Document: Merchants boast that their wisdom and ability are such as to give them a free hand in affairs. They believe that they know all the possible transformations in the universe and therefore can calculate all the changes in the human world, and that the rise and fall of prices are under their command. These merchants do not know how insignificant their wisdom and ability really are... If farmers do not work, there will be an insufficiency of food; if craftsmen do not work, there will be an insufficiency of tools; if merchants do not work, circulation of the three necessities will be cut off, which will cause food and materials to be insufficient... As to the foreigners in the Southeast, their goods are useful to us just as ours are to them. To use what one has to exchange for what one does not have is what trade is all about...Foreigners are recalcitrant and their greed knows no bounds. I do not think trade with them will ensure us a century of peace. Peace comes to those who toil diligently on the land. It comes to those who protect the people from the overflowing waters of the Huang He (river). Merchants do not promote the livelihood of others, only themselves, this I know from my experience traveling abroad as an official. E : Source: Essay from government official Chang Han, 15th century, in response to the late Zheng He's voyages; found in Chinese Civilization and Society: A Sourcebook (New York: The Free Press) Author's purpose- his reason for or intent in writing. It may be to amuse the reader, to persuade the reader, to inform the reader, or to satirize (use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule) a condition.

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