The Song Dynasty was a great maritime era in ancient China, and the first factor that made it a great maritime era was the choice of the ruling clique of the Song Dynasty. As we all know, learning literature in the Song Dynasty was naturally a peak in ancient times, but when it comes to martial arts, it was very unbearable, because it was bullied by the northern minority regimes such as Liao, Jin and Xixia for a long time, and in order to deal with the threat from the north, the military expenditure in the Song Dynasty was huge and the annual currency burden was heavy.

In this case, in order to get rid of financial difficulties and open up new sources of fiscal revenue, the ruling group in Song Dynasty chose to actively open to the outside world and fully support the development of maritime trade. To this end, the Song government formulated an economic-oriented maritime trade policy. On the one hand, it actively supports export trade, and the government encourages private businessmen to build ships, buy goods and operate overseas. On the other hand, it fully supports import trade.

The second factor of the prosperity of maritime trade in Song Dynasty was the prosperity of cash crops and handicrafts. By the Song Dynasty, China's economic center of gravity had shifted from north to south. With the continuous migration of people from the north to the south, a large number of advanced technologies and high-level cultures have been brought to the south. In addition, the natural conditions for developing agricultural production in the south are superior, and southerners attach importance to economic development, which makes the south begin to plant a large number of cash crops.

With the continuous expansion of arable land, cash crops such as rice, wheat, tea, mulberry and sugarcane are planted more widely. Due to the high output, the surplus agricultural products after self-sufficiency become export products, which promotes the development of overseas trade. The development of handicraft industry, such as porcelain, textile, mining and metallurgy, metal manufacturing, etc. It has also developed on the basis of the previous generation, thus enriching the export products of overseas trade.

The third factor that promoted the Song Dynasty to become a maritime business empire was the progress of shipbuilding technology and navigation technology. Shipbuilding in Song Dynasty was the second peak of China's imperial society, and shipbuilding technology was far ahead of the world at that time. In the Song Dynasty, shipyards could build 5,000-material ships with a load of tens of thousands of tons. Besides, these ships are fast and steady, and their course can be adjusted. Moreover, because of the excellent materials, exquisite manufacturing technology, reasonable structure and strong hull, even smaller ships can gallop on the sea. The invention and use of the compass provided the premise and guarantee for the development of overseas trade, so the Song Dynasty opened a great era of navigation.

Maritime routes in the era of navigation

The frequent exchanges between Song Dynasty and Nanyang and the prosperity of maritime trade promoted the opening and development of maritime routes. Therefore, the sea routes in Song Dynasty can be divided into two types: ocean routes from maritime ports in Song Dynasty to overseas countries and offshore routes connecting domestic offshore areas.