The Ming Dynasty implemented maritime prohibitions restricting private overseas trade, aiming to control commerce, prevent piracy, and maintain agricultural tax base by keeping population focused on farming. This policy disrupted coastal economies, impoverished fishing communities, and spurred smuggling networks while concentrating wealth and power in state-controlled channels, affecting millions of coastal residents.

Ming Dynasty poets and novelists documented coastal life under maritime restrictions, with works reflecting tensions between state control and local economic survival. The ban's impact on port cities and merchant classes influenced vernacular fiction and poetry that explored themes of confinement, forbidden desire, and economic frustration, while later Ming writers critiqued isolationist policies through allegorical narratives.