The History of China - #217 - Ming 10: I'm On A Boat!

Episode Date: May 31, 2021

The Yongle Emperor decides it's time for Great Ming to bust out its swim trunks and its flippy-floppies... because he's going to make the biggest, bestest oceanic fleet of awesomesauce that the world has ever seen! And put in command is his trusted, tried-and-true battle-buddy: the Grand Admiral Zheng He! Time Period Covered: 1371-1405 CE Significant Historical Figures: The Yongle Emperor (Zhu Di) [r. 1402-1424] Grand Admiral Zheng He (né Ma He) [1371-1433] Tianfei, the Goddess of the Sea and Patron Protector of Sailors [eternal] Sources Cited: Chan, Hok-lam. “The Chien-wen, Yung-lo, Hung-xi, Hsüan-te Reigns” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part I. Levathes, Louise. The China Ruled the Seas:The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433. Paterson, Erik T. “James Lind, Zheng He and the Prevention of Scurvy” in The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Vol. 20, No. 4. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hello, and welcome to the History of China. Episode 217, I'm on a boat. From the time when we, Zheng He and his companions, at the beginning of the Yongle Period, received the Imperial Commission as envoys to the barbarians. Up till now, seven voyages have taken place, and each time, we have commanded several tens of thousands of government soldiers and more than a hundred ocean-going vessels. Starting from Taiching and taking the sea, we have by way of the countries of Champa, Siam, Java, Cochin, and Calicut reached Hormuz and other countries of the western regions, more than thirty countries in all, traversing more than one hundred thousand li of immense water spaces, and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away hidden in the blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course as rapidly as a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare. On arriving in the outlying countries, those among the foreign kings who were obstructing the transforming influence of Chinese culture, and were disrespectful, were captured alive,

and brigands who gave themselves over to violence and plunder were exterminated. Consequently, the sea route was purified and tranquilized, and the natives, owing to this, were enabled to quietly pursue their avocations. All this is due to the sea goddess, to whom this marker is dedicated. We have written an inscription on stone and have moreover recorded the years and months of our voyages, both going and returning, in order to make those known forever. Zheng He, on a stone marker erected on March 31st, 1431, at a temple near the port where the Ming treasure fleet set out for their first expedition. Welcome back once again, one and all, to the Yongle Era of the Great Ming Empire, the happiest place on earth, by Imperial Fiat, or else.

I hope you brought your sea legs and your fermented soybean sprouts with you, because today we're leaving the landlubbers behind to boldly go where no Chinese of the 15th century had gone before. a series of seven grand voyages of exploration, discovery, trade, largesse, diplomacy, and even potential conquest that has collectively become known as the Ming Treasure Fleet Voyages. For some 28 years, massive Ming warships, many times larger and inconceivably more powerful than any other maritime force on Earth, plied the trade routes of the Indian Ocean and the Southern Seas,

both protecting their own shipping interests and also projecting China's power, stature, wealth, and culture to the wider world. And then, quite suddenly, they were all gone, never to be seen again, literally disappearing across the eastern horizon like a sea mist and leaving behind little more than an enduring, if ephemeral, legacy. What can explain Main China's sudden interest in overseas global trade? And at least as interesting, what explains its sudden and then permanent abandonment of that naval supremacy?

What kind of political and social factors explain it? And what kind of people were entrusted to lead such a massive undertaking so very far from home? Over the next couple of episodes, we'll be taking a look at all those things, and we'll see if we can't shed some further light on these amazing adventures. Today, then, we'll get into the construction of the Great Fleet, its design and makeup, its crew, and of course the life and times of its commander-in-chief, Grand Admiral Zheng He. Then, next time, we'll get more into the voyages themselves and their impact on both Ming China and the wider world beyond. So let's start in with some necessary background, which may serve largely as a recap for those of

you who've been listening through this whole Ming series up to this point, but it still bears repeating. The Yongle Emperor, you'll recall, was very much like his father before him, the founding Hongwu Emperor, not the kind of guy to do anything in half measures. We can understand the Yongle period best, perhaps, as the Emperor spending almost the whole of his two decades in power, all desperately striving to get out of his father's all-encompassing shadow, and somehow, someway, outdo dear old dad by going even harder, better, faster, stronger. Dad built an imperial city in Nanjing? Well, then Yongle was going to build an even grander one in Beijing. Dad beat the Mongols and forced them out of China? Yongle was going to spend his reign personally striving to subjugate them utterly? Dad pacified the southern reaches and reconquered Yunnan from Mongol loyalists? Well then, Yongle was going to push even further south and reconquer

Vietnam for the first time in centuries. Dad liked the nine familial exterminations? Well then, Yongle would push it to ten exterminations. So how could we possibly be surprised when, knowing as we do that the Hongwu Emperor had come to power in the south by constructing and commanding possibly the most massive river navy in the world, that Yongle would of course feel compelled to do Dad one better? It's just par for the course at this point. That said, the actual motivations of the Yongle Emperor to order these vast and enormously costly series of expeditions remain somewhat hazy at least. and much to the regular administration's everlasting chagrin, even at the time, recorded as little as possible about what precisely it was they were doing, why they were doing it, or indeed how much it was actually costing the imperial treasury.

As such, over the ages, there have been many theories, some quite believable, others markedly less so. One prime example of the latter category, for instance, was that the expeditions were sent back to track down Yongle's dear, long-lost nephew, the Zhenwen Emperor. In case you've forgotten, although officially declared dead with the Prince of Yan's capture and sacking of Nanjing in 1402, the unrecognizable state of his burnt-to-a-crisp corpse and the perfunctory nature of his funeral by the future Yongle Emperor had given rise to swirling rumors across the nation

that the young heir had actually effected a daring escape with his family into exile, and even now lived in secret as a monk. Naturally, those rumors came to encompass the maritime expeditions as well, though such speculations can pretty safely be dismissed as, well, whack-a-doodle. Oh, yes. While we're on the subject of wackadoodle theories swirling around the Ming treasure fleet voyages, let's just go ahead and get another far more contemporary one out of the way right off the bat. The bane of Ming sinologists and maritime historians everywhere, Gavin Menzies and his pseudo-historical work, 1421, the year China discovered America.

In it, Menzies hypothesizes that, just like the title says, Zheng He and company sailed not only to the Americas, but also to Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica, and the mythological Northwest Passage, all before circumnavigating Greenland and then the entire world. This would all be very, very big if true, but it isn't. At all. And pretty much every single reputable historian in the world has roundly dismissed the entire thing as rather wildly imaginative fanfic, with some of the more charitable critiques calling it, quote-unquote, not a historical book, and, quote-unquote, uniformly without substance, while other historians have been rather more blunt,

calling Menzies himself, quote-unquote, either a charlatan or a cretin, quote, reckless and without a shred of evidence, end quote. Menzies followed up this initial commercial mega-success with two subsequent books, which really helps to round out the level of regard one should hold his theories. The second is called 1434, the year a magnificent Chinese fleet sailed to Italy and ignited the Renaissance, which, once again, is 100% fact-free. But the cherry on top must certainly be his third book, The Lost Empire of Atlantis, History's Greatest Mystery Revealed, in which he claims Atlantis is real. Real, I say! And, as a personal aside here, I am directly descended from one of the great Atlantean pseudo-historian cranks of all time,

the U.S. Representative Ignatius L. Donnelly of Minnesota. He, who would go on to assert for the rest of his life, for instance, that the works of Shakespeare were actually written by Francis Bacon. you can safely take it from me that Menzies' lost empire of Atlantis is certainly no Donnelly's Atlantis the Antediluvian world. And I say good day to you, sir. So safely placing the collected work of Menzies back in the way back of the fiction shelf that they belong on, let's get back to a far more likely set of reasons for the Ming voyages. Historian Hak Lam Chan puts it very succinctly, quote, The emperor undertook the expeditions for a number of reasons.

To search for treasure, Zheng He's vessels were called treasure ships, or bao chuan, to display his power and wealth, to learn about the plans of Timur and other Mongols of Western Asia, to extend the tributary system, to satisfy vanity and his greed for glory, and to make use of his eunuch staff. In any event, these activities reflected this restless emperor's concept of imperial world order and of foreign relations as applied to the South Seas." Now, regardless of the goals he may have or not had directly in mind in sending forth these voyages. Yongle was definitely not a boat guy. He was comfortable in the saddle, riding beyond the Great Wall, fighting with barbarians,

but not on a ship's deck. Obviously, it wasn't going to be him going on these trips. I mean, all else aside, he was the emperor and had emperoring to do. He'd therefore need someone to command this mightiest and wealthiest fleet that the world had ever seen, who could be trusted absolutely. And he had just such a person, someone who had grown up around him, had proved his valor, loyalty, and capability ten times over to the first Prince of Yan and now Emperor, none other than the eunuch commander Zheng He. The personal story of Zheng He's life and times is as fascinating as the voyages that he would eventually command themselves. So let's jump in right now to his early life and biography.

Zheng He was not born as Zheng He, but rather Ma He in 1371 in Kunming, Yunnan. He was not, or at least not entirely, Han Chinese, but was instead a descendant of one of the more famous Semurjan officials brought to China by Genghis Khan himself in order to serve his burgeoning Mongol Empire, one Ejal Shams al-Din Omar of Bukhara, who had managed to escape the absolute slaughter of the Khwarezmian city by demonstrating a professional gift for logistics and numbers. That skill set would be put to good use not only by Genghis himself, but also his grandson, Mongke, during his own invasion of southern China and the conquest of Sichuan. Upon Mongke's own untimely death and Kublai's takeover and the establishment

of the Yuan dynasty, Shams al-Din was put in charge first of the imperial finances, and then, when he proved a genius at that, he was installed eventually as the first Yuan governor of Yunnan once it had been captured as of 1274. Thereafter, he would rule the region from what would eventually become the city of Kunming, still the capital of Yunnan today. He was so good at his job, in fact, that after his death, he was posthumously honored with the title of the Prince of Xianaji, which means one who has completed the pilgrimage to Mecca and back, which is the duty of any Muslim who is able to do so. Thus, Maha was born into a semi-Chinese Muslim household, although he himself would grow up thoroughly a person of the time and position that he lived in,

namely that his personal belief structure eventually blended a lot of different spiritual beliefs into a kind of pantheistic belief system, centering on, as with many mariners of the time and long thereafter, the protector goddess of the sea and of sailors, known by many names, but some of the more famous are Ma Zu, the great maternal ancestor, and also known as Tian Fei, or the heavenly consort. Life would change dramatically for Ma He around about the age of 10. In the autumn of 1381, the Ming commander, General Fu Youde, led his army against the Yuan loyalist forces of Yunnan against the Mongol prince Basala Warmi. In the course of that fighting, Ma He's father was slain,

though whether while fighting against the Ming invasion or simply as a random casualty of war, we do not know. The story goes, though, that following his father's death, the young boy was approached on the road by the Ming commander, or one of his lieutenants perhaps, and asked about the location of the Mongol prince. The boy responded, apparently defiantly, and claimed that the Mongol leader had jumped into a lake. And as an aside here, that would actually turn out to be pretty much accurate. Like the kid was telling the truth. Basal Dwarami had taken his wife down to the lake and then drowned her before killing himself in order to evade capture. Even so, either this answer was deemed not good enough, or the guy just didn't like the kid's attitude, enough so that Maha, along with many other thousands of ethnic minority

Mongol, Samu, and native Yunnanese tribal children, were rounded up together and taken as prisoners, and eventually rendered slaves of war. Now, as unfun as this already sounds, it gets even worse, because being an imperial slave boy in the Ming Empire rendered one eligible for the dubious distinction of getting signed up for the eunuch corps. As such, at some point between the age of 10 and 14, sometime before puberty had really hit it, Ma He got the chop and managed to survive the terrible and often deadly trauma. This type of castrati that he was rendered into, in particular called Tongjing, which means pure from childhood, was especially favored by court ladies in this time period. Louise Levithes writes of the Tongjing class, quote,

They tended to behave like young girls themselves. As adults, they were said to have shrill, unpleasant voices, and they were often temperamental and emotional, quick to anger and to cry, end quote. As we will see momentarily, though, Ma He would grow into someone worlds apart from that rather unfortunate stereotype. He was thereafter sent to Beiping to serve in the household of the Prince of Yan.

Prince Zhu Di was some 11 years older than this young eunuch slave, Ma He, and by this point fully in command of his principality and at the height of his charisma and leadership ability. It's little surprise, then, that in spite of the horrific origin story, Ma He rather quickly came to trust and serve with total loyalty to this Vundarkind prince, who in turn eventually came to value and share the confidence of his young eunuch servant. Notably, Judy was sure to have his eunuch servants properly educated at Beiping so that they could better serve his interests. Ma Ha is therefore known to have been educated in the works of both Confucius and Mencius. This policy was in marked contrast to Yongle's own father, the Honglu Emperor,

who neither trusted nor especially liked eunuchs in general, and sought to keep them all totally illiterate at his own stronghold at Nanjing, having once proclaimed, quote, they should not be given responsibility, and their number should not be large, end quote. Ma He would grow, in spite of his inflicted condition, into what records describe as an exceptionally tall, large-bodied man. He is recorded as being 7 qi tall, which, depending on the length of the qi, which was varied over time, would put him somewhere between 6'2 and 7 foot. And for you metric people out there, that's between 186 and 210 centimeters tall, and with a waist of about 5 feet in circumference. So he was certainly no shrinking violet, but something more like a baby-faced Darth Vader. Quote, he had glaring eyes, teeth as white and as well-shaped as shells,

and a voice as loud as a huge bell. He knew a great deal and was well accustomed to battle. End quote. Ma would accompany the Prince of Yan on all of his early military expeditions, learning closely and swiftly from his master in all the arts of war, and proving his worth during the first of Zhu Di's many northern expeditions against the renegade Mongol chieftain Naga Chu in 1390, which proved to be a decisive and shockingly bloodless victory resulting in the capture of the Mongol prince. All of this served only to further cement

the pair's relationship. Now, I'm not saying they were necessarily friends or buddies or anything like that, but they certainly had a very solid, trusting, working relationship, and we're going to see this develop over time. They certainly weren't equals, and they never would be. That would be folly for me to claim or to try to defend, but it's impossible to go through the life of Zheng He and Zhu Di and not see that there was some sort of real, true affection between the two of them. And I have no reason to think that that wasn't anything other than genuine. Anyways, seven years later, the Hongwu Emperor died a bad in 1398, and his grandson, the crown prince Zhu Yunwan,

seated him as the Jianwan Emperor. And, you know, we know how this goes, we know how that played out. See episodes 210 and 211 for any further details you might need. When the rebellion kicked off, Ma He would fight side by side with the Prince of Yan through the entirety of his Jingnan Rebellion against Nanjing's encroaching power, and as one of his most capable and trusted commanders. He was also on hand for the capture of Nanjing itself, and the, oh, maybe accidental, burning of the Imperial Palace with the Imperial family still inside. After, oh, so reluctantly taking the throne, Zhu Di, now Yongle, had rewarded his faithful eunuch commander with a shiny new

surname, Zheng. Quote, he chose that name, it is believed, because in the early days of the rebellion, his horse had been killed just outside Beiping at a place called Zhenglunba, end quote. And Ma He, now Zheng He, had particularly distinguished himself during the successful defense of Beiping that 1399. As of 1403, now planted firmly on the dragon throne, the Yongle Emperor ordered the construction of a new fleet that would be so grand that it than strictly river-faring fleet of the Red Turban Rebellion, or those fleets of the flat-bottom shallow seas sand ships designed for transit across the Yellow Sea to and from Korea, these would not just be warships and troop transports, but also vast trading and cargo ships meant for the deep depths of the ocean itself. And it would largely be undertaken at the harbor city of Longjiang, where the waters of the Qinhuai River converge with the mighty Yangtze,

just a few miles downstream from Nanjing itself. There, just outside the damaged but still vibrant southern capital, a steady stream of barges shuffled busily back and forth from inland ports, bringing lumber and building materials of every kind to the Longjiang shipyards. Men and horses hauled the goods up the muddy banks to large warehouses. The drumbeats that marked the hours heightened the impatience of the supervisors too often behind schedule. Ships were barely completed before yet another imperial order was issued, demanding more. Hi everyone, this is Scott. If you want to learn about the world's

oldest civilizations, find out how they were rediscovered, follow the story of Mark Antony and Cleopatra's descendants over ten generations, or take a deep dive into the Iron Age or the Hellenistic era, then check out the Ancient World Podcast. Available on all podcasting platforms or go to ancientworldpodcast.com. That's the Ancient World Podcast. Over the course of the Yongle Era, the city would more than double in size, and its shipyards would come to overshadow even those of Suzhou, which had up until now been the largest in the whole of China. Seven full-scale, fully outfitted dry docks that, quote, ran nearly perpendicular to the Yangtze and were separated from the river by high dams.

When the ships were finished, gates in the dams were opened, flooding the rectangular docks and enabling the ships to be moved easily into the mainstream of the Yangtze. Guards patrolled the gates of the dams so that no harm would come to the unfinished ships." At the height of its production, records show that between 20,000 to 30,000 skilled artisans were employed at Longjing alone, where they lived and worked at the yards themselves. Carpenters, ironsmiths, caulkers, and sail and rope makers all labored tirelessly to fill the imperial orders in teams of about 100 households each, all living and working together, year after year. And that doesn't even bring in the tens of thousands of other laborers facilitating this breakneck pace. Timekeepers, bridge and road builders, caretakers for the draft horses that hauled the raw materials to and around the shipyards, and many others besides. This is not to say, by any means, that Longjiang

was the only shipyard tasked with constructing this behemoth fleet. No, this was a burden far too vast for any single facility, no matter its size. As such, the task was spread all across the empire, though, of course, mostly concentrated in the southeastern coastal regions. In May 1403, the Yongle Emperor ordered Fujian to construct him 137 ocean-going ships. In August, Suzhou received an order for 200 more ships. In August, the coastal provinces were collectively tasked with retrofitting 188 flat-bottomed riverboats to be made seaworthy. This frenzy of construction and renovation continued on at blistering pace and without

ceasing for the next four years, and by 1407, some 1,681 ships had been made ready to set sail in the name of Great Ming and the glory of its emperor. These were ships of a wholly innovative design compared to the flat-bottom Sha Chuan sand ships of the Hongwu era, which were unsuitable for the rigors of the high seas of the south and beyond. Now this design wasn't wholly new, but it was actually based on ships hearkening all the way back to the Warring States period some two millennia prior, wherein at the end of the spring and autumn period, King Futai of Wu had constructed a shipyard near the mouth of the Min River. King Futai would ultimately give his name not only to the city that sprang up there, Fuzhou, and the province encompassing it, Fujian, but also the deep,

v-bottomed ships that his shipyard was famed for constructing to ply the oceans of the southern Chinese coasts, known as Futuan. These boats had sharply pointed hulls, sharp like a knife, which could cut through large waves and wide, overhanging decks. A keel ran across the bottom of the V-shaped hull for stability. Both the prow and the stern were high, and the boat had four decks. The lowest deck was filled with earth and stone for ballast. The second deck had living quarters for the men and a storage area. The third, or top, deck was a combination outdoor kitchen, mess hall, and operations bridge.

And the fourth deck was a high fighting platform that sometimes interfered with the function of the sails. The strong central keel of the ship, called the Dragon Bone, was capped off at the bow by an equally solid and strong prow beam, known as the Dragon's Head, which could be used in combat to ram smaller ships with minimal risk to the structural integrity of the Fu Chuan itself, as well as withstanding contact with hidden reefs, an ever-present danger in the sunny shallows of the South Seas. At the very front of these prows, it was customary to have painted on a dragon's fearsome head and eyes so that these beasts could see where they were going as they plied the waves.

It was on this precept that Yongle's engineers would now build their updated and upgraded fleets of treasure ships, combining the best of both worlds from both the Sha Chuan and the earlier Fu Chuan. This new design, variously called Bao Chuan and Long Chuan, treasure ships and dragon ships respectively, were absolutely gargantuan in scale. As with the height of Zheng He himself, it's hard to get an exact figure from these Chinese records as the units of measurement, again the qi, was not uniform, and varied not only from period to period, place to place, and even industry to industry, between about 9.5 inches to a bit over 13 inches.

Now earlier estimates of the largest models of these Baochuan leviathans put them at between 450 to 493 feet in length. This, however, has been a hotly debated figure, as a wooden ship of that size would have been extremely difficult to maneuver in even the best of circumstances. Not only that, but the inherent flex of a wooden ship's planks would have likely, at that length, caused it to rapidly take on water and founder if ever taken onto the open seas. Levithes writes, quote, based on actual shipbuilding Chi unearthed in Fujian province, which varied in length from 10.53 to 11.037 inches, the largest of the treasure ships is now thought to have been about 390 to 408 feet long and 160 to 166 feet wide. Still,

one of the largest wooden sailing ships ever built anywhere in the world, end quote. In any event, it's widely accepted that these largest of Baochuan ships were primarily for show to Ming China's own domestic audience, and probably never left the river in which they were first constructed. But even the comparatively smaller ships actually constructed for the voyages to come would have absolutely dwarfed any and everything else sailing the oceans, not only now, but for centuries to come. For some sense of reference, the near-contemporary Caraval and Nau type of oceanic ships that would be designed and used by the Spanish and Portuguese, and at least one certain Italian, to venture all the way across the Atlantic at the end of the 15th century,

were between 40 to 60 feet long. The Galleon-class ship of the Golden Age of Sail and Pirates of the Caribbean fame were between 100 to 165 feet long, and the mighty ships of the line that plied then dominated the seas from the 17th to 19th centuries before giving way at last to steel and steam maxed out at about 200 feet long. In Chinese terms at the time, the watchword was apparently units of four. 44 zhang, 4 qi, or 444 qi, for the length of this largest of fleet ships. Now, this might seem rather strange to any of you with even a passing familiarity with some of the more superstitious aspects of Chinese

numerology. Four is often regarded as an especially unlucky number, like, you know, thirteen, since it is a homophone of the word for death in modern Mandarin, that is, and respectively. But that is, of course, just an accident of pronunciation shifts over time. The period we're talking about here is the early 15th century, which still constitutes the early modern Mandarin phase, which was still far enough apart to not have that same homophone problem. So, for instance, for, which is today pronounced si,

would be pronounced something like, and please forgive me, historical linguists, I'm trying my best here, si the word for death, modern would be again, I'm really just trying to approximate. So we don't run into nearly that same homophonous issue that we have in modern Mandarin. Four had actually long been one of the most important numbers in Chinese numerology. There were, after all, four cardinal directions, four seasons, and four Confucian virtues, propriety, integrity, righteousness, and modesty. Thus, linking the fleet to such a number was actually considered particularly auspicious

to accomplishing the task set out for it and boded well for the fleet's journeys. For the Yongle Emperor, no surprise here, size was everything. Bigger, bigger yet, the biggest ever. Levithes gives a great side account of another of the Emperor's side projects ongoing at the same time as the construction of the biggest ever fleet, the construction of what was to be a memorial stelae to outdo all other stelaes ever, dedicated, of course, to his father, and to be raised at the emperor's tomb outside Nanjing. She writes, quote, he also ordered the construction of a huge stone stele for his father's tomb. The tablet was supposed to be 135 feet high, 45 feet wide, and about 12 feet thick.

But before the work was finished at the imperial quarry at Yanmen, about eight miles east of Nanjing, the emperor was informed that it was too big and heavy to be moved. Had it been erected, it would have been the largest stone tablet in the world. Today, however, the giant tablet stands majestically in the abandoned quarry, almost free of the huge boulder from which it was carved, a monument to the monumentality of Zhu Di." Some of the engineering innovations designed into these massive ships were truly phenomenal. For instance, already quite wide for their length to provide more stability, the ships were designed with holes in the prows that would, in particularly rough seas, become partially filled with seawater, thereby reducing the motion of the ship as it cut through the waves.

A set of four floating anchors, two on each side of the ship and each weighing in excess of a thousand pounds, could be lowered into the waters during rough seas to further reduce pitching. Maybe most amazingly though was the introduction of both watertight bulwark compartments modeled on the multi-chambered structure of bamboo stocks and a raiseable and lowerable balanced rudder that made the huge crafts much easier to steer, even in the choppiest of seas. These were both technological innovations

that wouldn't be introduced into western ship designs until the late 18th and 19th centuries. And again, these are all constructed out of wood. Their look upon the waters must have been truly a sight to behold. Rising tall and proud out of the waters like a full-on apartment block, crested each with nine massive, staggering masts, equipped with twelve red silk sails. Though not constructed as warships, per se, they nevertheless were outfitted with a full complement of top-of-the-line

defenses. Though lacking a warship's raised firing platforms or extended planks for boarding actions, these Baotuan each carried 24 sleek, high-powered cannons capable of firing at targets up to 900 feet away. Even so, these were first and foremost ships of luxury, diplomacy, and making a very positive, lasting impression on those who found them sailing into their own harbors. There were grand cabins for the imperial envoys, and the windowed halls and antechambers were festooned with balconies and railings. The ship's holds were filled with expensive silks and porcelains for trade with foreign countries. The ship's bodies were brightly carved and painted, their prows adorned with carved animal heads and glaring dragon eyes, and their sterns with dragon

and phoenix patterns or eagle and ball designs that symbolized auspiciousness. The bottom of the vessels were whitewashed, and near the red waterline was a sun and moon freeze." These were, above all else, ships meant to shock and awe foreign nations with luxury, wealth, and grace, rather than bombast, snarls, or violence. Here, they must have surely announced by their very presence at each port, arrived the true masters of the universe, blessing you with their cultured, enlightened presence. How very, very fortunate for you. It's not quite clear just how many of these flagship-class Baochuan ships sailed forth with that first fleet of 1405. There may have been, at least by the fictionalized account of the 16th century

novelist Luo Maotang on the topic, as few as four such behemoths among the 317 total ships. These were accompanied and attended to, like any appropriately imperial train, an entire host of lesser ships. The second largest ships of the fleet were the Ma Chuan class, or the horse ships. True to their name, these likewise huge vessels, eight-masted and some as large as 340 feet by 140 feet, served as the Ming retinue's stables for their horses, which were brought along mostly for trade, along with other goods and all materials the fleet might need to conduct its own repairs while at sea. Next came the supply ships, seven masted and 260 by 155 feet, packed with food for the crews, who on some voyages numbered as many as 28 to 30,000 strong.

Obviously, logistics for such a massive operation at sea, and for such extended periods, was a tremendous hurdle to overcome in general, and especially so given humanity's curious relationship with vitamin C, namely that unlike almost every other mammal, we, and the other great apes, are incapable of producing our own supply of this stuff. If a person is forced to go without a steady supply of vitamin C, they will use up their reserve, typically about after a month, resulting in that most seafarer of afflictions, scurvy. Fortunately, and surely not by accident, we know from a historian who accompanied the Ming treasure fleet on one of its voyages, named Ma Huan, of the foodstuffs storaged on these huge supply ships, and how they solved the plague of scurvy that-ridden ship's biscuits of the later British fleets, the Chinese supply ships carried staples of soybeans, wheat, millet, and rice, which could be stored for long periods without loss of nutritional value. These could be cooked fresh.

As well, the ships carried chickens, fed by the above cereals, for fresh eggs and meat. The soybeans were of particular importance. All the ships carried tubs in which the soybeans were sprouted under the sun, developing large quantities of riboflavin, niacin, and, most importantly, ascorbate. Daily consumption of sprouted soy would provide more than enough vitamin C to prevent scurvy. All of this would have required a considerable degree of knowledgeable foresight and organization. This could hardly have been developed de nouveau for these specific fleets. The Chinese must have known about the preventions of scurvy long before 1421.

They would have hardly contemplated such ventures without being certain of their ability to do so. Smaller than the supply ships, next were the troop transports, clocking in at six masts, 220 feet long and 83 feet wide. As the name may imply, that is where the large hosts of Ming soldiers spent most of the voyages. Next came the two types of actual warships assigned to the fleets for naval protection. First, the five-masted Futuan at 165 feet long, and then smaller yet, the eight-oared patrol boats, which ranged in size from 120 to 130 feet in length, and were particularly effective at devastating pirate fleets whose innate greed occasionally overcame their sense of self-preservation and common sense and led them to try to suicidally attack this hulking oceanic caravan.

Another great difficulty for long-distance seafaring, of course, is water. Water, water everywhere, yet not a drop to drink. Well, fear not, they'd thought of that too. Special water tankers also accompanied the fleet, with tanks large enough to provide fresh water for the entire crew for up to a month. Even so, the fleet did try to make landfall far sooner than that hard limit, every 10 days or so during the initial voyages, but sometimes stretching it out as many as 20 days on the later, more confident expeditions. Communication between ships was likewise of critical importance. This was achieved through a suitably elaborate system of sound and sight signals. All ships were equipped with one large flag, signal bells, five banners,

one large drum, gongs, and ten lanterns. Now, the sound signals were far more in order to signal orders within the ship itself, although it's said that the large drums were loud enough to be heard even by neighboring ships. These were typically used in order to signal the approach of bad weather and order the sailors on a ship to seek shelter inside. At night or during inclement weather, the shipboard lanterns were the primary means of ship-to-ship communication. And for longer distance communication, with fleet ships not directly in line of sight, for instance, broods of carrier pigeons were also kept in stock. Each of the ships could be identified by sight by its fellows, by its particular color, as well as its massive black flag imprinted with a large white character indicating to which squadron it belonged. While these ships were being built, so too did Admiral

Zheng He assemble the crew that would sail to its destinations as yet quasi-unknown. He appointed seven of his fellow eunuch directors as the official imperial representatives and emissaries of Great Ming abroad. Ten more eunuchs served as assistants to these directors, followed by a further 52 eunuchs of unknown rank and purpose. The military command structure, as with all else under eunuch oversight, was headed by two regional commanders, and then 93 regimental commanders, 104 battalion commanders, and finally 103 company commanders. The ships themselves were captained by officers appointed by the emperor himself, and who were given special dispensation over the power of life and death aboard their own ship in order to ensure and

maintain proper discipline while at sea. Apart from these directly military affairs, it would hardly be a Chinese anything without oodles and oodles of other types of bureaucrats, now would it? The fleet had two secretaries to prepare all official documents, a senior secretary from the Ministry of Revenue to oversee the apportionment and rationing of grain and food supplies, two officials from the Ministry of Revenue to oversee the apportionment and rationing of grain and food supplies, two officials from the Ministry of Rights charged with making sure that all official receptions adhered to proper protocol, one senior astrologer and geomancer assisted by ten junior students who were responsible for watching the heavens and making observations, making charts, forecasting the weather,

keeping the calendar, and interpreting natural phenomena. Then there were 10 officials, officially called the Tongyi Fanzhou Yu Guan, or the Teachers Who Know Foreign Books, who were aboard to serve as translators into Arabic, Indian, and other common trade languages of Central Asia and the South Pacific. The fleet also carried with it 180 medical practitioners and pharmacologists, charged with both keeping up the health of the expedition overall, but also with studying and collecting herbs from foreign places that might potentially hold some new medicinal use back at home. Teams of specialists and artisans were included as

repair teams in the event of structural damage to the ships, and well, as for everyone else, the regular sailor and soldier alike, they were made up primarily of banished criminals. Even so, in agreeing to undertake such an uncertain, potentially dangerous or deadly mission into the great blue unknown, they had all been promised that upon their return, all crewmen from highest to lowest would be rewarded with money and textiles, and should they be injured or killed, it would be distributed to their families along with an extra bonus compensation. As such, all would share in the spoils of this great mission abroad. History isn't black and white, yet too often it's presented as such. Grey History the French Revolution is a

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The French Revolution. As the work of the Longjiang shipyards continued at its breakneck pace, the emperor himself appeared to rather seriously consider whether or not Zheng He would truly be the right man for the task of leading this terribly important, but terribly dangerous, expedition. Zheng He was 35 after all, not exactly a spring chicken, although it is well worth noting that Yongle was by this time approaching 46 himself and still chomping at the bit to go riding off into every single battle at every conceivable opportunity, so I mean, come on, hypocrite much, Yongle? Anyways, his advisors told him as much, albeit in a far more delicate manner. They said, quote,

Let not your imperial majesty forget the old saying that an old horse knows the path. Indeed, like ginger and dates, there are things that become better with age, end quote. The official went on to point out all the reasons that Zheng He was in fact the best choice to command the fleet. His positive qualities, he said, were literally written onto his face. The official went on, his face is rough like the peel of an orange, which I mean, harsh, but it apparently meant that he'd experienced many hardships throughout his life and as such could be trusted to tolerate the hardships that would go along with a two-year-long mission at sea. So, okay, I guess? The space between his eyebrows was narrow, indicating that he could remain focused on the mission rather than his own personal wants, or in the words of the official

himself, his eyebrows are like swords and his forehead wide like a tiger's, which showed that he both had strength of character and an aptitude as military commander. His mouth was like the sea, in that words eloquently flowed forth from them, and his eyes sparkled like a fast-moving river, showing evidence of his energy and vitality. However much stock Yongle actually placed in this rather curious assessment of Zheng He's aptitude via his facial structure, he did indeed consent to place his long-time eunuch servant and companion at the helm of this most critical mission, an unprecedented role for a eunuch servant. Yet so great was his faith in Zheng that as a sign of his absolute trust in this grand admiral,

the emperor gave Zheng a case of blank scrolls, already affixed with the stamp of the imperial seal, thus allowing the fleet commander to issue commands in his own hand with the full force of imperial authority while abroad or at sea. And so it was that in the autumn of 1405, those 317 brand new ships all shone as they bobbed in the currents of the Yangtze River. Freshly painted in their bright colors, with massive sails and banners flying proudly in the breeze, and crewed by some 27,000 sailors, soldiers, officials, and eunuchs. They all faced downriver, toward the Yangtze's mouth,

the painted dragon eyes on each of their prows seeming to stare longingly at the great sea beyond, and the adventures yet to come. The destination of their maiden voyage had already been chosen well in advance. They'd not be sailing into some great vast unknown. At least, not this time. Instead, their first voyage would be to a far better-known destination, one of the largest and most important centers of maritime trade in all southeastern Asia and the southern seas beside. The powerful city-state of Calicut in Kerala, on the west coast of India,

known all over the world for its rich trade in prized spices like cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, and peppers so valuable they were considered worth their weight in gold. The reason for this first port of call was, in all likelihood, to tell the whole of the world, on as large of a stage as possible, in the most ostentatiously Yongle way, that after thirty years of Hongwu closing the door of almost all trade with the outside world, that Ming China was once again open for business. Lavathes writes, The explanation can perhaps be found in Zhu Di's immediate repudiation of his father's strict tribute and trade policies upon becoming emperor. He allowed private trade and lifted the restriction on peppers and gold. To the horror of his Confucian advisors, who subscribed to the ideal that China's prosperity rested on agriculture and agriculture alone, Zhu Di threw China's doors open

to foreigners and foreign merchants, saying, Now all within the four seas are as one family, the emperor decreed. Let there be mutual trade And so it would be. On the eve before the mighty fleet was to depart, the Yongle Emperor himself hosted an enormous banquet for the whole crew, catered with more sumptuous food and wine than even 27,000 could possibly consume, a sign of his boundless generosity and wealth. Imperial presents of silks, gold, and silver were made to each of the sailors in accordance with their rank and position. And then it was on to an even more serious purpose for this gathering, to offer humble prayers and sacrifices to the sea goddess Tianfei, that she would guide and protect these sailors who would now Tian Fei and asked her guidance. Goats, pigs, and cattle parboiled and, with their feet bound as if kneeling, were presented to her altar,

and fake paper money was burned to encourage Guishen, or spirits, to treat her kindly. Even in the remote regions of the four oceans, Tian Fei could respond to trouble because she was assisted by two spirits, one with a thousand eyes who could see everything, the other with sensitive ears who could hear as far as the winds blew. The goddess also had the power to peer into men's hearts. Prayers had to be sincere and inspired by pure motives. To risk a long voyage on the ocean, where it was believed giant dragons lived beneath the surface, without the goodwill of the goddess, was almost unthinkable

madness. On the same tablet quoted at the beginning of this episode, that Zheng He would ultimately have carved and placed at the same shrine decades later, at the end of his voyages, he would write, quote, Our one fear is not to be able to succeed. But if men are able to serve their ruler with the exertion of all their loyalty, then all things will be successful. If men are able to serve their ruler with the exertion of all their loyalty, then all things will be successful. If they are able to serve the gods with utmost sincerity, then all their prayers will be answered. End quote. With the ceremony complete, the crews retired for the night. Then the next morning, boarded their assigned ships and prepared to make way. Once all were aboard, the captain of each ship led his crew in additional prayers before the shipboard compass. Quote, prayers to the ancient geomancers, to the great

mathematicians and astronomers of past dynasties who had used the water compass with skill. They had braved the oceans and returned safely. Their wisdom was sought in using this most miraculous device with its floating needle. Aboard his own flagship, Admiral Zheng He, of course, led his own men in such a prayer to their magnetic guide and guardian in the many months and years to come, which we'll finish with today. As the divine swirling smoke rises, with hearts pure and true, we bow down and beseech the messengers of merit to convey by means of the incense in the burner that in this year, in this month, on this day, at this hour, we respectfully entreat the patriarch of this imperially created compass throughout the ages. Yellow Emperor, Duke of Zhou, immortal master of formal ages divinely knowledgeable about Yin Yang, Dark Raven, immortal White Crane Master,

and patriarchs of the ages who have traversed the sea, who know the constellations and guiding stars, those from past times to present day, those who have first transmitted it and those who later taught it. And the great guardian spirit generals of the 24 directions. And all the other immortal masters and spirit soldiers and divine emissaries. All the efficacious spirits of the incense burner. And the protectress of our ships, the celestial consort Tianfei, brilliant, divine, marvelous, responsive,

mysterious force, protector of the people, guardian of the country, and the all-seeing and all-hearing spirit soldiers of winds and seasons, the wave quellers and swell drinkers, the airborne immortals, the god of the year, and all the local tutelary deities of every place. Come down, one and all, to this incense feast. Partake of this sagely vessel. Come riding on auspicious clouds from the ends of the earth. Come down and grace our incense table. Let us seat you in your respective places and carefully prepare a pure goblet that we might reverentially offer the immortal masters a flagon of wine, beseeching them to protect our ships and valuables. As the infant's smoke curled and rose to heaven, carrying their assembled prayers with them,

the sailors understood that they had placed their fates not only in the hands of the gods and immortals, but also in the command of their leader, Admiral Zheng He, to seed them through this peril-filled journey across the ocean depths and into history itself. And so, next time, these 27,000 brave souls will weigh anchor and leave the safety of the Yangtze behind, to make for the great Indian port of Calicut and its riches undreamed of. Thanks for listening. 400 years ago, a trio of tiny kingdoms were perched on some damp islands off the coast of Europe. Within three short centuries, these islands would become the centre of an empire which ruled a quarter of the globe and on which the sun never set.

I'm Samuel Hume, a historian of the British Empire, and my podcast Pax Britannica follows the people and events that built that empire into a global superpower. Learn the history of the British Empire by listening to Pax Britannica everywhere you find your podcasts, or go to pod.link slash pax.