Monday, August 27, 2007
INTRODUCTION:
Other than Columbus and Magellan, do you know of other great navigators, especially those who are from China? We do, and that great navigator who have sailed four major destination: Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa in seven voyages was none other than Zheng He.
We remember, reading about Zheng He the great ambassador, in our beautifully illustrated history textbooks. But his story hardly stretched over a few columns, and he appeared decidedly in a lesser league to Columbus and Magellan.
But today, we all knew better. Zheng He lead a huge treasure fleet of almost 28,000 troops, sailed to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Persian Gulf, Africa and many great places he sailed by in seven voyages. ‘Baochuan’, an old Chinese treasure ship that Zheng He used, was several times larger than either Columbus’s or Magellan’s ship and the armed troops that Zheng He had with him were definitely a large number, if compared to Columbus’s or Magellan’s.
Leading 317 ships and almost 28,000 troops on his voyage, he lead seven more voyages, each one a successful and fruitful one.
Zheng He’s voyages around the world took place even earlier than Christopher Columbus’s journey to discover the Americans from Europe. He had influenced many a people along his journey, and the legacy of his voyages continues to play a role in the region.
Here, this is a blog featuring Zheng He and his adventurous voyages to the Western Ocean, with evidence that he was indeed a great navigator.
as told by us;
12:33 AM
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Zheng He was born in 1371. He served as a close confidant of the Yongle Emperor of China, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
According to his biography in the History of Ming, he was originally named Ma Sanbao (R), and came from Kunyang (), present day Jinning (). Zheng belonged to the Semu or Semur caste which practiced Islam. He was a sixth generation descendant of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, a famous Khwarezmian Yuan governor of Yunnan Province.
His family name "Ma" came from Shams al-Din's fifth son Masuh (Mansour). Both his father Mir Tekin and grandfather Charameddin had traveled on the hajj to Mecca. Their travels contributed much to the young boy's education.
In 1381, following the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, a Ming army was dispatched to Yunnan to put down the Mongol rebel Basalawarmi. Zheng He, then only a young boy of eleven years, was taken captive by that army and castrated, thus becoming a eunuch. He soon became a servant at the Imperial court. The name Zheng He was given by the Yongle emperor for the war merit in the Yongle rebellion against the Jianwen Emperor. He studied at Nanjing Taixue (The Imperial Central College).
Zheng He travelled to Mecca, though he did not perform the pilgrimage itself. At the beginning of the 1980s, his tomb was renovated in a more Islamic style, although he himself was buried at sea. The government of the People's Republic of China uses him as a model to integrate the Muslim minority into the Chinese nation. He himself was a living example of religious tolerance.
In around 1431, he set up a commemorative pillar at the temple of the Taoist goddess Tian Fei, the Celestial Spouse, in Fujian province, to whom he and his sailors prayed for safety at sea. This pillar records his veneration for the goddess and his belief in her divine protection, as well as a few details about his voyages. Visitors to the Jinghaisi ( in Nanjing are reminded of the donations Zheng He made to this non-Muslim area.
as told by us;
12:32 AM
(A map showing the routes taken by Zheng He during his voyages)
PLACES VISITED BY ZHENG HE:
The followings are the recorded places visited by Admiral Zheng He during his seven voyages
During his (1st) first voyage from 1405AD to 1407AD
he visited these places:
(01) Champa (in present day south of Vietnam
(02) Java (in present day Indonesia)
(03) Sumatra (in present day Indonesia)
(04) Ceylon (present day Sri Laka)
(05) Cochin (in the west coast of India)
(06) Palembang (in present day Indonesia)
(2nd) Second voyage from 1408AD to 1411AD
(07) Champa = same as (01)
(08) Java = same as (02)
(09) Malacca (in present day Malaysia)
(10) Sumatra = same as (03)
(11) Quilon (near the present day Sumatra)
(12) Bengal (present day Blangladash)
(13) Ceylon = same as (04)
(14) Cochin = same as (05)
(15) Calicut (somewhere in the present day west coast of India )
(16) Cail (in present day ?)
(17) Jurfattan ? (in present day ? )
(18) Jurfattan ? (in present day ? )
(3rd) Third voyage from 1412AD to 1415AD
(19) Champa = same as (01)
(20) Kelantan (in present day Malaysia)
(21) Dupo ? (in present day : unknown)
(22) Aru (in present day Indonesia)
(23) Polembang = same as (06)
(24) Sumatra = same as (03)
(25) Sunda (in present day Indonesia ?)
(26) Ceylon = same as (04)
(27) Koyampadi (in present day ? )
(28) Cochin =same as (05)
(29) Calicut = same as (15)
(30) Ormus (in present day Iran )
(31) Malinde (in present day Kenya in Adrica ? )
(32) Pahang (in present day Malaysia)
(4th) Fourth voyage from 1416AD to 1419AD:
(33) Champa = same as (01)
(34) Java = same as (02)
(35) Malacca = same as (09)
(36) Sumatra = same as (03)
(37) Bormeo (present day Brunei in Borneo Island or Kalimanta Island)
(38) Pahang = same as (32)
(39) Maldives (the present day Maldives)
(40) Aden (present day Aden)
(41) Ormus = same as (30)
(42) Cochin = same as (05)
(43) Juba ( in present day Somali in Africa)
(44) Sana? (in present day ? )
(5th) Fifth voyage 1421AD to 1422AD
(45) Champa = same as (01)
(46) Sumatra = same as (03)
(47) Zufar (somewhere in the Middle East)
(48) Macca (present day Mecca in Saudi Arabia)
(49) Magadoxn (Mogadishu in Somali)
(50) Juba = same as (43)
(51) Juba = same as (43)
(6th) Sixth voyage 1424AD to 1425AD
(52) Champa = same as (01)
(53) Polembang = same as (06)
(7th) Seventh voyage 1430AD to 1433AD
(54) Champa = same as (01)
(55) Java = same as (02)
(56) Polembang = same as (06)
(57) Sumatra = same as (03)
(58) Lambri (in present day Indonesia)
(59) Lidi (in present day Indonesia)
(60) Battak (in present day Indonesia)
(61) Quilon = same as (11)
(62) Ceylon = same as (04)
(63) Culicut = same as (15)
(64) Ormus = same as (30)
(65) Zufar = same as (47)
(66) Aden = same as (40)
(67) Macca = same as (48)
(68) Magadoxn = same as (49)
(69) Juba = same as (43)
(70) Siam (present day Thailand)
etween 1405 and 1433, over a period of 28 years, Zhenghe had been
ordered for eight times to act as an envoy to countries lying to the west
of China. He had under his command a big fleet and a staff of more than
20,000 men each time. The South China Sea and the Indian Ocean was
where his fleets had sailed. Sailing then in a northwest direction, they
had visited Yemen, Iran and the Holy City of Islam Mecca and further west
to today's Somalia in East Africa. He had made calls at more than 30
countries and territories in all.
ZhengHe was acting as the envoy and commercial representative of the
Ming court on each voyage. No matter what country he visited, he would
call on the ruler of the land, present to him valuable gifts in token of
China's sincere desire to develop friendly relations and invite the
host sovereign to send emissaries to China. Wherever he was, he would
made a careful study of the customs and habits of local residents. Showing
them due respect, he bartered or dealt with them through consultation
and negotiation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. He
obtained large quantities of pearls and precious stones, coral, ivory and
dyestuffs for the Chinese emperor in this way. He also brought back several
kinds of rare and precious animals such as giraffe, lion, ostrich and
leopard. Wherever he went, he was warmly received. Even today, people
in Somalia and Tanzania look upon Ming China unearthed today as a symbol
of the traditional friendship between their own country and China. In
Thailand today, there are places named after ZhengHe's childhood name
Sanbao (three treasures) such as Sanbao Harbour and Sanbao Pagoda.
Malacca of Malaysia is known also as the City of Sanbao. At Java in
Indonesia, there is the Sanbao Temple. In Calicut (Kozhikode today) of India,
there is an inscribed tablet set up in ZhengHe's memory
The countries ZhengHe had visited later sent their emissaries and trade
representatives to China from time to time. The voyages by ZhengHe
strengthened the friendly relations between China and other countries in
Asia and Africa and gave an impetus to cultural and economic exchange
between them.
On his first voyage overseas, the largest ship in the fleet had a
length of 440 Chinese feet and a width of 180. Manned by more then 200
sailors and able to accommodate 1, 000 passengers, it was equipped with nine
masts which flew 12 big sails. Many of the navigational problems
encountered were solved in a rational, scientific way. For instance, the way
fresh water was collected and stored, the stability of the hull and
its buoyancy, the making of sea charts and the use of navigational
apparatuses like the compass. This accounted for the fact that in spite of
terrible storms, this fleet of friendship had ploughed the waves day and
night in full sail. ZhengHe kept a detailed logbook on each of his 8
voyages and made many nautical charts which were later collected in what
was called Zheng He's Nautical Charts, which was the first of its kind
in the world.
as told by us;
12:32 AM
The Kangnido Map
Mission Part One
Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsored a series of seven naval expeditions. Emperor Yongle designed them to establish a Chinese presence, impose imperial control over trade, and impress foreign peoples in the Indian Ocean basin. He also might have wanted to extend the tributary system, by which Chinese dynasties traditionally recognized foreign peoples.
Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the huge fleet and armed forces that undertook these expeditions. Zheng He's first voyage consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost twenty-eight thousand armed troops. Many of these ships were mammoth nine-masted "treasure ships" which were by far the largest marine craft the world had ever seen.
One of a set of maps of Zheng He's missions (), also known as the Mao Kun maps, 1628.
(A set of The Maokun Map)
On the first three voyages, Zheng He visited southeast Asia, India, and Ceylon. The fourth expedition went to the Persian Gulf and Arabia, and later expeditions ventured down the east African coast, as far as Malindi in what is now Kenya.
Throughout his travels, Zheng He liberally dispensed Chinese gifts of silk, porcelain, and other goods. In return, he received rich and unusual presents from his hosts, including African zebras and giraffes that ended their days in the Ming imperial zoo. Zheng He and his company paid respects to local deities and customs, and in Ceylon they erected a monument honouring Buddha, Allah, and Vishnu.
Zheng He generally sought to attain his goals through diplomacy, and his large army awed most would-be enemies into submission. But a contemporary reported that Zheng He "walked like a tiger", and did not shrink from violence when he considered it necessary to impress foreign peoples with China's military might.
He ruthlessly suppressed pirates who had long plagued Chinese and southeast Asian waters. He also intervened in a civil disturbance in order to establish his authority in Ceylon, and he made displays of military force when local officials threatened his fleet in Arabia and east Africa. From his fourth voyage, he brought envoys from thirty states who traveled to China and paid their respects at the Ming court.
In 1424, the Yongle Emperor died. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor, decided to curb the influence at court. Zheng He made one more voyage under the Xuande Emperor, 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. Zheng He, on his seven voyages, successfully relocated large numbers of Chinese Muslims to Malacca, Palembang, Surabaya and other places and Malacca became the center of Islamic learning and also a large international Islamic trade center of the southern seas.
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. Chinese merchants continued to trade in Japan and southeast Asia, but Imperial officials gave up any plans to maintain a Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean and even destroyed most of the nautical charts that Zheng He had carefully prepared. The decommissioned treasure ships sat in harbors until they rotted away, and Chinese craftsmen forgot the technology of building such large vessels.
Nautical charts: A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a maritime area and adjacent coastal regions. One example of nautical charts that Zheng He had carefully prepared himself is the Kangnido Map.
The Kangnido Map (above)
as told by us;
12:32 AM
Zheng He led seven expeditions to what the Chinese called "the Western Ocean" (Indian Ocean). 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.
The records of Zheng He’s last two voyages, which is believed to be his farthest, were unfortunately destroyed by the Ming emperor. Therefore it is never certain where Zheng has sailed in these two expeditions. The traditional view is that he went as far as to Persia. It is now the widely accepted view that his expeditions went as far as the Mozambique Channel in East Africa, from the Chinese ancient artifact discovered there. The latest view, advanced by Gavin Menzies (see below) suggested Zheng's fleet has travelled every part of the world. However, virtually every authority in the field denounces Menzies' claims as speculation.
(Detail of the Fra Mauro map relating the travels of a junk into the Atlantic Ocean in 1420. The ship also is illustrated above the text.)
There are speculations that some of Zheng's ships may have traveled 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 water spaces 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 Zheng He, Changle, Fujian, 1432. Louise Levathes
His voyages, records, and maps are suggested to be the sources of some of the other Ancient world maps, which are claimed by Menzies to have depicted the Americas, Antarctica, and the tip of Africa before the (European) official discovery and drawings of the Fra Mauro map or the De Virga world map.
The top: according to modern North-South orientation
The Bottom: The Fra Mauro map at its normal orientation-south at the top.
Links: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/FraMauroDetailedMapInverted.jpg
for the left view (N-S orientation)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/FraMauroDetailedMap.jpg
for the right view (normal orientation)
The De Virga world map (1411-1415).
Links: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/DeVirgaDetail.jpg
The full De Virga world map; with calendar plates.
Link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/DeVirgaWorldMap.jpg
Former submarine commander Gavin Menzies in his book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World claims that several parts of Zheng's fleet explored virtually the entire globe, discovering West Africa, North and South America, Greenland, Iceland, Antarctica and Australia (except visiting Europe). Menzies also claimed that Zheng's wooden fleet passed the Arctic Ocean. However none of the citations in 1421 are from Chinese sources and scholars in China do not share Menzies's assertions.
A related book, The Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered America by Paul Chiasson maintains that a nation of native peoples known as the Mi'kmaq on the east coast of Canada are descendants of Chinese explorers, offering evidence in the form of archaeological remains, customs, costume, artwork, etc. It is worth noting that several advocates of these theories believe that Zheng He also discovered modern day New Zealand on either his sixth or seventh expedition.
Trades Along the Silk Road
(Rolls of Chinese silk; Chinese silk has been a popular community for at least since ancient Roman times, when it was favored by the rich and fashionable and traded by merchants of many different religions along the well-known Silk Road.)
(Pictures of famous Chinese silk embroidery; when peach blossoms, dragons and phoenixes designs were very popular in China.)
(An example of an item made of silk; a silk pouch)
(Examples of ancient Chinese porcelain traded by merchants; bowls, pots and ‘containers’ pottery made of porcelain)
as told by us;
12:32 AM
(A map of the old Silk Road)
(An updated map showing the Silk Road with the Sea Route)
A BRIEF GEOGRAPHY OF THE SILK ROAD:
The Silk Road, or Silk Route, is an interconnected series of ancient trade routes through various regions of the Asian continent mainly connecting Chang'an (today's Xi'an) in China, with Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. It extends over 8,000 km (5,000 miles) on land and sea. Trade on the Silk Route was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Indian subcontinent, and Rome, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern world.
as told by us;
12:31 AM
Early 17th century Chinese woodblock print, thought to represent Zheng He's ships.
Zheng He's treasure ship (four hundred feet, bigger) in comparison to Columbus's St. Maria (eighty-five feet,smaller) (Illustration by Jan Adkins, 1993.)
(Ships of the world in 1460, according to the Fra Mauro map. Chinese junks are described as very large, three or four-masted ships.)
Treasure ships
Treasure ship is the name of a type of vessel that Admiral Zheng He sailed in. His fleet included 62 treasure ships, with some said to have reached 600 feet (146 meters) long. The fleet was manned by over 27,000 crew members, including navigators, explorers, sailors, doctors, workers, and soldiers. As the size estimates are those given in later works of fiction, it's likely that actual ships may have been smaller, since in later historical periods ships approaching this size(such as HMS Orlando) were unwieldy and visibly undulated with the waves, even with steel braces. The problem of "hogging", the tendency of the largest wooden ships to sag (like a pig's body) because of buoyancy in the middle, would have been impossible to solve.
According to ancient Chinese sources, Zheng He commanded seven expeditions. The 1405 expedition consisted of 27,800 men and a fleet of 62 treasure ships supported by approximately 190 smaller ships. The fleet included:
• "Treasure ships", used by Zheng He and his deputies (nine-masted, about 127 metres (416 feet) long and 52 metres (170 feet) wide, according to later writers. But no proof of the supposed great size of these ships exists, and as stated above, they are improbably large. The treasure ships purportedly weighed as much as 1,500 tons;127m by 52 m (416 feet by 170 feet)
By way of comparison, a modern ship of about 1,200 tons is 60 meter (200 feet) long, and the ships Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492 were about 70 to 100 tons and 17 meter (55 feet) long.
• "Horse ships", carry tribute goods and repair material for the fleet (eight-masted, about 103 m (339 feet) long and 42 m (138 feet) wide.
• "Supply ships", contains staple for the crew (seven-masted, about 78 m (257 feet) long and 35 m (115 feet) wide.
• "Troop transports"; six-masted, about 67 m (220 feet) long and 25 m (83 feet) wide.
• "Fuchuan warships"; five-masted, about 50 m (165 feet) long.
• "Patrol boats"; eight-oared, about 37 m (120 feet) long.
• "Water tankers", contains 1 month supply of fresh water. (127m long by 52m wide – 416 feet by 170 feet )
These are the dimensions of the Zheng He's ships according to ancient Chinese chronicles and disputed by modern scholars.
Six more expeditions took place, from 1407 to 1433, with fleets of comparable size.
MODELS OF ZHENG HE'S "TREASURE SHIP":
Built by Wei Wenxi, 71, a great navigator, a resident in Changshu, east China's Jiangsu Province and an expert on ancient ship, spent his savings on constructing a model of "Zheng He's treasure ship" in the proportion of 1:40.
Wei Wenxi (Left 1) made final decorations and adjustments to the model of Zheng He's treasure ship.
Workers adjusted the model.
Wei Wenxi made adjustments to porthole on the ship.
Wei Wenxi (Right) and a worker placed sampan model on the treasure ship.
Photos from: english.people.com.cn/200506/21/eng20050621_1...
VARIOUS KINDS OF ZHENG HE'S "TREASURE FLEET":
(The 400 feet long ‘treasure ship’)
Shuichuan (Water Tanker)
Machuan (Horse Ship)
Zhanchuan (Warship)
Zuochuan (Troop Transport)
Luchuan (Patrol Boat)
Baochuan (Treasure Ship)
Liangchuan (Supply Ship)
These reliable photos/pictures of Zheng He’s treasure fleet(models) are taken from: www.china.org.cn/.../features/zhenhe/131948.htm
as told by us;
12:31 AM