The paper investigates the characteristics of ancient Chinese sailing directions, focusing on the birth of the compass in the Han Dynasty China (202 BC to 220 AD). The Chinese compass revolutionized navigation by allowing Chinese sailors to use compasses for astronomical and terrestrial navigation. The Chinese explored the coasts of Africa, South America, and Australia, sailing into the Caribbean and the Sea of Cortez off what is now Baja California.
However, the Chinese maritime industry eventually declined in the 19th century due to the emergence of the Chinese imperial fleet in 1405. The logistics of this enterprise remain unparalleled in maritime history. However, less than a century later, all overseas trade was banned, and it became a capital offense to set sail from China in a multi-masted ship. This led to the invention of stern-post rudders.
The northwest coast of Asia was familiar to the Chinese and Japanese, with the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties being the leading global maritime powers between 1400 and 1433. The Ming dynasty of China was the leading global maritime power between 1400 and 1433, when Chinese shipbuilders built massive ocean-going junks. The Tai Ping, manufactured and sailed as Chinese Junks 600 years ago, has arrived in Hawaii half way across the Pacific.
Sun Haibin and Christian Havrehed are rowing from China to America, via Korea and Japan, retracing the mythical steps of an ancient Chinese Junk. The Yong Shengs journey, which began on 8 August from Dalian, a port in north-eastern China, to Rotterdam, is being watched with fascination. China and the West were in contact more than 1500 years before European explorer Marco Polo arrived in China, according to new finds.
📹 How China Could Have Conquered The World | When China Ruled The Waves | Timeline
Told through the eyes of a daring modern day adventurer, this is the story of a unique chapter in the history of one of the world’s …
When was the Chinese sails invented?
The first sailing vessels were developed for use in the South China Sea by the Austronesian peoples at around the 3rd millennium BC, and also independently in lands abutting the western Mediterranean Sea by the 2nd millennium BC.
When did China start sailing?
Roots of Chinese seapowerThe first Chinese oceangoing trade ships were built far back in the Song dynasty(c. 960-1270). But it was the subsequent Mongol emperors (the Yuan dynasty ofc. 1271-1368) who commissioned the first imperial treasure fleets and foundedtrading posts in Sumatra, Ceylon, and southern India. When Marco Polo made hisfamous journey to the Mongol court, he described four-masted junks with 60individual cabins for merchants, watertight bulkheads, and crews of up to 300.
When the Han Chinese overthrew the Mongols and founded the Ming dynasty in thelater 14th century, they took over the fleet and an already extensive tradenetwork. The enterprising spirit of the Ming era reached a climax following therebellion of the warrior prince Zhu Di, who usurped the throne in 1402.Disapproved of by the Confucian “establishment,” Zhu Di put his trust in theworldly eunuchs who had always sought their fortunes in commerce. During hisrevolt, Zhu Di’s right-hand man had been the Muslim eunuch Zheng He, whom henow appointed to command the treasure fleet.
At the start of the first of Zheng He’s epic voyages in 1403, it is said that317 ships gathered in the port of Nanjing. As sociologist Janet Abu-Lughodnotes, “The impressive show of force that paraded around the Indian Oceanduring the first three decades of the 15th century was intended to signal the’barbarian nations’ that China had reassumed her rightful place in thefirmament of nations—had once again become the ‘Middle Kingdom’ of theworld.”
Did Zheng He discover America?
His 2003 book, entitled “1421: The Year China Discovered America” (William Morrow/HarperCollins), laid out extensive but widely disputed evidence that Zheng He sailed to the east coast of today’s United States in 1421 and may have left settlements in South America.
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BEIJING, Jan. 16 – A prominent Chinese lawyer and collector unveiled an old map on Monday that he and some supporters say should topple one of the central tenets of Western civilization: that Europeans were the first to sail around the world and discover America.
The Chinese map, which was drawn in 1763 but has a note on it saying it is a reproduction of a map dated 1418, presents the world as a globe with all the major continents rendered with an exactitude that European maps did not have for at least another century, after Columbus, Da Gama, Magellan, Dias and others had completed their renowned explorations.
Who became the first to sail around the world?
Ferdinand Magellan The Castilian (‘Spanish’) Magellan-Elcano expedition of August 1519 to 8 September 1522, started by Portuguese navigator Fernão de Magalhães (Ferdinand Magellan) and completed by Spanish Basque navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano after Magellan’s death, was the first global circumnavigation (see Victoria).
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magellan Expedition, which sailed from Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain in 1519 and returned in 1522, after crossing the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Since the rise of commercial aviation in the late 20th century, circumnavigating Earth is straightforward, usually taking days instead of years. Today, the challenge of circumnavigating Earth has shifted towards human and technological endurance, speed, and less conventional methods.
The word circumnavigation is a noun formed from the verb circumnavigate, from the past participle of the Latin verb circumnavigare, from circum “around” + navigare “to sail”.
Did the Chinese invent the sailboat?
The first evidence of sailing can be found in the first great civilizations. Boats with sails have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 3200 B.C., while there is also evidence that the Sumerians also used them to navigate the Tigris and Euphrates around 3000 B.C. and that the Chinese developed them around 2500 B.C.
Early Civilizations and Their Use of Sailing Vessels.
The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Babylonians are believed to have been the first civilizations to make use of these sailing vessels. Although there is no evidence that the Egyptians were the first builders of these vessels, they were the first to leave written documents about navigation and ships.
What were 2 Chinese sailing inventions?
Accompanying the invention of the compass were other inventions, such as the development of new types of locks along the canals. The Chinese previously had invented the sternpost rudder, actually in the Han Dynasty, but the sternpost rudder was very, very important for controlling a vessel. They’d also invented sails that could move. In earlier times, in the Mediterranean, sails were fixed. They had to wait for the wind to change in order to be able to move. But the Chinese invented sails that could be trimmed so that they could travel regardless of which way the wind was blowing. They also developed the structure of the ship’s hold, dividing it into different watertight compartments. The result was that if one chamber in the hull sprang a leak, then it wouldn’t damage the rest of the cargo.
If all oil tankers had double hulls like this, they wouldn’t cause the kind of ecological problems that they’ve caused. All of these technological developments were interconnected with the commercialization and urbanization.
Yates: That’s right. During the Song Dynasty, the population of China grew to about 100 million people, which made it a very large country. With the expansion of the waterways, you needed bridges so that people could get from one side of the river to the other in an easy way. So that’s why you had the development of the bridge, and specifically the Rainbow Bridge. It was developed in Shandong province, which has mountainous terrain and where previous bridges were often washed away in spring floods.
Did the Chinese sail to America before Columbus?
15th Century — The Chinese: This theory is espoused by a small group of scholars and amateur historians led by Gavin Menzies, a retired British Naval officer. It asserts that a Muslim-Chinese eunuch-mariner from the Ming Dynasty discovered America — 71 years before Columbus. Zheng He was a real historical figure, who commanded a huge armada of wooden sailing vessels in the early 15th century. He explored Southeast Asia, India and the east coast of Africa using navigational techniques that were, at the time, cutting edge.
But Menzies, in his best-selling 2003 book, 1421: The Year China Discovered America, asserts that Zheng He sailed to the east coast of the United States, and may have established settlements in South America. Menzies based his theory on evidence from old shipwrecks, Chinese and European maps, and accounts written by navigators of the time. Menzies’ scholarship, though, has been called into question. Many of his claims are presented “without a shred of proof,” says historian Robert Finlay, writing in the Journal of World History. Indeed, most historians say the “China first” theory is full of holes.
For most of us, the answer to that question is straightforward: Christopher Columbus. That’s what we were taught in school and that is why we celebrate Columbus Day. Yet it is far from clear-cut.
When did humans first discover sailing?
Humans have been sailing the seas for at least 50 000 years, progressively migrating to all of the world’s islands, but no archaeological remains of Prehistoric navigation before 8000 BC have been found so far.
Humans have been sailing the seas for at least 50 000 years, progressively migrating to all of the world’s islands, but no archaeological remains of Prehistoric navigation before 8000BC have been found so far.
The Mediterranean Sea has been sailed for millennia since Prehistoric times, the Bronze Age, Greek and Roman times, with a climax in the first centuries of the Common Era. As far as archaic seagoing shipping is concerned, Egyptian rulers have been sailing during the Early Bronze Age (ca. 3300-2100 BC). In the Gulf, Mesopotanians were sailing to the Indus valley and to East Africa, via Dilmun (Bahrain) and Magan (Oman).
Minoans from Crete were probably the first “professional” seafarers sailing internationally in the Mediterranean area. This spanned, in round figures, the period between 2000 BC and 1500 BC.
Who discovered sailing?
Egyptians, Phoenicians and Babylonians were among the first to use sails to move ships using woven straw, linen or hemp coated with tar.Nothing can prove that they were the firs sailboat builders but the Egyptians were the firs people to leave documents about navigation and boats: thanks to the wind blowing from the north they used these means of transport to travel the waters of the Nile. This is what is also represented on Egyptian tombs: rowing boats, cargo ships and boats demonstrating how the Egyptians were able to design boats suitable for navigating the river.The first element used in the construction of the first boats was the papyrus, which grew abundantly on the banks of the Nile, so the papyrus boats were used to cross the river from one bank to another or even for activities such as fishing. Obviously these boats did not have a long life: once wet the papyrus lost its consistency and the boat therefore remained unstable. The invention of sailing was the most important event in the history of navigation: it most likely appeared in 3500 B.C. in the Red Sea or Persian Gulf almost certainly formed by large palm leaves.Later the Greeks, Phoenicians and Arabs, who most likely learned to sail from the Egyptians, used their sailboats to dominate the seas.
Sailing boats as we know them today were born in the 17th century in Northern Europe: yachting. This term comes from the Dutch word “jaght”wich means “hunting” and indicated precisely those boats on whichpeople hunted and lived. Jaghting experienced its greatest splendour in England: Charles II of England, in exile in Holland in 1651 knew this activity and on his return took with him a boat coining the term yacht. Very soon this activity became one of the favorite hobbies of the English nobilty until in Ireland was born in 1720 the first nautical club, the Water Club of Cork.
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📹 Zheng He’s Floating City: When China Dominated the Oceans
In our new animated historical documentary, we will talk about Zheng He and his Great Fleet of the Ming Dynasty, which traveled …
One of the reasons behind those expeditions was that the Yongle Emperor, being an usurper, needed to establish his own achievement to justify his accession to the throne (which is similar with Emperor Taizong of Tang’s scenario). Ming Dynasty was wealthy enough under his rule so these expeditions were affordable. At the end of Ming Dynasty it came to the point that it had trouble maintaining a proper field army due to corruption and the effects of little ice age etc.
There is a very good reason why the Chinese did not choose to colonise other lands. Back in those days, well until the mid early 19th century, Chinese products are the most luxurious and wanted trade products in the world. When ZhengHe came back from his many voyages they bring tributes from faraway kingdoms as a gesture of respect and submission to the Chinese emperor. The only reason why Portugal and Spain sailed the world later was because their trade route to China and India was blocked by the Ottoman Empire, so ironically the reason why those countries sailed the seas was because they want to reach China. Whereas China was largely self sufficient.
The Chinese did trade also with the pre-Spanish Philippines, then a group of many ethnic tribes, in fact the Sultan of Sulu Bathara Paducah visited the Emperor Yong Le, and died on his way home, thr emperor built him a tomb worthy of an emperor, still there after 600 years to this day, his descendants were allowed to stay to watch over it. Such a gracious emperor..
I lived in Semarang, a capital city of central java. In Semarang, there’s also a temple called “Sam Po Kong” that was built to remember the arrival of “Cheng Ho” in Indonesia. which means, Cheng Ho not only went to the Sumatra, and go further to India, but he also went to east of Indonesia, or so i was taught.
When Admiral Zheng He graced our shores in his diplomatic voyage to Somalia. We gave him the iconic giraffe that became synonymous with his East African mission, as a token of hospitality and friendship. As a result, Mogadishu sent three ambassadorial envoys to China between 1416 and 1423. The first ever African nation to do so.
Five thousand years ago, the Chinese faced the floods like the Egyptians. Four thousand years ago, the Chinese played bronze wares like the Cuban people. Three thousand years ago, the Chinese thought of philosophy the same as the Greeks. Two thousand years ago, the Chinese and the Romans went around the same place. A thousand years ago, the Chinese were as wealthy as gold kingdom; now the Chinese are as economically as the Americans. The Chinese have been at the table for five thousand years, and the players across the board have changed waves. History will eventually prove that who will rushes through and who is the real master.
I’ve no idea when this documentary was made, but the historian is definitely wrong about Chinese contact with Australia. I grew up in Australia’s remote tropical north and know that evidence of Chinese contact prior to European contact abounds. Chinese Middle Kingdom coins and 900 year old African coins have been discovered on islands just off the Northern Territory coast, presumably from a Chinese treasure shipwreck. More recently, documentary and even photographic evidence has been unearthed from Spanish and Dutch administrators in the Philippines and Indonesia describing Australian aboriginal crews on Chinese junks prior to European settlement of northern Australia. Chinese junks are depicted in aboriginal rock art, and linguists also point to language similarities between some southeast Asian regional dialects and the languages of aboriginal groups along the north coast of Australia. And finally, Chinese historical records reveal a increase in the importation of trepang (dried sea cucumber) from Australia that precisely coincide with this period in Chinese history. On the whole, a very unsatisfying and poorly researched show – just another example of European cultural imperialism.
as a Malaysian Chinese (NOT descended from the Treasure fleet, most Malaysian Chinese came during the Qing dynasty and after), I had family talk about how the government used to teach about the voyages of the fleet as part of history. Sadly, this isn’t the case anymore as the government either scraped or modified the curriculum to remove any Chinese “fantasies” from their malay history.
The “pirate ship” that sold them fresh fish was named Iskandar which may be a reference to Iskandar Agung, who is said to have lived in a volcano in Northern Sumatra and ridden a flying horse, which is the local name for Alexander the Great and a legendary figure in those parts though he went no further than India. I encountered this legend when i was studying history as a child in Indonesia in the sixties. We were also taught about the trading junks of Zheng He in the Indonesian archipelago.
By that size of the fleet, China could also start their colonization globally in the early of 15th century, plus they had the most advanced firearm, cannon, gun etc. The reason why they didn’t colonize is because they were too wealthy at that time. There empire under Ming Dynasty had enough wealth, treasure, food and so on. It wasn’t necessary for them to colonize other lands when they already had the best land. Portugal and Spain were poor with limited resources before the age of discovery, that was the reason why they desperate on colonization.
The thing is people kept on using this part of the history and place the Western style of conquest and pillage mode into comparison. The ideology of taking ships 10 times the scale of the Western ships to sea and going around the ocean isn’t about conquesting and colonizing another region. It is simply to establish a wider presence and possible trade routes.
Chinese Imperial fleets visited many different parts of the world, East Asia (Including China obviously but also Japan and Korea and Siberia), South East Asia (modern day Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, etc), South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan), South West Asia (the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, Arabia, etc), Africa and probably the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. And probably the northern coast of Australia and the west coast of North America and possibly South America were also visited.
Ming China gave up the seas just as the Europeans, starting with the Portuguese, committed to it. As to why the Ming looked inward one often neglected reason was that the ruling class did not really benefit from the sea trade, they derived their wealth from agricultural production. The sea trade made a segment of the trading class extremely wealthy and increasingly powerful, threatening the old land-owning aristocrats and some of their Confucian allies in the Imperial Court (whose power came from land and agricultural taxes). When they had the chance they were determined to kill the sea trade.
I believe the Chinese were far ahead of other civilizations for a long time. Their innovations and invention were astonishingly creative and economically productive long before other countries had even begun to think in terms of this type of progress. Their morels and spiritual ideals based upon, ancestry and family, seems to have created a balance or outlook on life not achieved by other means . I think the Chinese had a unique understanding about the important aspects of life and death that took most other people a long time to figure out….Right or wrong…these are just my thoughts.
There is a new Zealand myth that a Chinese fleet was sailing around new Zealand around 500 years ago there was a large tidal wave that destroyedbthe fleet except 1 ship that was ancered behind an island and made it home to tell the story.there has been egg shell China found in New Zealand beaches and a large ship Skelton made of chines wood that was very old 6000 years with testing .egg shell China was only made for a short time matching this fleets time frame
Prof. Andrew Lambert gives his personal explanations to historical events from western point of view, specially when it comes to Chinese emperor and his goals. China and Chinese now, and specially then, have different values toward life.You have to take into account influence of confucianism, taoism and buddhism in China vs christianity in the west.
It’s interesting to observe that the (Lambert) commentator can just project the obvious Anglo way of thinking. I’m sure the Chinese of the 15th Century had another view of their rol in the surrounding world outside the empire. The fact that they didn’t attempt to invade, to sack, to conquer or colonize shows what is the Chinese rol into the world and what separate them with the Europeans and their descendants.
During the reign of Ming Dynasty in the 14th century, Sultan Paduka Pahala of Sulu visited China accordingly to establish diplomatic relations. The place is in the southernmost part of the Philippines thousands of miles from China. Was accorded with utmost hospitality by the Emperor. Back home the Sultan died along the way while their boats were negotiating the Yangtze river, and buried per instruction of the Emperor, develop and now a tourists destination . How in this world in an island far remote from mainland China knew a great civilization existed north of his domain if not a Chinese national visited his place?
The Wu Di emporers fleet commanded by Zheng He came to new zeakand…the dalai lama came here and spoke of the records he was taught from that were in the lamaseries in tibet…these talk of the monks living with Maori for a longish time while the fleet was mapping the coastline…during this mapping time the Mahuika meteorite impacted in the southern tasman sea causing massive tsunami (~150 mtrs) that destroyed vast numbers of ships…
Why take Columbus journey to the America’s as reference point of “European” explorations?? The Portuguese reached the Canary Islands in 1336, 156 years before Columbus. Madeira 1419, Azores Islands 1427, Newfoundland 1473, the whole West Coast of Africa from Ceuta to Cape of good Hope 1415-1488. So tell me why using Columbus as reference point for the beginning of sea exploration???
0:10 The only reason China is so closed off is that they were really abused by the main powers like Britain and Japan which really devastated them in the past. That and the Mongolian empire during the Han. They not going to let outsiders come in again because the poverty line was so so so bad – I am happy to see that they have turned their country to a prosperous one again. Have to admire that.
Good documentary! I agree with the commenters here who have said that China had contact with Australia. There is some evidence of that (which has been mentioned) and Australia is not all that far from Indonesia, where trade has been carried out for many centuries. It would have been easy for the Chinese to go from Indonesia to Australia.
In 1313, Wang Zhen’s publication of 1313, known as the Nong Shu (農書), or Book of Agriculture, very likely made its way to Italy triggering the Italian Renaissance. Centuries of Chinese inventions contained in that book ended up as Leonardo da Vinci illustrations one century later. Co incidence ? By the way, Donatello was born in1386, so by the time he is 27, Nong Shu is already 100 years old. To think that this book did not make it to Italy in 100 years doesn’t seem plausible, considering Marco Polo has already made the trip to China in the 1200s.
Western nations should remember that culturally China has no imperialist or colonialist ambition. They have enough territory & resources and they just want to trade peacefully with other nations. China respects other nations forms of government and expect other nations to do the same. Having been invaded twice by the British ans once by Japan, China knows the pain & humiliation their country endured and would not want to cause such suffering to another country. However, the Increasing aggression & hostility of the US & its allies is forcing China to build up their defence to avoid another invasion by western countries jealous of their growth & prosperity.
Your website is absolutely amazing! Thank you so so very much for the information you put out there. And you don’t just put it out there, you do it very skillfully and in a way that’s very easy to understand! You have no idea how grateful I am to be able to access this wealth of knowledge for free. Thank you for teaching me about the past every day! I wish more people used this platform for education instead of nonsense!
The routes Zheng He traveled was well-known to the Arab traders. The word “trade” is a bit of a misnomer. The Chinese was not out to do business the way the later Portuguese, French, Dutch & English did for profit. The treasure fleets were bringing back “tribute” from the barbarian lands. The Chinese saw themselves as giving higher value goods (silk & porcelain) to foreigners in exchange for spices & medicines that were not available at home. Could the treasure fleet have circumnavigated the world? Definitely. The oceans have always been a highway than a barrier. Here the Emperor asked the Admiral and his fleet to proclaim his greatness to the barbarian countries. It was less out of financial gains but to explore the world which included much of the Arab trade routes from China to the coast of E Africa along the Indian Ocean. Proclaiming China’s greatness could have included exploring lands outside the “known” world that had yet to be explored. Besides the Vikings, there is evidence other ancient people including the Romans & Phoenicians have landed in the “New” World so the Chinese could have done it as well.
good documentary but the title is bit misleading imo. China never has been a sea power in a true sense of the term like ancient Athens or Portugal, Spain or Britain even during the height of Ming expeditions. It has traditionally been a land power with its ships focusing more on river and coastal defense than oversea voyages.
Ming dynasty in my memoir was the only Chinese dynasty to not embrace too much expansionism and trades were their only interests. It is literally recognized the more peaceful one. Then Zheng He died and China’s trade attempt died out from times. If not, China would have been the pioneer of modern capitalism.
Apparently the Chinese didn’t develop glass (ceramics ‘china’ offered ‘enough’ advantages) hence they couldn’t protect their instruments which makes navigation at sea slightly more difficult. The bimetal strip required for accurate clocks had to wait another millennia. This fleet was at best a local hindrance.
The politics of the Documentary maker are very clear from the very beginning. The opening sentence…. “…re-writing the rules of International Trade ” is a dead giveaway. .The first expert they trot out calls it a ‘ mafia- like operation and an overwhelming demonstration of Power ‘.\r The fact is that in the past two decades the US has built more than a hundred bases around the South China sea in it’s attempts to control whose ships go through and whose don’t, i.,e., to re-write the rules. South China has always been an open seaway for International Trade and the West is now trying to control Chinese expansion to world markets. Whose behavior is Mafia like ?
A Maori Polynesian name Maui sailed larger merchant fleets for Chinese Emperors t000 years before the Ming dynasty. Maui circumnavigated the world by making sure Antarctica was always south from his Chinese ships Maui knew that the Antarctic Ocean completely surrounded Antarctica. Maui voyaged from China to Indonesia, Polynesia, Central America, South America, South Africa, the Middle East, India, Straits of Malacca Straits and back to China many times. His mariners hailed from all around the world. Maui was married to a Maya woman and a lot of his men also had Aztec, Maya and Inca spouses. Maui retired without informing the Chinese emperor and his shipmates all decided to follow Maui. After waiting for at least 3 years the Chinese emperor was so angered that ordered all his merchant ships sunk.
🇧🇷 Muito bom o documentário Eu estou fazendo um RPG de mesa q irá se passar aqui no Brasil durante o século 15 já separei os navios como Naus e Caravelas Mas eu sempre tive um carinho especiais pelos juncos chineses Mesmo antes de saber como se chamavam e q eles eram chineses Preciso de ajuda com informações de juncos como as medidas deles ( se alguém puder me ajudar eu agradeço ) Eu pretendo colocar um junco chinês no brasil durante o séc 15 porém vai ser o mesmo tamanho desse junco do vídeo um junco pesqueiro ! E não… não será um chinês q estará nele mas sim um contrabadista de armas de alguma nacionalidade europeia q conseguiu comprar esse navio q embora não seja como os juncos de guerra ele ainda assim é um bom navio E por algum motivo esse contrabandista de armas se instalou no novo mundo kkk Um pedido meu 👇🏻 Alguém sabe me dar as medidas desse junco do vídeo por favor ? 🥺 Tô precisando dessa informações pq quero descreve bem esse navio diferente nesse meu jogo Agradeço desde já 🤝🏻🇧🇷
Annually, approaching the end(Oct, Nov & Dec) of a calendar year, it is the seasonal period of the North East Monsoon blowing violently and turbulent to the southern hemisphere where you find these Malay Archipelagos of many tiny islands. To reach North West(India & Arab countries) there is a change of wind of the South West Monsoon every calendar new year.
Zheng He made several trips. Only some foreign animals were brought back. Even the emperor finally chose to give up going to the ocean because of the huge cost, but there was no return. At home, however, the civil war continues to expand because of the waste of people and money. After the new emperor succeeded to the throne, he even burned all the books and records. Even later, Yongle Dadian, the main work about the Empire, was lost during the reign of the Qing Dynasty
I need to correct the slight inaccuracy of “Aku Raja”. Raja means “king”, not prince. Also looking at two sides of the coin, the Chinese may have seeded the idea the fleets could’ve founded North America out of ‘political power play’ motivation, and the same goes to Western powers wanting to discount it because it would look bad on them when they’re already struggling to keep China’s upward trajectory as a major economic and political power today. The records may also have been lost during the cultural revolution when they burned many scholarly materials and records. We’ll never know how true this is, but it’s not impossible that the fleet could have travelled that far and found nothing worthwhile since there weren’t empires or large civilisations in Australia and North America at the time. Just look at how many smaller but very old Chinese communities that exists all around the world even today. The point of these travels were for conquering via economy and trade, not pillaging. A simplified comparison with Western style of conquest is still clear today, just look at how China is approaching other countries (ie. new Silk Road infrastructures, loans) and the US (invasions and military bases).
i think this moment is the peak of Imperial China’s power. After Emperor Yongle’s death, all large scale expeditions stopped and china became closed off and stagnated. Eventually it was surpassed by the Europeans technologically. All because of the Chinese mindset that view themselves as the most advanced people on earth and did not need anything from the wider world at all. And that mindset caused complacency.
Chinese Pirates Tried to raid-pillage the shores of Tondo, Dagupan, Singapura and recapture ethnic Chinese refugees, there they met the end of the Kris and the edge of the Kampilan. The MALAYAN People ( Meaning: Freemen ) of the South East Asia and the Pacific Isles became refuge and sanctuary of the displaced Ethnic-tribal Minority Chinese people, whom both are in mutual trade since pre-colonial/pre-feudal history.
There was no China before 19 centuries. Mao destroyed all history related the original central Asian history, which is Chosun Kingdom at the revolution of Shinhae. The origin name of china is originated Chin pronounced as Jin Dynasty, which is one of Chosun Kingdom. The original owner in mainland China was the Chosun Dynasty before 19 centuries.
30:11 If they had star charts with altitudes of the constellations why do they still believe the earth was flat and had four seas ruled by dragons? They traveled to 3 continents, did they ever see a sea dragon? How do they not notice the north star descending below the horizon as they get further and further south toward the Malaccar which is around the equator?
@15:07 It’s somewhat presumptuous and a bit arrogant to make assumptions about entering another country, especially without proper notice or permission. It’s like a family friend knocking at your door with plans to excavate your backyard. Regardless of the handmade flag, or their intentions, I think I would have made them wait too.
Maybe they could have conquered the world, but they had no guts. Conquering the world wasn’t just to “come and look”. It required blood, sweat, tears, and a lot of courage. Alexander the Great, the Mongols, the Conquistadors did it with such mayhems that we don’t think the Chinese could muster. No, they could never do it.
There are several questions: for example, the South China Sea Island near Southeast Asia was marked in Chinese books more than 1000 years ago. This shows that Zheng He is not the first time to set foot on other continents, so it is not important for Zheng He.\r The invasion of Japan was the policy of Mongolia during its rule, and Mongolia was a foreign invasion for China. Zheng He’s emperor was Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, which overthrew Mongolia and established the Ming Dynasty.\r The demise of the Ming Dynasty was caused by the civil war in which the prince won the throne and the emperor’s increasing lack of real power. At that time, the emperor even set up a monument for his father and knelt down to beg officials.\r Even later, 《永乐大典》Yongle Dadian, the main work about the Empire, was lost during the reign of the Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the rise of literary prison, hair cutting and easy clothing seriously damaged the original Chinese culture.\r “There is no China after the death of the Ming Dynasty””明亡之后无华夏”
I believe in order to conquer the world through Imperialism and Colonization, Imperial China needed to be extremelly open to share their culture with non-Chinese nations and at the same time to be open to assimilition and syncretization with the local cultures. I don’t know, but it seems to me that Imperial China was too closed-minded for that.
As a Chinese my view is that China is an agrarian civilization, so rely on the sky to eat, plus China’s land is large enough to produce rich so do not need to steal the land of other countries to obtain wealth, the West is a maritime civilization, itself has a strong sense of pioneering, plus the land is small, scarce, so need to find more wealth. Of course, the difference in the understanding of these two ideas led to different results, the result is that the European colonists took the lead in the discovery of the New World of America, and opened up the industrial civilization, at the same time, although China than Columbus’s ship more than a hundred years earlier, but also much more advanced, but China went into decline, closed, ignorance and self-absorption, until the modern era by the British opened the door again, only to re-understand the world!
Some requisites for world domination were lacking in the Chinese Civilization. Their religion was not of fanatics or of a zealous God who ordered to convert or kill infidels, no desire to migrate far from the Chinese zone, did not find people of other cultures good to exploit and enslave, too secretive about discoveries or inventions. Too much respect for tradition and authority discarded new ideas and projects that could bring sudden change.
GunBoat Diplomacy Chinese style. The Chinese cannon and firearms were well developed, it was a armed fleet. Heck the Chinese used gunpowder weapons to fight Genghis Khan (it only made the Mongols angry). What I have heard, most of the time Chinese nations (or empire) generally controlled their coastlines, or the Japanese, or Koreans, or various pirates … Chinese imported black slaves from East Africa since about 800 AD, to work in Imperial mines, and Roman and Muslim sea traders had huge special built ships following seasonal trade winds crossing the Indian Ocean to China, Sri Lanka etc. in search of spices, silk and porcelain, so they would have gained geographical data from all the traders . China had no need to develop trade routes. Everybody traded with China, doing the work for them, desperately searching for products to trade for silk etc. Muslims sold them black slaves and ivory, Rome drained itself of gold and silver, Europe sold them furs from America and Russia. The Muslim fleets and Portuguese explorers fought for control of trade and the sea, the Chinese simply explored mostly already known sea ways, and then beached the mostly useless navy and put their money elsewhere.
Unfortunately academics too often tend to arrogant, apparently because they do not want to have their work overshadowed by cleverer people. We don’t know the entire records of the voyages because they are not available, so neither does this academic. So many cultures considered “less civilized” have traveled the world. Why not China with its common sense approach to travel. (Also the goal wasn’t only money; but the use of trade to keep the peace and to connect in a constructive way with other countries.)
Until someone shows us all a REAL and a legitimate photo of earth from space and not just a “photoshopped because it has to be” picture… I think we should stop being force fed the image of a spinning ball with a sunrise over the “curvature” . Sincerely, Someone who doesn’t believe anything anymore
There is ample evidence that at least ten junks were wrecked around the NZ coast by a mega tsunami caused by a meteorite crashing into our continental shelf.This mega tsunami was well over 110 metres in height and affected the entire Pacific Basin.The unfortunate thing is that our universities refuse to countenance this as happening.This means that I am able to explore my own treasure ship in its entirety.This wreck site is close to my home.Its dimensions are 400 feet long by 80 feet wide .
You should read a book named 1421, which was written by a retired British submarine commander. It basically re-writes the history books, in that it was actually the Chinese who discovered the Americas in the same year. A very interesting read, and it confirms what could have been. The Chinese also in 1434 had an influence on the Renaissance period.
The Northern threat of invasion by the remnant of the Yuan dynasty would have placed a limit on overseas ventures . Zheng He was an ethnic Asian Muslim whose family was in the service of the Mongol Yuan dynasty prior to the Ming . Captured as a child he was castrated and entered into the Ming service. It is not unexpected that a Muslim in that age could have contacts with fellow Muslim traders familiar with the maritime trade routes.
and yet until now most chinese dont know how to swim in the middle in the sea. :hand-orange-covering-eyes::hand-orange-covering-eyes::hand-orange-covering-eyes:Austronesian people who are ancient seafaring people in East and Southeast Asia region who colonized entire Maritime Southeast Asia, Pacific Region, Hainan, Taiwan and Madagascar and also suspected reach in Central America.. some indigenous people in Central America related to Austronesian people. and Chola Empire dominated entire Southeast Asia 1000+ years ago. before han able learn how to sail in open seas in the middle of Ming dynasty only. :hand-orange-covering-eyes::hand-orange-covering-eyes::hand-orange-covering-eyes:
PING PING PING & PING PING PING & PING PING PING (Mr. Democracy) Hello, this is Mr. Democracy: Who am I speaking to? (Mr. Press) Hello Mr. Democracy: I am Mr. Press. (Mr. Democracy) And what is the reason for your call? (Mr. Press) I am a representative of, For the People by the People, From Sea to Shining Sea Surveys, and I would like to ask you a few questions concerning Taiwan, sir. (Mr. Democracy) Sure go ahead. (Mr. Press) Sir, are you aware that Taiwan is a democracy, and that they desire to remain a democracy? Furthermore, do you feel that they should remain a democracy? (Mr. Democracy) Oh by the way, I didn’t catch your first name. (Mr. Press) My first name is FREE, Free Press, and your’s sir? (Mr. Democracy) My first name is AMERICAN, American Democracy. Well, to answer your three questions, the answer is YES to all of them. In my opinion, Taiwan MUST remain democratically FREE: Especially FREE from Beijing’s version of their hammer and sickle style of governance. Moreover, Mr. Press, democracy, you see, is the best form of governance for Taiwan and Beijing must AGREE. Indeed, sir, that Naughty Ole Panda, Beijing, needs to be benevolent and respectfully allow Taiwan to remain democratically FREE- I hope you Agree? (Mr. Press) Certainly, Mr. Democracy, I do: Taiwan must remain democratically FREE! Well, sir, I thank you for your precious time in answering my questions. Please BE well.
“How ???? Could Have Conquered The World” There are many such debates. One plausible common thread tho, is that polygamy makes the already tricky matter of orderly succession, into an an almost certain state of civil war among rival step siblings. There is only so much that can be done in one lifetime.
The chinese emperor was promised a giraffe as a birthday present by his mum when he was a kid and expeditions were sent all over the land to find one and it finally dawned on em’ there was no giraffe in china .And as time went by, as time usually does, mum died and the emperor’s dream of havin’ a giraffe was tasked to poor Ho, who set sail . The treasure he was to bring back was the giraffe … … that’s the real reason some of the written texts were burned . And as the real story goes the emperor got sick of the giraffe and settled for his native panda which didn’t give him a stiff neck . And china closed its door to foreign influence after this treasure finding endeavor and for the next coupla centuries giraffes were banned in china . As for poor Ho ….. well thats ……..
Could they not have had someone to properly pronounce the names of the Chinese figures in the narration? The interviewed academics are one thing, but it was super distracting to hear Chinese names mispronounced throughout. I literally had to pause and think about who the narrator was actually talking about.