Re: Why are Asians so good at math?
- From: PaPaPeng <PaPaPeng@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:43:52 GMT
On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:17:21 -0500, "Robert J. Kolker"
<nowhere@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Not so. Daniel Borstin in his book -The Discoverers- has a lot of
material on Zheng He. What is really crucial is that the exploratory
voyages of Zheng were terminated for reasons other than their expense.
Could it be there was an insularity of viewpoint growing in China?
Why Geography Matters : Three Challenges Facing America: Climate
Change, the Rise of China, and Global Terrorism (Hardcover)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195183010/104-8214985-8560718?v=glance&n=283155
has given the best plausible explanation for the cessation of China's
martime explorations. The worldwide Little Ice Age came a bit later
to China having struck Europe first
Little Ice Age
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_ice_age
The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of cooling lasting approximately
from the 14th to the mid-19th centuries, although there is no
generally agreed start or end date: some confine the period to
1550-1850. This cooler period occurs after a warmer era known as the
Medieval climate optimum. There were three minima, beginning about
1650, about 1770, and 1850, each separated by slight warming intervals
[1].
(snip)
For this reason, scholars tend to use any of several dates ranging
over 400 years for the beginning of the Little Ice Age:
1250 for when Atlantic pack ice began to grow
1300 for when warm summers stopped being dependable in Northern Europe
1315 for the rains and Great Famine of 1315-1317
1550 for theorized beginning of worldwide glacial expansion
1650 for the first climatic minimum
In contrast to its vague beginning, there is an almost undisputed
consensus that the end of the Little Ice Age was in the mid-19th
century.
(snip)
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He
Zheng He (Traditional Chinese: ??; Simplified Chinese: ??; Hanyu
Pinyin: Zhèng Hé; Wade-Giles: Cheng Ho; Birth name: ??? / ???; pinyin:
Ma Sanbao; Arabic name: Hajji Mahmud) (1371 — 1433), is the most
well-known Chinese mariner and explorer who made the voyages
collectively referred to as the travels of "Eunuch Sanbao to the
Western Ocean" (???????) or "Zheng He to the Western Ocean", from 1405
to 1433.
Zheng He's died at sea on his last voyage in 1433 and the date neatly
straddles the 1315 to 1550 dates of the LIA. The LIA came a bit later
to China soon after Zheng He's final 1433 voyage.
As happened in Europe the growing season shortened and crops failed
leading to widespread famine. Farm animals did not survive the
winter. There was drought or too much rain and floods in areas that
did not suffer these calamities before. The same happened in China.
With a full blown and prolonged disaster in China there were no
resources for Imperial maritime ambitions. What is frustrating is the
scarcity of official records in China on this subject. Perhaps much
was lost during later Dynastic changes and the destruction of even
more records during the European imperialism into China.
If the LIA happened later to China it is safe to assume that it also
ended later in China. In the meantime it was the beginning of the Age
of Exploration of Europe while China was into recovery. The rest is
history.
Age of Discovery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_exploration
The so-called Age of Discovery or Age of Exploration was a period from
the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century,
during which European ships traveled around the world to search for
new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in
Europe. In the process, Europeans encountered peoples and mapped lands
previously unknown to them. Among the most famous explorers of the
period were Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral,
John Cabot, Yermak, Juan Ponce de León, Ferdinand Magellan,Willem
Barentsz, Abel Tasman, and Willem Jansz.
The Age of Exploration was rooted in new technologies and ideas
growing out of the Renaissance, these included advances in
cartography, navigation, and shipbuilding. Many people wanted to find
a route to Asia through the west of Europe. The most important
development was the invention of first the carrack and then caravel in
Iberia. These vessels evolved from medieval European designs with the
addition of some Arab elements. They were the first ships that could
leave the relatively passive Mediterranean and sail safely on the open
Atlantic.
(more)
.
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