ABSTRACT
Ming relations with Southeast Asia have already been subject to some scholarly attention, and on the basis of the works, there are a few generalities which can be dealt with first. The size and number of ships which accompanied the eunuch commanders on the voyages to Southeast Asia and beyond has long been an issue of debate. The degree, to which the development of the port city of Malacca was a product of Ming policies in Southeast Asia in the early fifteenth century, needs to be further investigated. The number of Southeast Asian rulers travelling to China with the Zheng He missions suggests that coercion must have been an important element. The trade with Southeast Asia engaged in by those of the southern provinces seems to have been increasingly ignored by the administration in Beijing. The Ming invasion and occupation of Dai Viet had profound effects on Mainland Southeast Asia.
