how did china change course after zheng he died

by Cassandra Bergnaum Sr. 3 min read

What did Zheng He do for China?

Introduction Zheng He was a Chinese explorer who lead seven great voyages on behalf of the Chinese emperor. These voyages traveled through the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and along the east coast of Africa. His seven total voyages were diplomatic, military, and trading ventures, and lasted from 1405 – 1433.

What happened to the Chinese maritime trade after Zheng He?

Nov 24, 2019 · Even if the second pandemic had come from China, the Zheng He theory isn't feasible — as Black points out, if Zheng He's ship was carrying plague-infested rats, the whole crew would most likely ...

What happened to Zheng He's body?

Malaysia, with Siam and India, but even with the Arabian ports of modern-day Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and as far as Somalia and Kenya. Source: “Zheng He: Ming China's Great Admiral,” Kallie Szczepanski, Asian History Expert, About.com At the start of the first of Zheng He's epic voyages in 1403, it is said that 317 ships gathered in the port of Nanjing.

What happened to Zheng He and Emperor Chengzu?

Jul 28, 2010 · Zheng He's flagship was 400ft long, with nine masts and 12 red sails, and carried 1,000 men. "Zheng is being portrayed as a symbol of China's openness to the world, as an envoy of its peace and ...

What happened after Zheng He died?

Zheng He's tomb in Nanjing has been repaired and a small museum built next to it, but his body was buried at sea off the Malabar Coast near Calicut, in western India. However, his sword and other personal possessions were interred in a Muslim tomb inscribed in Arabic.

What impact do you think was brought by Zheng He's voyages?

Finally, the Zheng He expeditions had a significant impact on the production and circulation of commodities across the Indian Ocean realm. These expeditions carried large amounts of gold, silver, silk and porcelain that were used for trade at foreign ports.Jan 13, 2017

What influence did Zheng He's journeys have on China and the world?

Through cultural diffusion, Zheng He spread Chinese culture to the outside world. Zheng He also promoted the strength of the Ming dynasty by traveling with a fleet of large ships and thousands of soldiers.

What happened to Zheng He on his last journey?

Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He went on seven major maritime missions. His fleet reached Southeast Asia, South Asia, and even as far as Africa. It is believed that Zheng He himself passed away during his last voyage in 1433.Mar 29, 2021

How did Zheng He impact China?

Zheng He's voyages to western oceans expanded China's political influence in the world. 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.

What was Zheng He most important accomplishment?

What was Zheng He's most important accomplishment? Zheng He spread Chinese ideas and brought wealth to China from his travels. Zheng He commanded an impressive fleet of ships.

Where did Zheng He's fleet travel over the course of seven voyages?

He visited the states of Southeast Asia, the coast of India, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the east coast of Africa. Zheng died in Calicut in the spring of 1433, and the fleet returned to China that summer.

What important information did Zheng He bring back?

He traveled to many far away places, going all the way to the African coast and establishing trade relations with over 25 countries. He brought back all sorts of interesting items including animals such a giraffe and camels. He also brought back diplomats from various countries to meet with the Chinese Emperor.

How did the tributary system benefit the Chinese empire?

The system involved exchanges of gifts between foreign rulers and the Chinese emperor. Foreigners benefited because the return gifts from the Chinese were always generous and the very best that an advanced civilization could offer.

Did Zheng He discover America?

Though he does not claim that Zheng He found America, he holds up his voyages as an inspiration for a new maritime silk road that is now being promoted to expand Chinese trade and influence abroad. Though Columbus and Zheng He both sailed the seas, their purposes were quite different.May 21, 2015

What were three possible reasons for the voyages which do you think was the main one?

Historians generally recognize three motives for European exploration and colonization in the New World: God, gold, and glory.

Why did the Chinese burn their fleet?

In his book "The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality," he argues that the Chinese burned their boats (almost literally) in an attempt to control foreign trade.Feb 26, 2017

When did Zheng He return to China?

He returned back to China in 1419. Zheng He’s sixth voyage (1421-1422) was his shortest of them all. He was authorized to return the remaining envoy’s to their home countries. Not only did he revist many of the ports he’d been to many times, but also went back to the Mogadishu region of Somalia.

What did Zheng He do to expand China's influence?

Zheng He’s voyages to western oceans expanded China’s political influence in the world. 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.

What was Zheng He's main purpose?

However, most historians agree their main purpose was to promote the glory of Ming dynasty China .1. Biography. Early Life. Zheng He was born to a noble family in 1371 in the Yunnan Province of China.

How many voyages did Zheng He make?

Zheng He was a Chinese explorer who lead seven great voyages on behalf of the Chinese emperor. These voyages traveled through the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and along the east coast of Africa. His seven total voyages were diplomatic, military, and trading ventures, and lasted from 1405 – 1433.

Where did Zheng He and his fleet sail?

Instead of staying at Calicut as he had on previous voyages, Zheng He and his fleet also sailed to the Maldive and Laccadive Islands to the Hormuz on the Persian Gulf.9 Along the way, they traded goods like silk and spices with rulers of other countries. He returned to Nanjing in 1415.

When did Zheng He go on his seventh voyage?

Later Years and Death. It was not until 1431 that Zheng He found himself in command of the large Treasure Fleet for his seventh voyage (1431-1433) .

Where was Zheng He born?

Zheng He was born to a noble family in 1371 in the Yunnan Province of China. His father was named Haji Ma, and his mother’s maiden name was “Wen”. Ma He had one older brother, and four sisters.2 His family was Muslim, so when he was born, he was originally named “Ma He.”.

When did Mao Zedong come to power?

When the founder of modern China, Mao Zedong, came to power in 1949, he made disease control a priority. There were a number of reasons for that, but one was to show that China could handle its own affairs and didn't need outside help, Gross said.

When did the Yunnan plague happen?

Nevertheless, the plague — which had not been the main focus of the health push — has occasionally reared its ugly head. Yunnan was hit by another breakout between 1986 and 2005, and another case was diagnosed in Yunnan in 2016.

What was the third plague?

That outbreak sparked the third global plague pandemic. But it was another plague outbreak that would help shape China's future. In the 1910s, there was another outbreak of plague in Manchuria — now northeast China. Thousands were killed by pneumonic plague, the most severe strand.

How many people died from the plague in 2017?

These days, the plague is hardly the biggest health risk facing many countries. In 2017 alone, 219 million people caught malaria and 435,000 people died of the disease. By contrast, between 2010 and 2015, 584 people died of the plague worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Why did doctors wear beaks?

And the popular notion that doctors wore beaks — supposedly to protect them from infection — during the Black Death was also wrong, Black said — the mask wasn't invented for hundreds of years after the second pandemic. About a decade ago, some scientists argued that the plague could have originated in East Asia over 2,600 years ago.

What was Mao's plan to control the plague?

So Mao put in place a number of measures to control the country's rampant disease. One of his most famous and unusual proposals was the "Four Pests Campaign ," where Mao called for rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows to be eliminated. The rats were to be killed to control schistosomiasis, which is sometimes translated in English as "plague" ...

How did the Four Pests Campaign affect China?

Ultimately, though, China did improve its overall health care across the country.

Who is Zheng He?

Zheng He - also known as Cheng Ho - is being hailed anew as a national hero; invoked by the Communist Party as a pioneer of China's "open-door" policies that have once again made China a world power.

What is Zheng He being represented?

The way Zheng He is being represented is part of this.". The International Zheng He Society in Singapore disputes this "Western thought", and says the battles that Zheng was embroiled in were either retaliatory or an effort to rid the high seas of pirates.

What did Zheng He bring to the voyages?

The voyages of Zheng He, he said, had brought "porcelain, silk and tea rather than bloodshed, plundering or colonialism" - a reference to violent coercive measures used by Western colonisers. "To this day, Zheng He is still remembered as an envoy of friendship and peace," Mr Dai said.

How many masts does Zheng He have?

image caption. Zheng He's flagship was 400ft long, with nine masts and 12 red sails, and carried 1,000 men. "Zheng is being portrayed as a symbol of China's openness to the world, as an envoy of its peace and friendship - these two words keep cropping up in virtually every reference to Zheng He out of China," says Prof Wade.

How tall was Zheng He?

Standing seven feet tall, China's maritime giant Admiral Zheng He led the world's mightiest fleet, with 300 ships and as many as 30,000 troops under his command. image caption. Zheng He, a Muslim eunuch, died in 1433 aged 62 and is buried in the Chinese city of Nanjing.

How many voyages did Zheng make?

Setting sail more than 600 years ago, Zheng's armada made seven epic voyages, reaching south-east Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Some say he even made it to America - several decades before the celebrated European explorer Christopher Columbus - although this has been widely disputed by historians.

What was the name of the ship that the Chinese emperor sailed on?

Zheng, known as the Three-Jewel Eunuch Admiral, carried gifts from the Chinese emperor aboard his "treasure ship", which groaned with valuable cargo including gold, porcelain and silks. These were exchanged along the established Arab trade routes for ivory, myrrh and even China's first giraffe, promoting recognition of the new Ming dynasty.

Where did Zheng He and his fleet reach?

Zheng He and his fleet reached the wealthy city-state of Calicut in late 1406. Calicut's merchants had fabulous goods, such as spices, to trade and eagerly boarded Zheng He's ships. The Indian merchants drove hard bargains, but the bargaining was always honest. One observer wrote that they “have all joined hands and sealed our agreement with a handclasp.”

How many voyages did Zheng He make?

Zheng He made a total of seven voyages of discovery. His second and third expeditions, which occurred between 1407 and 1411, built on the success of the first. On the third voyage, Zheng He sailed to the South Asian kingdoms of Malacca and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

What was the name of the Mongol dynasty that ended in 1279?

Recall that the Mongol leader Kublai Khan became emperor of China in 1279. He called his dynasty the Yuan dynasty. Under the Mongols, foreigners ruled China for nearly 100 years.

How big was Zheng He's ship?

The largest vessels in his fleet were the enormous treasure ships, measuring about 400 feet long and 160 feet wide. In contrast, the Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus's flagship, measured about 85 feet in length. The treasure ships had 9 masts and 12 sails of red silk, and each vessel had more than 50 luxurious staterooms for officers and merchants.

What was the Tang Dynasty?

In this lesson, you learned that the Tang dynasty (618 - 907) was a period of peace and prosperity. Goods and ideas flowed into China. The arts also flourished. Some of the greatest Chinese poetry was created during this time.

What did you learn about China's contacts with the outside world?

In this lesson, you learned about China's contacts with the outside world. You discovered that, at different times, China both welcomed and rejected foreign contacts. During periods when China was more open, new ideas and products flowed into and out of the country. Merchants, missionaries, and other visitors also came to China.

Who was the leader of the Western Seas?

Known as the “Admiral of the Western Seas,” Zheng He led the greatest fleet of merchant vessels up to that time. The man who sent out the fleet was Emperor Chengzu, a bold and ambitious leader who wanted his people to explore the world and expand trade. In 1403, he ordered his royal carpenters to construct a huge fleet, and for the next three years, they tackled this vast job.

What is Zheng He's legacy?

Zheng He’s Legacy. Zheng He. Zheng He's fleet is depicted on a 2005 Chinese postage stamp commemorating the great naval explorer. © Joinmepic/Shutterstock.com. Zheng He was the most important diplomat and admiral in the Yongle court.

Where did Zheng go on his voyages?

Voyages Three and Four (1409–15) On the third voyage Zheng He made stops in India. On his return trip in 1411 he touched at Samudra, on the northern tip of Sumatra. The fourth voyage was the most ambitious. After stopping at the principal ports of Asia he proceeded westward from India to Hormuz.

What was Ma Sanbao's name?

Zheng He, originally called Ma Sanbao, was born to a Chinese Muslim family in Kunyang, near Kunming, Yunnan province, China. In 1381, Ming forces invaded Yunnan, the last Mongol hold in China. They captured Ma Sanbao and other boys, castrated them, and made them orderlies in the military. Ma Sanbao was later given the name Ma He. From an early age Ma He distinguished himself through his intelligence and leadership abilities. He was given literary and military training and quickly advanced through the ranks, making important allies in the Ming court. In 1402 Ma He helped the prince of Yan overthrow the Jianwen emperor and take the throne as the Yongle emperor (1402–24). The new emperor gave Ma He a new surname, Zheng, and chose him to lead a magnificent armada to the “Western Oceans.” Zheng He’s integrity, knowledge of Islam, and diplomatic, military, and maritime skills helped make the voyages a great success.

How many ships did Zheng He command?

Zheng He set sail on his first voyage in 1405, commanding some 27,800 men. His massive armada comprised 317 ships, including 62 “treasure ships” packed with rich gifts for heads of state.

What did Ma He choose to lead the armada to?

The new emperor gave Ma He a new surname, Zheng, and chose him to lead a magnificent armada to the “Western Oceans.”. Zheng He’s integrity, knowledge of Islam, and diplomatic, military, and maritime skills helped make the voyages a great success.

Where is Zheng He statue?

A statue of Chinese naval explorer Zheng He stands at the Tay Kak Sie temple in Semarang, central Java , Indonesia . Zheng He (c. 1371–1433) served as a brilliant military leader, maritime explorer, and foreign diplomat under the Yongle emperor of the Ming dynasty.

What is an encyclopedia editor?

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. ...

Who said the West had a Columbus and the Chinese needed one?

As Brook puts it: “The West had a Columbus and the Chinese needed one.”. The debate over the veracity of this map is emblematic of the current arguments over China’s role on the world stage. President Xi Jinping hails Zheng He as one of China’s great innovators and an example of its early, peaceful exchanges overseas.

Who was the first Chinese eunuch to sail west?

Twitter. LinkedIn. WhatsApp. In 1405 a Chinese Muslim eunuch, Zheng He , launched the first of seven voyages west from China across the Indian Ocean. Over the next 30 years, in command of the world’s largest fleet and funded by the Ming emperor, he sailed to the east coast of Africa and deep into the Persian Gulf.

What is the map of the integrated world?

Entitled “General chart of the integrated world”, it is apparently an 18th-century copy of a 1418 map which claims to show the world that Zheng He discovered. If it is real, it rewrites history, for it shows that he circumnavigated the globe and—most provocatively—that he discovered America more than 70 years before Columbus.

What are the contours of North and South America?

The contours of North and South America are clear, as are the rivers running from far inland. We can see the Arctic. And the Himalayas, among whose foothills Zheng He was born, are marked as the highest mountain range in the world. It is these detailed elements, however, that give the game away.

When was the world's greatest mountain range labelled as such?

And the world’s greatest mountain range was labelled as such only in the 19th century . “This map is a complete nonsense,” says Professor Timothy Brook of the University of British Columbia. He believes that what you see here is a copy of a European map from the early 17th century.

Was Zheng He a mariner?

But it is still interesting, because of the stories attached to it and the recent hype surrounding Zheng He. He was certainly a great mariner, but had been largely forgotten until the late 1990s when the history of his quest was resurrected and he was embraced as a national hero.

Did Zheng He find America?

Though he does not claim that Zheng He found America, he holds up his voyages as an inspiration for a new maritime silk road that is now being promoted to expand Chinese trade and influence abroad. Though Columbus and Zheng He both sailed the seas, their purposes were quite different.

How big was Zheng's ship?

Sailors tend to chat, and nothing obsesses them so much as maps. Zheng's giant ships - some 400ft long, five times the size of Columbus's - would surely have left a chopstick or two in Manhattan. They would have left more than a kung fu parlour in downtown LA.

Who sailed to America in a leather bound coracle?

Unfortunately Madoc's arrival had been forestalled by St Brendan in the seventh century. He sailed to America in a leather-bound coracle, as Tim Severin proved in 1977. The survivors of this trip remain pickled in a downtown Boston saloon to this day.

What was the first map to show North America?

It was the correctness of the 1440 Vinland map's outline of Greenland that for many years queried its status as the first map to show North America (or at least Baffin Island). Only after much scholarship in the 1960s was its authenticity put beyond doubt.

How did America get its name?

The only blot on this glory is that everyone knows America got its name from Glamorgan's Richard ap Meurig (Amerik), a wealthy sponsor of John Cabot's search for the north-west passage in the 1490s.

Where did the Vinland map originate?

The Vinland map's historical origin lay in the first known settlement of modern America by outsiders, by the Viking Leif Eriksson in the early 11th century. It is described in the sagas, and archaeological remains survive at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.

Where did King Arthur settle?

He landed at Mobile, Alabama, on the orders of the family druid and asserted Wales's claim to King Arthur's North Atlantic empire. Making his way across country, he settled west of the Mississippi, where the Mandan tribe were encountered in the 18th century, fair-skinned and speaking a dialect of Welsh.

Who was the Scottish knight templar?

Brendan and Madoc were followed by a Scottish knight templar, Henry Sinclair, seeking refuge from the suppression of his order in 1398. He and his freemasons escaped with assorted treasures and holy grails to settle in Nova Scotia with the Micmac Indians (clearly a tribe of Hiberno-Scots ancestry).

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Overview

Legacy

Zheng's voyages were long neglected in official Chinese histories but have become well known in China and abroad since the publication of Liang Qichao's Biography of Our Homeland's Great Navigator, Zheng He in 1904.
In the decades after the last voyage, Imperial officials minimized the importance of Zheng He and his expeditions throughout the many regnal and dynastic hist…

Early life and family

Zheng He was born Ma He (馬和) to a Muslim family of Kunyang, Kunming, Yunnan, during the Ming dynasty of China. He had an older brother and four sisters.
Zheng He's religious beliefs became all-embracing and eclectic in his adulthood. The Liujiagang and Changle inscriptions suggest that devotion to Tianfei, the patron goddess of sailors and seafarers, was the dominant faith to which he adhered, reflecting the goddess's central role to the treasure …

Capture, castration and service

Zheng He was captured by the Ming armies at Yunnan in 1381. General Fu Youde saw Ma He on a road and approached him to inquire about the location of the Mongol pretender. Ma He responded defiantly by saying that the Mongol pretender had jumped into a lake. Afterwards, the general took him prisoner. He was castratedat some point between the age of 10 and 14, and was placed in t…

Adulthood and military career

Zheng He's appearance as an adult was recorded: he was seven chi tall, had a waist that was five chi in circumference, cheeks and a forehead that was high, a small nose, glaring eyes, teeth that were white and well-shaped as shells, and a voice that was as loud as a bell. It is also recorded that he had great knowledge about warfare and was well-accustomed to battle.
The young eunuch eventually became a trusted adviser to the prince and assisted him when the Jianwen …

Expeditions

The Yuan dynastyand the expanding Sino-Arab trade during the 14th century had gradually expanded Chinese knowledge of the world since "universal" maps previously displaying only China and its surrounding seas began to expand farther and farther southwest, with much more accurate depictions of the extent of Arabia and Africa. Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsore…

Sailing charts

Zheng He's sailing charts, the Mao Kun map, were published in a book entitled the Wubei Zhi(A Treatise on Armament Technology) written in 1621 and published in 1628 but traced back to Zheng He's and earlier voyages. It was originally a strip map 20.5 cm by 560 cm that could be rolled up, but was divided into 40 pages which vary in scale from 7 miles/inch in the Nanjing area to 215 …

Size of ships

Traditional and popular accounts of Zheng He's voyages have described a great fleet of gigantic ships far larger than any other wooden ships in history. The most grandiose claims for Zheng He's 1405 fleet are entirely based on a calculation derived from an account that was written three centuries later and was accepted as fact by one modern writer; rejected by numerous naval experts: