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  Chinese
History --- Ming Dynasty
Rivalry among the Mongol imperial heirs, natural
disasters, and numerous peasant uprisings led to the collapse of the Yuan
dynasty. The Ming dynasty (1368-1644) was founded by a Han Chinese peasant
and former Buddhist monk turned rebel army leader. Having its capital
first at Nanjing which means Southern Capital and later at Beijing (Northern
Capital), the Ming reached the zenith of power during the first quarter
of the fifteenth century. The Chinese armies reconquered Annam, as northern
Vietnam was then known, in Southeast Asia and kept back the Mongols, while
the Chinese fleet sailed the China seas and the Indian Ocean, cruising
as far as the east coast of Africa. The maritime Asian nations sent envoys
with tribute for the Chinese emperor. Internally, the Grand Canal was
expanded to its farthest limits and proved to be a stimulus to domestic
trade.
The Ming maritime expeditions stopped rather
suddenly after 1433, the date of the last voyage. Historians have given
as one of the reasons the great expense of large-scale expeditions at
a time of preoccupation with northern defenses against the Mongols. Opposition
at court also may have been a contributing factor, as conservative officials
found the concept of expansion and commercial ventures alien to Chinese
ideas of government. Pressure from the powerful NeoConfucianism bureaucracy
led to a revival of strict agrarian centered society. The stability of
the Ming dynasty, which was without major disruptions of the population
(then around 100 million), economy, arts, society, or politics, promoted
a belief among the Chinese that they had achieved the most satisfactory
civilization on earth and that nothing foreign was needed or welcome.
Long wars with the Mongols, incursions by the
Japanese into Korea, and harassment of Chinese coastal cities by the Japanese
in the sixteenth century weakened Ming rule, which became, as earlier
Chinese dynasties had, ripe for an alien takeover. In 1644 the Manchus
() took Beijing from the north and became masters of north China, establishing
the last imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911).
In the early 1400s, a sailor named Zheng He
(with a fleet of some 300 plus ships) sailed as far west as Mogadishu
and Jiddah, and he may (or may not) have gotten to Madagascar. This is
nearly 100 years before Columbus had the idea of trying to sail to Asia
the long way around. But once the sailors came back, the trips were never
followed up on. Conservative scholars at court failed to see the importance
of them. For the first time in history, China was turning inwards, clinging
to an incorrect interpretation of an outmoded philosophy.
Among other things, they moved the capital
to Beijing, fortified the Great Wall (the massive masonry structure that
you see in all the pictures and postcards is, with some recent, Communist
era repair, an all-Ming construction), built the Forbidden City. It is
also in this Dynasty, Macao was ceded to the Portuguese, which returned
back to China on the 20th of December, 1999.
| Columbus sailed to America in St. Maria
(eighty-five feet) in 1492. Zheng He sailed from China to many places
throughout South Pacific, Indian
Ocean, Taiwan, Persian Gulf and distant Africa in seven epic voyages
from 1405 to 1433 ,some 80 years before Columbus's voyages.
Note: Zheng Ho is an old spelling. Today's
correct spelling is Zheng He.
History Comes Full Circle - From The Straits
Times on 12 November 1995
Whenever one talks about famous voyages
of discovery, great seafarers
such as Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Magellan spring
to mind. The world, however, knows far less about Zheng Ho, the
most important Chinese seafarer of all
time and one of the world's greatest.
His seven epoch making voyages, from AD 1405 - 33,
took him to practically all the inhabited lands bordering the South
China Sea, including Singapore, and the
Indian Ocean, as far as the east
coast of Africa.
By an extraordinary coincidence, Zheng
Ho sailed from Suzhou in 1405
where, almost 600 years later, the Singapore Government is
developing a massive industrial park
in partnership with China. History
has come full circle.
His exploits predated the voyages of
discovery made by his European
counterparts by almost a century. His fleet was far
larger in size and crew strength than those of the Europeans. Each
of his seven flotillas had more than
200 vessels, a crew of 27,000
and the largest ships were at least 1,500 tonnes each. Columbus'
first expedition had three ships, an
87 crew and the largest ship weighed
100 tonnes.
Zheng Ho was born in 1371 in Yunnan
province. A Chinese Muslim, his
ancestors came from Central Asia and intermarried
with the Han Chinese.
When the Yuan dynasty (1279 - 1368)
gave way to the Ming (1368 - 1644),
his father was killed in battle. The young Zheng Ho was
captured by Ming troops who castrated him. He became a
household servant of Prince Zhu Di, destined to be the third Ming
emperor and one of China's most illustrious.
Zheng Ho worked his way up to become
one of his most trusted confidants.
He was highly intelligent and brave, of impressive
physical stature and utterly loyal. When the prince became
Emperor Yongle (1402 - 24) in 1402, after
having usurped the throne of his
nephew, he made Zheng Ho a senior eunuch for his
devotion and prowess in war.
Unlike his European counterparts, all
professional seafarers, Zheng
Ho had the naval commander's job thrust upon him at 34.
While the European missions were for trade, territorial expansion
and to spread Christianity, his was primarily
to publicize the superiority of
Ming China.
Yongle, a power seeking and self glorifying
emperor, was determined his reign
should rival, if not surpass, those of the Tang
(AD 618 - 910) and Song (AD 960- 1279) dynasties, generally
regarded as golden ages in Chinese history.
He believed passionately that
the country's greatness would be much enhanced
through an open-door policy in international diplomacy and trade,
while maintaining universal peace and
prosperity at home. Yongle decided
to dispatch grand maritime expeditions, charged with the
principal mission to spread messages
of his power and glory to all
the seas surrounding China and beyond.
The success of his unprecedented scheme
called for a naval commander who
had not only superior knowledge of the sea and
navigational skills, but also other qualities such as familiarity
with the disparate cultures and
religions of the countries the fleet
would visit. Zheng Ho was personally chosen by Yongle to
undertake this gigantic task.
Within a little over a year, he was
ready to set sail from Suzhou.
The likes of these expeditions (1405 - 33) had not been seen
before or since until the coming of larger
fleets in World War I. Besides
being the largest, Zheng Ho's fleet was also the
best equipped of his time. The magnetic compass, a 10th-century
Chinese invention, and other sophisticated
Chinese navigational aids, such
as the ship's rudder and accurate maps, helped make
these expeditions possible.
Zheng Ho's first expedition, which set
out in 1405, visited Java, Sumatra,
Ceylon and India, to name a few. The ensuing
expeditions called at Siam, made Malacca headquarters for
visiting the East Indies, then proceeded
to Bengal, the Maldive Islands
and went as far west as the Persian sultanate of Ormuz at
the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Part
of the fleet also visited Ryukyu
and Brunei, while others went further westward from
Ormuz to Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea, then southward down
the African coast to Somaliland, Mombasa
and Zanzibar.
Unfortunately for Zheng Ho, Yongle died
suddenly in 1424. His successor
sided with the anti- maritime clique by cancelling the
seventh voyage already planned for that year, and all future
expeditions. For six years, Zheng Ho
languished in relatively minor
assignments overseeing the renovation and reconstruction
of temples and pagodas.
Fortunately, the anti-maritime emperor's
reign was short. His successor,
who shared Yongle's vision for grand maritime
expeditions, supported the seventh and largest of all the voyages.
Zheng Ho's seventh voyage was China's
last government-sponsored seafaring
adventure. After that, the country
closed its doors.
Despite a most understated recognition
 accorded
him in the official Ming Chronicle,
Zheng Ho became a legend, both in his
lifetime and after his death. He is a folk hero and was deified
as a god. Many supernatural powers
have been attributed to him and
places of worship were built to perpetuate his fame. These places
of worship, which still draw many devotees
and have become tourist attractions,
can be found in Malacca, Indonesia, Thailand,
Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and China. His
rightful place in Chinese history was
further enshrined when glowing
tributes were paid to him by such Chinese luminaries as
the late Zhou Enlai and Mr Deng Xiaoping.
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