five centuries. Not until World War I did the West mount anything comparable. Zheng He's fleet included 28,000 sailors on 300 ships, the longest of which were 400 feet. By comparison, Columbus in 1492 had 90 sailors on three ships, the biggest of which was 85 feet long. Zheng He's ships also had advanced design elements that would not be introduced in Europe for another 350 years, including balanced rudders and watertight bulwark compartments.

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The sophistication of Zheng He's fleet underscores just how far ahead of the West the East once was. Indeed, except for the period of the Roman Empire, China had been wealthier, more advanced and more cosmopolitan than any place in Europe for several thousand years. Hangzhou, for example, had a population in excess of a million during the time it was China's capital (in the 12th century), and records suggest that as early as the 7th century, the city of Guangzhou had 200,000 foreign residents: Arabs, Persians, Malays, Indians, Africans and Turks. By contrast, the largest city in Europe in 1400 was probably Paris, with a total population of slightly more than 100,000.

A half-century before Columbus, Zheng He had reached East Africa and learned about Europe from Arab traders. The Chinese could easily have continued around the Cape of Good Hope and established direct trade with Europe. But as they saw it, Europe was a backward region, and China had little interest in the wool, beads and wine Europe had to trade. Africa had what China wanted -- ivory, medicines, spices, exotic woods, even specimens of native wildlife.

In Zheng He's time, China and India together accounted for more than half of the world's gross national product, as they have for most of human history. Even as recently as 1820, China accounted for 29 percent of the global economy and India another 16 percent, according to the calculations of Angus Maddison, a leading British economic historian.

Asia's retreat into relative isolation after the expeditions of Zheng He amounted to a catastrophic missed opportunity, one that laid the groundwork for the rise of Europe and, eventually, America. Westerners often attribute their economic advantage today to the intelligence, democratic habits or hard work of their forebears, but a more important reason may well have been the folly of 15th-century Chinese rulers. That is why I came to be fascinated with Zheng He and set out earlier this year to retrace his journeys. I wanted to see what legacy, if any, remained of his achievement, and to figure out why his travels did not remake the world in the way that Columbus's did.

heng He lived in Nanjing, the old capital, where I arrived one day in February. Nanjing is a grimy metropolis on the Yangtze River in the heart of China. It has been five centuries since Zheng He's death, and his marks on the city have grown faint. The shipyards that built his fleet are still busy, and the courtyard of what had been his splendid 72-room mansion is now the Zheng He Memorial Park, where children roller-skate and old couples totter around for exercise. But though the park has a small Zheng He museum, it was closed -- for renovation, a caretaker told me, though he knew of no plans to reopen it.

I'd heard that Zheng He's tomb is on a hillside outside the city, and I set out to find it. It wasn't long before the road petered out, from asphalt to gravel to dirt to nothing. No tomb was in sight, so I approached an old man weeding a vegetable garden behind his house. Tang Yiming, 72, was still lithe and strong. His hair was gray and ragged where he had cut it himself, disastrously, in front of a mirror. Evidently lonely, he was delighted to talk, and offered to show me the path to the tomb. As we walked, I mentioned that I had read that there used to be an old Ming Dynasty tablet on Zheng He's grave.

"Oh, yeah, the old tablet," he said nonchalantly. "When I was a boy, there was a Ming Dynasty tablet here. When it disappeared, the Government offered a huge reward to anyone who would return it -- a reward big enough to build a new house. Seemed like a lot of money. But the problem was that we couldn't give it back. People around here are poor. We'd smashed it up to use as building materials."

A second mystery concerned what, if anything, is actually buried in Zheng He's tomb, since he is believed to have died on his last voyage and been buried at sea. So I said in passing that I'd heard tell the tomb is empty, and let my voice trail off.

"Oh, there's nothing in there," Tang said, a bit sadly. "No bones, nothing. That's for sure."

"How do you know?"

"In 1962, people dug up the grave, looking for anything to sell. We dug up the ground to one and a half times the height of a man. But there was absolutely nothing in there. It's empty."

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The keeper of oral traditions, Bwana Mkuu Al-Bauri.

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The absence of impressive monuments to Zheng He in China today should probably come as no surprise, since his achievement was ultimately renounced. Curiously, it is not in China but in Indonesia where his memory has been most actively kept alive. Zheng He's expeditions led directly to the wave of Chinese immigration to Southeast Asia, and in some countries he is regarded today as a deity. In the Indonesia city of Semarang, for example, there is a large temple honoring Zheng He, located near a cave where he once nursed a sick friend. Indonesians still pray to Zheng He for a cure or good luck.

Not so in his native land. Zheng He was viewed with deep suspicion by China's traditional elite, the Confucian scholars, who made sure to destroy the archives of his journey. Even so, it is possible to learn something about his story from Chinese sources -- from imperial archives and even the memoirs of crewmen. The historical record makes clear, for example, that it was not some sudden impulse of extroversion that led to Zheng He's achievement. It grew, rather, out of a long sailing tradition. Chinese accounts suggest that in the fifth century, a Chinese monk sailed to a mysterious "far east country" that sounds very much like Mayan Mexico, and Mayan art at that time suddenly began to include Buddhist symbols. By the 13th century, Chinese ships regularly traveled to India and occasionally to East Africa.

Zheng He's armada was far grander, of course, than anything that came before. His grandest vessels were the "treasure ships," 400 feet long and 160 feet wide, with nine masts raising red silk sails to the wind, as well as multiple decks and luxury cabins with balconies. His armada included supply ships to carry horses, troop transports, warships, patrol boats and as many as 20 tankers to carry fresh water. The full contingent of 28,000 crew members included interpreters for Arabic and other languages, astrologers to forecast the weather, astronomers to study the stars, pharmacologists to collect medicinal plants, ship-repair specialists, doctors and even two protocol officers to help organize official receptions.

In the aftermath of such an incredible undertaking, you somehow expect to find a deeper mark on Chinese history, a greater legacy. But perhaps the faintness of Zheng He's trace in contemporary China is itself a lesson. In the end, an explorer makes history but does not necessarily change it, for his impact depends less on the trail he blazes than on the willingness of others to follow. The daring of a great expedition ultimately is hostage to the national will of those who remain behind.

n February I traveled To calicut, a port town in southwestern India that was (and still is) the pepper capital of the world. The evening I arrived, I went down to the beach in the center of town to look at the coastline where Zheng He once had berthed his ships. In the 14th and 15th centuries, Calicut was one of the world's great ports, known to the Chinese as "the great country of the Western ocean." In the early 15th century, the sight of Zheng He's fleet riding anchor in Calicut harbor symbolized the strength of the world's two greatest powers, China and India.

On this sultry evening, the beach, framed by long piers jutting out to sea, was crowded with young lovers and ice-cream vendors. Those piers are all that remain of the port of Calicut, and you can see at a glance that they are no longer usable. The following day I visited the port offices, musty with handwritten ledgers of ship visits dating back nearly a century. The administrator of the port, Captain E. G. Mohanan, explained matter-of-factly what had happened. "The piers got old and no proper maintenance was ever carried out," he said, as a ceiling fan whirred tiredly overhead. "By the time we thought of it, it was not economical to fix it up." So in 1989, trade was halted, and one of the great ports of the world became no port at all.

Westerners often attribute their economic advantage today to the intelligence or hard work of their forebears, but a more important reason may well have been the folly of the 15th-century Chinese rulers who dismantled Zheng He's fleet.

The disappearance of a great Chinese fleet from a great Indian port symbolized one of history's biggest lost opportunities -- Asia's failure to dominate the second half of this millennium. So how did this happen?

While Zheng He was crossing the Indian Ocean, the Confucian scholar-officials who dominated the upper echelons of the Chinese Government were at political war with the eunuchs, a group they regarded as corrupt and immoral. The eunuchs' role at court involved looking after the concubines, but they also served as palace administrators, often doling out contracts in exchange for kickbacks. Partly as a result of their legendary greed, they promoted commerce. Unlike the scholars -- who owed their position to their mastery of 2,000-year-old texts -- the eunuchs, lacking any such roots in a classical past, were sometimes outward-looking and progressive. Indeed, one can argue that it was the virtuous, incorruptible scholars who in the mid-15th century set China on its disastrous course.

After the Yongle Emperor died in 1424, China endured a series of brutal power struggles; a successor emperor died under suspicious circumstances and ultimately the scholars emerged triumphant. They ended the voyages of Zheng He's successors, halted construction of new ships and imposed curbs on private shipping. To prevent any backsliding, they destroyed Zheng He's sailing records and, with the backing of the new emperor, set about dismantling China's navy.

By 1500 the Government had made it a capital offense to build a boat with more than two masts, and in 1525 the Government ordered the destruction of all oceangoing ships. The greatest navy in history, which a century earlier had 3,500 ships (by comparison, the United States Navy today has 324), had been extinguished, and China set a course for itself that would lead to poverty, defeat and decline.

Still, it was not the outcome of a single power struggle in the 1440's that cost China its worldly influence. Historians offer a host of reasons for why Asia eventually lost its way economically and was late to industrialize; two and a half reasons seem most convincing.

The first is that Asia was simply not greedy enough. The dominant social ethos in ancient China was Confucianism and in India it was caste, with the result that the elites in both nations looked down their noses at business. Ancient China cared about many things -- prestige, honor, culture, arts, education, ancestors, religion, filial piety -- but making money came far down the list. Confucius had specifically declared that it was wrong for a man to make a distant voyage while his parents were alive, and he had condemned profit as the concern of "a little man." As it was, Zheng He's ships were built on such a grand scale and carried such lavish gifts to foreign leaders that the voyages were not the huge money spinners they could have been.

In contrast to Asia, Europe was consumed with greed. Portugal led the age of discovery in the 15th century largely because it wanted spices, a precious commodity; it was the hope of profits that drove its ships steadily farther down the African coast and eventually around the Horn to Asia. The profits of this trade could be vast: Magellan's crew once sold a cargo of 26 tons of cloves for 10,000 times the cost.

A second reason for Asia's economic stagnation is more difficult to articulate but has to do with what might be called a culture of complacency. China and India shared a tendency to look inward, a devotion to past ideals and methods, a respect for authority and a suspicion of new ideas. David S. Landes, a Harvard economist, has written of ancient China's "intellectual xenophobia"; the former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru referred to the "petrification of classes" and the "static nature" of Indian society. These are all different ways of describing the same economic and intellectual complacency.

Chinese elites regarded their country as the "Middle Kingdom" and believed they had nothing to learn from barbarians abroad. India exhibited much of the same self-satisfaction. "Indians didn't go to Portugal not because they couldn't but because they didn't want to," mused M. P. Sridharan, a historian, as we sat talking on the porch of his home in Calicut.

The 15th-century Portuguese were the opposite. Because of its coastline and fishing industry, Portugal always looked to the sea, yet rivalries with Spain and other countries shut it out of the Mediterranean trade. So the only way for Portugal to get at the wealth of the East was by conquering the oceans.

The half reason is simply that China was a single nation while Europe was many. When the Confucian scholars reasserted control in Beijing and banned shipping, their policy mistake condemned all of China. In contrast, European countries committed economic suicide selectively. So when Portugal slipped into a quasi-Chinese mind-set in the 16th century, slaughtering Jews and burning heretics and driving astronomers and scientists abroad, Holland and England were free to take up the slack.

hen I first began researching Zheng He, I never thought I'd be traveling all the way to Africa to look for traces of his voyages. Then I came across a few intriguing references to the possibility of an ancient Chinese shipwreck that might have left some Chinese stranded on the island of Pate (pronounced pah-tay). One was a skeptical reference in a scholarly journal, another was a casual conversation with a Kenyan I met a few years ago and the third was the epilogue of Louise Levathes's wonderful 1994 book about China's maritime adventures, "When China Ruled the Seas." Levathes had traveled to Kenya and found people who believed they were descended from survivors of a Chinese shipwreck. So, on a whim and an expense account, I flew to Lamu, an island off northern Kenya, and hired a boat and an interpreter to go to Pate and see for myself.

Pate is off in its own world, without electricity or roads or vehicles. Mostly jungle, it has been shielded from the 20th century largely because it is accessible from the Kenyan mainland only by taking a boat through a narrow tidal channel that is passable only at high tide. Initially I was disappointed by what I found there. In the first villages I visited, I saw people who were light-skinned and had hair that was not tightly curled, but they could have been part Arab or European rather than part Chinese. The remote villages of Chundwa and Faza were more promising, for there I found people whose eyes, hair and complexion hinted at Asian ancestry, though their background was ambiguous.

The island of Pate today, where one of Zheng He's ships may have foundered five centuries ago.

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And then on a still and sweltering afternoon I strolled through the coconut palms into the village of Siyu, where I met a fisherman in his 40's named Abdullah Mohammed Badui. I stopped and stared at the man in astonishment, for he had light skin and narrow eyes. Fortunately, he was as rude as I was, and we stared at each other in mutual surprise before venturing a word. Eventually I asked him about his background and appearance.

"I am in the Famao clan," he said. "There are 50 or 100 of us Famao left here. Legend has it that we are descended from Chinese and others.

"A Chinese ship was coming along and it hit rocks and wrecked," Badui continued. "The sailors swam ashore to the village that we now call Shanga, and they married the local women, and that is why we Famao look so different."

Another Famao, with the same light complexion and vaguely Asian features, approached to listen. His name was Athman Mohammed Mzee, and he, too, told of hearing of the Chinese shipwreck from the elders. He volunteered an intriguing detail: the Africans had given giraffes to the Chinese.

Salim Bonaheri, a 55-year-old Famao man I met the next day, proudly declared, "My ancestors were Chinese or Vietnamese or something like that." I asked how they had got to Pate.

"I don't know," Bonaheri said with a shrug.

Most of my conversations were like that, intriguing but frustrating dead ends. I was surrounded by people whose appearance seemed tantalizingly Asian, but who had only the vaguest notions of why that might be. I kept at it, though, and eventually found people like Khalifa Mohammed Omar, a 55-year-old Famao fisherman who looked somewhat Chinese and who also clearly remembered the stories passed down by his grandfather. From him and others, a tale emerged.

Countless generations ago, they said, Chinese sailors traded with local African kings. The local kings gave them giraffes to take back to China. One of the Chinese ships struck rocks off the eastern coast of Pate, and the sailors swam ashore, carrying with them porcelain and other goods from the ship. In time they married local women, converted to Islam and named the village Shanga, after Shanghai. Later, fighting erupted among Pate's clans, Shanga was destroyed and the Famao fled, some to the mainland, others to the village of Siyu.

Every time I heard the story about the giraffes my pulse began to race. Chinese records indicate that Zheng He had brought the first giraffes to China, a fact that is not widely known. The giraffe caused an enormous stir in China because it was believed to be the mythical qilin, or Chinese unicorn. It is difficult to imagine how African villagers on an island as remote as Pate would know about the giraffes unless the tale had been handed down to them by the Chinese sailors.

Chinese ceramics are found in many places along the east African coast, and their presence on Pate could be the result of purchases from Arab traders. But the porcelain on Pate was overwhelmingly concentrated among the Famao clan, which could mean that it had been inherited rather than purchased. I also visited some ancient Famao graves that looked less like traditional Kenyan graves than what the Chinese call "turtle-shell graves," with rounded tops.

Researchers have turned up other equally tantalizing clues. Craftsmen on Pate and the other islands of Lamu practice a kind of basket-weaving that is common in southern China but unknown on the Kenyan mainland. On Pate, drums are more often played in the Chinese than the African style, and the local dialect has a few words that may be Chinese in origin. More startling, in 1569 a Portuguese priest named Monclaro wrote that Pate had a flourishing silk-making industry -- Pate, and no other place in the region. Elders in several villages on Pate confirmed to me that their island had produced silk until about half a century ago.

When I asked my boatman, Bakari Muhaji Ali, if he thought it was possible that a ship could have wrecked off the coast near Shanga, he laughed. "There are undersea rocks all over there," he said. "If you don't know exactly where you're going, you'll wreck your ship for sure."

If indeed there was a Chinese shipwreck off Pate, there is reason to think it happened in Zheng He's time. For if the shipwreck had predated him, surviving sailors would not have passed down stories of the giraffes. And if the wreck didn't occur until after Zheng He, its survivors could not have settled in Shanga, since British archeological digs indicate that the village was sacked, burned and abandoned in about 1440 -- very soon after Zheng He's last voyage.

Still, there is no hard proof for the shipwreck theory, and there are plenty of holes in it. No ancient Chinese characters have been found on tombs in Pate, no nautical instruments have ever turned up on the island and there are no Chinese accounts of an African shipwreck. This last lacuna might be explained by the destruction of the fleet's records. Yet if one of Zheng He's ships did founder on the rocks off Pate, then why didn't some other ships in the fleet come to the sailors' rescue?

s I made my way back through the jungle for the return trip, I pondered the significance of what I'd seen on Pate. In the faces of the Famao, in those bits of pottery and tantalizing hints of Chinese culture, I felt as though I'd glimpsed the shadowy outlines of one of the greatest might-have-beens of the millennium now ending. I thought about the Columbian Exchange, the swap of animals, plants, genes, germs, weapons and peoples that utterly remade both the New World and the Old, and I couldn't help wondering about another exchange -- Zheng He's -- that never took place, yet could have.

If ancient China had been greedier and more outward-looking, if other traders had followed in Zheng He's wake and then continued on, Asia might well have dominated Africa and even Europe. Chinese might have settled in not only Malaysia and Singapore, but also in East Africa, the Pacific Islands, even in America. Perhaps the Famao show us what the mestizos of such a world might have looked liked, the children of a hybrid culture that was never born. What I'd glimpsed in Pate was the high-water mark of an Asian push that simply stopped -- not for want of ships or know-how, but strictly for want of national will.

All this might seem fanciful, and yet in Zheng He's time the prospect of a New World settled by the Spanish or English would have seemed infinitely more remote than a New World made by the Chinese. How different would history have been had Zheng He continued on to America? The mind rebels; the ramifications are almost too overwhelming to contemplate. So consider just one: this magazine would have been published in Chinese.

时 平2004-03-25

郑和研究，从1904年梁启超肇始，迄今走过了近百年的历程。它伴随着20 世纪中国历史变迁的脚步，逐步走向繁荣，显露出蓬勃的生机。毋庸置疑，整个20世纪的郑和研究是一个迅速发展的时期，是继往开来的时期。今天，回首审视郑和研究的发展对于我们推动21世纪郑和研究事业，无疑是一个重要的基础和前提，也是不可或缺的有益补充。

（一）

认真回顾和全面总结近百年的郑和研究，是一件很有意义的工作。事实上，郑和研究事业的发展正是伴随着人们对郑和研究本身不断地总结而前进的。这也是20世纪郑和研究一个突出的特色。

关于郑和研究的总结，在80年代前综述文字偶有所见，但尚未见专门论及的著述。自1983年以来，有关论文和文章时见迭出，发表了40多篇著述，⑴形成此后郑和研究领域中一道独具魅力的风景线。它们或对若干年郑和研究发展状况进行较全面地总结；或对某一地区郑和研究进行总结；或对某一年、某一次学术会议、郑和研究的某一方面进行评述，各具特色，分别体现某个时期郑和研究的发展水平。在近20年间，对一个人物、一个事件的研究，能有如此众多和精彩的研究评论和总结，在历史研究领域中是不多见的。这从一个侧面反映了郑和下西洋的重要历史地位。这些总结及时反映了郑和研究的进展，对推动郑和研究事业的发展起到了积极作用。

在这些总结中，黄慧珍、薛金度的《郑和研究八十年》、范金民、时平的《新的里程，新的进展――郑和研究十年综述》、朱鉴秋《八十年代以来郑和研究的发展》和郑一钧多年对郑和研究的年度述评等占有重要地位。应当看到，在取得这些可喜成绩的时候，对郑和研究本身的总结仍然存在薄弱环节。一是对海外郑和研究的发展状况总结不够；二是各地区对本地郑和研究发展总结极不平衡；三是自90年代中期以来对郑和研究的年度总结时现时断。这些为今后郑和研究发展提供了有益的借鉴。

（二）

全面地总结20世纪的郑和研究，是一项艰苦繁重的工作。本文是在吸收和整理前人成果的基础上完成的。根据20世纪郑和研究发展的特点，可以分为五个发展阶段。

（一）郑和研究的开拓阶段（1904―1934年）

这一时期是郑和研究的开拓阶段。以1904年梁启超在《新民丛报》发表《祖国大航海家郑和传》为标志，开启了20世纪中国郑和研究的序幕。

这个开端值得人们注意和研究。今天可以肯定，梁启超所著《祖国大航海家郑和传》使20世纪郑和研究有一个好的起步。它体现了以下三个特点：一是以史为鉴，具有服务于现实需要的鲜明时代特征。黄慧珍、薛金度在总结中注意到梁启超“眼看祖国被列强瓜分，国弱民穷，乃以郑和航海事迹和造船业处于当时世界最先进地位为题材，著为专文，意图唤起民众的爱国情。”⑵二是首倡中西航海比较研究。20世纪80年代中期以来，郑和研究领域中展开了热烈的中西航海比较研究，但梁启超是首开先河者。他的文章从比较入手，将郑和与西方的亨利、哥伦布、达?迦玛、麦哲伦航海进行比较，鲜明指出：“我泰东大帝国，与彼并时而兴者，有一海上之巨人郑和在。”⑶肯定了郑和下西洋的历史地位，率先提出郑和是中国“伟大的航海家”。“这对于郑和在祖国历史上、航海史上取得重要地位是有很大影响的。”⑷ 在文章的最后，梁启超仍通过中西航海比较发出深深的感叹：“及观郑君，则全世界历史上所号称航海伟人，能与并肩者，何其寡也。郑君之初航海，当哥伦布发见亚美利加以前六十余年，当维哥达嘉马发见印度新航路以前七十余年。顾何以哥氏、维氏之绩，能使全世界化然开一新纪元。而郑君之烈，随郑君之没以俱逝。”⑸三是继承并坚持了中国治史的传统，高度重视考据问题。他详细考证了郑和下西洋所到各国地名39处，配以西文对照，对二三十年代的郑和研究产生积极的影响。

应该指出的是，中国民主革命的先行者孙中山在他设计规划的《建国方略》宏伟蓝图中，盛赞郑和下西洋是“中国超前轶之奇举”。以此壮举，振奋民族精神，激发国人奋进向上，努力建设近代化国家。

这一时期研究郑和卓有成就的代表人物还有向达、袁嘉谷、冯承钧、张星*浪、李长傅、陈子展、许云樵和夏璧等人。代表著有：赵州师范《三保太监郑和传》、孙伯恒《郑和传》、向达《关于三宝太监下西洋的几种资料》和《中西交通史》、张星*浪《中西交通史料汇编》、李长傅《郑和小传及其航行南洋之概略》、许云樵《三宝公在南洋的传说》、冯承钧《郑和下西洋考》序和《瀛涯胜览》序、夏璧《郑和七使西洋往返年月及其所经诸国》等。其中，向达《关于三宝太监下西洋的几种资料》和冯承钧《郑和下西洋考》序和《瀛涯胜览》序更具有代表意义。

这一时期，学者主要以现存的文献资料为依据，研究重点放在郑和七次下西洋的年月、郑和身世以及郑和史迹的几种文献资料考证、校注。他们的研究，为以后的研究奠定了基础。由于当时还没有发现娄东刘家港天妃宫“通番事迹记”碑和长乐“天妃灵应”碑，对郑和生平记载缺乏，所以研究成果受到限制。1912年，袁嘉谷发现《马哈只墓》和《马哈只墓志铭》，使人们对郑和的身世、祖先、故里等情况有了较详细的了解。此时的研究，对郑和航海活动和经过也非常重视，对郑和航海的技术、船队规模、《郑和航海图》和海外地名等方面也进行考证。由于受到文献资料限制和其它方面的制约，研究尚不够全面和深入。

这一时期，郑和的事迹在民众中也开始传播，出版了一系列有关郑和的普及读物，如高君的《郑和》、陈子展的《郑和》、章衣萍的《郑和》、姚名达、朱鸿禧的《郑和》等，辛亥革命后郑和史事首次出现在小学的历史课本上，把郑和与班超、岳飞、郑成功、林则徐等并列，视为民族英雄，对普及起了很大的作用。

（二）对郑和进行专门研究的阶段（1935―1949年）

这一时期学术界开始对郑和及其航海进行专门研究，并引向深入，特别是在30年代中后期形成了郑和研究的第一次高潮。

为什么以1935年作为划分阶段的标志？从30年代的郑和研究形势看，郑和研究是相互承接的，但自1935年开始，郑和研究领域出现新的迹象，表现在研究郑和学者以及成果增多；发现了新的郑和研究史料；一些学者开始深入探讨郑和下西洋的目的、性质、航海和宝船等问题。

这一时期主要的代表人物有：郑鹤声、冯承钧、李长傅、吴晗、许道龄、童书业、向达、莎士武、朱*契、李士厚、范文涛、张礼千、顾颉刚、束世徵、管劲丞等。代表著有：郑鹤声的《从新史料考证郑和下西洋事之年岁》、《娄东刘家港天妃石刻通番事迹记》、《郑和遗事汇编》；范文涛的《郑和航海图考》；莎士武的《考证郑和下西洋年岁之又一史料》；李士厚的《郑和家谱考释》；冯承钧译的伯希和《郑和下西洋考》；朱契*的《郑和七次下西洋所历地名考》；尚笏《郑和下西洋考》、管劲丞的《永乐22年郑和受命未行考》；1936―37年许道龄、吴晗、李晋华、童书业等在《禹贡》上展开的“关于郑和下西洋性质之讨论”等。

这一时期郑和研究之所以能深入，首先在于一些新的重要史料发现。1935年，发现了太仓刘家港“通番事迹记”碑文，在云南玉溪发现了《郑和家谱》；1936年，在南京发现《静海寺残碑》，在长乐发现“天妃灵应之记”碑等。新史料的发现和整理，使这一时期先后发表了数十篇对郑和下西洋考证的论文。它们对郑和七次下西洋的时间、航行路线、所到地名、出使船舶、郑和世系和随员等进行深入考证，把文献资料和实物资料有机结合起来，使郑和研究出现了新思路和新方法。黄慧珍、薛金度认为：“这是郑和研究史上的一个转折点。”⑹这些新的研究，纠正了七次下西洋的年月，弄清了永乐22年出使之误，更正了文献记载混乱之处等。

此时研究深入另一方面，表现在对郑和下西洋目的和性质的讨论，对《郑和航海图》、宝船的考证研究等方面。

关于郑和下西洋目的和性质的讨论，是从1936年3月吴晗在《清华学报》发表《十六世纪前之中国与南洋》一文引发，许道龄、李晋华、童书业先后在《禹贡》发表8篇论文，阐述了不同的观点，进行持续一年多的笔战，到1937年4月，以童书业《重论郑和下西洋事件之贸易性质》而告结束。双方的观点都以《明史》等文献资料为依据，吴晗等认为郑和下西洋的目的主要是经济目的，试图通过经营国际贸易来解决国内经济困难。许道龄、李晋华等认为郑和下西洋目的是踪迹建文、宣扬国威。双方在学术上的争鸣，开创了郑和研究学术讨论风气。

关于《郑和航海图》研究。郑和航海图最早是记载于明茅元仪《武备志》卷二百四十。1885年英国人菲律普斯（Phillips）首先据美国国会图书馆藏书进行了研究，著有“The Seaports of India and Ceylon”。后来纪里尼(Gerini)、布莱顿(Blagden)、密尔斯(J.V.Mills)、伯希和、戴闻达克(Duyvendak)、藤田丰八等人进行了研究。中国人的研究受到外国人研究的影响。这一时期主要代表首推范文涛《郑和航海图考》（商务出版社1943年12月，重庆版）和张礼千《东西洋考中之针路》（新加坡南洋编译所1947年出版）。范文涛认为：郑和航海图“不得早于一四三三年”⑺，蓝本出自元朝，得自爪哇图，约在1525―1575年间绘成。并对航海图中马来半岛等地区的地名进行考证，对若干针路中的术语做了注释。但她对图中其它地方的研究有限。张礼千的研究，东自菲律宾、越南、印度尼西亚、马来半岛，西到印度等地，范围超过了范文涛。两书综合起来基本上把郑和下西洋及《郑和航海图》中有关地方的情形搞清楚了。

关于宝船研究。郑鹤声、张千礼、管劲丞和荷兰学者格伦威尔德等专门著文讨论。其中管劲丞对《明史?郑和传》记载的宝船长44丈、宽18丈的长宽之比提出质疑，认为“航海的船舶，为了波涛汹涌之故，更需要减少水的阻力；而愈短阔则阻力愈大，又是古今不变的。那就可以断言，当时造船，一定不会采用这样的长方型。”对此，他根据郑鹤声发现的静海寺残碑记载进行研究，认为郑和所乘宝船“系二千料海船”⑻。

关于明罗懋登《三宝太监西洋记通俗演义》研究。这一时期，对此书的研究涌现了一批学术成果。郑振铎、鲁迅、冯承钧、向达、陈子展、赵景琛等加以研究和评论。其中赵景琛的《三宝太监西洋记》和《西洋记与西洋朝贡》对《三宝太监西洋记通俗演义》内容做了辑录比较，认为该书主要是依据《瀛涯胜览》和《星搓*胜览》，“并非完全荒诞之书”。

这一时期研究郑和学者出版了几部有影响的著作。其中代表性的有郑鹤声《郑和遗事汇编》和《郑和》、束世徵*《郑和南征记》。郑鹤声从30年代研究郑和，经10余年的资料收集、整理、考察，撰写二书，是40 年代郑和研究领域中的重要著作。

这一时期是郑和研究的特点主要表现在新史料的发现；郑和研究领域的拓宽和深入；出版了专门研究郑和的著作；对郑和下西洋的经过、目的、使团组织编成、船舶、郑和家世、生平、出使国家及港口等都进行了较系统的研究。

（三）郑和研究广泛展开和深入研究阶段（1950―1982年）

这一时期郑和研究有一个良好的开端，期间虽经历了曲折，然而审视本世纪郑和研究的发展轨迹，却是郑和研究广泛展开和进一步深入的阶段。主要表现在郑和有关资料的整理出版和考古发现上；郑和研究领域明显拓宽，涉及郑和下西洋的政治、经济和文化上背景、动机和历史作用，郑和下西洋与亚非洲及台湾的关系，郑和宝船和航海技术等；重视郑和事迹、遗迹的宣传和介绍等方面。

这一时期的主要代表人物：郑鹤声、向达、朱*契、包遵彭、徐玉虎、韩振华、张维华、周世德、徐鳌润、方豪、毛一波、樊树志、陈存仁、林宗霖、朱杰勤、陈得芝、冯尔康、田树茂、周绍泉等。

关于郑和下西洋资料的整理和出版。1950年以前，中华书局曾出版过《星*搓胜览》等一些原始资料，但比较有限。五六十年代，中华书局出版了冯承钧、向达校注的《星*搓胜览》、《西洋番国志》、《瀛涯胜览》、《郑和航海图》、《两种海道针经》等较系统的资料。1980

年，郑鹤声、郑一钧编辑整理的《郑和下西洋资料汇编》（上册）由齐鲁书社出版。此外，一些中外关系史料、国别史料、地方志史料的整理出版，也从不同的角度为郑和研究提供了有价值的资料。这些文献资料的整理和出版，说明对郑和研究领域的重视，并为更全面深入的研究郑和提供了基础和前提。

这一时期出版了一批郑和研究的成果。如朱*契《郑和》、黄淼《郑和下西洋》、韩振华《论郑和下西洋的性质》、徐玉虎《郑和评传》、陈得芝《试论郑和下“西洋”的两重任务》、包遵彭《郑和下西洋的宝船制度考》、周钰森《郑和航路考》、周世德《从宝船厂舵杆的坚定推论郑和宝船》、李松权《郑和下西洋动机的探讨》、林宗霖《郑和下西洋的时代背景及其内外因素》、郑一钧《郑和下西洋对我国海洋科学的贡献》、陈存仁《三宝太监七次下西洋考》、吴晗《郑和下西洋》、冯尔康《“郑和下西洋”的再认识―兼论“下西洋”同封建专制政治的关系》、徐玉虎《明郑和之研究》、杨*喜《郑和下西洋航线的形成以及停航的原因》、潘群《郑和使日问题初探》等。

其中朱*契的《郑和》是较有影响的著作。书中吸收了几十年来郑和研究的成果，考证了56处国外地名，超过了此前考证的地名数量，还阐述了郑和在东西方交往上的重要地位，并附录了郑和研究参考文献目录和中外地名古今对照表，均为以往未曾有过的。

值得注意的是，这一时期出版的有关中国通史中，如范文澜《中国通史简编》、尚钺《中国通史纲要》等均对郑和下西洋的性质、目的、历史地位等进行了探讨。这说明史学界对郑和研究的重视。特别是继三四十年代关于郑和下西洋目的和使命的学术争论，五六十又展开了学术争鸣，向达、尚钺等认为：郑和下西洋的目的是针对中亚蒙古帖木儿帝国对明朝西北的威胁；韩振华认为：郑和下西洋的目的是明朝政府积极推行“朝贡贸易”和“赍赐贸易”；陈得芝认为：郑和下西洋的目的是恢复和发展明朝与海外各国的关系，同时进行海外贸易；陈牧野认为：郑和下西洋的目的主要是基于政治上的踪迹建文和耀兵异域。这场讨论把郑和研究引向深入。

关于郑和下西洋与亚、非洲及台湾关系的研究。从五十年代中叶开始，学术界重视对郑和研究中中外关系问题研究。如周一良的《中国与亚洲各国和平友好的历史》、郑鹤声的《十五世纪初叶中国与亚非国家间的友谊关系》、徐玉虎《明代与东南亚关系之研究》、中国历史博物馆群工部编《郑和下西洋促进了中国和亚非国家的经济文化交流》、刘仲如《郑和与南亚》等，从现在所见到的研究著述看，研究的国家涉及印尼、菲律宾、越南、老挝、柬埔寨、马来西亚、文莱、泰国、印度、斯里兰卡、孟加拉、马尔代夫、日本、澳洲及西亚东非诸国。它们从不同角度研究与这些国家之间的友好往来与经济文化的交流等。这符合当时国家政治上需要，成为这一时期郑和研究的一个突出特点。另一个特点是以台湾学者为主体，开始重视郑和下西洋与台湾关系的研究，成果多属考证性文章。据曹玉爽的统计，50―70年代，研究郑和的论文和著作，台湾、香港发表的论文数量超过大陆⑼。

时 间

50年代

60年代

70年代

台、港

35

56

30

大 陆

24

35

26

这一时期关于郑和宝船、航海技术和《郑和航海图》的研究，涌现了一批可喜的成果。其中包遵彭的《郑和下西洋之宝船考》对宝船问题的研究、徐玉虎《明代郑和航海图之研究》颇有建树。

70年代后期至80年代初期，郑和研究出现了小热潮，主要有两个特点：一是研究郑和的著述增多，出版了10部专门研究的著作；二是研究郑和的领域拓宽和深入。这是以往郑和研究所不多见的。

（四）郑和研究全面发展阶段（1983―1997年）

这一时期郑和研究发展出现了新的机遇，国家重视的程度前所未有，形成了郑和研究全面持续发展的新局面，是20世纪郑和研究发展最快的时期，先后出现了郑和研究的第二、第三个高潮。

这一时期郑和研究之所以能出现全面发展和高潮迭现的局面，是郑和研究适应了国家改革开放及其不断深化发展的需要。人们把历史研究与现实需要紧密结合起来，发挥历史科学的功能，通过总结郑和下西洋的历史经验教训，为当代中国现代化建设提供有益的指导和借鉴。它具体表现在：一是与中国的改革开放和经济现代化建设结合起来，重点着眼于解放思想，提高对开放的认识，加快经济建设中改革开放的步伐；二是与弘扬爱国主义思想，与加强社会主义精神文明建设联系起来，这在80年代中后期到90年代中期的郑和研究中是一个突出的特征；三是着眼于从国家战略高度，把郑和研究与国家外交政策、海洋斗争的形势和国防安全、国家海洋事业的发展等方面结合起来，获得对当代有益的启示。

郑和研究属于文化范畴，这种文化现象必然要反映到社会发展的现实中去。所以，文化与经济殊途同归。郑和研究高潮的出现，恰恰反映了它适应了时代的需要。

1985年和1992―95年出现了两次郑和研究的高潮。1985年7月在南京召开的“纪念伟大航海家郑和下西洋580周年大会暨学术研讨会”，规模空前，声势浩大，肇启了郑和研究的热潮，标志着郑和研究进入了一个新阶段。它适应了国家改革开放初期形势的需要。1992―1995年第三个高潮，是在邓小平南巡讲话后，整个国家进一步扩大开放，深化改革，特别是内陆沿边一些城市开放，出现了中国全面开放，与世界经济接轨趋势而形成的。从1992年7月昆明召开的纪念郑和下西洋587周年大会到1995年7月和9月在福州、长乐、南京三地召开的纪念郑和下西洋590周年大会，形成了郑和研究繁荣局面。它适应了国家深化改革开放形势的需要。应当指出，国家领导人对郑和研究的重视，特别是邓小平对郑和下西洋的论述、江泽民论及郑和的讲话，对开创郑和研究的新局面，推动郑和研究事业发展产生了深远的影响。

这一时期郑和研究出现了一些新的特点。首先，建立专门学术组织，创办了研究刊物。郑和研究全面发展的新局面，开创郑和研究事业迈上新台阶，是与郑和研究会等学术组织作用分不开的。1986年3月，南京郑和研究会宣告成立，同年创办了会刊《郑和研究》和《郑和研究简讯》，使得郑和研究有了专门学术组织和刊物，在郑和研究方面起到了联系、宣传、筹划和组织的积极作用，有力推动了郑和研究事业的发展。1992年12月，昆明郑和研究会成立；1994年，筹备已久的郑和航海研究基金会成立；1996年12月，江苏省郑和研究会成立。这些组织的建立，既是郑和研究发展的产物，又推动郑和研究持续发展和不断繁荣。《郑和研究》是海内外唯一反映郑和研究成果的专门学术刊物，自1986年创刊到2002年底历时16个春秋，从开始的半年刊，到1993年该为季刊（2000年又改回半年刊）共出版50期，栏目由原来不足10个发展到30多个，截止1997年，共发表论文、译文、学术动态、书刊评介、文学作品及其它文章400多篇，字数约340万字，刊载了郑和研究领域的绝大多数学术成果。交流范围最大时遍及国内20多个省市、港澳台以及美国、日本、韩国、英国、马来西亚、泰国、新加坡、印度尼西亚、文莱等10多个国家，成为连接海内外郑和研究的一根纽带。第二，持续举办学术交流活动，出版大批学术成果。这一时期每隔一二年就组织一次学术活动，先后举行了15次研讨会。“学术讨论会成了交流郑和研究情况、检阅郑和研究成果的主要形式。而经常性的学术讨论会，客观上促进了郑和研究的持续发展。”⑽郑和研究学术活动持续频繁的开展，使郑和研究地区增多，队伍扩大，研究深入，成果不断，保持着旺盛的活力。与此同时，有关郑和研究的专著、论文集、资料选编、史料集、家谱、航海图、画册及宣传普及读物等纷纷出版，数量约30部，论文达500余篇，各种电视片、戏剧、展览、雕塑、船模、邮票等纪念形式精彩纷呈。第三，多学科参与，历史与现实紧密结合。随着郑和研究的发展，这一时期的郑和研究不再仅限于历史研究领域，历史学、考古学、航海学、地理学、天文学、军事学、民族学、宗教学、政治学、经济学等自然科学和社会科学相互协作交融，拓宽了郑和研究领域，深化了郑和研究。如在《郑和航海图》、郑和下西洋的航海技术、宝船、海洋科学及军事、宗教等方面，特别是从多学科角度构建“郑和学”体系。把历史与现实紧密结合起来是这一时期郑和研究的主旋律。“十年来郑和研究很大程度上跨越郑和下西洋的时限，追寻历史的发展规律，朝着为现实服务这一方向积极努力和健康发展，引起了社会各界的广泛关注，这成为郑和研究领域最鲜明的特征。”⑾两次郑和研究高潮的形成和郑和研究持续旺盛的活力都折射出这一特色的光芒。第四、大胆探索，创新郑和研究的新视野、新领域和新观点。这一时期的郑和研究“涌现出大批新的成果，或者深化了老问题，或者开拓了新领域，较之往昔，取得了令人鼓舞的新的进展。”⑿突出表现在四个方面：一是宏观研究加强，开始从学科体系上探讨和构建“郑和学”的体系。先后有蔺仲马《关于建立郑和学的诌议》、孙光圻《“郑和学”断想》、仲跻荣《郑和学简论》、杨光民《论国际郑和学的构建》、张家德、王静然《论郑和学的三大内涵》等论文发表。孙文认为：“‘郑和学’是一门以研究郑和这一特定的历史人物为主体，兼及一切与郑和的历史活动有关的社会科学与自然科学的分支综合横向科学或边缘学科。”⒀仲文认为：“郑和学就是一门有关航海、航海史的并具有独特存在的边缘学科。”⒁杨文给国际郑和学定义：“在全球范围内，以研究郑和航海活动为对象，以研究郑和航海活动与人类文明进程规律为宗旨的学科”。⒂学者们还就郑和学学科体系的内涵、支柱、研究方法和任务及其发展进行了探讨。二是开辟新的视角研究郑和。如朱鉴秋等着重从航海学和地图学角度研究《郑和航海图》，较之以往研究取得新的进展；颜夏梅从航海医学的角度研究郑和下西洋船队的编制和航海活动的特点；金秋鹏等运用摇摆性和振荡性原理研究郑和宝船，对宝船的可靠性、合理性进行了论证；时平、陆儒德等从海权的角度对郑和下西洋的目的、性质和作用进行了探讨，评价郑和下西洋，给人以新的启发；张铁牛等从军事学角度对郑和船队编制体制、活动进行了研究。还有从宗教学、民族学、考古学、天文学、海洋学等新的角度研究，开阔了郑和研究的视野，极大增加郑和研究领域中科学内涵，深化了郑和研究。同时值得注意的是，这一时期出现了一些研究郑和的新方法。三是考古和文物发现及研究取得新进展。如罗宗真的《郑和宝船厂和龙江船厂遗址考》、张善灼的《长乐郑和遗迹若干考误》、吴聿明的《周闻夫妇墓志铭考证与研究》、《“六国码头”考》等。四是在老问题的研究上取得许多新突破。如关于郑和下西洋的目的和性质，有的学者认为郑和下西洋是为了加强海防，震慑倭寇；有的学者研究认为，郑和下西洋是因明初长期海禁，导致国内市场上番药奇缺，肩负有到海外采办药材的目的；还有的学者认为郑和下西洋是运用了贸易或军事手段，而不是作为下西洋的目的，试图透过表象揭示郑和下西洋的实质。关于郑和下西洋与西方航海活动的比较，不在限于航海的时间、距离、船舶和人员数量、航海技术和航海内容等方面，而是进行全方位的比较，从中西航海社会政治经济形态、航海政策、动机、科学观以及作用等多角度比较，使人们能更加客观地准确评价郑和下西洋；关于郑和出生时间，有学者根据多方面的考证和研究，提出郑和生于1374年，不是1371年的新观点；关于郑和家世，有学者对《郑氏家谱首序》、《赛氏总族谱》、《马氏家乘》、《故马公墓志铭》等谱系资料进行深入研究，对学术界过去公认的郑和乃咸阳王赛典赤?瞻思丁后裔提出质疑，主张目前不应轻易肯定；关于刘大夏焚毁郑和出使水程的论断，有学者进行考证分析，认为还缺乏可靠的史料依据，凡此等等。这一时期是20世纪郑和研究领域最活跃、最精彩的时期。

郑和研究第三次高潮后，进入相对稳定的局面。从郑和研究的发展规律看，这是符合事物发展规律的。但从总结历史经验角度上说，有我们今天可以借鉴的东西。一是90年代中期后郑和研究领域中继续解放思想和创新的问题没有从根本上解决；二是从事郑和研究的后备力量准备不足，各地发展也不平衡。这些因素导致郑和研究发展出现徘徊的局面。从90年代中期起，学术界开始探索郑和研究从整体上进行创新和继续发展的问题。主要是尝试从郑和研究的体系上有所突破，科学的界定郑和研究与现实发展有机结合问题。

（五）郑和研究面向新世纪的创新阶段（1998―2002年）

郑和研究进入1998年，出现了新的转机。海内外一些有识之士抓住1998年国际海洋年的机遇，把举办国际海洋年的活动与发展郑和研究有机结合起来，服务于国家现代化建设和中华民族的伟大复兴事业，从中突出面向海洋世纪，建设海洋强国的特色，为郑和研究在新世纪的全面发展提供了新的契机。

世纪之交的郑和研究，是承接了国家改革开放以来不断发展的需要，与中国整个社会发展特点紧密联系在一起,适应了国家深化改革，全面开放继续发展的需要；适应了综合国力增强的需要；是适应了海洋战略地位日益提高的需要。弘扬郑和开拓进取、和平交往、经略海洋的精神，创新郑和研究事业，充分体现了中华民族的优秀品德与时俱进的时代精神，适应了社会发展的历史潮流和国家不断进步的需要。

这一时期郑和研究，主要围绕着郑和研究与开发海洋、发展中国的海洋事业和海洋文化， 迎接海洋世纪结合起来，还从海洋角度把郑和研究与香港、澳门回归联系在一起，积极筹划郑和下西洋600周年活动。郑和研究的现实价值和作用，在很大意义上已经跨越了历史研究的范畴，直接为国家的现实服务。1998―2002年间，各种学术交流频繁热烈，海内外召开各种学术会议10次，如1998年7月太仓召开了“郑和与海洋”研讨会，2000年12月，在南京召开了“世纪之交的郑和研究”学术研讨会等都充分体现了这一特色。学术组织纷纷成立，太仓市郑和研究会、长乐市郑和研究会、云南郑和研究会相继成立，其他相关学术团体积极参加，进一步推动了全国郑和研究事业发展。学术成果涌现，自1998年到2002年底发表论文近300篇，出版了范金民、孔令仁主编的《郑和与海洋》、王佩云著的《郑和传》、陈信雄的《一个宦官的传奇历程》、经典杂志社编《海上史诗―郑和下西洋》、罗海贤、李慕如《郑和与妈祖》等论文集、著作,尤其是掀起了宣传郑和下西洋的高潮，海内外拍摄了多部郑和电视片，涉及郑和的书刊明显增加。但是应当看到发展中的郑和研究仍存在问题，主要表现在宣传性作品多，发表学术论文数量逐步减少，尤其是有新意的少，存在史料依据不足、论证牵强附会、推测想象和断章取义拼凑现象；刊物规模、会议规模都有所减弱等。

这一时期主要的学术问题突出表现在，对郑和宝船的探讨出现了热潮，提出了新的观点；对郑和研究的总结重视，发表了一些有价值的著述；对新世纪的郑和研究进行了有益的探讨，提出了郑和研究发展的额新思路；孟席斯提出了郑和船队首先发现美洲大陆的新研究观点，在世界范围产生了极大的影响，推动了对郑和航海活动的研究。

历史是变化的，郑和研究本身是前进的。2000年3月，国家领导同志在全国人大会议期间从国家战略的高度再次论述郑和下西洋的历史地位及经验教训。2001年4月，中央决定中国政府筹备召开2005年隆重纪念郑和下西洋600年周年活动。这一重要决定，对弘扬中华民族优秀品德，振奋民族精神，增强民族的自信心、自豪感和凝聚力，推进中华民族的伟大复兴事业是一件大事，使郑和研究发展进入崭新的阶段，必将迎来郑和研究的第四次高潮。

回顾20世纪郑和研究的发展，从世纪之初，梁启超、孙中山以郑和的伟大业绩唤醒国人的爱国热情，拯救国家；80年代邓小平倡导弘扬郑和开放进取的精神发展中国的改革开

放事业，努力建设现代化强国；到21世纪伊始，中国真正走向世界，实现中华民族的伟大复兴。有一条鲜明的主线贯穿始终，就是与时俱进的爱国主义精神。郑和下西洋所凝聚的中华民族开放进取、和平友好、经略海洋的优秀品德，必将在新世纪得到继承和发扬；郑和研究事业也将在弘扬中华民族的优秀品德和发展海洋文化方向得到创新和发展。

注释：

（1）由于论文出处较多，限于篇幅省略，请见谅。

（2）黄慧珍、薛金度《郑和研究八十年》，《郑和研究资料选编》人民交通出版社1985年6月版，第5页.

（3）梁启超《祖国大航海家郑和传》，《郑和研究资料选编》人民交通出版社1985年6月版，第20页.

（4）黄慧珍、薛金度《郑和研究八十年》，《郑和研究资料选编》人民交通出版社1985年6月版，第4―5页.

（5）梁启超《祖国大航海家郑和传》，《郑和研究资料选编》人民交通出版社1985年6月版，第28页。

（6）黄慧珍、薛金度《郑和研究八十年》，《郑和研究资料选编》人民交通出版社1985年6月版，第9页。

（7）范文涛《〈郑和航海图〉地名考释》，《郑和研究资料选编》人民交通出版社1985年6月版，第218页。

（8）管劲丞《郑和下西洋的船》，《郑和研究资料选编》人民交通出版社1985年6月版，第269页。

（9）曹玉爽《有关郑和研究的统计资料》，油印稿1985年。

（10） 朱鉴秋《八十年代以来郑和研究的发展》，《郑和研究》2000年第二期，第2页。

（11） 范金民、时平《新的里程，新的辉煌――郑和研究十年综述》，范金民主编《走向海洋的中国人》，海潮出版社1996年4月版，第351页。

（12） 范金民、时平《新的里程，新的辉煌――郑和研究十年综述》，范金民主编《走向海洋的中国人》，海潮出版社1996年4月版，第339页。

（13） 《郑和研究》1990年总第十期。

（14） 高发元主编《郑和论丛》第一辑，云南大学出版社1992年4月版，第451页。

（15） 昆明郑和研究会编《郑和?历史与现实》，云南人民出版社1995年7月版，第259―260页。