Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Voyages of Admiral Zheng He

Episode Date: June 21, 2021

In the early 15th century, just before Europe began its Age of Exploration, China was embarking on a series of voyages that put to shame anything anyone in Europe would do for centuries. These voyages were led by a man who was the greatest admiral in history up to that point and the ships in his fleet were the largest wooden ships that the world would ever see. Learn more about the voyages of Admiral Zheng He on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early 15th century, almost 100 years before Europe would begin its age of exploration, China was embarking on a series of voyages that put to shame anything anyone in Europe would do for centuries. These voyages were led by a man who was the greatest admiral in history up to that point, and the ships in his fleet were the largest wooden ships that the world would ever see. Learn more about the voyages of Admiral Zheng He on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now.

Time travel with us every week on the Thurline podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by the Travel Photography Academy. If you've listened to enough episodes of this podcast, you'll notice that I often interject places that I've visited. That's because I spent over 10 years. years of my life traveling around the world almost nonstop. During that time, I went from being a complete novice in photography to winning almost every major travel photography prize in North America. When I learned how to do travel photography, I had to do it the hard way. It took years of time and lots of travel. That's why I created the Travel Photography Academy, so you can

learn from me in much less time, spending much less money. It's an online video course which I shot on location in France, Spain, and the United States, and I cover everything you need to improve your travel photography. So, if you want to take your photography to the next level and get better photos on your next trip, visit travel photography academy.com or click on the link in the show notes. If you've been listening to the show long enough, there are a couple of themes that keep repeating. One of them is that many of the things in our world actually have rather ancient roots. And the other is that the Chinese probably did it first. There were many inventions in innovations which were first developed in China before they were developed in the West or

slowly made their way to the West via the Silk Road. A case in point is Chinese shipbuilding. When Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492, he had a fleet of three ships. Each of the ships was between 50 and 70 feet long. The Chinese during the Ming Dynasty were building ships that may have been up to 450 feet long. Moreover, they were building lots of them, in sailing them across oceans almost a hundred years before Europeans were crossing the Atlantic or sailing around Africa. The man who was most responsible for these achievements was Zheng He. He was born in 1371 with the name Ma He in China's southern Yunnan province. He was born and raised a Muslim, which came from his great-great-grandfather,

who was the governor of the province during the Mongol Empire. In 1381, the armies of the Ming invaded Yunnan to reconquer it and expel the Mongols. It was during this invasion that 10-year-old Ma was captured by the Ming army. At some point over the next four years, he was castrated and became a eunuch, and was put in service of the Prince of Jan, Judee. While in the service of Zhu Di, he became a close confidant. He moved with him to Beijing, where he was involved in leading the troops fighting the Mongols. He was given an education, which was normally not done for eunuchs.

When a civil war broke out between Judee and his nephew the emperor, Ma He served as a general and helped lead forces to capture the Chinese capital of Nanjing. In 1402, Ma Hu's master, the man to whom he was a top advisor, was now the emperor of China, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, known to history, as the Yonggul emperor. The emperor bestowed the name Zhang to him because of his efforts in defending the Beijing water reservoir of Zhang Lomba in 1399. And here I should note the pronunciation of Zhang He. If you read the title of this episode and you speak English, you might pronounce it as Zhang He.

I'm trying to stay true to the Chinese pronunciation as much as I can. The new emperor inherited a rather large fleet of ships. However, he wanted to expand their fleet and use it to project Chinese power and influence beyond their borders. The emperor assigned Zheng He the task of overseeing the project. Zheng He began construction on the fleet in a shipyard in Nanjing, which sits on the Yangtze River just up from the modern city of Shanghai. On July 11, 1405, the fleet set off on their first voyage. There were an incredible 317 ships in the fleet. To put this into perspective, there were only 130 ships in the Spanish Armada.

The fleet consisted of warships, merchant vessels, support ships, and of course the giant treasure ships. The treasure ships were awe-inspiring and still would be today if one were to sail into a modern port. Creating that sense of awe was totally part of the mission. The Chinese wanted to impress the locals in every port where they arrived. A total of 28,000 sailors, merchants, and soldiers took part in the expedition. The route they took was similar to what Chinese merchants had been traveling for centuries. They traveled south to Southeast Asia, stopping in the modern-day countries of Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and India. Along the way, they stopped in various ports of local kingdoms, engaged in trade, and also took with them envoys from local kings.

When they returned to China in 1407, they fought a brief paddle with some Chinese pirates and delivered the envoys to the imperial court. There, they delivered their gifts to the Ming Emperor and were given gifts in return for their rulers back home. Their stay in China was short as the Emperor ordered a second voyage to set sail that year. This time, they followed roughly the same route, taking the envoys back to their home cities along with gifts from the Chinese Emperor. They resolved a standing diplomatic issue between Java and China along the way. In all, over a period of 20 years, there were six voyages of the Ming Treasure Fleet, all of which were commanded by Zhang He. The fleet strengthened China's ties with states all over Southeast Asia and along the Indian Ocean.

It dramatically increased trade with these regions and brought back to China a plethora of goods. The voyages also established China as the hegemonic power in Asia, by having other Asian states recognize and pay tribute to the Chinese emperor. China often used their power to stop local wars and to stabilize various regions. They were able to do this because of their overwhelming naval supremacy. The fleet managed to sail as far as the coast of East Africa, visiting Ethiopia, the African Horn, and possibly went as far south as Madagascar. They brought back to the emperor such exotic animals as ostriches and giraffs. Back in China, the recognition of foreign

powers, tribute gifts, and even the giraffe, all served to strengthen and legitimize the power of the Yongal Emperor. The giraffe was claimed to be a mythical quillan, which is a beast that is said to appear at the coming and passing of a great ruler. In 1421, the emperor put a temporary halt to the treasure fleet voyages. He was too busy fighting the Mongols again, and the fleet was stationed in Nanjing to protect the city. In 1424, Zheng He was sent on a diplomatic mission to the city of Palombang on the island of Sumatra. When he arrived back in Nanjing, he found that the emperor had died. The new emperor, called the Hongxi Emperor, was against the Treasure Fleet and cancelled future voyages.

However, he was only emperor for one year. The next emperor, the Suandemperor, approved the seventh voyage in 1433, 12 years since the sixth voyage left for China. They brought back with them 11 envoys from places as far away as Mecca. After that, the voyages just stopped. No one is really quite sure why. Contemporary records about the voyages were favorable, and by every indication they were a net positive for China politically,

and they seemed to have made money. All future emperors followed suit, and the Chinese never again had the same naval dominance that they did under Zheng He. Historians have raised doubts about the treasure fleet over the years. Given the amount of documentation about the fleet, in China and in the places they visited, there's no doubt that it existed. However, they have yet to find hard evidence for the giant treasure ships. They think they found the shipyard where they might have been built in Nanjing

and a rudder that would have been an appropriate size for such a large ship. One author even contends that the treasure fleet might have made it to the coast of the Americas. However, there is very little evidence to support this. While the Chinese ship certainly could have made the voyage, there is no documentation or hard evidence that this is the case. The voyages of Zheng He marked the high watermark for Imperial China internationally. After the Treasure Fleet, the country slowly began to turn inward, becoming more isolationist and focusing on internal affairs.

The capital moved from Nanjing to landlock Beijing, which also took attention away from seafaring. Zheng He, to this day, remains one of the greatest sailors and explorers, not just in Chinese history, but in world history. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please donate over at patreon.com. There is content only available to supporters, merchandise, and even opportunities for a show producer credit. If you know someone you think would enjoy the show, please share it with them. Also remember, if you leave a five-star review, I'll read your review.

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