英国研究中国科技史的著名学者李约瑟曾指出:“明代海军在历史上可能比任何亚洲国家都出色,甚至同时代的任何欧洲国家,以致所有欧洲国家联合起来,可以说都无法与明代海军匹敌。”确实,明代郑和率领规模巨大的船队七下西洋,(1405—1433年),远航印度,阿拉伯和非洲,不仅是中国航海史上的伟大壮举,而且亦对世界历史具有重要意义。日本学者三上次男在其著作《陶瓷之路》就指出:“十五世纪初期发生了把中国陶瓷和东非直接连接起来的重大事件,这就是著名的‘郑和远征’,即赫赫有名的中国大海军在印度洋的活动;”“如此庞大的中国海军在印度洋的大规模活动是空前的,到目前为止也可以说是绝后 Joseph Needham, a well-known scholar in the history of science and technology in the United Kingdom, has pointed out: “In the history of the Navy, the Ming Dynasty may have excelled in any other Asian country or even any European country at the same time. As a result, all European countries united and could not match the Ming navy. Indeed, Zheng He led the huge fleet of seven ships in the Ming Dynasty (1405-1433), voyage to India, Arabia and Africa not only as a great feat in the history of Chinese navigation, but also in the history of the world. Japanese scholars, the last time men in their book ”Ceramics Road“ pointed out: ”The early 15th century occurred in China and East Africa Ceramics directly connected the major events, which is the famous ’Zheng He expedition’, the famous China Large naval activities in the Indian Ocean; “” Such a large Chinese navy in the Indian Ocean is unprecedented in large-scale activities, so far can be said that after all