Nearly forgotten in China until recently, he was immortalized among Chinese communities abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia where to this day he is celebrated and revered as a god. The Fateful Decision. Factions at court had long been critical of the Yongle emperor's extravagant ways. Not only had he sent seven missions of the enormous Treasure Ships over the western seas, he had ordered overseas missions northeast and east, had sent envoys multiple times across desert and grassland to the mountains of Tibet and Nepal and on to Bengal and Siam, and had many times raised armies against fragmented but still troublesome Mongolian tribes to the north.
He had embroiled China in a losing battle with Annam northern Vietnam for decades most latterly due to exorbitant demands for timber to build his palace.
In addition to these foreign exploits, he had further depleted the treasury by moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and, with a grandeur on land to match that on sea, by ordering the construction of the magnificent Forbidden City. This project involved over a million laborers. To further fortifying the north of his empire, he pledged his administration to the enormous task of reviving and extending the Grand Canal.
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. There were also mid-size ships such as the machuan, used for transporting horses, and a multitude of other vessels carrying soldiers, sailors, and assorted personnel.
Some officials made the voyage, among them doctors, astrologers, and cartographers. The ships left Nanjing Nanking , Hangzhou, and other major ports, from there veering south to Fujian, where they swelled their crews with expert sailors.
They then made a show of force by anchoring in Quy Nhon, Vietnam , which China had recently conquered. None of the seven expeditions headed north; most made their way to Java and Sumatra, resting for a spell in Malacca, where they waited for the winter monsoon winds that blow toward the west.
They then proceeded to Ceylon present-day Sri Lanka and Calicut in southern India, where the first three expeditions terminated. The fourth expedition reached Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, and the final voyages expanded westward, entering the waters of the Red Sea, then turning and sailing as far as Kenya, and perhaps farther still.
Chinese ships had always been noted for their size. More than a century before Zheng He, explorer Marco Polo described their awesome dimensions: Between four and six masts, a crew of up to sailors, 60 cabins, and a deck for the merchants. Most marine archaeological finds suggest that Chinese ships of the 14th and 15th centuries usually were not longer than feet.
Even so, a recent discovery by archaeologists of a foot-long rudder raises the possibility that some ships may have been as large as claimed. A 1,year-old shipwreck reveals how the world traded with China. At age 23 he served as an interpreter for the fourth expedition. He served on the sixth and seventh voyages as well. It has the tail of an ox and the body of a deer Historians have long speculated as to why the Ming would have abandoned the naval power that China had nurtured since the Song. The problems were certainly not economic: China was collecting enormous tax revenues, and the voyages likely cost a fraction of that income.
The problem, it seems, was political. The voyages were also viewed with suspicion by the very powerful bureaucratic class, who worried about the influence of the military. All rights reserved. History Magazine. Kublai Khan kamikazed. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Detail from a 13th-century Japanese scroll painting depicting the doomed invasion of Japan led by Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan ion Main Page Sitemap Who are we?
Originally born Ma He in , He was captured and castrated by soldiers as a young boy. He is credited as the first man to establish a sea route directing the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean worlds. He made seven major trips in the Indian world from around to Learn more about the rise of Mao and communism in China. As it was clear that the voyages were about the assertion of authority, several African giraffes were brought to China as tribute.
When they were displayed in China, they seemed exotic, but not fundamentally new. Learned scholars in China said that those were in fact an animal already known from Chinese myth, the miraculous Qilin, said to be a kind of Chinese unicorn. That rare beast, the Qilin, appeared only at times of good government, when the emperor ruled to bring order and prosperity, so the Qilin was a sign of the mandate of heaven. The voyages had been about authority, and the imperial Chinese authority proved by the favor of heaven, that the mission was accomplished.
But, turning back those treasure fleets left a power vacuum in the Indian Ocean, which was filled by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and then the British. That was a turning point that could have happened, but did not, with decisive consequences. Zheng He was sent on his voyages by Emperor Yongle of the Ming dynasty. According to a Chinese myth, the Qilin, is a kind of Chinese unicorn , with a horn, the hoofs of a horse, the tail of an ox, and the body of a deer, and skin that was dappled with spots which appears only at times of good government, when the emperor ruled to bring order and prosperity.
By Vejas Liulevicius, Ph. But was it just that, a diplomatic mission?
0コメント