Re: china and the us

its plausible. marco polo did not leave a lot of evidence either but
many euros believe him .


[edit]
Biography
Zheng was born in 1371 of the Hui ethnic group and the Muslim faith. He
served as a close confidant of the Yongle Emperor of China (reigned
1403–1424), the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty. According to his
biography in the History of Ming, he was originally named Ma Sanbao
(馬 三保), and came from Kunyang (昆阳,
present day Jinning (晋宁)), Yunnan Province. Zheng
belonged to the Semur or Semu caste who practiced Islam. He was the
sixth generation descendant of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, a famous
Yuan governor of the Yunnan Province from Bukhara in modern day
Uzbekistan. His family name "Ma" came from Shams al-Din's fifth son
Masuh. Both his father Mir Tekin and grandfather Charameddin had
travelled on pilgrimage to Mecca, and no doubt he heard them recounting
tales of travels to far away lands. After the Ming army conquered
Yunnan, he was taken captive as a young boy, and castrated, thus
becoming a eunuch, to become a servant at the Imperial court. The name
Zheng He was given by the Yongle emperor for the war merit in the
Yongle rebellion aganst the Jianwen Emperor. He studied at Nanjing
Taixue (The Imperial Central College).

His missions showed impressive demonstrations of organizational
capability and technological might, but did not lead to significant
trade, since Zheng He was an admiral and an official, not a merchant.
There were also rumors that he was at least two meters (six feet seven
inches) tall.

Zheng sailed to Malacca in the 15th century. By the mid-15th century, a
princess of China, Princess Hang Li Po (or Hang Liu), was sent by the
Emperor of China to marry the Sultan of Malacca, Sultan Mansur Shah.
The princess came with her entourage -— 500 sons of ministers and a few
hundred handmaidens. They eventually settled in Bukit Cina in Malacca.
The descendants of these people, from mixed marriages with the local
natives, are known today as Peranakan: Baba (the male title) and Nyonya
(the female title). (MP)

In 1424, the Yongle Emperor died. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor
(reigned 1424–1425), decided to curb the influence at court. Zheng He
made one more voyage under the Xuande Emperor (reigned 1426–1435), but
after that Chinese treasure ship fleets ended. Zheng He died during the
treasure fleet's last voyage. Although he has a tomb in China, it is
empty: he was, like many great admirals, buried at sea.

[edit]
Voyages

The Kangnido map (1402) predates Zheng's voyages and suggests that he
had quite detailed geographical information on much of the Old
World."The Western Ocean" refers to the Asian and African places Zheng
He explored, including:

Southeast Asia,
Sumatra,
Java,
Ceylon,
India,
The Americas (not proven)
Persia,
The Persian Gulf,
Arabia,
The Red Sea as far north as Egypt, and
Africa as far south as the Mozambique Channel.
Taiwan seven times.
The number of his voyages varies depending on the method of division,
but he travelled at least seven times to "The Western Ocean" with his
fleet. He brought back to China many trophies and envoys from more than
thirty kingdoms -— including King Alagonakkara of Ceylon, who came to
China to apologize to the Emperor.

There are speculations that some of Zheng's ships may have travelled
beyond the Cape of Good Hope. In particular, the Venetian monk and
cartographer Fra Mauro describes in his 1457 Fra Mauro map the travels
of a huge "junk from India" 2,000 miles into the Atlantic Ocean in
1420.

Zheng himself wrote of his travels:

"We have traversed more than 100,000 li (50,000 kilometers) of immense
waterspaces and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains
rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away
hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily
unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course (as rapidly)
as a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a
public thoroughfare…" (Tablet erected by Zhen He, Changle, Fujian,
1432. Louise Levathes)
[edit]
The fleets

Early 17th century Chinese woodblock print, thought to represent Zheng
He's ships.According to Chinese sources, the fleet comprised 30,000 men
and over 300 ships at its height.

The 1405 expedition consisted of 27,800 men and 317 ships, composed of:

"Treasure ships", used by the commander of the fleet and his deputies
(nine-masted, about 120 meters (400 ft) long and 50 m (160 ft) wide).
"Horse ships", carrying tribute goods and repair material for the fleet
(eight-masted, about 103 m (339 ft) long and 42 m (138 ft) wide)
"Supply ships", containing food-staple for the crew (seven-masted,
about 78 m (257 ft) long and 35 m (115 ft) wide).
"Troop transports", six-masted, about 67 m (220 ft) long and 25 m (83
ft) wide).
"Fuchuan warships", five-masted, about 50 m (165 ft) long).
"Patrol boats", eight-oared, about 37 m (120 feet) long).
"Water tankers", with 1 month supply of fresh water.
The enormous characteristics of the Chinese ships of the period are
confirmed by Western travelers to the East, such as Ibn Battuta and
Marco Polo. According to Ibn Battuta, who visited China in 1347:

…We stopped in the port of Calicut, in which there were at the time
thirteen Chinese vessels, and disembarked. China Sea travelling is done
in Chinese ships only, so we shall describe their arrangements. The
Chinese vessels are of three kinds; large ships called chunks (junks),
middle sized ones called zaws (dhows) and the small ones kakams. The
large ships have anything from twelve down to three sails, which are
made of bamboo rods plaited into mats. They are never lowered, but
turned according to the direction of the wind; at anchor they are left
floating in the wind.
Three smaller ones, the "half", the "third" and the "quarter",
accompany each large vessel. These vessels are built in the towns of
Zaytun and Sin-Kalan. The vessel has four decks and contains rooms,
cabins, and saloons for merchants; a cabin has chambers and a lavatory,
and can be locked by its occupants.
This is the manner after which they are made; two (parallel) walls of
very thick wooden (planking) are raised and across the space between
them are placed very thick planks (the bulkheads) secured
longitudinally and transversely by means of large nails, each three
ells in length. When these walls have thus been built the lower deck is
fitted in and the ship is launched before the upper works are
finished." (Ibn Battuta).
[edit]
Connection to the history of Late Imperial China

A giraffe brought from Africa in the twelfth year of Yongle (1414 AD)..
Although historians such as John Fairbank and Joseph Needham
popularized this view in the 1950s, most current historians of China
question its accuracy. They point out that Chinese maritime commerce
did not stop after Zheng He, that Chinese ships continued to dominate
Southeast Asian commerce until the 19th century and that active Chinese
trading with India and East Africa continued long after the time of
Zheng. The travels of the Chinese junk Keying to the United States and
England between 1846 to 1848 testify to the power of Chinese shipping
until the 19th century.

Although the Ming Dynasty did ban shipping for a few decades with the
Hai jin edict, they eventually lifted this ban. The alternative view
cites the fact that by banning ocean going shipping the Ming (and later
Qing) dynasties forced countless numbers of people into blackmarket
smuggling. This reduced government tax revenue and increased piracy.
The lack of an ocean going navy then left China highly vulnerable to
the Waku (wakou) pirates that ravaged China in the 16th century.

One thing is certain. State-sponsored Ming naval efforts declined
dramatically after Zheng's voyages. Starting in the early 15th century
China experienced increasing pressure from resurgent Mongolian tribes
from the north. In recognition of this threat and possibly to move
closer to his family's historical geographic power base, in 1421 the
emperor Yongle moved the capital north from Nanjing to present-day
Beijing. From the new capital he could apply greater imperial
supervision to the effort to defend the northern borders. At
considerable expense, China launched annual military expeditions from
Beijing to weaken the Mongolians. The expenditures necessary for these
land campaigns directly competed with the funds necessary to continue
naval expeditions.

In 1449 Mongolian cavalry ambushed a land expedition personally led by
the emperor Zhengtong less than a day's march from the walls of the
capital. In the Battle of Tumu Fortress the Mongolians wiped out the
Chinese army and captured the emperor. This battle had two salient
effects. First, it demonstrated the clear threat posed by the northern
nomads. Second, the Mongols caused a political crisis in China when
they released Zhengtong after his half-brother had proclaimed himself
the new Jingtai emperor. Not until 1457 did political stability return
when Zhengtong recovered the throne. Upon his return to power China
abandoned the strategy of annual land expeditions and instead embarked
upon a massive and expensive expansion of the Great Wall of China. In
this environment, funding for naval expeditions simply did not happen.

More fundamentally, unlike the later naval expeditions conducted by
European nations, the Chinese treasure ships appear to have been doomed
in the long run because the voyages lacked any economic motive. They
were primarily conducted to increase the prestige of the emperor and
the costs of the expeditions and of the return gifts provided to
foreign royalty and ambassadors more than offset the benefit of any
tribute collected. Thus when China's governmental finances came under
pressure (which like all medieval governments' finances they eventually
did), funding for the naval expeditions melted away. In contrast, by
the 16th century, most European missions of exploration made enough
profit from the resulting trade to become self-financing, allowing them
to continue regardless of the condition of the state's finances.

[edit]
Cultural echoes

Stamps commemorating the 600th anniversary of Zheng's voyagesA recent
controversial theory (the 1421 hypothesis) put forward by Gavin Menzies
in his book suggests that Zheng He circumnavigated the globe and
discovered America in the 15th century before Ferdinand Magellan and
Christopher Columbus.

The Qeng Ho space-faring society alluded to in Vernor Vinge's science
fiction novel A Fire Upon the Deep (and later prominently featured in A
Deepness in the Sky) reflects the name of Zheng. His voyages and the
subsequent possible abandonment (as some have argued) of maritime
exploration by the Chinese emperors have become symbolic in the space
advocacy community of the success and cancellation of the Apollo
Program.

Zheng features as a character in Kim Stanley Robinson's alternative
history The Years of Rice and Salt.

It has been suggested by some historians and mentioned in a recent
National Geographic article on Zheng that Sindbad the Sailor (also
spelled "Sinbad", from Arabic
السندباد—As-Sindibad)
and the collection of travel-romances that make up the Seven Voyages of
Sindbad the Sailor found in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights
(Arabian Nights) were influenced heavily by the cumulative tales of
many seafarers that had followed, traded and worked in various support
ships as part of the armada of Chinese Ming Imperial Treasure Fleets.
This belief is supported in part by the similarities in Sindbad's name
and the various iterations of Zheng in Arabic and Mandarin
(Traditional: 鄭和; Simplified: 郑和; pinyin:
Zhèng Hé; Wade-Giles: Cheng Ho; Birth name: 马三宝;
pinyin: Mǎ Sānbǎo; Arabic name: Hajji Mahmud Shams)
along with the similarities in the number (seven) and general locations
of voyages between Sindbad and Zheng.




[edit]
The Zheng He map
In January 2006, BBC News and The Economist both published news
regarding the exhibition of a Chinese sailing map claimed to be dated
1763, which was stated to be a copy of another map purportedly made in
1418. The map has detailed descriptions of both Native Americans and
Native Australians. According to the map's owner, Liu Gang, a Chinese
lawyer and collector, he purchased the map in 2001 for $500 USD from a
Shanghai dealer.

After Liu read the book "1421: The Year China discovered the World" by
Gavin Menzies, he realized the significant potential value of the map.
The map has been tested to verify the ages of its ink and paper. If the
map is proven to have be drawn in 1763, the question remains as to
whether it is an accurate copy of an earlier 1418 map, or simply a copy
of a contemporary 18th-century European map.

A number of authorities on Chinese history have questioned the
authenticity of the map. Some point to the use of the Mercator-style
projection, its accurate reckoning of longitude and its North-based
orientation. None of these features was used in the best maps made in
either Asia or Europe during this period (for example see the Kangnido
map (1410) and the Fra Mauro (1459)). Also mentioned is the depiction
of the erroneous Island of California, a mistake commonly repeated in
European maps from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

Geoff Wade of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of
Singapore has strongly disputed the authenticity of the map and has
suggested that it is either an 18th or 21st-century fake. He has
pointed out a number of anachronisms that appear in the map and its
text annotations. For example, in the text next to Eastern Europe,
which has been translated as "People here mostly believe in God and
their religion is called 'Jing'", Wade notes that the Chinese word for
the Christian God is given as "Shang-di", which is a usage that was
first coined by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century.

[edit]
See also
Zhang Qian
Ban Chao
Faxian
Xuanzang
Zhou Man
1421 Hypothesis
[edit]
External links
Economist: China beat Columbus to it, perhaps (January 12, 2006)
BBC News China map lays claim to Americas (January 13, 2006)
Exchange between Liu Gang and Geoff Wade
Laputan Logic: China's Own Vinland Map Liu Gang's map, Chinese
cartography and the Island of California myth
National Geographic magazine special feature "China's Great Armada"
(July 2005)
TIME magazine special feature on Zheng He (August 2001)
The Great Chinese Mariner Zheng He (brief biography with map and
images)
Explorer from China who 'beat Columbus to America'
Gavin Menzies' official website about his research on Zheng He
Google Earth Interactive Map of Zheng He's Voyages
Singapore Tourism Board - "1421: The Year China Discovered The World"
exhibition
1421 and The world exploration travel (?)
Hero of the High Seas from Der Spiegel, by Andreas Lorenz, August 29,
2005
Virtual exhibition from elibraryhub.com
[edit]
Further reading
Ma Huan,Ying-yai Sheng-lan, The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores
(1433), tranlated
from the Chinese text edited by Feng Ch'eng Chun with introduction,nots
and appendices by J.V.G.Mills. White Lotus Press, reprint.1970,1997.

Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the
Dragon Throne, 1405-1433, Oxford University Press, 1997, trade
paperback, ISBN 0195112075
Gavin Menzies, 1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered the World,
Morrow/Avon, 2003, hardcover 576 pages, ISBN 0060537639. (Scholars
consider this book, insofar as it relates to the Chinese discovery of
America, to lack factual foundation; Review of 1421 by a science editor
at the New York Times)
China Has an Ancient Mariner to Tell You About
There may be other books, publications and papers available (especially
in China), but these have not yet been translated in languages other
than the original Chinese.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He";
Categories: 1371 births | 1433 deaths | Chinese explorers | Explorers
of Asia | Explorers of Africa | Chinese admirals | Geographers |
Muslims | Eunuchs

ViewsArticle Discussion Edit this page History Personal toolsSign in /
create account Navigation
Main Page
Community Portal
Featured articles
Current events
Recent changes
Random article
Help
Contact Wikipedia
Donations
Search
Toolbox
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Printable version
Permanent link
Cite this article
In other languages
Asturianu
Bân-lâm-gú
Bosanski
Brezhoneg
Български
Català
Česky
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
Bahasa Indonesia
Interlingua
Иронау
Íslenska
Italiano
Basa Jawa
Latina
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk (bokmål)
Polski
Português
Русский
Scots
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
Српски / Srpski
Suomi
Svenska
ไทย
Tiếng Việt
中文

This page was last modified 13:05, 7 April 2006. All text is available
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights
for details).
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: China beat Columbus to it, perhaps
    ... Had there been such a "map", ... Had Zheng He, a.k.a. eunuch San Bao Tai Jien, ... invented by Chinese a thousand years earlier. ... post-war European scholarship, Dr Joseph Needham, passed away at the ...
    (soc.culture.china)
  • Chinas growing might and the spirit of Zheng He
    ... China's growing might and the spirit of Zheng He ... Southeast Asia, on the other hand, does present an historical precedent - ... celebrated inside and outside China with exhibitions and articles. ... was merely the most famous of a number of Chinese admirals who carried out ...
    (soc.culture.malaysia)
  • Re: The Chinese Seem To Have Their Own "Vinland Map"
    ... > On the "Overall Map of the Geography of All Under Heaven" and Zheng ... > advised that a recently-discovered ancient Chinese map could prove ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • Re: controversial Chinese map
    ... it is probably a genuine 18th century map. ... On the "Overall Map of the Geography of All Under Heaven" and Zheng ... and many people both within and outside China have ...
    (sci.geo.cartography)
  • Re: 1418 Chinese map of the world?
    ... On the "Overall Map of the Geography of All Under Heaven" and Zheng He's ... Year China Discovered the World" suggested that Zheng He's fleets had ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)