Between 1405 and 1433, the Chinese Muslim admiral Zheng He commanded seven vast naval expeditions from Nanjing, China, sailing enormous treasure ships — some reportedly over 120 metres long — across the South China Sea and Indian Ocean as far as East Africa, exploiting the seasonal monsoon wind systems to navigate predictably between ports in Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and Africa. The fleets, totalling hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of sailors on each voyage, were by far the largest naval armadas in world history to that date and represented the peak of Ming dynasty maritime ambition. Zheng He's voyages predated European circumnavigation by nearly a century.

Zheng He's voyages generated a body of Chinese travel writing and poetry celebrating the diversity of the world's peoples and the marvels encountered on distant shores, influencing a tradition of literary cosmopolitanism within Chinese letters. The monsoon winds that enabled his expeditions were already celebrated in Chinese and Arabic poetry as the seasonal breath that connected the Indian Ocean world, and Zheng He's voyages reinforced this literary geography. His legacy has been extensively revisited by contemporary Chinese and diasporic writers exploring questions of Chinese maritime heritage and global historical presence.