What was remarkable about the voyages of zheng he

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Skilled in the arts of war, strategy, and diplomacy, the young man cut an imposing figure: Some described him as seven feet tall with a deep, booming voice. Ma He burnished his reputation as a military commander with his feats at the battle of Zhenglunba, near Beijing. Chinese ships had set sail from the ports near present-day Shanghai, crossing the East China Sea, bound for Japan.

As far back as the 11th century, multi-sailed Chinese junks boasted fixed rudders and watertight compartments—an innovation that allowed partially damaged ships to be repaired at sea.

Chinese sailors were using compasses to navigate their way across the South China Sea. Setting off from the coast of eastern China with colossal cargoes, they soon ventured farther afield, crossing the Strait of Malacca while seeking to rival the Arab ships that dominated the trade routes in luxury goods across the Indian Ocean—or the Western Ocean, as the Chinese called it. While a well-equipped navy had been built up during the early years of the Song dynasty , it was in the 12th century that the Chinese became a truly formidable naval power.

The Song lost control of northern China in , and with it, access to the Silk Road and the wealth of Persia and the Islamic world. The forced withdrawal to the south prompted a new capital to be established at Hangzhou, a port strategically situated at the mouth of the Qiantang River, and which Marco Polo described in the course of his famous adventures in the s. See pictures from along Marco Polo's journey through Asia. For centuries, the Song had been embroiled in battles along inland waterways and had become indisputable masters of river navigation.

Now, they applied their experience to building up a naval fleet. Kublai Khan achieved what Genghis could not: conquering China. Kublai Khan built an empire for the Mongols in the 13th century, conquering China in He also had his sights set on Japan and tried to invade, not once, but twice: first in and again in Chroniclers of the time report that he sent thousands of Chinese and Korean ships and as many as , men to seize the islands of Japan.

Historians believed the stories to be legendary, but recent archaeological finds support the story of giant storms saving Japan. Having toppled the Song and ascended to the Chinese imperial throne in , Kublai built up a truly fearsome naval force. Millions of trees were planted and new shipyards created.

Soon, Kublai commanded a force numbering thousands of ships, which he deployed to attack Japan, Vietnam, and Java. And while these naval offensives failed to gain territory, China did win control over the sea-lanes from Japan to Southeast Asia. The Mongols gave a new preeminence to merchants, and maritime trade flourished as never before.

On land, however, they failed to establish a settled form of government and win the allegiance of the peoples they had conquered. Its first emperor, Hongwu, was as determined as the Mongol and Song emperors before him to maintain China as a naval power. This made other countries pay tribute to the Ming Court. What was the result of the voyages? Zheng He and his patron the Yongle Emperor died.

He was able to expand new, friendly ties with other nations, while developing relations between the east-west trade opportunities. Unfortunately, the official imperial records of his voyages were destroyed.

This made it possible to transport grain and other foodstuffs from the rich southern provinces to the northern capital by barge, rather than by ships along the coast. Causing further hardship were natural disasters, severe famines in Shantong and Hunan, epidemics in Fujian, plus lightning strikes that destroyed part of the newly constructed Forbidden City. In , flooding of the Yellow 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, China's tax base shrank by almost half over the course of the century.

Furthermore the fortuitous fragmentation of the Mongol threat along China's northern borders did not last. By several tribes unified and their raids and counterattacks were to haunt the Ming Dynasty for the next two centuries until its fall, forcing military attention to be focused on the north. But the situation in the south was not much better. Without continual diplomatic attention, pirates and smugglers again were active in the South 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 traditional conservative Confucian court advisers who argued for frugality.

When another seafaring voyage was suggested to the court in , the vice president of the Ministry of War confiscated all of Zheng He's records in the archives, damning them as "deceitful exaggerations of bizarre things far removed from the testimony of people's eyes and ears. Although he returned with wonderful precious things, what benefit was it to the state?

Linked to eunuch politics and wasteful policies, the voyages were over. By the century's end, ships could not be built with more than two masts, and in the government ordered the destruction of all oceangoing ships. The greatest navy in history, which once had 3, ships the U.

Navy today has only , was gone. Discussion Questions. Classroom Activities. Acknowledgment: Dr. Sue Gronewald, a specialist in Chinese history, was the author of this unit. Introduction From until , the Chinese imperial eunuch Zheng He led seven ocean expeditions for the Ming emperor that are unmatched in world history.

The Emperor and His Ambitions The Ming dynasty was a Chinese dynasty with a Chinese imperial family, as distinct from the dynasty that came before it the Mongol, or Yuan, dynasty of Chinggis and Khubilai Khan or the one that followed it the Manchu, or Qing, dynasty.

Preparing the Fleet China had been extending its power out to sea for years. The Seven Voyages The first expedition of this mighty armada was composed of ships, including perhaps as many as sixty huge Treasure Ships, and nearly 28, men. The Fateful Decision Factions at court had long been critical of the Yongle emperor's extravagant ways.

Discussion Questions Describe the many projects of the Yongle emperor to proclaim Ming power. Why do you think that the voyages to the west were the most grand? Why has the Yongle emperor been called one of the most active of the Ming emperors, both militarily and politically? Why did the Ming court rely so heavily on imperial eunuchs like Zheng He to carry out its policies rather than on traditional Confucian officials?

Compare China's maritime power in the fifteenth century with Europe's at that time. What was the basis for China's naval power? Why do you think that the overseas voyages were halted? Just as important, why do you think that the Yongle emperor's attempt to reinstate the traditional tributary system was abandoned?

What were some of the implications of these decisions?