Naval history of China

none

The naval history of China dates back thousands of years, with archives existing since the late Spring and Autumn period regarding the Chinese navy and the various ship types employed in wars. The Ming dynasty of China was the leading global maritime power between 1400 and 1433, when Chinese shipbuilders built massive ocean going junks and the Chinese imperial court launched seven maritime voyages. In modern times, the current People's Republic of China and the Republic of China governments continue to maintain standing navies through the People's Liberation Army Navy and the Republic of China Navy, respectively.

The Han dynasty established the first independent naval force in China, the Tower Ship Navy. Although naval battles took place before the 12th century, such as the large scale Three Kingdoms Battle of Chibi in the year 208, it was during the Song dynasty (960–1279) that the Chinese established a permanent, standing navy in 1132. At its height by the late 12th century there were 20 squadrons of some 52,000 marines, with the admiral's headquarters at Dinghai, while the main base remained closer to modern Shanghai. Paddle wheel boats were actually developed by the Chinese independently in the 5th–6th centuries, only a century after their first surviving mention in Roman sources (see Paddle steamer), though that method of propulsion had been abandoned for many centuries and only recently reintroduced before the war. Numerous other innovations were present in Chinese vessels during the Middle Ages that had not yet been adopted by the Western and Islamic worlds, some of which were documented by Marco Polo but were not adopted by other navies until the 18th century, when the British successfully incorporated them into ship designs. For example, medieval Chinese hulls were split into bulkhead sections so that a hull rupture only flooded a fraction of the ship and did not necessarily sink it (see Ship floodability). This was described in the book of the Song dynasty maritime author Zhu Yu, the Pingzhou Table Talks of 1119 AD. Along with the innovations described in Zhu's book, there were many other improvements to nautical technology in the medieval Song period. These included crossbeams bracing the ribs of ships to strengthen them, rudders that could be raised or lowered to allow ships to travel in a wider range of water depths, and the teeth of anchors arranged circularly instead of in one direction, "making them more reliable". Junks also had their sails staggered by wooden poles so that the crew could raise and lower them with ropes from the deck, like window blinds, without having to climb around and tie or untie various ropes every time the ship needed to turn or adjust speed. A significant naval battle was the Battle of Lake Poyang from August 30 to October 4 of the year 1363 AD during the Red Turban Rebellion, a battle which cemented the success of Zhu Yuanzhang in founding the Ming dynasty.

After the period of maritime activity during the treasure voyages under the Yongle Emperor, the official policy towards naval expansion swayed between active restriction to ambivalence. Despite Ming ambivalence towards naval affairs, the Chinese treasure fleet was still able to dominate other Asian navies, which enabled the Ming to send governors to rule in Luzon and Palembang as well as depose and enthrone puppet rulers in Sri Lanka and the Bataks. However, the Chinese fleet shrank tremendously after its military/tributary/exploratory functions in the early 15th century were deemed too expensive and it became primarily a police force on routes like the Grand Canal. Ships like the juggernauts of Zheng He's "treasure fleet," which dwarfed the largest Portuguese ships of the era by several times, were discontinued, and the junk became the predominant Chinese vessel until the country's relatively recent (in terms of Chinese sailing history) naval revival

In 1521, at the Battle of Tunmen a squadron of Ming naval junks defeated a Portuguese caravel fleet, which was followed by another Ming victory against a Portuguese fleet at the Battle of Xicaowan in 1522. In 1633, a Ming navy defeated a Dutch and Chinese pirate fleet during the Battle of Liaoluo Bay. A large number of military treatises, including extensive discussions of naval warfare, were written during the Ming period, including the Wubei Zhi and Jixiao Xinshu. Additionally, shipwrecks have been excavated in the South China Sea, including wrecks of Chinese trade and war ships that sank around 1377 and 1645. The continuing "sea ban" policy during the early Qing dynasty meant that the development of naval power stagnated. River and coastal naval defence was the responsibility of the waterborne units of the Green Standard Army, which were based at Jingkou (now Zhenjiang) and Hangzhou. In 1661, a naval unit was established at Jilin to defend against Russian incursions into Manchuria. Naval units were also added to various Banner garrisons subsequently, referred to collectively as the "Eight Banners Navy". In 1677, the Qing court re established the Fujian Fleet in order to combat the Ming loyalist Kingdom of Tungning based on Taiwan. This conflict culminated in the Qing victory the Battle of Penghu in 1683 and the surrender of the Tungning shortly after the battle. The Second Opium War showed the complete futility of the pre modern Chinese fleet when facing modern European navies, when 300 Chinese naval junks, armed with British made guns, did almost no damage to 56 British and French ironclads. In the 1860s, an attempt to establish a modern navy via the British built Osborn or "Vampire" Fleet to combat the Taiping rebels' US built gunboats. The so called "Vampire Fleet" fitted out by the Chinese government for the suppression of piracy on the coast of China, owing to the non fulfilment of the condition that British commander Sherard Osborn should receive orders from the imperial government only, was scrapped.

The Republic of China Navy is the navy of the Republic of China, which was established after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. Liu Guanxiong, a former Qing dynasty admiral, became the first Minister of Navy of the Republic of China. During the Warlord Era that scarred China in the 1920s and 1930s the ROCN remained loyal to the Kuomintang government of Sun Yat sen instead of the Beiyang government in Beijing which fell to the Nationalist government in the 1928 Northern Expedition and between the civil war with the Communist Party and 1937 Japanese invasion of Northeast China. During that time and throughout World War II, the ROCN concentrated mainly on riverine warfare as the poorly equipped ROCN was not a match to Imperial Japanese Navy over ocean or coast. The ROCN is currently the naval forces on the island of Taiwan. The People's Liberation Army Navy was established in 1950 for the People's Republic of China. The PLAN can trace its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese Civil War and was established in September 1950. The PLAN was initially dedicated to coastal defense, defending against commando raids on the Fujian coast from Taiwan. It also played a role in the First and Second Taiwan Strait Crises. This assistance ended after the Sino Soviet split. Before the 1990s the PLAN had traditionally played a subordinate role to the People's Liberation Army Ground Force. In 2020 the PLAN surpassed the U. S. Navy as the largest navy in the world in numbers of ships, although the U. S. Navy continued to have technological advantages. This development occurred amid increasing tensions between China and the United States and as China was becoming involved in territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

One of the oldest known Chinese books written on naval matters was the Yuejueshu (Lost Records of the State of Yue) of 52 AD, attributed to the Han dynasty scholar Yuan Kang. The preserved written passages of Yuan Kang's book were again featured in the Yuanjian Leihan (Mirror of the Infinite, a Classified Treasure Chest) encyclopedia, edited and compiled by Zhang Ying in 1701 during the Qing dynasty. These "classes" of ships were the great wing (da yi), the little wing (xiao yi), the stomach striker (tu wei), the castle ship (lou chuan), and the bridge ship (qiao chuan). This was discussed in a dialogue between Mozi and Lu Ban in 445 BC (when Lu traveled to the State of Chu from the State of Lu), as the hook and spar technique made standard on all Chu warships was given as the reason why the Yue navy lost in battle to Chu. The rebellion of Gongsun Shu in Sichuan province against the re established Han dynasty during the year 33 AD was recorded in the Book of Later Han, compiled by Fan Ye in the 5th century. After Cen Peng defeated several of Gongsun's officers, Gongsun had a long floating pontoon bridge constructed across the Yangtze with fortified posts on it, protected further by a boom, as well as erecting forts on the river bank to provide further missile fire at another angle. Cen Peng was unable to break through this barrier and barrage of missile fire, until he equipped his navy with castle ships, rowed assault vessels, and 'colliding swoopers' used for ramming in a fleet of several thousand vessels and quelled Gongsun's rebellion. The largest of these ships had five layered decks, could hold 800 passengers, and each ship was fitted with six 50 ft. long booms that were used to swing and damage enemy ships, along with the ability of pinning them down. Not represented here are the paddle wheel crafts innovated by the Tang Prince Li Gao more than a decade later in 784 AD.