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MingDynasty
Rivalry
among the Mongol imperial heirs, natural disasters, and numerouspeasant uprisings led to
the collapse of the Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty(1368-1644) was founded by a Han Chinese
peasant and former Buddhist monkturned rebel army leader (). Having its capital first at
Nanjing which means Southern Capital) and later at Beijing ( or
NorthernCapital), the Ming reached the zenith of power during the first quarterof the
fifteenth century. The Chinese armies reconquered Annam ( ), asnorthern Vietnam was then
known, in Southeast Asia and kept back the Mongols,while the Chinese fleet sailed the
China seas and the Indian Ocean, cruisingas far as the east coast of Africa. The maritime
Asian nations sent envoyswith tribute for the Chinese emperor. Internally, the Grand Canal
was expandedto its farthest limits and proved to be a stimulus to domestic trade.
The Ming maritime expeditions stopped rathersuddenly after 1433, the date of the last voyage. Historians have givenas one of the reasons the great expense of large-scale expeditions at atime of preoccupation with northern defenses against the Mongols. Oppositionat court also may have been a contributing factor, as conservative officialsfound the concept of expansion and commercial ventures alien to Chineseideas of government. Pressure from the powerful Neo-Confucian bureaucracyled to a revival of strict agrarian-centered society. The stability ofthe Ming dynasty, which was without major disruptions of the population(then around 100 million), economy, arts, society, or politics, promoteda belief among the Chinese that they had achieved the most satisfactorycivilization on earth and that nothing foreign was needed or welcome.
Long wars with the Mongols, incursions bythe Japanese into Korea, and harassment of Chinese coastal cities by theJapanese in the sixteenth century weakened Ming rule, which became, asearlier Chinese dynasties had, ripe for an alien takeover. In 1644 theManchus () 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 andJiddah, and he may (or may not) have gotten to Madagascar. This is nearly100 years before Columbus had the idea of trying to sail to Asia the longway around. But once the sailors came back, the trips were never followedup on. Conservative scholars at court failed to see the importance of them.For the first time in history, China was turning inwards, clinging to anincorrect interpretation of an outmoded philosophy.
Among other things, they moved the capitalto Beijing,
fortified the Great Wall (the massive masonry structure thatyou see in all the pictures
and postcards is, with some recent, Communist-erarepair, an all-Ming construction), built
the Forbidden City. It isalso in this Dynasty, Macao was ceded to the Portuguese,
which returnedback to China on the 20th of December, 1999.
Columbus sailed to America in St. Maria (eighty-five feet) in 1492.
ZhengHe sailed from China to many places throughout South Pacific, Indian Ocean,Taiwan,
Persian Gulf and distant Africa in seven epic voyages from 1405to 1433 ,some 80 years
before Columbus's voyages.
Note: Cheng Ho is an old spelling. Today's correct spelling is Zheng He.
.
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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 Cheng 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, Cheng 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.
Cheng
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 Cheng 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.
Cheng
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 Cheng Ho a senior eunuch for his
devotion
and prowess in war.
Unlike
his European counterparts, all professional seafarers,
Cheng
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 publicise 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 despatch 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. Cheng 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, Cheng 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.
Cheng
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 Cheng 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, Cheng 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.
Cheng
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, Cheng 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.