An Examination of the East and the West compiled by Zhang Xie not only collected government official newspapers and files extensively, but also consulted many notes and writings of predecessors and contemporaries, and interviewed boatmen, boatmen, sailors and maritime merchants. After careful and rigorous examination, and imitating the style of Song Zhao's Zhufanzhi, Zhang Xie read a lot of books in forty-five years of Wanli (1665438), and studied more than 0/00 books on eastern and western studies, including Notes on Water Classics, History of Song Dynasty, Book of Tang Dynasty, History of Yuan Dynasty,
An Examination of Oriental Countries *** 12 records the evolution, deeds, situation, products and trade of 40 countries in the East and West. Record the waterway, the route of the second ocean needle, marine meteorology and tides, as well as the long-term navigation activities of China people in the South China Sea islands, shipbuilding industry and the organization of seagoing ships; It also includes relevant historical materials of Sino-foreign relations since Qin and Han Dynasties and relevant documents of Sino-foreign relations in Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. "Oriental Western Examination" also recorded Zongshen's atrocities in collecting taxes in Fujian and Haicheng people's demonstrations against high talents. An Examination of the East and the West is an important document on Sino-foreign relations and the history and geography of Southeast Asian countries in the Ming Dynasty, and it is also a guide to summarize the trade between Zhangzhou and eastern and western countries. It is of great historical value for studying the history of Sino-foreign relations, economic history, maritime history and overseas Chinese history. Zhou Qiyuan's preface to Examining the East and Examining the West praised it as "a book for opening interviews, not publishing" and "making up for what predecessors did not prepare", pointing out the value of the book. The names of the East and the West in history are well known, and they are famous all over the world because of Zheng He's voyage to the West. However, the scope of ancient books in China is often quite different, and the exact scope of the East China Sea and Zheng He's voyages to the West during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties has always been controversial.
The first stage: from Yuan Dynasty to the middle of Ming Dynasty, as far as we know, the names of East and West were first recorded in Yuan Dynasty. Chronicle of the South China Sea, written in the eighth year of Dade (1304), is an important ancient book that mentioned the East and the West earlier, including East, great eastern, Little East, West and Little West. About half a century later, Shima Zhilue also mentioned the eastern ocean, the small ocean and the western ocean. Although Xu Ming (in the 26th year of Zhiyuan, 1289) and Zhou Daguan's Biography of the Native Land of Zhenla and Journey to the South (in the 3rd year of Dade, 1297) didn't mention the East, they already contained "Huang Qiu in the West" and "Xibu". Therefore, it seems that a person from the West appeared earlier than a person from the East.
According to the South China Sea, the eastern ocean in Yuan Dynasty should be divided into Leizhou Peninsula-West Coast of kalimantan island-sunda strait. Kalimantan island, Java Island and its eastern regions and waters are oriental, which is further divided into big east ocean and small east ocean. The book contains articles such as The Kingdom of Oriental Buddhism (now Brunei) governs the Little East, The Kingdom of Danbro (now kalimantan island) governs great eastern, and The Kingdom of Gaopo governs great eastern. Seen from the following areas, the scope of great eastern starts from sunda strait on the west coast of Java, passes through Java, South kalimantan island, Sulawesi and Timor, and reaches the Maluku Islands. The small ocean refers to northern kalimantan island and the Philippine Islands. This situation did not seem to have changed much until the middle of the Ming Dynasty. For example, Shima Zhilue said: "(Java) is a country of the East with a vast territory and dense population." Fei Mingxin's Xing Lan and Yan Congjian's Special Area Consultation Record also basically followed his theory. Later, the so-called "great eastern" area was included in the scope of the West in the "Oriental Western Examination". Therefore, the scope of the East in Yuan Dynasty was vast after the middle of Ming Dynasty.
There are also special articles in the chronicle of South China Sea, such as "One Maling Country Governing the Small Western Ocean" and "Three Buddhas Governing the Small Western Ocean", etc. Most of the place names listed under it are from present Malay Peninsula to Sumatra, including many places east of the Straits of Malacca. In the book Island, there are many references to the West, obviously referring to India. Therefore, the eastern boundary of the western ocean in Yuan Dynasty should reach the west coast of kalimantan island and Java, and the western boundary should include the Indian Ocean. The so-called "Little Western Ocean" refers to the western part of the South China Sea, and the existing "Little Western Ocean" should be the pair of "Atlantic Ocean". The Annals of the Atlantic Ocean and the South China Sea are missing, but clues can still be found in some books in the mid-Ming Dynasty. Huang Zhong's "Sea Language" volume said: "The sea country is prosperous, and those who leave the Atlantic country, such as Zhongzhou Peony. Regarding the boundary between the East and the West, the most clearly recorded in ancient books is the five clouds in the book "An Examination of the East and the West": "Brunei, the country of Borneo, is everywhere in the East, and the West has its own place. "Ming history". According to what it refers to, it is about east longitude 1 10 (equivalent to Leizhou Peninsula and the west bank of Kalimantan in China today), which is called the Eastern Ocean in the east and the Western Ocean in the west. Therefore, the scope of the East and the West in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties was clearly defined by the East and West Textbooks.