張燮是第十六世紀末葉的福建學者，其附近的漳州、泉州和廈門是跟東南亞有密切商貿往來的地區，因此他從小應該對於海外事情有所見聞，也可能接觸不少來自海外的船人和商家，這些資訊給了他寫作上不少的題材。張燮在寫作該書時，中國剛好面臨日本倭寇的入侵以及西洋勢力對中國沿海之覬覦，所以他的著作正好反映了那個時代的知識份子的世界觀。本書涵蓋的範圍東到日本，西到馬來半島和蘇門答臘，並沒有包括南印度。他對於該一地區的國家、民情風俗、航運和市場交易，有更為貼近現實的描述，這是其他著作欠缺的，因此該書對於瞭解東亞地區之海洋交通航運史具有重要參考價值。Chang Xie was a Fujian scholar in the late 16th century. The nearby Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Xiamen are areas with close business ties with Southeast Asia. Therefore, he should have learned about overseas affairs since he was a child, and he may have come into contact with many ships from overseas. People and businesses, this information gave him a lot of materials for writing. When Chang Xie was writing this book, China was facing the invasion of Japanese pirates and the coveting of China's coastal areas by Western forces, so his work just reflected the worldview of intellectuals of that era. The scope covered in this book extends from Japan in the east to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra in the west, and South India is not i
