There are many works about port management, merchant shipping and marine trade in Song Dynasty. Zhu Yao's second book, Zhou Pingke Tan, recorded the situation of overseas trade and market management in Song Dynasty. The book not only describes the navigation compass, but also depicts the sailors throwing iron hooks from the deck to get the seabed soil, so as to judge the position of the ship according to the smell and appearance of the soil. Moreover, the Song people have begun to master the laws of the monsoon and use them to sail, thus improving efficiency. Zhu Yu also described that there was a watertight compartment on board. Even if one or two cabins break and leak, the other cabins will not enter the water, thus preventing the ship from sinking on the rocks. In A.D. 1973, a merchant ship of Song Dynasty in A.D. 1277, 78 feet long and 28 feet wide, was unearthed on the south coast of China, which also verified Zhu Yu's description. These new technologies and dredging of rivers and canals promoted the development of navigation culture in Song Dynasty. Official transport ships, tribute ships and barges, private transport ships and fishing boats, as well as luxury yachts of the rich, constitute a bustling and prosperous scene.

Besides Zhu Yu, there are many outstanding writers who have mentioned navigation technology in their works. Answer the Generation Outside the Ridge is a note written by Zhou Fei in the Southern Song Dynasty when he was appointed as the Taiwei of Guilin County on 1 178. The book records the geography, humanities, frontier defense, customs and products of Guangxi in the Song Dynasty, as well as the geography, humanities, customs and products of other foreign countries such as Annan, Zhancheng, Sanfo Qi, Java, Daqin, Persia, Mulan Pi and Girl Country. The coastal trade in the Song Dynasty was much more developed than that in the previous generation, so this book is a valuable material for studying the maritime traffic between China and the West in the Song Dynasty and the history of ancient countries in the South China Sea, South Asia, West Asia, East Asia and North Africa in the 12 century. The book describes Mulan boat like this: "Floating in the South China Sea, the boat is like a huge room. If the sail is hanging in the sky, the ship is dozens of feet long. There are hundreds of people in a boat, and a year's grain is accumulated. Among them, tapirs make wine, and they are born and die. ... and the big food country crossed the west sea to Mulan Yong country further, and its ships increased. A ship can hold thousands of people, and this ship is organic in the market, otherwise it will take several years to arrive, unless it is a huge ship. "

The book also describes the navy's rattan boat:

"Shen Guang coastal state army, rare nail tung oil, shipbuilding is empty board through rattan constraints. In the cracks of vines, madder from the sea is dried and suffocated, and rises when it meets water, so that the ship does not leak. Its ship is very big and is used by businessmen crossing the sea. " Later, ibn battuta, a Muslim Moroccan Berber traveler, wrote many articles about ships in China. Among them, Chinese sailboats are mentioned in particular. He also described that the largest China ship had 65,438+02 masts, while the small boat had only three masts. The Song Dynasty invested a lot of material resources to build a boat driven by human stepping on wheels, which is called a paddle boat. The prototype of this ship dates back to the 5th century. In 784, Gaoli of the Tang Dynasty successfully designed a paddle boat, and installed manpower paddles on the side or stern of the warship. People step on the wheel, the blades pull the water to generate electricity, and the ship moves forward. 1 134, Wu Ge, the general of the Song Dynasty, built a batch of paddle boats, one with nine paddles and the others with 13 paddles. In the Song Dynasty, there were 12 oars on both sides of the ship. 1 135, when the famous Yue Fei suppressed the rebel Yang Yao in Dongting Lake, he put floating weeds and rotten logs into the lake to deal with paddle boats, thus boarding the deck and winning a strategic victory.