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The Ming Voyages

• Introduction
• The Emperor and His Ambition
• The Trusted Admiral Zheng He
• Preparing the Fleet
• The Seven Voyages
• The Fateful Decision
• Discussion Questions
• Classroom Activities

Introduction

From 1405 until 1433, the Chinese purple eunuch Zheng He led seven sea expeditions for the Ming emperor that are unmatched in globe history. These missions were astonishing as much for their distance as for their size: during the first ones, Zheng He traveled all the way from China to Southeast Asia and then on to Bharat, all the style to major trading sites on India's southwest declension. In his fourth voyage, he traveled to the Persian Gulf. Merely for the three last voyages, Zheng went even further, all the way to the east coast of Africa. This was impressive enough, but Chinese merchants had traveled this far before. What was fifty-fifty more impressive virtually these voyages was that they were done with hundreds of huge ships and tens of thousands of sailors and other passengers. Over threescore of the three hundred seventeen ships on the first voyage were enormous "Treasure Ships," sailing vessels over 400 hundred feet long, 160 feet wide, with several stories, nine masts and twelve sails, and luxurious staterooms complete with balconies. The likes of these ships had never before been seen in the world, and it would not exist until World War I that such an armada would be assembled over again. The story of how these flotillas came to be assembled, where they went, and what happened to them is ane of the groovy sagas — and puzzles — in globe history.

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The Emperor and His Ambitions

The Ming dynasty (1368-1644) was a Chinese dynasty with a Chinese purple family, equally singled-out from the dynasty that came before information technology (the Mongol, or Yuan, dynasty of Chinggis and Khubilai Khan) or the one that followed it (the Manchu, or Qing, dynasty). To demonstrate Ming power, the starting time emperors initiated campaigns to decisively defeat any domestic or foreign threat. The third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di or the Yongle Emperor, was peculiarly aggressive and personally led major campaigns against Mongolian tribes to the north and west. He likewise wanted those in other countries to be aware of China'southward ability, and to perceive it as the strong country he believed it had been in earlier Chinese dynasties, such as the Han and the Song; he thus revived the traditional tribute system. In the traditional tributary arrangement, countries on Prc's borders agreed to recognize China as their superior and its emperor as lord of "all under Heaven." These countries regularly gave gifts of tribute in exchange for sure benefits, like armed forces posts and merchandise treaties. In this system, all benefited, with both peace and merchandise bodacious. Because the Yongle emperor realized that the major threats to China in this period were from the north, particularly the Mongols, he saved many of those armed forces excursions for himself. He sent his about trusted generals to deal with the Manchurian people to the northward, the Koreans and Japanese to the east, and the Vietnamese in the southward. For ocean expeditions to the due south and west, however, he decided that this time Red china should make use of its extremely avant-garde engineering science and all the riches the state had to offer. Lavish expeditions should be mounted in order to overwhelm foreign peoples and convince them beyond any dubiety about Ming power. For this special purpose, he chose one of his most trusted generals, a man he had known since he was immature, Zheng He.

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The Trusted Admiral Zheng He

Zheng He was born Ma He to a Muslim family unit in the far southwest, in today'south Yunnan province. At ten years old he was captured by soldiers sent there by the first Ming emperor intent on subduing the south. He was sent to the uppercase to be trained in military machine ways. Growing upwardly to be a burly, imposing homo, over half dozen feet tall with a chest contemporaries said measured over five feet around, he was also extremely talented and intelligent. He received both literary and military grooming, then made his mode up the military ladder with ease, making important allies at court in the procedure. When the emperor needed a trustworthy ambassador familiar with Islam and the ways of the due south to head his splendid armada to the "Western Oceans," he naturally picked the talented court eunuch, Ma He, whom he renamed Zheng.

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Preparing the Fleet

Red china had been extending its power out to ocean for 300 years. To satisfy growing Chinese demand for special spices, medicinal herbs, and raw materials, Chinese merchants cooperated with Moslem and Indian traders to develop a rich network of trade that reached beyond island southeast Asia to the fringes of the Indian Ocean. Into the ports of eastern China came ginseng, lacquerware, celadon, gold and silver, horses and oxen from Korea and Nihon. Into the ports of southern China came hardwoods and other tree products, ivory, rhinoceros horn, vivid kingfisher feathers, ginger, sulfur and tin from Vietnam and Siam in mainland southeast Asia; cloves, nutmeg, batik fabrics, pearls, tree resins, and bird plumes from Sumatra, Java, and the Moluccas in island southeast Asia. Trade winds beyond the Indian Ocean brought ships carrying cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, and especially pepper from Calicut on the southwestern coast of Republic of india, gemstones from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), every bit well as woolens, carpets, and more precious stones from ports as far away equally Hormuz on the Persian Gulf and Aden on the Cherry-red Ocean. Agricultural products from northward and east Africa also made their way to Mainland china, although petty was known about those regions.

Past the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, China had reached a peak of naval technology unsurpassed in the earth. While using many technologies of Chinese invention, Chinese shipbuilders likewise combined technologies they borrowed and adjusted from seafarers of the South China seas and the Indian Sea. For centuries, China was the preeminent maritime ability in the region, with advances in navigation, naval architecture, and propulsion. From the 9th century on, the Chinese had taken their magnetic compasses aboard ships to utilise for navigating (2 centuries before Europe). In addition to compasses, Chinese could navigate by the stars when skies were articulate, using printed manuals with star charts and compass bearings that had been available since the thirteenth century. Star charts had been produced from at least the eleventh century, reflecting China's business organisation with heavenly events (unmatched until the Renaissance in Europe).

An of import advance in shipbuilding used since the 2d century in Mainland china was the structure of double hulls divided into separate watertight compartments. This saved ships from sinking if rammed, but it also offered a method of carrying water for passengers and animals, as well as tanks for keeping fish catches fresh. Crucial to navigation was another Chinese invention of the first century, the sternpost rudder, fastened to the outside rear of a send which could be raised and lowered according to the depth of the water, and used to navigate close to shore, in crowded harbors and narrow channels. Both these inventions were commonplace in Communist china ane,000 years earlier their introduction to Europe.

Chinese ships were also noted for their advances in sail design and rigging. Bypassing the need for banks of rowers, by the third and fourth centuries the Chinese were edifice three- and 4-masted ships (k years before Europe) of wind-efficient design. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries they added lug and so lateen sails from the Arabs to assist sail against the prevailing winds.

By the eighth century, ships 200 feet long capable of conveying 500 men were being congenital in People's republic of china (the size of Columbus' ships 8 centuries later on!) Past the Song Dynasty (960-1279), these stout and stable ships with their individual cabins for travelers and fresh h2o for drinking and bathing were the ships of choice for Arab and Persian traders in the Indian Ocean. The Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) encouraged commercial activity and maritime trade, so the succeeding Ming Dynasty inherited large shipyards, many skilled shipyard workers, and finely tuned naval technology from the dynasty that preceded information technology.

Because the Yongle emperor wanted to impress Ming power upon the world and show off China's resource and importance, he gave orders to build even larger ships than were necessary for the voyages. Thus the give-and-take went out to construct special "Treasure Ships," ships over 400 feet long, 160 feet wide, with nine masts, twelve sails, and four decks, large enough to carry ii,500 tons of cargo each and armed with dozens of pocket-sized cannons. Accompanying those ships were to be hundreds of smaller ships, some filled only with water, others carrying troops or horses or cannon, all the same others with gifts of silks and brocades, porcelains, lacquerware, tea, and ironworks that would impress leaders of far-flung civilizations.

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The Vii Voyages

The first expedition of this mighty armada (1405-07) was composed of 317 ships, including perhaps every bit many as sixty huge Treasure Ships, and nearly 28,000 men. In addition to thousands of sailors, builders and repairmen for the trip, there were soldiers, diplomatic specialists, medical personnel, astronomers, and scholars of foreign means, specially Islam. The armada stopped in Champa (central Vietnam) and Siam (today's Thailand) and then on to island Coffee, to points along the Straits of Malacca, and then proceeded to its main destination of Cochin and the kingdom of Calicut on the southwestern declension of India. On his return, Zheng He put downwardly a pirate uprising in Sumatra, bringing the pirate chief, an overseas Chinese, back to Nanjing for punishment.

The second expedition (1407-1409) took 68 ships to the court of Calicut to attend the inauguration of a new male monarch. Zheng He organized this trek but did not actually lead it in person.

Zheng He did command the third voyage (1409-1411) with 48 big ships and 30,000 troops, visiting many of the same places as on the first voyage but too traveling to Malacca on the Malay peninsula and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). When fighting bankrupt out in that location between his forces and those of a small kingdom, Zheng put downward the fighting, captured the king and brought him back to Communist china where he was released by the emperor and returned home duly impressed.

The quaternary voyage (1413-15) extended the telescopic of the expeditions fifty-fifty further. This time in addition to visiting many of the same sites, Zheng He commandeered his 63 ships and over 28,000 men to Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. The principal chronicler of the voyages, the 20-five yr old Muslim translator Ma Huan, joined Zheng He on this trip. On the way, Zheng He stopped in Sumatra to fight on the side of a deposed sultan, bringing the usurper dorsum to Nanjing for execution.

The fifth voyage (1417-1419) was primarily a render trip for seventeen heads of state from S Asia. They had made their way to China later on Zheng He's visits to their homelands in order to present their tribute at the Ming Courtroom. On this trip Zheng He ventured even further, showtime to Aden at the mouth of the Cherry Sea, and and then on to the east coast of Africa, stopping at the urban center states of Mogadishu and Brawa (in today's Somalia), and Malindi (in present mean solar day Kenya). He was often met with hostility but this was easily subdued. Many ambassadors from the countries visited came dorsum to China with him.

The 6th expedition (1421-1422) of 41 ships sailed to many of the previously visited Southeast Asian and Indian courts and stops in the Farsi Gulf, the Red Bounding main, and the coast of Africa, principally in lodge to return nineteen ambassadors to their homelands. Zheng He returned to China after less than a twelvemonth, having sent his fleet onward to pursue several separate itineraries, with some ships going maybe as far south equally Sofala in present day Mozambique.

The seventh and final voyage (1431-33) was sent out past the Yongle emperor's successor, his grandson the Xuande emperor. This expedition had more than one hundred large ships and over 27,000 men, and it visited all the important ports in the South China Body of water and Indian Ocean as well as Aden and Hormuz. 1 auxiliary voyage traveled upwardly the Red Sea to Jidda, only a few hundred miles from the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Information technology was on the render trip in 1433 that Zheng He died and was buried at sea, although his official grave still stands in Nanjing, Mainland china. Nearly forgotten in People's republic of china until recently, he was immortalized amongst Chinese communities abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia where to this twenty-four hours he is celebrated and revered equally a god.

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The Fateful Decision

Factions at court had long been critical of the Yongle emperor'south extravagant ways. Not merely had he sent seven missions of the enormous Treasure Ships over the western seas, he had ordered overseas missions northeast and e, had sent envoys multiple times beyond desert and grassland to the mountains of Tibet and Nepal and on to Bengal and Siam, and had many times raised armies against fragmented but still troublesome Mongolian tribes to the north. He had embroiled China in a losing battle with Annam (northern Vietnam) for decades (most latterly due to exorbitant demands for timber to build his palace). In addition to these foreign exploits, he had further depleted the treasury by moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and, with a grandeur on land to match that on body of water, by ordering the structure of the magnificent Forbidden City. This projection involved over a one thousand thousand laborers. To farther fortifying the north of his empire, he pledged his administration to the enormous job of reviving and extending the Grand Canal. This made it possible to send grain and other foodstuffs from the rich southern provinces to the northern capital letter by barge, rather than past ships along the declension.

Causing further hardship were natural disasters, severe famines in Shantong and Hunan, epidemics in Fujian, plus lightning strikes that destroyed office of the newly synthetic Forbidden City. In 1448, flooding of the Xanthous River left millions homeless and thousands of acres unproductive. As a result of these disasters coupled with corruption and nonpayment of taxes by wealthy elite, Red china's taxation base shrank by almost half over the course of the century.

Furthermore the fortuitous fragmentation of the Mongol threat forth China's northern borders did not last. By 1449 several tribes unified and their raids and counterattacks were to haunt the Ming Dynasty for the next ii centuries until its fall, forcing military machine attending to be focused on the n. But the situation in the south was not much better. Without continual diplomatic attending, pirates and smugglers again were active in the Southward China Sea.

The Ming court was divided into many factions, most sharply into the pro-expansionist voices led by the powerful eunuch factions that had been responsible for the policies supporting Zheng Ho's voyages, and more than traditional conservative Confucian court directorate who argued for frugality. When another seafaring voyage was suggested to the courtroom in 1477, the vice president of the Ministry of War confiscated all of Zheng He'southward records in the archives, damning them equally "deceitful exaggerations of bizarre things far removed from the testimony of people'south eyes and ears." He argued that "the expeditions of San Bao [pregnant "Iii Jewels," as Zheng He was called] to the West Ocean wasted tens of myriads of money and grain and moreover the people who met their deaths may be counted in the myriads. Although he returned with wonderful precious things, what benefit was information technology to the state?"

Linked to eunuch politics and wasteful policies, the voyages were over. By the century's end, ships could not exist built with more than two masts, and in 1525 the regime ordered the destruction of all oceangoing ships. The greatest navy in history, which once had 3,500 ships (the U.Southward. Navy today has only 324), was gone.

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Discussion Questions

1. Describe the many projects of the Yongle emperor to proclaim Ming power. Why do yous think that the voyages to the w were the well-nigh grand?
2. Why has the Yongle emperor been called one of the most active of the Ming emperors, both militarily and politically?
3. Why has the role of the Mediterranean Sea for Europe been compared to that of the Indian Ocean for Asia?
4. Why did the Ming court rely so heavily on purple eunuchs similar Zheng He to conduct out its policies rather than on traditional Confucian officials?
5. Compare China's maritime power in the fifteenth century with Europe'southward at that time. What was the ground for China's naval power?
6. Why do yous think that the overseas voyages were halted? Just every bit of import, why exercise you think that the Yongle emperor's effort to reinstate the traditional tributary arrangement was abandoned? What were some of the implications of these decisions?

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Classroom Activities

• Divide the class into seven groups. Have each group research i of Zheng He's voyages, detailing the itinerary, the commutation of tribute and trade, and the reactions of the Chinese to the regions visited.
• Imagine you were a resident or a leader of i of the sites visited by Zheng He. Write journal entries or letters to the Yongle emperor to be sent with Zheng He about your impressions of the Chinese and the problems and possibilities of more contact with them.
• Brand a map of the trade and tribute routes of Ming China, with a key that indicates all the products that were exchanged at its borders: northeast, n, northwest, west, due south, southeast, and east.
• Role play the discussions at the Ming court. Select a student to exist the Chinese emperor. Divide the residuum of the class into pro-expansionist advisers and anti-expansionist advocates. Write memorials to the emperor detailing your position and so office play discussions at court. Y'all might hold several of these discussions for dissimilar periods in Ming history, for example, one at the beginning of Yongle's reign, some other afterwards the Forbidden City was built, a third after the Mongol threat was renewed.
• Make a model or diagram of one of the Treasure Ships, advisedly making to calibration the important features of fifteenth century Chinese naval technology.
• The Chinese were not the only peoples to keep sea voyages in the fifteenth century. Inquiry Muslim, Malayo-Polynesian, West and East African, and South American expansion pre-1450. And then identify the Iberian expansion of this period in this context.
• Go to the website The Smashing Chinese Mariner Zheng He [Cheng Ho]. Use the student reading and the image of a sixteenth-century Iberian ship superimposed on one of Zheng He'due south treasure ships (at the top of the folio) to compare the Chinese fifteenth-century treasure ships with the ships used in Portuguese and Castilian maritime voyages.

Acknowledgment: Dr. Sue Gronewald, a specialist in Chinese history, was the author of this unit.

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Source: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1000ce_mingvoyages.htm

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